Panama's Caribbean Coast Just Got Its First Overwater Bungalows — Inside a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Panama's Caribbean Coast Just Got Its First Overwater Bungalows — Inside a UNESCO World Heritage Site

A new resort in Portobelo National Park is doing something no property on Panama's Caribbean side has managed before: letting guests wake up above the water, step off their private deck, and drop straight into a coral reef. The Ordovician Beach Resort opened with the country's first overwater bungalows, set within the same protected coastline as Portobelo's Spanish colonial forts — a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Rates and exact opening dates haven't been widely published yet, but early coverage describes farm-to-table dining sourced from surrounding communities and a luxury dive center positioned to reach coral gardens, caves, and colonial-era shipwrecks within minutes.

What makes the property stand out beyond the aesthetics: it was built almost entirely by local crews, injecting money directly into a stretch of coast that has long been overlooked by Panama City day-trippers. The sweet spot for a visit is the dry season, roughly December through April, when Caribbean swells calm and visibility underwater can stretch beyond 30 meters. Portobelo is roughly 90 minutes from Panama City by car — close enough for a long weekend, dramatic enough to feel like a world away.

Gobble's Take: Maldives-style mornings, Caribbean reef afternoons, and colonial ruins for a sunset walk — Panama just built the itinerary you were going to pay $8,000 flights to find somewhere else.

Source: Forbes

Star Princess — All 175,000 Gross Tons of It — Just Made Its First Panama Canal Transit

Princess Cruises' newest and largest ship completed its inaugural Panama Canal crossing this week, threading through the Agua Clara locks on the Atlantic side and emerging into the Pacific as part of its first-ever season itinerary. The Star Princess, at over 175,000 gross tons, is among the largest vessels to use the expanded Neo-Panamax locks — the set of wider chambers that opened in 2016 specifically to handle ships of this scale. Passengers on deck watched the lock gates close behind them and the water rise, lifting the ship roughly 26 meters over the course of the transit.

For travelers weighing a canal crossing, a new-ship debut like this is worth noting: inaugural transits tend to come with on-board ceremony, and the canal itself runs commentary through its own guide system at the Agua Clara and Miraflores visitor centers, both open to land-based tourists as well. The MSC Poesia transited the same day, making it an unusually active afternoon at the locks.

Gobble's Take: Standing on deck while a lock gate seals behind 175,000 tons of ship is the kind of thing that makes you forgive every buffet line on the cruise.

Sources: Travel And Tour World · TravelPulse Canada

Panama City Is Flying to Toronto and Montreal This May to Sell Itself to Event Planners

Panama's tourism authority is taking an unusual step: instead of waiting for Canadian conference organizers to discover Panama City, they're going to Canada. The ATP — Panama's national tourism bureau — is hosting targeted pitch events in Toronto and Montreal this May, aimed specifically at MICE planners (the industry term for Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions — the segment responsible for large-scale corporate travel). The pitch: Panama City has the modern convention infrastructure, the direct flight connections, and the post-conference experiences — rainforest day trips, canal tours, Casco Viejo evenings — that competing destinations in the region can't package together.

For residents and frequent visitors, the upside is practical: a sustained push into the Canadian MICE market typically means pressure on airlines to add or deepen routes, and more international conference traffic generally lifts the quality and variety of hotels competing for business. Panama City's Tocumen International Airport already serves Toronto via Air Canada and Copa, but the city has been less visible in Canadian event-planning circles than Cancún or Bogotá. These May events are a direct attempt to close that gap.

Gobble's Take: Every Canadian conference group that books Panama City is one more argument for a direct Montreal–Tocumen route — keep your eyes on the flight boards later this year.

Sources: Travel And Tour World · TravelPulse Canada

Quick Hits

• Panama's 2018 World Cup goal, 44 days out: With the 2026 World Cup approaching, Yahoo Sports revisits the moment Panama scored its first-ever World Cup goal — a national eruption that stopped the country cold — and why the memory still travels. Yahoo Sports

In Case You Missed It

Yesterday's top stories:

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• A Panamanian's Electricity Bill Tripled Overnight — Here's What Might Be Happening