How's the biking in and around El Valle de Anton, Panama?
Neil Stein - Panama Paraiso
Besides the perfect weather, biking is one of the reasons I chose El Valle to live. I
ride a road bicycle at least 100 miles a week. Oftentimes I ride all the way to the Pan American Highway and back, which is quite difficult. One must climb 500 feet up to get out of the crater and then 2500 feet down to the highway; and then back. It's an incredible workout, but great fun! I pass many small villages with kids waving or running out into the road to give me a...
ride a road bicycle at least 100 miles a week. Oftentimes I ride all the way to the Pan American Highway and back, which is quite difficult. One must climb 500 feet up to get out of the crater and then 2500 feet down to the highway; and then back. It's an incredible workout, but great fun! I pass many small villages with kids waving or running out into the road to give me a...Besides the perfect weather, biking is one of the reasons I chose El Valle to live. I
ride a road bicycle at least 100 miles a week. Oftentimes I ride all the way to the Pan American Highway and back, which is quite difficult. One must climb 500 feet up to get out of the crater and then 2500 feet down to the highway; and then back. It's an incredible workout, but great fun! I pass many small villages with kids waving or running out into the road to give me a high-five when I'm going back up the hill at about seven miles an hour.
ride a road bicycle at least 100 miles a week. Oftentimes I ride all the way to the Pan American Highway and back, which is quite difficult. One must climb 500 feet up to get out of the crater and then 2500 feet down to the highway; and then back. It's an incredible workout, but great fun! I pass many small villages with kids waving or running out into the road to give me a high-five when I'm going back up the hill at about seven miles an hour.The road is in great shape with spectacular views. 
There is a lot of shade, so it rarely gets too hot. Also, there are over 200 curves between the highway and El Valle. It always remains interesting. On the weekends, and particularly on holidays, there are often many riders coming up the hill from Panama City who enjoy the challenge as well!
There is a lot of shade, so it rarely gets too hot. Also, there are over 200 curves between the highway and El Valle. It always remains interesting. On the weekends, and particularly on holidays, there are often many riders coming up the hill from Panama City who enjoy the challenge as well!In town, I ride with a friend and we usually cover around 40 miles each time out, starting at 6:30 in the morning before it gets very warm. There is very little traffic and the streets are all tree lined making it quite beautiful with a tremendous amount of shade.
Cycling is definitely one of the best features El Valle has to offer!
Posted March 29, 2013
Bill Brunner
El Valle de Anton (what we call “The Valley”) has an elevation of about 1,800 feet. The Valley itself is five by six kilometres (a little more than 3 miles by less than 4 miles). You’ve got basically two paved roads that go out of the Valley. The serious bikers take those when they go out of the Valley and into the hills. You could also take a road bike when going up the hill from the Inter-American highway, from close to the Pacific Ocean near...
El Valle de Anton (what we call “The Valley”) has an elevation of about 1,800 feet. The Valley itself is five by six kilometres (a little more than 3 miles by less than 4 miles). You’ve got basically two paved roads that go out of the Valley. The serious bikers take those when they go out of the Valley and into the hills. You could also take a road bike when going up the hill from the Inter-American highway, from close to the Pacific Ocean near Palmar, all the way, 28 kilometres (17 miles) to El Valle, and of course, back down. These roads are paved but you need a lot of gears to get on the one at the other end of the valley. It’s sort of steep getting down.
If you stay in the Valley, it’s flat enough so that you never have to go up a hill… or at least not much.
There is the Balboa Off-Road Association for Mountain Bikers that goes mountain biking every Sunday. It’s based in Panama City (about 2 hours from El Valle by car) but they take some interesting trips to a variety of places. And if you’re into that sort of thing you can just take your bike and join them and go for a ride. If Panama City is close enough for you, you could take advantage of clubs and everything that else that is in Panama City. And then you could spend the rest of the day in the City and come back later.
Definitely one of the advantages El Valle has over Boquete and Volcan and places further away is El Valle’s nice geographical placement. El Valle is a small town but at the same time not so far away from Panama City if you want to go to the city. In a few hours, you could have as much city as you want.
Posted August 31, 2014