Panama's topography and geographic location present interesting choices for everyone. Beautiful mountains provide an excellent quiet retreat from a bustling city life, and rivers can offer an exhilarating white-water rafting experience. Tropical rainforests are an excellent destination for those who like to see the natural fauna and habitat up close. Coastal areas have some of the best beaches in the world, the finest fishing, scuba diving, and snorkeling, and spectacular coral reefs with colorful marine life. Some terrific tropical islands are also nearby for anyone wishing to make a short leisurely cruise by boat. Many of the islands are accessible by commuter aircraft.
Panamanian people are extremely generous and hospitable to visitors. Most of Panama is rural farm country and the residents have a relaxed, friendly pace of life. Panama has an extensive Indigenous population with seven distinct traditional cultures. And natural disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes are almost non-existent.
Panama maintains a hot tropical climate along the coast with fresher temperatures in the highlands. At sea level, temperatures usually hover around 29-35 C (85-95 F) in the afternoon and drop to the low 20s C at night (70's F). In the highest of mountainous towns such as Cerro Punta, Boquete and Volcan, temperatures are about 18-24 C (65-75 F) and can drop below 10 C (50 F) in the evenings. The Pacific coast receives a distinct dry season between December and May with occasional showers during the wet season. The Caribbean receives a mix of sun and afternoon showers for most of the year.
Panama City offers all the amenities of a first class city including casinos, nightclubs, shopping, live theatre, and some of the finest international cuisine in Latin America.
The scenery is spectacular and diverse. There are more than 1600 islands, blankets of lush cloud forests, exotic jungles, and endless white sand beaches to explore. Hiking, horseback riding, surfing, boating, scuba diving, fishing, bird watching, gardening, and hiking are all available and excellent in Panama. Add high-speed internet, satellite TV and offshore tax savings, and Panama becomes a very attractive place to live and invest.
As a second home or retirement haven, Panama is ideal. We have our own personal reasons why we prefer Panama, but here are the ones that should appeal to just about everyone:
- Just about everything is considerably less expensive: land, housing, professional services, medical care, imported goods, even a cup of coffee costs about 4 times less in Panama!
- Excellent retirement benefits for those who qualify including : 25-30% discounts on public transportation including airfare, 15-25% discount in restaurants, 30-50% discount on hotels, 10-20% discount on most medical services including prescription drugs, 10% on pharmaceuticals, 20% on most professional services, various discounts relating to real estate purchases and 25% discount on utilities such as electricity, water and home telephone
- Good road infrastructure
- Plenty of drinkable water
- Currency is the U.S. dollar
- Stable and peaceful democracy
- Fastest growing economy in Central America largely due to the amplification of the Panama Canal, shipping industry, financial services and related real estate ancillary services
- Low crime rate
- Quetzal birds!
International Living rated Panama the winner for six years in a row of the magazine’s Annual Global Retirement Index. Modern Maturity, Conde Nast Traveler, AARP Magazine and MSN.com all praised Panama as the best place to retire. British researchers have released a survey called the “Happy Planet Index” designed to measure life satisfaction, life expectancy and ecological footprint. Panama ranked fifth in the world!! (For comparison, the U.S. placed 150th and the U.K. placed108th!).
So what does it all mean? Take the “positives” from the International Living report (stable democracy, excellent healthcare, low cost of living, safety, etc), along with the “happiness factor” of the British survey, and it is easy to understand why so many people are buying real estate in Panama for their retirement destination.