Best Places In The World To Retire

There are several expat areas within Panama City, itself.   There are several different small neighborhoods – Cangrejo, San Francisco, Obario. There’s the old town, Casco Viejo, which has great places, restaurants, boutique hotels, lovely apartments, high-rise buildings and mid-rise buildings.

 

If you like city life, you will like Casco Viejo. Casco Viejo has an international community, not just Americans or Canadians. We...

There are several expat areas within Panama City, itself.   There are several different small neighborhoods – Cangrejo, San Francisco, Obario. There’s the old town, Casco Viejo, which has great places, restaurants, boutique hotels, lovely apartments, high-rise buildings and mid-rise buildings.

 

If you like city life, you will like Casco Viejo. Casco Viejo has an international community, not just Americans or Canadians. We have Venezuelans and people all over the world living in Casco. Panama has the Panama Canal and is an international hub.  Panama generates US 18 billion from business with the Panama Canal per year.

After Panama City, you have the beach towns and beach communities. Coronado is an example. There’s a stretch of beaches that goes all the way from Panama City down to Playa Bianca for 40 kilometers (about 25 miles), where there are communities and resorts. At the end of that stretch is the airport at Rio Hato.  Along the way, there are lots of small communities. Some of these communities have twenty story high rises with fabulous ocean views and a social life.

Up in the mountains from the Coronado area s a community called El Valle. It is beautiful and has a whole different climate-- very cool. It is very windy during some months. There are beautiful homes and they just opened a supermarket. When I went there eight years ago, it was just a lovely community of wealthy Panamanians who had second homes. Now, everybody is there. There are shopping centers and upscale markets. It has a fabulous public market. It’s great. You would find people from all over the world there.

Continuing west towards Costa Rica, you would pass by Boquete, which is up in the Chiriquí Highlands. It has very beautiful mountains and a cool climate. There are all kinds of small boutique hotels, bed and breakfasts and fabulous restaurants. There are many foreigners. They have an international farmers’ market every Tuesday morning. You can get huge corn rye bread and smoked meat and everything that you would find in the upscale farmers’ market in Santa Monica, California. It’s a little expensive, but that’s the lifestyle in Boquete.

You have the beach communities of Chiriquí in David. There are a couple of beautiful little coves down there with beautiful homes and different communities.

In about the middle of Panama, on the Pacific coast, is the Azuero Peninsula.  On the eastern side of the peninsula, the most well-known towns are Pedasi and Venao. Venao is a beautiful little bay with excellent surfing.

Last but not the least is western Azuero, which we also call the Sunset Coast. That is where I live. The Azuero Peninsula has two sides, the eastern side and the western side. The eastern side is more advanced. They’ve been at it a little bit longer than the western side has. Their airports have flights to Panama City twice weekly. They have beautiful surfing and homes on the beach. Several residential communities are well on their way. It’s expensive.

The western side’s main area destination is Torio, because that is where the first developers started a couple of small projects. There’s a local Panamanian development that is booming there. There are lots of activities; buying and selling. There’s the large European project, which we call “Ludvic Town.” The guy bought the largest farm in Torio and is literally building a town. My offices and our restaurants are here in Bloomingville, that’s what I call it, in Torio. Several people have built homes, and they’re building restaurants and other businesses here in Torio.

After Torio, you go four kilometers (about two and a half miles) and you reach a small beach community. There are dramatic ocean views that start from one end and go all the way for 70 kilometers (over 40 miles). You reach a community and see stunning perfect views. You have the choice of going up and above the mountains to see the view of homesite farms and lots of houses. Some of those areas are right on the beach. Some could be two or three houses. Some could be 50 homes or 50 lots available.

Western Azuero is just getting on the map. We are closer to Santiago, which is the fourth largest town in Panama, after Panama City, Colon and David. Western Azuero has a great lifestyle. 

 

(The recently more popular coast of the western Azuero peninsula, pictured.)