Waldorf Astoria Panama ★★★★★

Afternoon Tea in Marbella, Under a Borrowed Name

Marbella is the quieter shoulder of Panama City's financial district, a grid of side streets between Calle 50 and the bay where the towers thin out and the restaurants begin. The Waldorf Astoria stands at the corner of 47th and Uruguay, and it plays the opposite hand from the skyline hotels a few blocks east: no sail, no fifty storeys, no statement silhouette. What it brings instead are the habits of the group, starting with Peacock Alley, the lobby bar whose name the house has carried from the original Waldorf in New York and where afternoon tea is served as a matter of course. The tone is set before you reach the lift.

Why It Works

Panama City is very good at large hotels and much weaker at service. This house closes that gap. The scale is moderate by local standards, which is exactly why the staff can work the way the brand expects, and the spa, the pool terrace and the bar are sized for guests rather than for conferences. Suites come with full kitchens and dining areas, which makes the place unusually well suited to a stay of a week rather than a night. And the address keeps the district's kitchens within walking distance without putting you on the loudest avenue in the city.

Why This Location

Forty-seventh Street runs down through Marbella towards the bay, which puts the Cinta Costera, the coastal park curving along the waterfront, within a short walk, and the banking district a few hundred metres the other way. Obarrio and Bella Vista, where most of the city's restaurants sit, are on foot. Multiplaza Pacific and the Punta Pacifica towers are about ten minutes by road, Casco Viejo around twenty, the Miraflores Locks roughly thirty. Albrook, the domestic airport for Bocas del Toro and the San Blas strip, is close to fifteen minutes; Tocumen, for international flights, nearer forty. The quarter stays residential enough to be quiet after dark.

Fast Facts

• Price: Luxury

• Vibe: Discreet, service-led, city rather than resort

• Rooms: Rooms and suites in a contemporary register, the suites with full kitchens and dining areas

• Best For: Longer city stays, travellers who care about service, couples who want a spa without a beach

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: Afternoon tea at Peacock Alley, a ritual the group has carried from the original Waldorf in New York and one that almost nobody expects to find in Panama

• Dining: Matiz for Panamanian produce alongside steaks and seafood, Peacock Alley for cocktails and tea, the Bungalow terrace and pool bar for light plates

• Amenities: Seventh-floor outdoor pool tiled in gold with a hot tub, Waldorf Astoria Spa with a couples' room and treatments built on local ingredients, fitness centre

• Attractions: The Cinta Costera a short walk away, the banking district a few hundred metres, Casco Viejo about twenty minutes by car, the Miraflores Locks around thirty, the Biomuseo on the causeway

Suites With Kitchens, for the Longer Stay

Accommodation runs from contemporary rooms to suites with full kitchens and dining tables, and that second category is what separates this house from the towers nearby. A Panama trip often means a week in the city between flights out to Bocas or the San Blas archipelago, and a suite here works as an apartment with a concierge attached. Rooms are quiet, the finish is restrained rather than showy, and the windows look over Marbella instead of down a canyon of glass, which is a fair trade for anyone who intends to sleep. Ask for a higher floor on the bay side.

Matiz, Peacock Alley and a Gold Pool on the Seventh

Matiz handles breakfast and dinner, cooking Panamanian produce alongside steaks, seafood and pasta, and it also stages Le Petit Chef, the animated table projection that turns dinner into theatre for anyone travelling with children old enough to sit still. Peacock Alley is the room to know: cocktails in the evening, tea in the afternoon, and the one address in the city where that ritual is kept properly. On the seventh floor the pool is tiled in gold and paired with a hot tub, the Bungalow terrace serves alongside it, and the spa runs its treatments in private rooms, built on ingredients from the country itself.