4 Best Shopping in Casco Viejo, Panama City

Many of the bags, baskets, necklaces, and other items in this colorful shop are the product of recycling, made from magazine pages, flip tops, and other trash. Others are made from natural fibers, and almost everything is the work of families in the Panamanian countryside, so they're good for the environment, and people.

The Avenida Central pedestrian mall, a short walk from Casco Viejo, is lined with shops selling cheap, imported electronics, jewelry, fabrics, and clothing. A stroll down this busy street can be quite entertaining, even if you don't buy anything. Avoid the side streets.

La Ronda is an attractive little shop in a historic building near Plaza Francia that sells a mix of handicrafts and souvenirs: molas, Carnaval masks, wood carvings, paintings, Panama hats, and assorted knickknacks.

Reprosa sells elegant jewelry based on reproductions of pre-Columbian gold pieces and Spanish coins, as well as interesting modern designs in silver and high-quality indigenous chaquira beadwork, ocobolo wood carvings, paintings, and the ubiquitous molas. They have shops on Avenida A, in the heart of the Casco Viejo, and on Avenida Samuel Lewis, in Obarrio, near the Area Bancaría, as well as factory tours available weekdays at 9:30 am and 2 pm at its Parque Industrial location in Costa del Este.