Recommend April 2012 - (Page 51)

Island where there are 13 beautiful beaches, and nearby Pacheca Island is a roosting spot for magniﬁcent frigate birds. While there are a couple of full-service hotels, it is the new B&Bs that are particularly attractive. THE CAPTIVATING CARIBBEAN Panama’s Caribbean coast is fringed with sandy beaches and dotted with lush islands. One of the most popular is Bocas del Toro, an archipelago located in the northwestern point of the country with a classic Caribbean proﬁle: aqua blue water, palm-lined beaches set against a naturedense rainforest and a laid-back capital called Bocas Town on Colon Island. Guests at some of the waterfront lodgings built over the water can step right from their rooms and into the sea, and the islands of Bastimentos and Carenero have a variety of small eco-resorts and small hotels that are right on the sea. And exploring the terrain on land or under the sea is just plain wonderful. Bocas del Toro offers a great variety of accomodations from several backpacker hostels to hotels and luxurious private villas. From Bocas, little boats ferry visitors to nearby islands for beaching, snorkeling, diving, dolphin observation, rainforest hikes and visits to indigenous villages. Bocas can’t be beat for couples seeking romantic natural surroundings and families who want to have quality fun and natureeducation experiences together. Cocoa farm tours are available as well for those who wish to learn the process of harvesting and producing chocolate. The best beaches on and around the Bastimentos Island National Marine Park are gorgeous Red Frog Beach and the Zapatillas Cays. Up-and-coming in the beach-loving world are the islands that are part of the Gulf of Chiriqui National Marine Park, which lies off the east coast of David, capital of Chiriqui Province, with boats departing from the ﬁshing village of Boca Chica. Embracing some two dozen islands and their surrounding waters, the park is a refuge for all kinds of wildlife, including whales that come to calve between September and November. This area was for years the well-kept secret of backpackers and deep-sea ﬁsherfolk, but more recently, it’s taken off for more mainstream visitors who have several choices of boutique lodgings on the mainland and two or three luxury island-bound resorts offshore, where excursions range from stretching out on your own beach or booking your own hotel boat—complete with snorkel and mask—to go island-hopping from one deserted white-sand beach to the next: Robinson Crusoestyle. Again, we’re talking about tiny little islands with pristine beaches when we point to the uninhabited islands of the Guna Yala (San Blas Islands), palm-covered paradises of white sand and clear blue water. Certainly the best way to access these outposts is aboard a charter yacht; however many of the larger inhabited islands have ﬁne little lodges—owned and operated by the Guna’s ethnic group— which have small boats for deserted-beach excursions and sea kayaks that permit you to navigate yourself between tiny islands that are all beach and a couple of palm trees. APRIL 2012 P23 Drive another hour along the InterAmerican highway and you turn in to the roads leading to the Santa Clara and Farallon (a.k.a. Playa Blanca) beaches, which offer about the most picture-perfect stretch of powder-white sand on this coast. This is also a corner of Panama that receives less rain than other parts. Santa Clara was once little more than a sparsely populated ﬁshing village edging between patches of dry tropical rainforest and the vast blue expanse of the Paciﬁc. Coming off the highway, you’ll ﬁnd two Santa Clara turnoffs: one for town and the other to the beach and hotels. Farallon lies a couple of miles farther on, a continuation of the same beautiful beach. And indeed, with new hotels, condos, gated communities, this is the fastest growing Paciﬁc beach destination. Newcomers to the hotel scene include two luxury all-inclusive resorts, and Farallon is home to the excellent Manta Raya golf course. Needless to say, in a country with hundreds of islands, many beach attractions lie offshore. Closest to Panama City is pretty, ﬂowering Taboga Island, an hour by ferry from the capital—a great ride, past the Paciﬁc entrance to the Canal and under the Bridge of the Americas. It is known for ﬁne beaches and as a shelter for one of the largest breeding colonies of brown pelicans in the world. Just at the edge of town is Playa Restinga, the island’s best—a bit rocky—beach, and while many visitors just come for the day, the choices for overnighting are not many, but are small and pleasant. Hiking up to the 20-ft. cross in Taboga is also a fun and invigorating opportunity for the more adventurous who wish to mix up beach with a jungle experience. The Pearl Islands are just a 25-minute plane ride from Panama City to Isla Contadora. Once a thriving pearl diving center, today the major attractions of this archipelago are its aqua waters, lush vegetation, brilliant marine life and lovely beaches. (Calm waters make the islands a good pick for family vacations.) Made up of some 200 islands and islets, the Pearl Islands gained fairly recent fame as the location of CBS’s “Survivor” series. Off the beaches you ﬁnd pristine waters, perfect for snorkeling, with manta rays, dolphins and schools of colorful ﬁsh, plus the chance to see migrating humpback and pilot whales July through October. The largest tourist infrastructure is on Contadora

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recommend April 2012

Editor's Notes/Agent Speak
Hotel Desk: Provenance Hotels
Tour Talk: Trafalgar
Sailing the Galapagos Islands
Now Sapphire
Paradisus Playa del Carmen
Treat Yourself to Brussels
Panama Specialist Program
New Zealand
Turkish Delights
Women Wellness Retreats
The Still-Single Mingle in Vegas
Club Med Sandpiper, Florida
Hawaii: Escaping to the Islands

Recommend April 2012