Panama
Casco Viejo
Crumbling baroque balconies where jazz drifts over a skyline of glass towers.
The evening air in Casco Viejo carries two signals at once: saxophone riffs from a second-floor jazz bar and the low horn of a container ship entering the canal. Panama City's historic quarter is a place of layered collisions — peeling baroque facades pressed against the glass towers of the banking district, cobblestone plazas where salsa beats leak from colonial doorways after dark.
Casco Viejo is a UNESCO World Heritage Site built on a rocky peninsula after the original Panama City was sacked by Henry Morgan in 1671. The compact grid holds a 1679 French cathedral, a 16th-century convent, and restored colonial palaces now operating as boutique hotels with their wrought-iron balconies intact. On weekend nights the neighbourhood transforms — rooftop bars fill above the Pacific waterfront, and the mix of Panamanian, expatriate, and traveller crowds gives the streets a distinct energy found nowhere else in Central America. The quarter is small enough to cross in fifteen minutes but dense enough to reward days of wandering.
Solo
The walkable grid, rooftop bar scene, and constant stream of live music make Casco Viejo one of the easiest solo-friendly neighbourhoods in Latin America. Strike up conversation over ceviche and mezcal at any number of counter-seat bars.
Couple
Candlelit courtyard restaurants in former governor's residences, jazz drifting through open shutters, and sunset drinks overlooking the canal approach — Casco Viejo is built for evenings that linger.
Friends
The density of rooftop bars, live music venues, and late-night fondas within a few cobblestoned blocks makes this a natural base for group nights out with no taxis required.
Family
The compact colonial grid is walkable enough for all ages, with a 1679 cathedral, cannon-scarred walls, and pirate history that brings the cobblestones alive for children. Raspados from ice-block carts and fondas on the plaza keep everyone fuelled between explorations.
- The 17th-century Spanish quarter is a UNESCO World Heritage Site where restored colonial palaces now hold rooftop bars overlooking Panama City's glass skyline.
- On weekend evenings, jazz and salsa spill from open doorways along the cobblestoned streets as the neighbourhood comes alive after dark.
- Walking the compact grid takes you from a 1679 French cathedral to a 16th-century convent in under ten minutes.
- Boutique hotels occupy former governor's residences, with wrought-iron balconies and courtyard fountains intact.
Ceviche served in the shell at rooftop bars overlooking the Pacific entry to the canal.
Sancocho de gallina simmered for hours in open-air fondas on cobblestoned plazas.
Raspados shaved from enormous blocks of ice, drenched in tamarind and condensed milk.
Lamu Old Town
Kenya
Donkeys replace cars on coral-stone lanes where Swahili doors tell centuries of family history.
Apia
Samoa
Saturday market smoke rising through tin-roofed colonnades while Samoa's capital stirs slowly to island time.
Dunedin
New Zealand
A Scottish-built city with the world's steepest street where yellow-eyed penguins nest on the headland.
Chania Old Town
Greece
A Venetian harbour glowing at dusk where lighthouse and minaret share the skyline in tangerine light.
El Valle de Antón
Panama
An entire town nestled inside the crater of an extinct volcano.
Isla Cañas
Panama
Thousands of olive ridley turtles hauling ashore on a single remote beach in one moonlit night.
Bocas del Toro
Panama
Over-water bungalows on a Caribbean archipelago where sloths drift through mangrove canopies.
Wounaan Villages
Panama
Wounaan carvers shaping rainforest nuts into vegetable ivory sculptures so fine galleries exhibit them as art.