Fort Portobelo or Fort San Lorenzo?

If I had to pick between them, I would choose Fort San Lorenzo over Fort Portobelo for the following reasons:

• It takes twice as long (approximately 1 hour and 15/30 minutes) to reach Fort Portobelo as it does Fort San Lorenzo, which means you will spend an additional 90 minutes on the bus. That is a considerable amount of time! To make matters worse, the first half of the bus ride leads you through Colon and along the main road connecting Colon with Panama City, where there is nothing to see. It's only midway into your trip that you leave the city behind when the road begins to hug the Caribbean coastline. Admittedly, from that point onwards, the landscape is beautiful. The crystal clear, tropical water of the Caribbean Sea is off to your left, and on the right, there are lush green mountains.
• Apart from the ruins, the community of Portobelo has very little to offer. The town needs to be better cared for and is severely lacking. Even more so with the Customs House closed. Aside from the ruins, there is little else worth recommending.
• The sheer number of cannons might be the only occurrence where Portobelo outshines San Lorenzo.

Fort San Lorenzo Ruins – one of the many cannons on the upper level at Fort San Lorenzo, along the northern fortification wall.