Isla Contadora

Isla Contadora is reachable by a fifteen-minute flight from Panama City’s domestic terminal, which is part of its appeal and part of what has kept it from feeling entirely undiscovered — this is where the capital’s residents go for a genuine weekend escape rather than a full expedition. The island itself, largest of the roughly two hundred Pearl Islands scattered across the Gulf of Panama, is small enough to walk end to end in under an hour, ringed by a series of distinct beaches, each with its own personality and, depending on the tide, its own private feel.

The island’s history carries more intrigue than its current sleepy pace would suggest. The exiled Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, spent time in hiding here in 1980 after fleeing Iran, protected by an old friendship with Panama’s leader at the time, and locals still point out the villa where he reportedly stayed. Long before that, Contadora’s name — “counting house” — comes from its role as a stop where Spanish ships would tally the pearls harvested from the surrounding waters, a trade so thorough it eventually depleted the local pearl oyster population almost entirely.

We rented a golf cart, the island’s dominant mode of transport since cars barely fit its narrow roads, and spent an afternoon beach-hopping between Playa Larga and Playa Cacique, the latter a known nesting site for sea turtles between certain months. The water off Contadora’s southern beaches turns a genuinely startling shade of blue by midday, clear enough that snorkeling straight off the sand produced sightings of rays and reef fish without any boat required at all.

When to go: December through April for the driest, sunniest beach days. If sea turtle nesting interests you, ask locally about current seasonal activity at Playa Cacique, as timing shifts year to year.