David, Panama

Three Spanish settlements were founded in this area in 1602; DAVID was the only one to survive repeated attacks from indigenous groups. It developed slowly as a marginal and remote outpost of the Spanish Empire, but in 1732 it was overrun and destroyed by British-backed Miskito groups raiding from Nicaragua. As settlement of Chiriquí increased in the nineteenth century, David began to thrive again, this time as a market and transportation centre. Today, despite being a busy commercial city – the third largest in Panama after Panama City and Colón – and the focus of Chiriquí's strong regional identity, it retains a sedate provincial atmosphere. Hot and dusty, its unexceptional modern architecture spreads out on a grid (the only surviving feature of the original colonial settlement). There's not a lot going on here, but plenty of travellers drop in en route from Panama City to Costa Rica, Bocas del Toro or the Chiriquí Highlands. At Carnaval, of course, things spice up considerably, and David also has a festival all its own: the Feria de San José thunders its way through ten raucous days every March.