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At this Bariloche hotel, the art is front and center.

There certainly are other ways to while away a summer day in Greater Portland, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a better experience than island-hopping aboard a Casco Bay Lines ferry. Sure, you can simply ride out to an island for a look-about and return, or enjoy a sunrise, sunset, or moonlight cruise. But for a real immersion, consider the Mailboat Run. You’ll be among islanders, visitors, pets, and freight to-ing and fro-ing between Little Diamond, Great Diamond, Long, Cliff, and Chebeague islands. The 2½-to-3½-hour working cruise is offered twice daily year-round; bring your own picnic lunch on the morning run or snacks for the afternoon one.

Conquistadors built Panamá Viejo, the first European settlement on the Pacific Coast of the New World, in 1519. The original site was abandoned in 1671 after Henry Morgan’s pirates attacked and the residents relocated down the coast. This second settlement, now called Casco Viejo (old town), is the historic district of Panama City. Together, both locations make up a UNESCO World Heritage Site. At Panamá Viejo, visitors can explore an archaeological site with famous ruins, while Casco Viejo is abuzz with the markets, cafés and nightlife found along its narrow streets and in its classic waterfront buildings.

Whether you want to stay by the Pacific coast, on the Caribbean side, or in the capital city, Panama offers visitors a wide range of accommodations, from beach resorts to rainforest lodgings to urban hotels. Relax by the beach on Isla Boca Brava, bird-watch from your bedroom in Soberanía National Park, or spend the night in trendy Casco Viejo.

Sure, you’ll eat some tasty lobster rolls in this harbor town on Casco Bay, but you’ll also find James Beard award-winning kitchens, exciting food trucks, and world-class comfort food, like pies made with locally sourced berries topped with just-made ice cream. Whether you’re in a white-cloth dining room or slurping oysters on the waterfront, the tastes of Maine are easy to love.

So lucky to live in beautiful, charming Portland Maine...nestled on Casco Bay...home to amazing restaurants, city amenities, yet outdoor activities mere steps away via water or on land.

Why we love it: A quirky stay full of historic details, local art, and top-notch cocktails

Highlights:
- A collection of local art that’s all for sale
- An on-site lounge with creative cocktails by Donald Murray
- Fun amenities like record players for checkout and a curated vinyl library

The Review:
No property captures Tucson’s funky, laid-back vibe better than this hotel on historic Stone Avenue, right on the edge of the Barrio Viejo in the artsy Armory Park neighborhood. Set around a central courtyard strung with Edison bulbs, the Downtown Clifton keeps it real with local art, vintage furnishings, and mid-century modern curios. The hotel was built in 1948 but found new life in 2014 after undergoing a $4.5 million upgrade. The 10 bunkhouse rooms now include original wood-beam ceilings, saddle blanket bedspreads, polished concrete floors, and 1940s tilework in the bathrooms, all paired with modern touches like 42-inch smart TVs. For a little something extra, book one of the señorita rooms, which up the ante with exposed brick walls, floor-to-ceiling windows, hand-painted bedframes and vanities, spacious seating areas, and, in numbers 29 and 30, spectacular views of the mountains.

The hotel’s expansion also added the Red Light Lounge, where mixologist Donald Murray, formerly of Tuscon favorite the Dusty Monk, holds sway. Expect unusual offerings like a margarita made from Bacanora (agave-derived liquor) and The Inglaterra, featuring tequila and Pimm’s. The bar also serves innovative Tucson cuisine like chorizo fry bread topped with queso asadero, spicy greens, pickled hibiscus onions, cilantro-lime aioli, and a sunny-side-up egg. Should you wish to cook your own grub, make use of the on-site grills and then dine in the outdoor seating areas.

