Highlights of Panama: Canal, Casco Viejo, Highlands & San Blas

Today you experience the mighty Panama Canal, one of the world's greatest engineering feats. You visit the Miraflores Locks visitor centre, standing on the viewing terrace as giant container ships and cruise liners are raised and lowered between the oceans, an astonishing spectacle of scale and precision. In the excellent museum you learn the epic, dramatic story of the canal's construction, the vision, the struggle against disease and jungle, and its transformation of world trade, and watch an inspiring film. You take in views over the waterway and, time permitting, the new expanded locks or a stretch of rainforest beside the canal alive with wildlife. The scale and history are awe-inspiring. As the day ends, you return to the city. This evening, savour Panamanian cuisine and the vibrant atmosphere. Rest well, for tomorrow you explore colonial Casco Viejo.

Today you explore the colonial heart of Panama City. In the morning you wander Casco Viejo, the atmospheric old quarter and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a maze of cobbled streets, leafy plazas and pastel colonial and French-era buildings, framed by the gleaming skyline across the bay. You admire baroque churches, the golden altar of San Jose, the plazas and rooftop views, and soak up the romance, boutiques and cafes. Later you visit Panama Viejo, the evocative ruins of the original city, founded in 1519 and sacked by the pirate Henry Morgan, its stone cathedral tower still rising above the grass, with a museum telling its story. You might also see the striking Biomuseo. The contrast of colonial charm, ruins and skyscrapers is captivating. As the day ends, you return to your hotel. This evening, savour the city. Rest well, for tomorrow you fly to the highlands.

Today you journey to the cool green highlands of Boquete in Chiriqui province. You transfer to the airport for a short, scenic domestic flight west to David, then drive up into the mountains to the little town of Boquete, set amid misty peaks, flower gardens, rushing rivers and coffee country beneath Volcan Baru, Panama's highest peak. The fresh mountain air, greenery and beauty are a wonderful contrast to the tropical lowlands. You settle into your highland lodge and, in the afternoon, perhaps stroll the charming town, take in the flower-filled gardens and riverside, or simply relax and enjoy the cool, invigorating climate and mountain views. As the day ends, you savour the peace and beauty of the highlands. This evening, enjoy fine local cuisine and world-class Panamanian coffee. Rest well amid the misty mountains, for tomorrow you explore the coffee farms and cloud forest.

Today you explore the beauty and bounty of the Boquete highlands. You tour a working coffee farm, learning how Panama's prized beans, including the celebrated Geisha variety, are grown, hand-picked, processed and roasted, and taste world-class coffee at its source amid the plantations. You walk in emerald cloud forest, perhaps a stretch of the famous Quetzal Trail or a private reserve, alive with hummingbirds, colourful tanagers and the chance to glimpse the magnificent resplendent quetzal, one of the world's most beautiful birds. You take in waterfalls, flower gardens and sweeping mountain views, and may soak in natural volcanic hot springs, a blissful mountain pleasure. The fresh air, birdsong and beauty are wonderful. As the day ends, you return to your lodge. This evening, savour highland cuisine and coffee. Rest well amid the mountains, for tomorrow you journey to the Caribbean islands.

Today you journey from the highlands to the idyllic islands of San Blas. You take a short scenic flight back to Panama City, then transfer by 4x4 over the forested mountains of the continental divide and down to the Caribbean coast, where a boat carries you out across turquoise seas to the San Blas archipelago of Guna Yala. Scattered with hundreds of tiny palm-fringed islets ringed by white sand and coral, governed autonomously by the indigenous Guna, this is a remote, unspoiled vision of paradise. You settle into simple, characterful island accommodation, swim in the warm, clear sea, and relax on a postcard-perfect beach as the sun sets over the water. As the day ends, you savour the barefoot, unplugged beauty of island life. This evening, enjoy fresh Caribbean seafood beneath the stars. Rest well amid the islands.

Today you savour the idyllic San Blas islands. You spend the day island-hopping by boat across the turquoise archipelago, sailing between deserted sandbank islets crowned with a few leaning palms, snorkelling over vivid coral reefs and a shipwreck teeming with fish, and relaxing on postcard-perfect white-sand beaches. You visit a natural sea pool and swim in the warm, crystal-clear water, and meet the Guna, one of the Americas' most vibrant indigenous cultures, admiring their intricate hand-stitched mola textiles and learning about their proud, traditional, autonomous way of life. Barefoot, unplugged and utterly beautiful, this is Caribbean paradise at its most unspoiled. As the day ends, you return to your island, savouring the beauty and calm. This evening, enjoy fresh seafood and a canopy of stars over the sea. Rest well amid the islands, for tomorrow you return to the city.

This morning you savour a final swim and breakfast on your San Blas island before boarding a boat back to the coast and transferring by 4x4 to Panama City, in time for your onward international departure (or a final few hours in the city). You leave having experienced the astonishing variety of Panama, the mighty canal and its great ships, the colonial charm of Casco Viejo and the ruins of Panama Viejo, the coffee farms and cloud forest of the Boquete highlands, and the turquoise, palm-fringed paradise of the San Blas islands. The images stay vivid long after you land, the giant ships rising in the locks, the pastel plazas of the old town, the misty coffee mountains, and the idyllic islands of Guna Yala. Panama offers variety, beauty, adventure and genuine warmth in abundance, and you depart already dreaming of a return to this fascinating isthmus.