Plan your trip to Panama

Panama. Ask someone at random to describe this Central American republic and the question will most likely conjure up images of the nearly century old Panama Canal and dim memories of a long deposed dictator. Its present and future are much more vibrant and complex. Construction cranes build ever higher luxury towers—including The Planetarium, which is expected to be one of Central America’s tallest when it opens in 2010; ecotourism has been a boon to the economy; and that canal, handed over from the United States in 1999, is getting a much needed makeover to remain useful to the shipping industry.

A visitor to Panama City will be confronted by first-world ambition wrapped around a third-world infrastructure combined with the ugly twins of congestion and sprawl. Coordinated traffic lights are more hope than reality, while Internet cafes abound. But new boutique hotels and beachside resorts are opening regularly to meet the needs of the growing tourist market.

The three things a visitor to Panama shouldn’t miss are the Panama Canal, the scale and scope of this engineering marvel cannot be appreciated without a visit; the Gamboa Rainforest Resort, a sprawling complex that offers tours of the local wildlife via an aerial tram and boats that cruise the Chagres River; and the Canopy Tower, a former U.S. military radar station that has been converted into a lodge and observatory platform overlooking the Soberanía National Park, which is ideal for the bird watcher and nature enthusiast.