8 Best Places for Expats to Live in Panama

8 Best Places for Expats to Live in Panama

When I told our amazing Communication Strategist Mari-Louise that I shot a video called The 8 Best Places for Expats to Live in Panama, she returned to me and volunteered to add her own twist.

Mari-Louise has been living in Panama for only a couple of years, but already she's experienced living in several ex-pat hotspots. Here's her take on moving to Panama and what you should expect.

I would have advised therapy if you had asked me four years ago if I even wanted to visit Panama. My multi-generational family (from 5 to 75) has been happily living in Panama for nearly two years. We found Panama as a Plan B purely because of a series of serendipitous events in early 2018:

  1. I have the kind of awesome job where time is my friend to travel the world on paper, and it was on one of these journeys that I started exploring central America as a possible holiday destination. While exploring the wonders of volcanoes in Nicaragua and sloths in Costa Rica, I inevitably came across the San Blas islands in Panama. It took my breath away. From there it was only a hop, skip and jump away from Panama City, which, again, blew my mind. Who knew?
  • Just as inevitably (‘cause Google knows all your secret wants and needs), up popped a bunch of websites titled something along the lines of “easiest country to get permanent residency” and “best retirement destination in the world”.  Although we are a long way from retirement, I was hooked and went on a reading spree with unexpected results.
  • More or less at exactly the same time, retiree friends returned from a Caribbean cruise and, low and behold, a side trip to Panama to explore emigration possibilities. Not knowing of these plans beforehand, the coincidence was just too great to ignore when they announced plans to retire in Panama in the next year.

Our curiosity buds were tickled. Could this be the place we were looking for? Could we uproot our whole family and move to Panama?

We didn’t go on relocation tours and made many mistakes on the way –– not least buying a house in the wrong area (for us). Having lived in three popular ex-pat areas, including Nueva Gorgona in Panama Oeste, Santa Clara in Cocle, and Boquete in Chiriqui province, I recommend that any person new to this unique country learn as much as you can about the benefits and disadvantages of each area you are considering as a new home.

To help you with that, here is a great video showing the 8 Best Places for Expats to Live in Panama –– from cosmopolitan Panama City to dreamy Bocas del Toro and everything in between.

Panama is a different world. It takes you back to a stress-free and tranquil lifestyle for retired pensionados and young families.

“The only people who understand why you would leave your family, friends, and home for a new country are those who know where you're coming from. And the only people who can guide you on that path are the ones who went before you.”

That’s what we’re here for. If you’d like to learn more about Panama as a Plan B for unconventional entrepreneurs, subscribe to our channel here!

La vida tranquila!