La Concordia - Boutique Hotel ★★★★★

A Family House in the City Pirates Forced to Move

Panama City was founded twice. The first city fell to Henry Morgan, and the one that replaced it in 1673, on a defensible point at the mouth of the bay, is the Casco Viejo you walk today. La Concordia occupies one of its restored colonial houses, in Santa Ana, on the landward edge of the quarter. Ten suites, two floors, vintage furniture and local artwork, and a family that owns and runs the place rather than a management contract behind it. It is the kind of hotel that used to be the only kind, and Casco Viejo has enough life of its own that a house this size is the right way to be inside it.

Why It Works

Three things. The first is scale and ownership: ten suites means the person at the desk knows which balcony catches the afternoon and which room is quietest on a Saturday, and a family-run house has a reason to care. The second is the building. This is a restored colonial property inside a UNESCO World Heritage site, and the restoration kept the bones rather than gutting them, with contemporary comfort, antique touches and local art on the walls. The third is position. Casco Viejo is small enough to walk end to end, and almost everything worth seeing in it sits inside that walk.

Why This Location

Santa Ana sits at the neck of the peninsula, where Casco Viejo meets the rest of the city, which puts the whole quarter in front of you and the traffic behind. Plaza de la Independencia, the Metropolitan Cathedral, the Church of San José and its Golden Altar, the Presidential Palace, the Canal Museum and the Mola Museum are all inside a short walk. Tocumen International is about thirty minutes out by car. What Casco Viejo does best is the last hour of daylight: the rooftop bars of the quarter look across the bay to the towers of the new city and out to the Amador Causeway islands, and the hotel is a few streets from all of them.

Fast Facts

• Price: Upscale

• Vibe: Colonial, family-run, quietly stylish

• Rooms: Ten suites over two floors, in four categories: Santa Ana, San Felipe, Corner Suites and Casa Arango

• Best For: Couples, first visits to Panama City, travellers who would rather stay in a house than a tower

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: Every suite has its own balcony over the street

• Amenities: Private balconies throughout, vintage furniture and local artwork, pet-friendly

• Attractions: Plaza de la Independencia, the Metropolitan Cathedral, the Golden Altar at San José, the Presidential Palace, the Canal Museum and the Mola Museum, all on foot

The Suites, and Which One to Ask For

The ten suites sit on the second and third floors and come in four shapes. The Santa Ana suites are the compact ones, finished with care rather than square metres. The San Felipe suites are the colourful ones. The Corner Suites are what you book for light and a view down two streets at once, and they are noticeably larger. All of them have a private balcony, which in a quarter like this is the amenity that counts: you will spend more time on it than you expect. Ask for the higher floor if the street matters to you.

Casa Arango

The fourth category is not a room type but a separate building. Casa Arango is a nineteenth-century colonial villa that the hotel restored and now lets as part of the house, and it is the answer for a family or two couples travelling together who want Casco Viejo without splitting across floors. It is also the piece of the property that explains the rest: a hotel that takes on a villa restoration inside a protected quarter is not doing it for the room count.

How to Walk Casco Viejo from the Door

Start early, before the stone gets hot. Plaza de la Independencia and the cathedral first, then San José for the Golden Altar, which is the one thing in Casco Viejo everyone tells you to see and everyone is right about. The Canal Museum is on the plaza. The Mola Museum is worth an hour for the textile work alone. Plaza Francia and the sea wall are the far end of the peninsula, and the walk back along the water is the best part of the day. Then a rooftop, and the towers across the bay coming on.