Chame is a small Panamanian town on the Pan-American Highway, 20 minutes from the beach at Coronado and 75 minutes from Panama City.
Chame is a small Panamanian town on the Pan-American Highway, 20 minutes from the beach at Coronado and 75 minutes from Panama City. It offers authentic small-town living at dramatically lower prices than the gated beach communities. The trade-off is limited services, a smaller expat community, and the need for functional Spanish. For retirees who want to actually live in Panama rather than in an American enclave that happens to be in Panama, Chame is worth considering.
Small town on the Pan-American Highway between Panama City and the beach communities. A transit point that some expats have discovered for its lower prices and proximity to both the city and the coast. More authentic small-town Panama than the gated beach communities.
Art rents a house in Chame for $550 a month. It has a yard with a hammock, a mango tree, and a neighbor's chicken that ignores the property line. The house is older, the kitchen was clearly designed by someone who has never cooked, and the hot water is a showerhead heater that sparks occasionally. He loves it.
He chose Chame specifically because it isn't Coronado. He spent a week at a Coronado rental and felt like he was in a Florida subdivision that happened to have palm trees. Everyone spoke English. The restaurants had menus in English. He could have been in Fort Myers.
In Chame, his Spanish matters. He's at an intermediate level - enough to buy groceries, have a short conversation, and misunderstand jokes in a way that makes people laugh with him rather than at him. His neighbor Maria has become his unofficial tutor. She corrects his verbs over the fence while hanging laundry.
Morning: coffee, the porch, the newspaper on his phone. The town wakes up slowly. Someone drives by selling bread from a truck with a loudspeaker. The school across the street starts generating noise by 7. A man leads a horse down the road.
The Coronado beach is 20 minutes away. He goes twice a week. The supermarket on the highway is 15 minutes. For medical care he drives to the clinic in Coronado or, for anything serious, to Panama City.
His social circle is small and mixed. Two other expats in town - a German couple who run a bed and breakfast. A Panamanian family next door who invite him for Sunday lunch regularly. The church community, where he understands about 60% of the sermon and nods through the rest.
His kids think he's crazy. His daughter sent him a care package with mosquito repellent and a GPS tracker. He uses the repellent.
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| Unit type | Monthly rent (USD) |
|---|---|
| Studio | $300 – $450 |
| 1 Bedroom | $400 – $600 |
| 2 Bedrooms | $550 – $850 |
| 3 Bedrooms | $700 – $1,100 |
Rent data updated April 2026.
Walk times on this page are estimated from Chame Town Center. Times will vary a few minutes depending on your exact address.