Private Tour: Culture & History of Panama City

Overview

A private tour to Panama La Vieja, the country's first Spanish settlement, plus downtown sightseeing, a real indigenous handicraft market, and the Mi Pueblito cultural center.

This private tour visits Panama La Vieja, the real ruins of the first Spanish settlement in the country, founded in 1519 and destroyed by the pirate Henry Morgan in 1671 — its stone cathedral tower still stands over the site today as a UNESCO World Heritage listing. The tour also includes downtown Panama City sightseeing, a real indigenous handicraft market, and a stop at the Mi Pueblito Cultural Center, plus a traditional lunch.

Highlights

• Panama Viejo ruins Walk the real stone ruins of the original Panama City, founded in 1519 and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• Indigenous handicraft market Browse and buy directly from a real handicraft market featuring Panama's indigenous artisans.
• Mi Pueblito Cultural Center A stop at this cultural center recreating Panama's traditional regional architecture.
• Traditional lunch A real, included Panamanian meal as part of the tour.

What Stops Does This Tour Make?

A popular starting point — every Voyzo itinerary is fully customizable, so we'll shape the order and stops around your group.

Important Information

Frequently Asked Questions

About This Tour

A private tour to Panama La Vieja, the country's first Spanish settlement, plus downtown sightseeing, a real indigenous handicraft market, and the Mi Pueblito cultural center. This private tour visits Panama La Vieja, the real ruins of the first Spanish settlement in the country, founded in 1519 and destroyed by the pirate Henry Morgan in 1671 — its stone cathedral tower still stands over the site today as a UNESCO World Heritage listing. The tour also includes downtown Panama City sightseeing, a real indigenous handicraft market, and a stop at the Mi Pueblito Cultural Center, plus a traditional lunch.

Panama Viejo (Panamá La Vieja) is the real ruin of the first Panama City, founded on August 15, 1519 by the Spanish governor Pedro Arias Dávila — commonly known as Pedrarias — along with around 100 settlers. It's generally recognized as the first permanent European settlement on the Pacific coast of the Americas, replacing two earlier, short-lived settlements on the Caribbean side of the isthmus.

The city stood for over 150 years before it was destroyed on January 28, 1671, when the privateer Henry Morgan — operating under an English letter of marque, though popularly remembered simply as a pirate — marched roughly 1,400 men overland from the Caribbean coast and sacked it. In the raid's aftermath, Spanish authorities chose not to rebuild on the same, undefended site. Instead they relocated the city about 8 kilometers (5 miles) southwest to a more defensible peninsula, walling it for the first time — the settlement that grew into today's Casco Viejo (also called Casco Antiguo), traditionally dated to around 1673.

The ruins and the old town are now recognized together under UNESCO protection, though not from the same starting point: the Historic District of Panamá was first inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1997, and in 2003 the listing was formally extended, at Panama's request, to include the Panama Viejo archaeological site itself — so the stone ruins you walk through on this tour and the colonial streets of Casco Viejo are today protected as one combined heritage site, even though they were inscribed six years apart.

Beyond the ruins, this tour also brings you to a real indigenous handicraft market where you can buy directly from Panama's artisans, a stop at the Mi Pueblito Cultural Center (which recreates the country's traditional regional architecture), and a traditional Panamanian lunch — rounding out the history with a look at present-day craft and food traditions.