Practical Information

Although the Official monetary tender is PAB (Balboa), it has an exception.

The Official monetary tender (paper) is the U.S. Dollar.  The Official monetary tender (coin) is the Balboa.

The Balboa is equivalent to the U.S. Dollar and does not come in the paper form.  Both sets of coins Balboa and U.S. are used in Panama.

Panamanian's will say either Balboa or Dollar so just remember they are equal.

Balboa is written B./1,00 or B./1 for $1.00 in most cases.  The comma and period are used differently in Latin American; $1,000.00 is B./1.000,00.  When they use the dollar sign they will normally have it written the U.S. way but at times it may not be.

In Panama city ATMS's are everywhere so no need to bring a lot of cash to Panama.

Transportation in Panama is mostly buses or taxi. 

The bus system, if that is what you can call it, is very cheap.  You can ride from the Airport to downtown Panama for $.25 or B./,25.  All buses are the same price for local services with the metropolitan area.  Once you get off one bus you pay again for the next bus, even if you have to take two or three buses to reach your final destination; they do not have a transfer system.  Bus routes are not marked, no maps to review and the only way you will know where that bus is going is by the signs on the bus or asking the driver in Spanish.

Taxis from the Airport are the most expensive.  You can expect pay about $15.00 to the City plus $5.00 for each additional person.  Around town it only cost $1.00 to $3.00 plus $.25 for each additional person per destination.