A Festive Week at Islas Secas, Day by Day

T he festive season comes with certain expectations. A packed diary, endless organisation and the annual debate over who is cooking what. Twenty miles off Panama’s Pacific coast, things are very different.

December brings calmer seas, glorious sunshine and 14 islands on which to celebrate entirely your own way. Perhaps a morning spent fishing, a picnic on a deserted beach or an afternoon in which absolutely nothing is accomplished.

What follows is our idea of a festive week at Islas Secas, with plenty of adventure, good food and a few surprises. Nothing is set in stone, of course.

Day 1: Arrive and leave the world behind

Your holiday begins in Panama City, where our team meets you on arrival and a private transfer carries you toward the coast and on to the islands, where the afternoon is yours to settle into your Casita and ease into island time. Swim, wander the paths, or simply sit on your terrace and watch the ocean do what it does. As the light fades across the archipelago, everyone gathers for sunset drinks, and the first dinner at Terraza is a relaxed one, eaten within sight of the water.

Day 2: Discover your rhythm

The second morning starts with yoga or breathwork looking out to sea, then breakfast and a kayak or paddleboard along the shore. By midday you are snorkeling the reefs that ring the islands, back in time for lunch. The afternoon is yours to choose: a swim at Mango Pool, a Secascent treatment, another paddle, or nothing at all. When the day cools, a sundowner cruise sets out with dolphins and seabirds for company, and after dinner the stars take over. With no city for miles, these are some of the darkest skies on Earth, and on a clear night the Milky Way stretches from one horizon to the other.

Day 3: Explore parts unknown

After breakfast, a guide leads you into the forest to meet the plants and wildlife of this living reserve, which is home to 143 species of bird. Then it is onto the boat and out to one of the Gulf’s uninhabited islands, where you can swim and snorkel or help the culinary team prepare ceviche before a long lunch in the wild. The afternoon continues on the water, exploring further or finding your own quiet corner of the archipelago, and you are back at Secas by sunset for a swim or a cocktail, and dinner as the night comes in.

Day 4: Learn and take something home with you

Today goes deeper. Test the waters with a PADI certification, kayak the coves or explore the reefs with a marine guide, then return to the island for a relaxed lunch. In the afternoon you meet our conservation team and hear about the work that protects the Gulf of Chiriquí, adding your own observations through iNaturalist, CoralWatch and other citizen science projects. Cocktails at sunset, then a dinner spent comparing the day’s discoveries.

Day 5: Choose your own adventure

A full day on the water. You set out after breakfast for remote reefs and islands, where more than 700 types of fish shimmer beneath the surface, watching for dolphins, sea turtles, mantas and tropical birds, and stop for a picnic lunch on a remote beach. There is time for one more reef, by snorkel, dive or swim, before turning for home and arriving back in time for the last of the light. The evening is for restoring: a spa treatment, a sound experience or simply an early night.

Day 6: Christmas Eve, come together

Christmas Eve begins gently, with breakfast at your Casita, and the middle of the day is yours: a kayak, a nature walk, a spa treatment or nothing more ambitious than the pool. In the afternoon the holiday traditions arrive with a Panamanian twist. Paint a festive ornament, join a Panamanian coffee tasting or learn about a local Christmas custom before getting ready for the evening. As the islands take on a festive glow, drinks are served to music and the sounds of the season, and then comes Nochebuena. In Panama, Christmas Eve is the family celebration, and ours is a long dinner beneath the stars, infused with local flavors and traditions.

Day 7: Christmas Day, the gift of time

Wake without an alarm. Christmas morning is a slow breakfast, a swim or a paddle, and time together in your Casita, where a small local gift is waiting. Head out for a beach or island excursion, or stay close to home with the pool, the ocean and the sunshine, and then settle in for the long lunch: a gourmet picnic if you are out, a leisurely Christmas lunch if you are on the island, followed by an entirely unscheduled afternoon. Swim. Read. Nap. Talk. Do nothing. Champagne arrives as the sun sets over the Pacific, and the day ends with Christmas dinner, music and a celebration that runs late into the night.

Day 8: Depart, take it with you

One last swim or a sunrise paddle, then breakfast with the ocean in front of you. There is time to pack, to say goodbye to the team and to take a final look across the archipelago before the boat and your private transfer carry you back toward Panama City for the journey home. You leave rested, connected, and with a few new skills to show for it.

Make new traditions

Lunches that drift into the afternoon. A cold glass of something after a jungle hike. Holiday meals with the Pacific as the backdrop. Alongside the days above, the festive weeks bring a few traditions of our own: a Panamanian Christmas cookie class, artisanal ornament painting, bamboo raft building, decorating the tree, a festive cooking class with local recipes, and a tradition of our own: writing your wishes for 2027, sealing them in a coconut shell and letting the ocean carry them away.

When to come

Festive dates run from December 19 to January 8, with a seven-night minimum stay. Direct flights reach Panama City from major US gateways, and from there our team handles everything: VIP arrival assistance, the private transfer to the coast and the final leg to the islands by plane or boat. Accommodations, meals, beverages and experiences are all included, so once you arrive there is nothing left to plan.