Panama · food + drink
Best Food Tours in Panama City — Trip Planner
Planning a food-focused trip in Panama City? Here’s how to decide what’s worth your time. The best food tours, tastings, market visits and cooking classes in Panama City — all live, all bookable on Viator.
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Food tours & culinary experiences in Panama City
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What to eat in Panama City
Sancocho, a chicken and yam soup thick with culantro, is the national hangover cure and the thing to order in a fonda, not a restaurant. Mercado de Mariscos at the edge of Casco Viejo sells corvina ceviche by the plastic cup for a dollar or two from the ground-floor counters. Hojaldras and carimanolas are breakfast. Raspao, shaved ice with condensed milk, is the street sweet.
Panama City after dark
Two districts split the evening. Casco Viejo's rooftops, Tantalo among them, look back at the skyline across the bay and charge eight to twelve dollars a cocktail. Calle Uruguay in the banking district is the local club strip and does not fill until after ten. Nothing starts early. The metro stops running near eleven, so budget a taxi or Uber for the ride home.
What things cost in Panama City
A metro ride is 35 cents, a metrobus 25, and the rapipass card itself costs a couple of dollars. Miraflores is 17.22 dollars for foreign adults, Panama Viejo about the same, the Biomuseo 18. A cup of ceviche at the fish market is one to two dollars and a fonda lunch with rice, beans and meat runs four to six. Cocktails in Casco Viejo start near ten.
What first-timers get wrong in Panama City
The balboa is pegged one to one with the dollar and circulates only as coins, so you pay in American notes and get Panamanian change. The metro and the metrobuses both need a rapipass card bought at a station; neither turnstiles nor drivers accept cash, a metro ride is 35 cents and a city bus 25. Street taxis do not use meters, so agree the fare or use an app.
What's actually worth your time in Panama City
Miraflores is the canal visit most people make, and the terrace only earns its 17-dollar foreigner ticket if you time it to a transit; ships queue mid-morning and again late afternoon. Casco Viejo repays walking without a ticket at all. Panama Viejo, the 1519 city Henry Morgan burned in 1671, is ruins plus a tower and charges separately. Ancon Hill is a free hour uphill.
When to go to Panama City
| Best months for food tours | Avg daily high | Rain days |
|---|---|---|
| January | 31°C / 88°F | 9 days |
| February | 32°C / 90°F | 7 days |
| November | 28°C / 82°F | 27 days |
The month to avoid is April — around 31°C (88°F) with roughly 21 rain days. Prices and crowds track the weather here: January is the sweet spot, April the month most people skip.
Pack for peak season: Light, breathable clothing — linen and technical fabrics earn their keep, High-SPF sunscreen, sunglasses, and a refillable water bottle, A packable rain shell or compact umbrella earns its space, Comfortable walking shoes — every guide on this site assumes you'll use them.
Where to base yourself in Panama City
- Casco Viejo — The colonial old town — cobblestones, boutique hotels, rooftop bars, Sunday markets.
- El Cangrejo — Restaurant-and-hotel zone — a walkable strip of international restaurants and mid-range hotels.
- Punta Pacifica — Modern skyscraper district — luxury hotels, malls, safest area after dark.
- Amador Causeway — A 3km causeway of islands connected to the city — bike, run, or watch canal ships.