Westin Playa Bonita
Sloth Sanctuary, Gamboa Rainforest
Miraflores Locks Visitor Center
110
www.southernSeasons.net
In a serene setting about 20 minutes from downtown Panama City, the Westin Playa Bonita is the place to soak up resort pampering while planning explorations on your own or via the resort’s tour operator, Gamboa Tours. Stretched along the Pacific with a grand variety of restaurants and bars plus four palm-shaded pools and a spa, Playa Bonita hugs a mile-long beach that alters dramatically with the tide. From its window-walled lobby to its spacious, balconied guest suites, the property is airy and open, with a gracious staff. The 19th floor Executive Club, offering breakfast and snacks throughout the day, is ideal for morning coffee or an evening libation, its wide windows serving up a seascape of distant small islands and vessels awaiting entry to the Canal. Among the resort dining entries to sample: steaks infused with Latin spice at the elegant Tierra y Fuego, curries and sushi at Asiana, fresh seafood at the Starfish Grill’s poolside terrace. Playa Bonita’s options for groups include a pair of sumptuous villas – Villa Bonita and Casa Naga. Each is dreamy – lavishly designed and exquisitely furnished with unique treasures from the owners’ travels. As might be expected, dining and service are exemplary. Nearby, the Miraflores Visitor Center provides an eye-popping experience by land. I say this as a traveler who has eased through the Canal lanes on cruise vessels of various sizes, and those adventures, too, were eyepoppers. But taking in an overview of the busy Miraflores Locks from the Visitor Center’s elevated platform is obviously different – captivating as a video game as you mentally call the shots, guiding barges and giant cruise ships through the legendary waterway. Inside, an excellent museum tells the story of the 48-mile Panama Canal via U.S.Panama treaty documents and photos, film and interactive exhibits – a fascinating tale of an enterprise kicked off by the French in 1880 but doomed by both disease (the mosquito was the enemy) and economic issues. Then came the Americans, along with workers from several countries and cultures, to construct one of the engineering marvels