City overview
Panama packs two oceans, a rainforest and one of the world's great engineering sites into a country you can cross in a day, and it does it with the largest and best-served kosher infrastructure in Central America. Panama City's skyline sits beside a UNESCO-listed colonial quarter and the locks of the Panama Canal, while the highlands of Boquete and the Caribbean islands of Bocas del Toro are a short flight away. The Jewish community numbers roughly fifteen thousand, mostly Sephardi families of Syrian and Lebanese descent, concentrated in Punta Paitilla, Punta Pacífica and Bella Vista. Kosher Panamá, the certification body of the Shevet Ahim congregation, supervises well over ninety establishments countrywide, and an eruv covers the main Jewish neighbourhoods.
Panama Viejo Archaeological Site
Panama City · Operator rate sheet: nationals/residents adults 11.00; retirees/pensioners/seniors (women 55+, men 60+) 5.50; ages 6-17 in a family group 2.00; university students with ID 3.50. Nonresidents adults 17.00; children 5.00; university students with ID 7.00. Under 6 free, excluding school/preschool groups. ID required; includes archaeological park, museum, Cathedral viewpoint, monuments and internal transport. Rate sheet does not label the currency.
Walk the ruins of the first Spanish city on the Pacific, founded in 1519 and destroyed in 1671.
Hours
Tuesday–Sunday 8:30 AM–5:30 PM; ticket office closes 4:30 PM
Tips
A UNESCO World Heritage site since 2003, covering 28 hectares. Children under six enter free on family visits.
Phone
+507 226-8915Neighborhood
Panama Viejo
Activity providers
Kosher map of Panama City
Pick a place on the map or search an address or hotel to see what is kosher around it.