The rooftop pool at Hotel La Compañia, Casco Antiguo in Panama City provides views of both the courtyard below and a vista of the city beyond. The clash of old and new in Panama's district of Casco Antiguo makes it a natural home for Hyatt’s Hotel La Compañia.Supplied
With apologies to my teachers in high school, history class was never my thing. The lessons felt too obscure, too far away. But a recent trip to Panama City’s lively ancient quarter has me rethinking things. The district of Casco Antiguo, a few kilometres from the city’s core, was built as the replacement capital after the original site was legendarily burned and looted in an attack led by Welsh buccaneer Henry Morgan in the 1600s. Could history actually be … fascinating?
Today, this charming neighbourhood feels like a restoration project in action – a living, breathing piece of the past on its way to the future. Crumbling plazas and ancient churches stand cheek by jowl with bustling new restaurants and upscale coffee joints. This eclectic clash of old and new makes it a natural home for Hyatt’s Hotel La Compañia, the first of the brand’s Unbound collection of boutique hotels to land in Central America. Like the area itself, the hotel building is steeped in such a storied history that UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site.
The hotel's courtyard is a good place to soak up some sun with a meal.Supplied
Why you should visit
Hotel La Compañia calls itself a “living museum” and it’s eager to make good on that promise as soon as you step inside. Once the site of a Jesuit church and convent, the centuries-old structure is still attached to the roofless ruins of the church.
Preservation is the watchword at this luxe 88-room hotel, from the shiny stone counters at the lobby’s check-in spot (these are old caviar bars from Hong Kong’s Mandarin hotel circa the 1970s, the manager tells me) to the rooftop pool deck, where the bathrooms are outfitted with 300-pound submarine doors from a scrap metal company in North Carolina. Outside in the courtyard, a sprawling 200-year avocado tree bursts with fruit. The hotel’s three wings – inspired by French, Spanish and American influences – were carefully rebuilt around it so as not to disturb the tree, thought to be the oldest of its kind in Panama City.
Guest rooms are lush with modern and well-equipped bathrooms. Each room is designed to evoke the themes of their respective wings within the hotel.Supplied
That nod to history extends throughout the hotel, where framed Panama Canal documents and landmark photography line the walls, creating an ambience that feels distinctly museum-like. (Don’t worry, though – nobody will shush you if you find yourself yelping over a spicy margarita in the lobby’s bar.) There’s an air of reverence to this place, perhaps an unspoken acknowledgment of what was once here. When the building crew were excavating the site throughout its painstaking restoration, they discovered human remains where one of the hotel’s several restaurants now stands. It’s unclear who was buried here, though some guess it was a member of the church. They named the restaurant 1739, the date etched into the stone wall from when the church was first built.
But playfulness abounds, too. I can’t resist taking a selfie in one of the elevators, where the walls are decked out with dozens of pressure gauges and voltmeters, a wink to the instruments used during the Panama Canal’s construction. On the main floor of the hotel’s American wing, where the department store American Bazaar once stood in the early 1900s, an old film projector beams black-and-white Hollywood movies onto the stone wall.
The hotel's restaurant was named 1739 after a date etched into the stone wall.Supplied
You’ll get a good night’s sleep here, too. Guest rooms are lush and comfortable, with modern and well-equipped bathrooms, and each thoughtfully designed to evoke the themes of their respective wings. In the Spanish wing, stone walls and wooden beams give the guestrooms a warm and cozy feel. Rooms in the French wing feature high ceilings with intricate crown mouldings and French doors overlooking the greenery in the courtyard or the bustling city street (pro tip: use the double window blinds to block the street lights). In the American wing, modern black-and-white design gives the rooms a fresh, bold look.
Since you’re in the neighbourhood
You can’t go to Panama City without seeing its world-famous canal, about a 20-minute cab ride away from the hotel. For around US$20, you’ll be shepherded through an IMAX presentation about the canal’s history (narrated by Morgan Freeman, naturally) before being ushered to a viewing platform to see the locks. Be warned: it can get crowded and early morning viewings are usually best.
But there’s plenty of history to soak up closer to the hotel, too. Take a stroll throughout the district’s narrow brick streets, or duck into San Jose church to snap photos of its famous golden altar, which, legend has it, was painted black to save it from the clutches of the aforementioned pirate Henry Morgan when he attacked the city. Panama’s president lives nearby in the gleaming white Presidential Palace, a five-minute walk from the hotel on Av. Eloy Alfaro. Coffee lovers can pop into Sisu coffee house, steps away from the hotel, to taste their Geisha blend, made from the most expensive beans in the world.
Walking into the hotel's sumptuous lobby, it's clear the hotel is eager to make good on its moniker as a living museum.Supplied
Room for improvement
If you’re thinking of bringing young kids here, well, maybe don’t. While the friendly staff are endlessly accommodating, this is a decidedly cool, look-but-don’t-touch kind of space. The sleek rooftop pool, for instance, doesn’t give off “Cannonball!” vibes, and my own elementary-school-aged children would definitely accidentally knock over the well-appointed vase of fresh flowers in the lobby. I’m guessing yours might, too.
The takeaway
I always understood the importance of history. Churchill’s famous warning, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it” looms large whenever I watch the news. But immersing myself in a place so devoted to honouring its heritage brings new weight to the lessons of the past. History is vital, but it can also be playful and interesting and, yes, fun. Hotel La Compañia knows this already. I just needed a couple of nights at a museum to figure it out myself.
- Hotel La Compañia, Casco Antiguo, Panama City; Rooms from US$285 www.hlcpanama.com
- Copa Airlines offers direct flights to Panama City from several major Canadian airports, though flights from Toronto’s Pearson are not daily. copaair.com
The writer was a guest of Hotel La Compañia. The hotel did not review or approve the story before publication.