Wetlands everywhere are at risk due to global warming, and the private wildlife refuge known as El Viejo Wetlands was created to protect some of these ecosystems. Among the thrilling sights you’ll see on a boat tour of the refuge that will make you feel like you’re part of a nature documentary: crocodiles, exotic wading birds (like the huge jabiru, with its eight-foot wingspan), and fabulous amphibians. A visit to El Viejo merits the better part of a day and should definitely include a stop at an old-school sugar mill, as well as a delicious traditional buffet meal served in an old casona, a local style of wooden house with wide wraparound verandas.

Meandering along the streets of Casco Viejo is a walk down a physical timeline; with old Spanish ruins next to forgotten French architecture neighboring restored boutique hotels, this historical neighborhood manifests Panama City’s colorful past. The diversity in buildings reflects the array of people who occupy this peninsula, from hat-totting tourists to barefoot residents to the President himself. The energy of the place is packed between the thin streets, filled with shops, cars, pedestrians, and restaurants and then shoots out over the extensive coast line of the canal. My favorite people watching activity is to capture a drama in the making, and that is exactly what I caught between this boy and his elder. It is for these moments that it pays off to constantly lug around a SLR.

For the location of their first independent hotel, Atelier Ace (the creative arm behind the buzzy Ace Hotel Group) chose Panama City’s historic Casco Viejo, a once gang-ridden neighborhood now teeming with trendy restaurants, cafes, and wine bars in 16th- and 17th-century buildings. The American Trade Hotel occupies a stately property on Plaza Tómas Herrera, complete with 50 minimal-chic rooms and suites outfitted in Frette linens and custom, reclaimed-wood furnishings. Plush “Jardin” suites open onto a private garden courtyard, while others feature vaulted ceilings or views of the Gulf of Panama. On-site dining and drinking options abound, ranging from Café Unido for pour-over coffee made from Panama Geisha beans, to a jazz club created by Grammy-winning Panamanian jazz pianist and composer Danilo Perez.

At the outskirts of Casco Viejo, a cigar maker works in his small shop. The naturally-lit shop is filled with personal mementos. There are ink sketches on the table surface, where he cuts the cigarro leaf wrapper.

Ambiance is the key to this Panama City restaurant’s popularity—surprising given that the restaurant’s setting is in a former dungeon. During the early days of Casco Viejo, the structure did, indeed, serve as a jail; now, the cells serve French dishes to a discerning crowd. If you’re not taken with the idea of dining in a vault, ask for an al fresco table adjacent to the lovely Plaza Francia.

Pack your dancing shoes to Panama City if only for one night at Habana Panamá, an over-the-top celebration of Havana’s golden age in the middle of Casco Viejo. There’s a live orchestra every weekend, and bands play salsa, son, and jazz until the rooster crows and the last trumpet has been packed away. If you’d rather observe than boogie, take a seat on the second-floor balcony with an appetizer and a cocktail, and watch Panama City sway beneath chandeliers and red velvet curtains.

Corona Lite, it is not: cerveceria La Rana Dorada (“The Golden Frog”) is a craft-brewing operation that’s distinctly Panamanian. Their four distinct beers—a pilsner, a pale ale, a white beer, and a porter—are created at its Casco Viejo location, then served both there and at an accompanying pub in the northern end of the city. Despite its convivial English-style brewpub atmosphere, there’s a specific Central American pride brewed in with the hops—the operation even draws its name from a rare, endemic species of toad.

Avenida Central was the city’s great commercial core in the first half of the 20th century; though its heyday has ended, the swarm of humanity packing into its various shops, bars, hotels, restaurants, and other businesses attest to ongoing vibrancy. The classic stretch extends from Plaza Santa Ana to Plaza 5 de Mayo, where art deco and streamlined moderne landmarks are still on view. El Banco Nacional, the former Kodak building, and “La Pollera”—thus nicknamed for the resemblance its balconies bear to the traditional full skirts of the Los Santos region—figure among them. These avenue blocks are pedestrian-only; peddlers and street vendors selling every imaginable snack and trinket abound.