W Panama ★★★★★

Fifty Storeys of Diablo Rojo Paint on Calle 50

Calle 50 is the spine of Panama's banking district, a canyon of glass towers that goes quiet at seven in the evening and that most visitors cross without stopping. W Panama takes fifty storeys of it at the corner of Aquilino de la Guardia, and spends its entire design budget on refusing to be one more lobby in that canyon. The references are local and specific: the Diablos Rojos, the retired school buses that Panamanian drivers repaint into rolling murals, and the shipping containers that pass through the canal by the million, cut open here and turned into bars. It is a tower that knows which city it stands in.

Why It Works

The business district is full of hotels that treat the address as a commodity. This one uses it. Two hundred and three rooms and suites give the house four kitchens and bars instead of one, a pool deck on the fifteenth floor and a spa that takes walk-ins, which is what turns a banking-district tower into somewhere worth a Saturday. The programming counts too: live music, DJ nights in the Living Room, temporary art shows in the public spaces. If your trip runs from the old quarter to the islands and you want one night that belongs entirely to the modern city, this is that night.

Why This Location

Obarrio and the blocks around it hold the banks, the law firms and a good share of the city's restaurants, and the hotel sits in the middle of them, which means dinner happens on foot rather than in a taxi. Multiplaza Pacific and the Punta Pacifica towers are about ten minutes by road, Casco Viejo around twenty, and the Cinta Costera, the coastal park curving along the bay, is close enough to reach for a run before breakfast. Albrook, the domestic airport for Bocas del Toro and the San Blas strip, is roughly fifteen minutes away; Tocumen, for international flights, closer to forty.

Fast Facts

• Price: Luxury

• Vibe: Loud, contemporary, unmistakably Panamanian

• Rooms: 203 rooms and suites over fifty floors, floor-to-ceiling glass in every category

• Best For: City breaks, design-minded couples, business travellers who intend to stay the weekend

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: The bars cut out of real shipping containers, which in a country built around the canal is the least decorative piece of decoration in Panama City

• Dining: Moro for Spanish and international cooking on Panamanian produce, La Cajita for local plates and cocktails, the Living Room for DJ evenings, the WET Deck bar beside the pool

• Amenities: Outdoor pool on the fifteenth-floor WET Deck, AWAY Spa, FIT fitness centre, live music and temporary art shows, pets welcome

• Attractions: The Cinta Costera promenade a short walk away, Casco Viejo about twenty minutes by car, the Miraflores Locks around thirty, Multiplaza Pacific ten, the Biomuseo out on the causeway

The Side of the Tower That Sees the Canal

Two hundred and three rooms and suites are stacked over fifty floors, which makes the floor number the single most useful thing to settle at check-in. Glass runs from ceiling to floor in every category, so the view is not an upgrade but a direction. The city side gives the tower canyon and, after dark, one of the best skylines in Central America. The other flank looks down towards the Port of Balboa and the Pacific entrance of the canal, where ships wait for their slot through the locks. Suites add sitting rooms and corner glass. Colour is used without restraint throughout, which is the brand and, here, also the country.

Moro, La Cajita and a Pool on the Fifteenth

Four rooms handle the eating and drinking, which is unusual for a city hotel of this size. Moro cooks Spanish and international dishes on Panamanian produce and is the one to book for a proper dinner. La Cajita stays lighter, with local plates and cocktails above the street. The Living Room is the lobby bar that becomes the evening, with DJs late in the week. Above them, on the fifteenth floor, the WET Deck puts a pool, a bar and a long view of the towers on the same terrace, which is the reason to arrive in the afternoon rather than at dinner time.