The Westin Panama ★★★★★

The District Panama City Built From Scratch

Costa del Este did not exist a generation ago. It was reclaimed from the bay east of the old city and laid out deliberately: wide avenues, a ring road called La Rotonda, corporate headquarters, apartment towers and grass verges that are actually mown. The Westin stands on that ring road with 218 rooms and 45 suites, a rooftop pool and a spa floor. Arriving here after the tangle of Marbella is disorienting in a good way. There is space, there is quiet, and the Corredor Sur runs along the water back into the centre.

Why It Works

This is the calm option. The district itself does the work: no traffic noise under the window, no queue to leave the building in the morning, and an airport corridor that starts on the same side of town. The Westin layers its own programme on top, from the Heavenly beds to the WestinWORKOUT studio and its lending partnership for training gear, which makes a working week here markedly easier than the same week downtown. Forty five suites in a house of 218 rooms is a high proportion, and it shows in what is available at short notice.

Why This Location

Costa del Este is corporate Panama, and the hotel is built for people with business in it. The Corredor Sur, the elevated toll road along the bay, connects the district to the old centre without crossing the city grid, which is why people who live here tolerate the distance. Tocumen, the international airport, is 23.5 kilometres away; Albrook, for flights to Bocas del Toro and the San Blas islands, is 14.7. What the location does not give you is a neighbourhood to walk into at night. Dinner is either in the hotel or a short drive.

Fast Facts

• Price: Luxury

• Vibe: Calm, corporate, modern, spacious

• Rooms: 218 rooms including 45 suites, with Heavenly beds and Heavenly baths

• Best For: Business travellers, long stays, anyone who wants quiet and an easy run to the airport

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: The rooftop pool, which looks over a district with nothing tall enough to block it

• Dining: Origen Restaurant and Bar, La Micaela Cafe, and the lobby bar

• Amenities: Rooftop pool, Sensory Spa, WestinWORKOUT fitness studio with gear lending, Eat Well menu, meeting spaces, babysitting, pets accepted up to two per room

• Attractions: Corredor Sur into the old city, Tocumen airport 23.5 km, Albrook airport 14.7 km

Suites, and Why There Are So Many

Costa del Este draws long stays: executives on rotation, families relocating, consultants on a three week brief. The room mix reflects it, with 45 suites giving separate living space and room to work without sitting on the bed. Standard rooms carry the same bedding and bathroom standard, which is the point of the brand. Pets are accepted, up to two per room within a weight limit, which is unusual at this level in Panama and worth knowing if the stay is a long one.

Eating In, Because You Probably Will

Origen is the restaurant and bar, and it carries the evening. La Micaela covers coffee, pastries and the middle of the day, and it is the room where most of the district's meetings seem to happen. The lobby bar handles the rest. The Eat Well menu runs through all of them, which sounds like brand language until a fortnight of business dinners makes it useful. There is no walk out option here, so the in house range matters more than it would downtown.

What to Know Before You Book

Choose this hotel for the district, not in spite of it. If the trip is about Casco Viejo, the Cinta Costera and dinner on foot, stay closer to the bay. If it is about meetings in Costa del Este, an early flight, a proper gym and a quiet night, this is the better address by some distance. Ask about the Corredor Sur tolls if you are driving yourself, and note that the run into town is quick outside rush hour and slow inside it.