Rough Guides - The Rough Guide to Panama

This Rough Guide is one of a new generation of informative and easy-to-use travel-guide ebooks that guarantees you make the most of your trip. An essential tool for pre-trip planning, it also makes a great travel companion when youre on the road.

From the section.

Detailed area maps feature in the guide chapters and are also listed in the , accessible from the table of contents. Depending on your hardware, you can double-tap on the maps to see larger-scale versions, or select different scales. There are also thumbnails below more detailed maps - in these cases, you can opt to zoom left/top or zoom right/bottom or view the full map. The screen-lock function on your device is recommended when viewing enlarged maps. Make sure you have the latest software updates, too.

Throughout the guide, weve flagged up our favourite places a perfectly sited hotel, an atmospheric caf, a special restaurant with the author pick icon . You can select your own favourites and create a personalized itinerary by bookmarking the sights, venues and activities that are of interest, giving you the quickest possible access to everything youll need for your time away.

Never has a country been so defined by its location. From the summit of Volcn Bar Panamas highest peak its possible to watch the sun rise over both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, light slowly spreading across the water to reveal two glittering archipelagos. For centuries this slender isthmus has provided an invaluable shortcut between the two seas; you can witness it yourself, tramping the old mule trails of the Spanish conquistadors or gliding past forested islands along the worlds most famous canal. Panama is a biological corridor, too, linking the vast land masses of the Americas, and harbours tremendous biodiversity within its cloud-forested highlands, glorious palm-fringed islands, vast mangrove tracts and towering rainforests. The country also boasts Central Americas most ebullient capital city, and if youre after riotous partying, be it at a small village festival or throughout the hedonistic marathon of Carnaval, youre in the right place.

Panamas compact size means the vast majority of its sights are easily accessible . From the comfort of your hotel in the capital, you can head out in the morning to hike through spectacular, primate-packed rainforest, or explore crumbling colonial forts, and the same evening be swinging your hips to salsa or dining by candlelight in a downtown hot spot. The ancient and modern, artificial and natural are irresistibly juxtaposed: vast container ships transiting the Canal slice through primeval rainforests teeming with fluorescent frogs and elusive wild cats, just thirty minutes by dugout from where Ember villagers practise subsistence agriculture. Visiting the countrys fringes and interior, you can explore uninhabited islands and untracked jungle, basing yourself in small towns, friendly villages and remote ecolodges.

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