Via Argentina is the best street in Panama City
….and that is why we also have our student residence, as your accommodations option, right here, only a few steps from Spanish Panama Language School.
Expats in Panama and locals have always seen Via Argentina as the best street in Panama City for convenience and lots of other things, bar none!
Via Argentina is only 5 blocks long, but when visiting Panama, tourists and those planning to retire or do business in Panama, want to hang out here or even live here for its friendly European-like Bohemian atmosphere. Yet, Vía Argentina is modern and has all the conveniences you need for your stay in Panama. It has been newly renovated with nice colorful tiled-sidewalks, making it fashionable as well as very wheelchair friendly.
At one end of the avenue is the impeccably clean, safe and organized Metro Subway station that will take you across the city for just 35 cents, and even to the international airport PTY in Tocumen for a bit more than a dollar. From the metro station of Via Argentina you can go to Central America’s biggest mall and bus terminal and close by the local airport. For all 3 of them just remember “Albrook”; Albrook Mall, Albrook bus terminal, & Albrook Airport.
Buses and cheap taxis can be found near the entrance to the Vía Argentina Metro station. A 35 cent bus ride can also take you to an upscale mall called Multiplaza. The UBER service in Panama is economical and safe.
At the other end of Vía Argentina you will enter the University of Panama, starting with Panama’s public law school and library.
Each building along this pleasant walk on Via Argentina has cafés, restaurants, tattoo shops, grocery stores called “Chinos”, pharmacies, low-cost dental clinics, hair salons, the General Bank (Banco General), some high rise residential buildings, and karaoke bars as well as neighborhood pubs & pool and wine bars. Perfectly set, half way along Vía Argentina you will find our language school and our student residence, and a very active neighborhood park of Parque Andrés Bello and Cabeza Einstein (Albert Einstein head statue). Look up on the left side as our toucan sign is 10 meters wide. The early day and night street life is interesting and fun! It’s a very dog-friendly street and early morning joggers and aerobics in the park, basketball, soccer, volleyball, dancing, boxing, roller-blading, ice cones called “raspao”, and the best people watching in Panama.
Cabeza Einstein plaza. Photo taken from Spanish Panama Language School, Via Argentina.
Best fruit & veggies, across the road from Spanish Panama Language School, Via Argentina.
Neighborhood medical clinic, 1 block from Spanish Panama Language School, Via Argentina, recommended by the school.
Spanish Panama Language School and its student residence is only seconds or a few minutes walk away from all of the conveniences that Via Argentina and El Cangrejo have to offer.
All the teachers & staff of Spanish Panama have long considered Vía Argentina their Spanish students’ very own living language lab. Learn Spanish grammar, writing, speaking, & listening in your classes, and our teachers will encourage you to practice your speaking skills talking with friendly locals anywhere up and down the most pleasant street in Panama, day and night.
For early morning joggers, early morning and evening dog-walkers, and those looking for night-life, to business meetings and friendly chats at the local restaurants & pubs, Vía Argentina is the best place in Panama City.
Spanish Panama Language School, Via Argentina. Photo taken from Einstein Plaza, Cabeza Einstein, near Rana Dorada.
Spanish Panama Language School is perfect for observing Panamanian life. Everyone who walks along Vía Argentina sees our 10 meter wide sign on the second floor over the main intersection, just below Albert Einstein’s head statue; “Cabeza Einstein”.
You can see the best street life in Panama right from the large windows of your Spanish Panama classes and also from the school’s “Social Area” balcony terrace over-looking the heart of Vía Argentina.
Some recommended Vía Argentina businesses by Spanish students and staff of the language school are Trapiche Restaurant, the local park of Andrés Bello, Frutería Mimi (best fruit & veggies), Rana Dorada & Malgueña & Mandingos (local pubs), Café Venezuela & Manolos Café, Farmacía Arrocha & Metro Pharmacies, Clinica Einstein (medical clinic), Banco General (bank), Restaurante Del Prado (24-7), Power Club gym (yoga & dance), Atypico, Tres Cosechas & 7 Granos Cafes, & Casa de la Carne (groceries). For a pharmacy, Farma-Valu down from Del Prado is recommended for low cost medicines.
A little bit about our street, Via Argentina so you know some more about where you are :
We are across the road from Subway restaurant and just across Via Argentina from the popular Colombian night spot, Rana Dorada, and New York Bagels. All taxis in Panama City know our area more specifically as being on “Via Argentina” in front of (Albert) Einstein’s Head statue or “Cabeza Einstein” in Spanish. On Uber maps you may look up “Spanish Panama Language School”
THE BEST fruit and veggie store (and baby coconut water, called ‘agua de pipa’ in Spanish) is right across the road from Spanish Panama at Frutería Mimi. Across the road from the school and past Rana Dorada and Subway is the newly renovated larger grocery store, “Casa de la Carne”, and across the road from there is where you buy your birthday cakes. So on the intersection around Spanish Panama Language School you’ll find all the food(!) you’ll ever need while in Panama. Arrocha Pharmacy is 50 meters away, just past the medical clinic (Clinica Einstein), and pharmacies in Panama have lots of other goodies besides medicines and medical products.
