David

Introduction

Cervantes Square David Panama.

© adosuarez

David is located in the province of Chiriquí and is one of the three largest cities in Panama. It is a fast growing city, located near the north-western border of Costa Rica and is quite close to beaches, Boquete, mountains, coffee farms and rain forest. In the last few years tourism has grown tremendously, mostly contributed by the arrival of travellers at the border of Paso Canoas.

Neighbourhoods

• Central
• Airport
• San Mateo
• Doleguita
• Barrio Bolivar

Sights and Activities

• Central Park
• Rivers

Events and Festivals

• David International Fair - Feria Internacional de David in March

Weather

David has a tropical climate with the temperature varying between 27 °C and 33 °C. Temperatures at night usually don't drop below 20 °C. Typical to tropical climates, David has two seasons, a dry one and a wet one. The dry and hot season, considered summertime, lasts from January to March and the wet season is from April through December. During the wet season there is not necessarily non-stop rain for days on end, but it usually rains at least once a day, typically in the form of heavy shower during the end of the afternoon.

Getting There

By Plane

Air Panama and Copa Airlines fly to nearby David from Panama City.
Air Panama flies to Panama City Marcos A. Gelabert Airport at Albrook and San Jose, Costa Rica. Copa Airlines flies to Tocumen International Airport domestic terminal.

By Car

On the Panamerican Highway two hours or a little more between Santiago de Veraguas and David, and five hours or a little more between Panama City and David.

By Bus

Buses connect David with San José daily, taking about 9 hours. Boquete is less than an hour from David with regular connections throughout the day. Buses to and from Panama City leave on a regular basis as well and take about 7 hours.

From Panama City National Bus Terminal in Panama City, you will find two companies: Terminales David Panama (TDP) and Panachif (Panama-Chiriqui-Frontera). The tickets costs US$15.25 in the day and the Express Buses cost US$ 18.50. Express buses leave at 10:00pm, 11:00pm and midnight.

In David Terminal Buses, you can take the buses of TDP and Panachif in direction to Panama City with the same costs of the tickets in regular and express buses. In this place, you also can take buses to Boquete, Volcan, La Concepción, Paso Canoas, Tolé, Changuinola (province of Bocas del Toro), Santiago (province of Veraguas) and more locations in the west of Panama.

Getting Around

By Public Transport

Most, if not all buses travel to terminal in David. Just stand on the side of the road and wave down a bus when you see it. They'll have written on the window where they go to and where they come from.

Eat

The most popular place is Chobeca's Burgers which is a Panamanian version of McDonald's. It's cheap, and has nothing to do with burgers. They sell fried Panamanian-type food, try it at least once.

David has different franchises restaurants as McDonald's, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Pio Pio (Panamanian), Domino's Pizza and more. In the streets and small villages you find many small restaurants and the popular locations known as "fondas".

Next to the Hotel Gran Nacional (and the Fiesta Casino) is a restaurant called McPato. Now that is David's real version of McDonald's from way, way back. The story behind that is that they wanted to bring a McDonald's franchise, but the owner found it to expensive to buy a franchise restaurant, and decided to open his own. The Mc in the name is obvious, and Pato in Spanish means Duck, and Donald is a duck, so the owner figured Mc (obvious) Pato (Donald).

Restaurante Chiriqui is a Chinese restaurant located within the city. There's really a lot of space here sit down.

Fast food restaurants as McDonald's, Domino's Pizza, KFC, Pizza Hut, Pio Pio (Panamanian) and others are available in different areas of David.

Drink

Carta Vieja, Panama's Rum. No matter where you go in this town to enjoy it's nightlife, you'll see Carta Vieja bottles around you. The clubs offer bottle service, which really, everyone gets. $20 will get you a bottle of Carta Vieja, bottle of coke, and ice, split that up between however many people you go with, and done. If you are the type of person who just likes to have a beer and relax with some friends, El Hangar (The Hangar) is the place to go. It's a drive-thru bar basically. You go, buy your drinks, park your car, and either pump YOUR music, or listen to the music other people are pumpin from their car. It's a nightclub where the patrons are the DJ's basically.

Sleep

There are many lodging options in the city including many fine and reasonably priced hotels. Many of the hotels are owned by families' of Spanish origin, so they have names like Hotel Toledo, Hotel Madrid, Hotel Alcala, Hotel Iberia, Hotel Galicia, etc.

• Gran Hotel Nacional
• Hotel Ciudad de David
• Hotel City Plaza David

Keep Connected

Internet

Internet cafes can be found in cities and most major towns. Wifi is on the rise though with many hotels, restaurants and bars offering this services, especially in the major tourist areas like Panama City, Bocas del Toro and Boquete. Some mountainous or off the beaten track areas might not have any internet services at all.

Phone

See also International Telephone Calls

Panama's country code is 507. All cellular numbers start with the number 6 and have 8 digits. Land line phone numbers have 7 digits. 911 is the general emergency phone number.

Calls to the USA and Europe are between 4 and 10 cents a minute. The best way to make international calls from Panama is to buy prepaid telephone cards that are sold at every corner. The most popular is the TeleChip card. If you bring your cellphone, you can choose to buy a local simcard, instead of paying high charges for internet use through your home provider.

Post

Correos y Telegrafos is the national postal company of Panama. It provides a wide range of services though you usually have to use the post offices for both sending and receiving mail and packages, including buying stamps. Post offices can be found in many cities and towns and are open from 6:30am to 5:45pm Monday to Friday and 7:00am to 5:00pm on Saturday. Domestic mail takes several days but to the USA and Europe for example it can take anywhere from 5 to over 10 days depending on the country. For sending larger packages, you might also consider using companies like FedEx, TNT, UPS or DHL, as they offer fast, reliable and competitively priced services as well.

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