We just posted a review of one of Panama City’s newest luxury hotels, Finisterre Suites and Spa. We’ve got plenty of details about it on our site, as well as some photos, but you can get an even better feel for it with that video above.

I liked this place a lot because even the smallest suites are double the size of a regular hotel room, the rates are good, and there is something rare about this hotel: there’s no construction site next to it. In Panama City, any semblance of peace beside the pool is a rarity.

So if you’re headed to Panama anytime soon, check out the video tour, then here’s our review of Finisterre Suites hotel in Panama.

Recession? Housing crisis? Reduced lending for development? Not in the “hub of the Americas.

Almost there – Trump Ocean Club Panama

Forget everything we’ve said in the past about there being a shortage of hotels in Panama City. It’s time for me to update the intro on our Luxury Hotels in Panama page. A few years ago the pickings were slim, but now the building boom has caught up to demand and the scene is looking very different.

It  really kicked in when Le Meridien Panama opened in 2010, with Finisterre Suites following. (We’ll have a review of the latter going up in the coming weeks.)

This July the long-anticipated Trump Ocean Club will open, part of it residences, part of it a very splashy hotel. I got to take a tour of it a few days ago after interviewing Donald Trump Jr. as pictured here. Hint, he’s the one with more hair and perfect teeth.

As expected, the project is big, bold and brash, the building itself standing out in a city full of jostling skyscrapers. It’s so big it’s hard to squeeze it into a photo. I did my best—see it at the top. There won’t be anything else like it around for a very long time, if ever. Not too many developers can put together $450 million, give or take a few mil, to launch a project on this scale.

That’s not the end of the story though. I saw the construction site for the upcoming Waldorf-Astoria Panamerica. It’s nowhere near the finishing stage, but the building is progressing daily and it’s in a prime spot near Le Meridien, the Bristol, Finisterre, and Intercontinental Miramar. The last one on that list is just starting a major renovation from top to bottom, totally removing everything from the guest rooms and revamping. The Bristol’s residences building is almost done, which will not only add more suites from the rental pool, but that hotel will finally get what it has most been lacking: a pool.

Just one problem: no matter what hotel you pick in this booming city, it should come with a warning label: please be aware that you will experience noise.

Almost from our launch time we’ve bemoaned the lack of luxury hotels in Panama City. For such an international center of commerce and banking, it’s baffling that there are so few great hotels in the city itself. There are reasons for this—the bubble in residential and commercial real estate over the past few years being a big part of it—but we’re happy to have something now to add to our reviews there: Le Meridien Panama.

Sure, this is an international chain hotel, but Le Méridien has lots of fans around the world and their designs are often more bold and beautiful than the Marriotts and Hiltons favored by buttoned-up business travelers. The chain’s first entry into Central America is no exception.

“Panama City’s newest hotel is alight in Art Deco neon and covered in cougar prints. Its billowing curtains and outsized décor borrow heavily from Miami Beach classics like the Delano Hotel.

A further wander through the lobby reveals a five-story atrium with rectangles of green, orange, and yellow glass. The mood-lit elevators sometimes purr with rainforest sounds.”

This probably won’t be taking the crown away from the refined Bristol Hotel as the favored spot for celebrities and tycoons, but this is a welcome new addition to a skyline that could use quite a few more places to stay. See our full review of Le Méridien Panama.