Panama Beyond the Canal—6 Experiences You Can't Miss

While the canal remains Panama City's defining landmark, some of the capital's most rewarding experiences unfold well beyond its banks. Delve into Afro-Caribbean and Indigenous heritage, explore centuries of history and discover the traditions that continue to shape the city today.

1. Try Cacao With Members of the Ngäbe-Buglé Community

Once largely closed to outsiders, the ancestral lands of the Ngäbe-Buglé — Panama’s largest Indigenous group — are now opening to visitors seeking a deeper connection with one of the country’s oldest living cultures. Across their semi-autonomous comarca (territory) spanning parts of Bocas del Toro, Veraguas and Chiriquí, the Ngäbe and Buglé peoples continue to preserve traditions shaped by the forest, rivers and generations of knowledge.

From the mountain town of Soloy in Chiriquí, a local guide leads visitors through the forest to Kiki, one of the Ngäbe-Buglé’s most sacred sites and one of Panama’s most spectacular waterfalls. Considered a living temple, the waterfall is believed to connect the community with their ancestors. Here, cacao grown in the region takes centre stage in ceremonies led by local leaders, who invite visitors to give thanks to the natural world, reflect on their place within it and honour the future.

How to do it: Ogaya offers four-day tours including transport and accommodation. Prices start from £1,710 per person.

2. Sail to the Guna Yala Archipelago to Learn About Guna Culture

With its cerulean waters lapping against palm-lined, white-sand beaches, the Guna Yala archipelago looks a lot like its Caribbean neighbours. Forty-nine of the 365 islands that make up this island chain are inhabited by the Indigenous Guna — the first group to gain political autonomy from the government more than a century ago. Times have been tough since: rising sea levels threaten the islands, with hundreds of the 32,000-strong population relocated to the mainland.

Those who remain are unwavering in their commitment to preserving their culture, and visitors can sail out to the islands on a liveaboard catamaran to learn more about the Guna peoples’ worldview. Recommended stops include the Museo de la Cultura Guna, which provides a cultural understanding of the Guna, and communities across the archipelago, where botanists and healers lead sacred rituals for visitors.

How to do it: Ancona Expeditions offers four-day sailing excursions starting from £1,740 per person.

3. Take a Drumming Workshop in Casco Viejo

Few sounds are more closely tied to Panama’s identity than the beat of the tambor drum. Introduced by enslaved West Africans in the early 1500s, its rhythms evolved over generations into the tamborito, a fusion of African, Spanish and Indigenous traditions that became Panama’s national song and dance.

In a studio in Casco Viejo, discover the rhythms of the tambor in an hour-long, hands-on workshop with professional percussionist Omar, who has spent two decades exploring the drum’s African roots. He introduces the melodic poetry of the tamborito, where verses led by a female singer — often exploring themes of love and desire — are answered by three drums carved from hollowed wood and covered with cowhide. Through call-and-response rhythms, clapping and stamping, you’ll leave with a deeper appreciation for the sounds that spill from street corners and Carnival celebrations across Panama.

How to do it: Workshops start from £45 per person (minimum two people).

4. Stamp a New Home Into Existence in Pedasí

The Azuero Peninsula on Panama’s Pacific coast is best known for its surfing, but the sleepy town of Pedasí has another attraction: the annual junta de embarra, held in mid-January. Roughly translating as ‘mud gathering’, this event preserves a long tradition of house building, where the whole community comes together to construct a quincha (mud) house for a newlywed couple. Nowadays, the buildings are dismantled, leaving the ground open for the next event, but it’s still an important community revival of tradition.

Everyone slips off their shoes and treads straw into the wet earth, churning the two together to create a thick mud that’s used to cover the wooden frame of the new house. It’s then left to dry in the sun. Plentiful fuel — including food and seco (a sugar cane spirit) — and tamborito music buoy the festive atmosphere. Visitors are welcome to join the event; shoes aren’t.

How to do it: Pedasí’s annual junta de embarra is free to attend and usually takes place in January; enquire locally for exact dates.

5. Raft Down the Teribe River to Meet the Naso People

One of the last remaining Indigenous monarchies in the Americas, and with a population of just 3,500, the Naso people primarily inhabit Panama’s Bocas del Toro region, best known for its scores of forested, beach-fringed islands. Their comarca covers the vast tropical forests of the Teribe (known as the Tjër Di to the Naso) river basin and Parque Internacional La Amistad, an area with remarkable biodiversity, home to 10,000 flowering plants and more than 215 mammal species.

A clutch of remote Naso villages exists deep inside this wilderness, most accessible by water. Visitors can travel by traditional raft with Naso guides to reach the communities, followed by cultural experiences including spiritual purification rituals and traditional hunting demonstrations. Led by local hosts, these encounters offer a way for the Naso to share their traditions and keep them alive.

How to do it: Ogaya’s multi-day Indigenous Cultural Journey starts from £1,710 per person.

6. Release Endangered Turtles Into the Ocean on Mata Oscura Beach

Five of the world’s seven sea turtle species can be found in Panama’s waters, with many returning each year to nest on the sands of Mata Oscura in the Azuero Peninsula. Olive ridley, green, leatherback and critically endangered hawksbill turtles all rely on these beaches, where local nonprofit Fundación Agua y Tierra works to protect nests from threats including sand mining, egg poaching and predators such as dogs.

From June to January, visitors can join beach patrols to help relocate vulnerable eggs to the foundation’s nursery, before returning between August and February to release hatchlings into the ocean. The Turtle Eco Route also connects travellers with other community-led experiences in the area, including mangrove tours, farm visits and cooking and folk-dance classes. In mid-September, the annual Feria de la Tortuga (‘Festival of the Turtle’) brings the community together for a weekend of conservation talks and folkloric performances.

How to do it: A two-hour turtle beach patrol is 20 PAB (£15).