Panama · Provincia de Chiriquí
Where to Stay in David, Provincia de Chiriquí
David is the capital of Chiriquí Province in western Panama, founded in 1602 and the largest Panamanian city outside the capital's metro area.
Find your area →
Where to stay in David
Not every neighbourhood fits every trip — here's what each one is good for.
David is a working capital, not a resort. Rooms here serve the province rather than the coast, and most of them stand in the central corregimiento, close to the offices and shops that make David the administrative centre of Chiriquí Province. The Pan-American Highway is the other axis.
Anything along it trades the walk into town for an easy start the next morning, which suits you if David is a stop on a longer drive across western Panama rather than the destination itself. Beds are not hard to find. David is the largest Panamanian city outside the Panama City metropolitan area, so the range of accommodation is wider than the size of the place suggests, and much of the demand comes from provincial business rather than from tourism.
The city covers 176 square kilometres. That is a lot of ground for a place this size, so distances inside David are longer than a first look at the map implies, and a car earns its keep almost anywhere but the centre. Spanish is the working language throughout.
Anyone crossing Chiriquí Province tends to sleep in David first, since the city sits where the provincial roads gather.
About David
A biblical king gave it the name.
What is David known for?
David is named for King David of the Bible, and it holds the distinction of being the largest city in Panama outside the Panama City metropolitan area, which makes it the country's second centre of gravity. The Pan-American Highway runs to it. Chiriquí's administration and its prosperity both centre on David, a comparatively affluent city with an established middle class.
What are the main landmarks in David?
Monuments do not define David. The city's marks are civic rather than architectural: a provincial capital founded in 1602, laid out across 176 square kilometres, and known through the region for the administration and commerce it carries rather than for a single building. The Pan-American Highway is the fixture people navigate by.
Its route into David is the approach most travellers describe, and the name itself, taken from King David of the Bible, is the oldest thing the city carries.
What is the history of David?
The founding year is 1602. David was established in the early seventeenth century and was known as David City through the colonial period, a name that already marked it out as a place with civic standing rather than a mere settlement. The name came from scripture.
King David of the Bible supplied it, and the city has carried that name unchanged ever since. Chiriquí grew around it. David became the capital of Chiriquí Province, and its status as a corregimiento fixes it in the Panamanian administrative order as a unit of government as well as a city.
Distance from the capital shaped the rest. Because David lies out in western Panama, well away from the Panama City metropolitan area, it developed as the largest Panamanian city outside that orbit, with an economy settled enough that the place is described as comparatively affluent, with an established middle class and low unemployment. The Pan-American Highway confirmed the position.
Running through the province, it made David the natural stop on the overland route, and the city's modern role as the commercial hub of Chiriquí follows directly from that.
Where is David?
David sits in western Panama. Chiriquí Province surrounds it, reaching toward the Pacific side of the country, and the city itself spreads across roughly 176 square kilometres. The Pan-American Highway crosses the same ground.
David lies well clear of the Panama City metropolitan area, which is what makes it the largest Panamanian city standing outside that agglomeration, and the tropical band it sits in runs north of the equator.
What is the climate of David?
The Pacific side sets the pattern. David lies in the tropical band north of the equator, on the Pacific side of Panama, where the air stays heavy through the year and the calendar splits into wet and dry rather than into warm and cold. Nothing about the year is cool.
Chiriquí Province carries the same conditions across its width, and David sits squarely in the middle of them.
How do you get to David?
The Pan-American Highway is the way in. It is the popular route to David, running through western Panama and delivering nearly every overland arrival to the provincial capital. Panama City lies far off.
David is the largest Panamanian city outside that metropolitan area, which means the journey here is a real crossing of the country rather than a short hop out of the capital, and Chiriquí Province begins well before the city does.
Updated August 2026