Casco Viejo Attractions

In the Casco Viejo, the visitor will experience the rich cultures that settled the Isthmus through the centuries. Within blocks of MarAlta, our guests can visit the French baroque Palacio de las Garzas, for century’s home of the colonial Governor and now President of Panama. The Panama Canal Museum chronicles in photos and videos the attempt to build a waterway to unite the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans since Balboa discovered the Pacific Ocean in Panama in 1613.

There are a dozen churches, including the large Cathedral in front of the main plaza, the gold alter of the Church of San Jose, the only remaining jewel of the old city sacked by Captain Morgan in the 16th century, and the peaceful ruins of the Convent of the Company of Jesus.

Visitors can also stroll on top of the wide seawall, where dozens of canons once protected the city from pirates and buccaneer attacks. From there, they can watch the orange sunsets falling over the narrow Bridge of the Americas which unite the North American and South American continents, and view the queue of ships lining up to enter the impressive locks of the Panama Canal.

Our guests can choose to relax in one of the many sidewalk cafes, and watch the rich mix of colored natives sitting on the balconies and the white new settlers restoring dilapidated family mansions to their original glory, and for a moment get a glimpse of what life in colonial America must have been like centuries ago.





Restaurants and Nightlife

The Old Quarters boast the best restaurants and nightlife in Panama City, all of which are within a few blocks of MarAlta. The Casco Viejo and Tantras are the most refined, with well known French chefs; Bovedas, inside one of the galleons where the Spanish conquistadors stored their gold, has the best seafood menu; the popular and festive Manolo Caracol will feed his guests with his own eclectic selection of Spanish tapas. There are also many outdoor cafes, especially in the Plaza Bolivar, where crowds gather at Café de Assiz and Casablanca to sip tropical drinks and eat tapas. For late night action, Blu, Tantras, and Club 8-44 pull the hip crowd in smokey dance floors which play a combination of international music and salsa.

Panama Tourist Attractions

The MarAlta Administration can arrange private tours around Panama City and the rest of this exotic unexplored country.

Within minutes from the Casco Viejo are the ruins of Old Panama City, the only remain of the first city in the Pacific Ocean founded by Pedrarias de Avila in 1514 and destroyed by the English buccaneer Captain Morgan.

The Panama Canal Miraflores locks, a half-hour away by car, bears witness to the Eighth Wonder of the Modern World, where ships are raised 80 meters above sea level to cross the world’s largest artificial lake built on a canyon in the mountains, and then lowered to the Atlantic ocean in Colón.

During the visit to the Canal, visitors can enjoy a lunch at the tropical Gamboa Resort on the mouth of the powerful River Chagres that feeds the Gatun Lake, or at the Canopy Tower, an old radar station which has been converted into a bird watching paradise above the tree line in a tropical rain forest that sets the world record for the largest number of bird species.

Panama also has three archipelagos with plenty of white-sand beaches and small hotels, including San Blas, Islas de las Perlas, and Bocas del Toro, all of which can be easily accessed by daily short local flights. Boquete and Volcan, near the Costa Rican high-mountain border, and Darien to the southeast near the Colombian border, are gates to a dense rain forest possessing as much as 1/8th of the world’s species of plants and flowers.
Casa MarAlta, Calle 2da San Felipe, Panama City, Panama -