Dating from 1673—a couple of years after pirates destroyed the original city—Casco Viejo exudes a relaxed vibe yet can be sexy and thrilling. It has a Havana feel: Ramshackle 200-year-old properties with trees growing out of the rooftops sit beside restored architectural treasures. Scaffolding is everywhere, eventually thrown off to reveal a beautifully reconditioned Spanish Colonial-style apartment, a vacation retreat or a retail complex, complete with pastel colours, wrought-iron balconies that encircle entire floors and an absolute ton of windows.

And unlike the downtown concrete jungle where you could walk for blocks before finding a cold drink, Casco Viejo has an actual café society and is totally walkable: Everyone from all over town comes here to play. It truly is the perfect historical complement to what has become a very busy city.

Go luxe. While the brand-name lodging in Panama is plentiful, your best bet for real luxury is in one of Casco Viejo’s stylish smaller hotels. The American Trade Hotel & Hall, built in 1917 and restored in 2007, fits this bill. Serene and stunning, the 50-room hotel stays true to its roots, with vaulted ceilings, white walls, dark reclaimed wood, colonial-style furnishings and an original limestone staircase.

Syncopate. The American is also home to Danilo’s Jazz Club, its roster of international and local talent presided over by Grammy-winning Panamanian jazz pianist Danilo Perez.

AFFORDABLE LUXURY: CENTRAL HOTEL

Sip at sunset. An elegant scene awaits at Casa Casco, a five-storey restored colonial building complex, featuring a rooftop lounge, a nightclub, and three concept restaurants that offer eclectic African-Caribbean, Asian fusion, and Panamanian cuisines. The roof bar is perfect for sunset cocktails.

Feel the fusion. At 16-seat Donde José, chef José O. Carles infuses Panamanian traditions and cooking techniques into his tasting menu. A mirror over the prep table allows guests to watch the proceedings. It’s like dinner theatre, with each dish telling a different story of Panama.

CRUISE: THE PANAMA COASTLINES

Dress it up. Tantalo Hotel & Kitchen has a mere 10 rooms, each with its own arty design concept. But the star of the property is the rooftop, where the local in-crowd, the ex-pats and the tourists meet to prop up the long bar.

Shake it. The rooftop Lazotea restaurant and bar at Hotel Casa Panama draws the nighttime revelers, who clamour for the frothy cocktails poolside—often with a live band lending the soundtrack.

Head up hill. Tie on your walking shoes and take a morning hike up Ancon Hill, a nature reserve in the middle of Panama. The walk takes about 90 minutes round trip, delivering Instagram-worthy, 360-degree views of the city once you reach the top, including that of the canal and Casco Viejo. If you want to see any of the park’s wildlife—39 species of birds and 15 different mammals, including sloths and monkeys—go either very early in the morning or later in the day.

Call on the Causeway. Ecotourists can head to the Frank Gehry-designed Biomuseo on the Amador Causeway, which features eight galleries that focus on Panama’s unique biodiversity and geological history. After your visit, rent a tandem four-wheeled bike nearby and carry on out to the end of the Causeway for a look around the three islands, and pop into the Punta Culebra Nature Center, an arm of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, to learn more about tropical biodiversity.

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I could barely pronounce Spreewald, but I knew I was going to like it here. And this wasn’t just any canal. It was one of the 300 natural, ice age-created canals weaving through forest and farmland in this UNESCO-designated bio reserve just one hour south of Berlin.

Centred around the towns of Lübben, Lübbenau and Burg, the Spreewald is a tourist-friendly farming-community and summer-home kind of place, complete with quaint inns, lush parkland, camp grounds, ancient castles, engrossing museums—and a giant quirk: There are almost no roads. People get to and from their homes by hand-paddled, flat-bottomed, pine river boats called “punts.” The kids go to school by punt; even the postman delivers mail on a punt.

The first tourists arrived in the 1850s along with artists who came to paint the landscape, allegedly before the tourists ruined it. This created a considerable melting pot, the fancy Berliners and their bohemian friends rubbing shoulders with local farmers. Happily, this mix continues today to the benefit of all involved.

Explore. More than 300 km of waterways thread through the more than 475 square km of meadows, islands, trees and forests in the Spreewald—which translates to “Spree woods” in connection with the Spree River—with 44 locks keeping it level. Tourists take boat rides from the marina in Lübbenau through the woods or find a cycling route to the adjacent villages.

Step back in time. The Spreewald Museum highlights what life was like 100 years ago, with dioramas depicting the general store, various workshops such as the bakery and cobbler, even the pub. Tours conducted by staff in period dress are part of the weekly event schedule. Steam locomotive the Spreewaldbahn takes up an entire adjacent building, surrounded by railroad artifacts.

WHERE TO STAY: IN THE SPREEWALD

Eat a pickle. This is the land of the Spreewald gherkin, a pickle so famous it is actually trademarked. More than 500 hectares of land are dedicated to cucumbers, which favour the warm and humid climate, or so it says in the nearby pickle museum, which is more interesting than it sounds. With 150 different pickle recipes, the Spreewald clearly has this market cornered.

Try the sauce. At Quappenschanke in nearby Lehde, I fell in love with the simply named Frankfurt green sauce, a traditional cold concoction of sour cream, boiled eggs, spices and herbs, among them chives, chervil, parsley and sorrel.

Milk a plastic cow. Lehde’s noted Freilandmuseum brings together buildings from various Spreewald forest farms into one open-air walkabout space. Visitors meander through typical turn-of-the-century farmhouses and outbuildings, including workshops and barns. At least the fibreglass cow doesn’t kick.

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There are many great reasons to go to Cuba, but you have to be ready for all the crap. You need to be able to copy with a great many things, which I simply cannot. These include the black market, the two currencies (such a slap in the face!), the self-importance of the privileged, the irksomeness of the apathetic, the tourism prostitution and the desperation the citizenry. Sorry, but I could really go on.

• The island has nine UNESCO World Heritage Sites. This is more than any other Caribbean nation.

• The beaches are stunning. And the scuba diving in the south is incredible (Caribbean side). I sat on a bus one day for two hours to dive the wall in the Bay of Pigs and it was like a Dali painting. I truly can’t compare it to anything else. I even broke my own rule and went deeper than I wanted, but it was worth it.

• The art and music are both exceptional. And the colonial architecture will charm the pants off everyone, and not just in Havana.

• There is an arts enclave. Santiago de Cuba, Cuba’s second largest city founded in 1515, has been pushed and pulled by Spanish, African, French, Haitian and Antillen influences. It is a cultural hub, home to many artists, musicians and writers. The fortress of Castillo de San Pedro de la Roca, built in 1700 and restored in the 1960s, overlooks the bay just a few miles southwest of the city.

• It’s really old. Trinidad is one of the oldest European Cuban settlements, a UNESCO Heritage Site and architectural gem best known for its churches and museums. The centre of town is very well-preserved. Trinidad’s province, Sancti Spiritus, is great for nature-lovers and outdoor exploration. Nearby Topes de Collantes is a nature reserve park known for its hiking, waterfalls, spa mud baths, and postcard vistas.

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