THE BEST Panamanian food in the country is just past the park on Via Argentina at ‘Restaurante Trapiche’. The coffee shops & local and international restaurants on and around Via Argentina are great for WIFI & internet access also.
Down Vía Argentina is a coffee shop owned by Venezuelan Roberto Arias so is one of the most popular hangouts for Venezuelans in the country. Ask them for ‘Café Marón’, the Venezuelan style of coffee. Past Trapiche’s there is ‘Mundo del Pan’ another local coffee shop and bakery. And past that on the same side (2 blocks past the park) is “Del Prado” restaurant, open 24-7 and popular with Panamanian businessmen and secretaries, as well as real estate entrepreneurs. Btw, Rana Dorada, a local pub across from Spanish Panama has become quite popular at night with young & old folks alike.
There are numerous places easily accessible from Via Argentina
Further down to Via España there’s lots of shopping. Go to the right and walk down Via España and you will find El Rey, one of the biggest grocery store chains in the country. This one on Via Espana is open 24-7. Right beside it is Niko’s Café, also open 24-7. On the other side of El Rey, you have Gran Morrison, famous for travel books and tourist stuff, good for your last day in Panama before you travel home. There is a walking bridge going across Via Espana and joins El Rey-Gran Morrison on one side and a 2 story plaza on the other side. The cafeteria on the second floor does have a series of kiosks selling little cooked cheap meals that you can get right away for only $3 to $5. “Sancocho y arroz” (chicken soup with vegetables and rice) only costs $2 and change.
Search for places like “El Jardin Vegetariano” on the second floor in the building behind McDonald’s for a pretty big $2.50 Taiwanese meal. Across the big road from the front gate of the Panama University you’ll find a vegan restaurant called “Loving Hut” which has a delicious meal for less than $4.
The neighborhood is full of excellent restaurants with great international food and some are quite classy.
3 modern gyms found minutes’ walk from Spanish Panama!
Also, just adjacent to Via Argentina
The modern and expat popular Power Club gym, great for weight training, aerobics, and yoga, is half a block down from Banco General. The new Smart Fit is also found close to either end of Via Argentina.
Beside Power Club, there is Siete Mares, which has seafood, and across the road is an excellent Sushi bar inside the Hotel Principe. Past the same hotel you’ll find a Vietnamese restaurant, highly recommended and unknown to tourists. If you continue up the same road as the (Alberto Navarro), one long block, and take a right on our Eric del Valle for a block, you are back to our school, Spanish Panama on Eric del Valle/Via Argentina.
Other favorite restaurants are Pomodoro’s (Italian), and Fierra Argentinian steak house across from Parador Hotel. Also across from Parador and Milan Hotel, you will find another delicious Peruvian restaurant called “Macchu Pichu”. Beirut is a fantastic Lebanese place, sometimes with belly dancers on weekends, and across from the M. casino. The area of El Cangrejo and Obarrio are sprinkled with casinos, beauty salons, electronics and stores of all sorts.
Keep in mind Causeway Amador, which has spectacular views, cruise boats, ferries to islands, and restaurants, and is about $6 by Uber from Spanish Panama Language School. Ancon Hill is for birds, an impressive flag and view, and $4 by UBER from Spanish Panama. Parque Omar is great for exercise, the public library, a big family park, and an hour to walk around, and $2.50 by Uber from Spanish Panama Language School. There is also Avenida Balboa and from there you can go to fish market and Casco Viejo, and this is about $2-3 taxi from Spanish Panama. Parque Metropolitano (good early morning hike for birds and view) is another pard and about $3 by UBER from Spanish Panama Language School.
The fish market on Ave Balboa ($3 by UBER), before you come to the famous Colonial City, was built by Japan and is quite a place to see how life and commerce is at a local market -the food upstairs is great, as is the ceviche cups for $2-$3 just outside). A nice walk (early morning or evening is best, as at noon it will be hot) down the coastline (Ave Balboa) will bring you to the Colonial City, and back a few centuries to a different world.
From Spanish Panama Language School you can actually get to Albrook Mall, Central America’s largest Mall, in just 25 minutes by walking quickly and hopping on the 35 cent Subway-Metro train.
By the way, it is the law in Panama to carry identification on you. It is a good idea to keep a photocopy of your passport and immigration stamp on you at all times.