Shabbat in Panama City: how to plan the whole weekend

What time is Shabbat in Panama City?

Every Orthodox community in Panama City lights candles 18 minutes before sunset. They differ slightly at the end of Shabbat. Shevet Ahim and Beth El publish an end time about 35 minutes after sunset (our reading of their sheets),¹ and Chabad uses the sun at 8.5° below the horizon, which can come a few minutes earlier.² For example, on 6–7 November 2026 candles were lit at 5:37 PM; Shabbat ended about 35 minutes after the 5:55 PM sunset for Shevet Ahim and Beth El, and at 6:27 PM by Chabad’s time.

Use the time published by the shul you’ll attend. Our Shabbat times for Panama City show this Shabbat and the next eight weeks with both end times, and you can pick your trip dates and download them as a calendar file.

Where should I stay for Shabbat?

Inside the eruv and close to your shul. By our map routes, the hotels in Punta Paitilla and Punta Pacífica are 4 to 10 minutes on foot from Beit Chabad or Beth El, and the hotels on Avenida Balboa (InterContinental Miramar, Le Méridien, Hilton) are 7 to 12 minutes from Shevet Ahim. Costa del Este, Casco Viejo and the beach resorts are not practical on foot. Chabad publishes its own list of nearby hotels with walking times, and ours match it within a few minutes.³

Our guide to where to stay as an observant family has the walking times for every hotel we checked, and hotels near synagogues lets you pick your hotel and see the walk to each shul, and ranks every hotel by its nearest shul.

Do I need to register to go to shul?

Yes. Panama’s Jewish institutions share one security office, the Departamento de Seguridad Institucional (DSI), and every synagogue and the Chabad house admit visitors only with its approval. As published when we checked in November 2026:⁴

• Register and pay online at least 72 hours before you arrive.⁴ One form covers parents and children who live together.⁵
• Fees: $20 for the person registering, $10 for each extra visitor aged 13 or older, and nothing for children under 13.
• You upload a passport scan for each person and a photo, and give your travel dates, where you’re staying, and your home synagogue and rabbi.
• DSI lets you in only after a security interview at a synagogue, unless it pre-approves you by email. Interviews run on weekday mornings (7:00–9:00 AM) and evenings (5:30–7:00 PM) and during Shabbat services; in January, daytime interviews are held at Ahavat Sion from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. There are none on Sundays or national holidays.
• DSI emails you a QR code. Bring it and your original passport to the interview and to shul, on Shabbat too.

Our visitor registration page explains each step and links to DSI’s official form.

Which shuls can visitors attend?

Chabad’s schedule page gives Friday Mincha at 6:00 PM and Kabbalat Shabbat at 6:45 PM, Shabbat Shacharit at 10:00 AM and Mincha at 5:45 PM.⁶ Its Shabbat page gives slightly different times for Friday and for Shabbat Mincha, so confirm the week you’re there. Beth El asks visitors to contact the office (secretaria@centrobethel.com, +507 392-0618) for Shabbat and kiddush, because its online visitor form was unavailable when we checked.¹ Shevet Ahim’s own schedule page is for members only, so its November 2026 times for the main synagogue and the Paitilla complex, which the community gave our team, are on our pages for Shevet Ahim’s main synagogue and Ahavat Sion; Mincha and Arvit move with sunset, so confirm locally or with the office (+507 225-5990).

Full details: synagogues in Panama City and our eruv, mikvah and minyan basics.

Where do visitors eat on Shabbat?

• Chabad’s communal meals. Chabad of Panama City hosts large Friday-night and Shabbat lunch meals by online reservation. Book as early as you can: Chabad takes bookings up to six months ahead and asks for at least a month’s notice in the winter and summer peaks. Booking closes on Wednesday evening, or earlier when full,⁷ and in busy weeks meals may move to a nearby hall.⁸
• Take-out in your room. Chabad sells “Shabbos in a Box” take-out meals through the Shabbat Meals To-Go link on the same page. Caterers certified by Kosher Shevet Ahim also prepare Shabbat food; see kosher caterers and delivery in Panama City.
• Beth El’s kiddush. Beth El invites visitors to Shabbat at the shul and its kiddush lunch; contact the office to arrange it.

Hotels here are not kosher, with one exception: Eshel Suites in Punta Paitilla, which Chabad lists as a kosher hotel with kosher kitchens in its suites.³ Ask your hotel what it allows in rooms (a fridge, a hot plate or an urn) before you plan to eat there.

Is there an eruv in Panama City?

Yes. The community map, titled “Eruv Panama” and published by Shevet Ahim, covers La Cresta, Bella Vista, Marbella, Paitilla and Punta Pacífica; Chabad also lists parts of Avenida Balboa and the Cinta Costera. Marbella and Bella Vista are only partly covered, so check that your hotel and your route are inside the line.⁹

The local community maintains the eruv and checks it weekly, we’re told (as reported, Nov 2026), but no supervisor is named and no status is posted publicly. So confirm the eruv status each Friday at your shul or with Chabad. More on our eruv page.

Room keys, doors and elevators

Chabad’s FAQ says the neighborhood hotels are used to Shabbat guests and staff will open doors and take guests to their rooms, but that hotels generally have electric doors and light sensors.⁸ Only Eshel Suites publishes mechanical room keys, and it has no elevator and only low floors. For other hotels, Chabad notes that rooms at the Plaza Paitilla Inn start on the 2nd floor and at the Residence Inn on the 6th.

No hotel publishes a Shabbat elevator, so ask the hotel directly. If you rent an apartment instead, Shevet Ahim publishes a list of 17 elevators it certifies for Shabbat in residential towers in Bella Vista, La Cresta, Paitilla and Punta Pacífica (plus one in Coronado), most with a passenger limit; the list dates from about January 2023, so confirm it with the building.¹⁰

Arriving on a Friday

Leave a wide margin. After landing you still have immigration, bags and a drive of about 25 minutes from Tocumen to Punta Paitilla without traffic, and much longer at rush hour.¹¹ Candle lighting in January is around 6:00 PM. Our flights guide has the nonstop routes and flight times, and our flight search lists nonstops first and can hide any itinerary that travels on Shabbat or Yom Tov.