Hotel berhampiran Bocas Dive Center, Bocas Del Toro

I believe that me staying at HOTEL BOCAS DEL TORO for the 14th time in 12 years speaks for itself. But, there is much to say about my second home away from the USA. This year I stayed 9 1/2 weeks. I have a lovely room that has a balcony over the beautiful ocean. When I arrive they always have very special things for me in my room that truly make it feel like home. The hotel provides a delicious breakfast with your reservation, with many options. You will not find better staff, Yaci, Deni, Maria, and Illiana, and the owner, Carla than at my hotel. They truly are my family. They will go the extra mile to help you in any way they can. I have been ill while staying, and they will make sure I have special medications, and make me soup, and ginger tea. Just like being at home!! The hotel is very charming with only 11 rooms, and have many options for how many guests are able to stay in a room. Without a doubt this is the finest hotel in all of Bocas, and centrally located at the heart of the village for restaurants, shops etc. As an added note, Bocas that has been written up by Conde Nast Traveler twice in 10 years, including National Geographic, which speaks volumes.

Nice hotel in the middle of dirt. The room was clean, breakfast has a nice choice and very good. Staff was a little weird but nice. English was spoken by all but the maids. The loss of a star is because they let outsiders come in to use the pool. During the day there were families and it got crowded at times. I never used the pool because of this and I booked/paid to have one. I would have given it 2 less stars for the area and I wont be back but that's not the hotels fault. Town is dirty. Streets are sand and dust, open air restaurants were filthy, and somehow I got food poisoning. We were supposed to stay 11 nights but we left in 5 and lost all that money. It was a wreck.

During my trip I tried out 3 different Bambuda hostels (in dormitories each time). I waited until I'd done all 3 before writing this review. Here is my personal experience : Out of the 3 Bambuda I think they had the most amazing staff. Everyone was kind, smiling, friendly and very helpful. For some examples, they use WhatsApp to communicate and on the way to the hotel my water cab broke down. I told them just to let them know I'd be arriving later and they offered to call for assistance. Another example, I dropped my AirPods case (i m a mess) and lost one of them. Half the staff helped me look everywhere for it. For backpackers on a budget, you need to know that there's no kitchen and as there's nothing on Solarte Island you'll be totally dependent on the hostel restaurant. There is a filtered water fountain, but I haven't tried it myself. As far as the food is concerned, everything I ate was really very good, they have a wide choice of western and more local dishes, and concerning prices nothing shocked me compared with other restaurants across the islands. Good to know too - for dinner they have a ”family dinner” concept which means you have to order your meal before 5.45pm. After this time, you won't be able to order any food whatsoever. So if you're planning to arrive at the hostel after that time, be sure to have dinner beforehand! The place and the location itself are amazing but I was a little unlucky on the room. I was in a 6-bed dorm room with a bathroom, and it wasn't very clean (not bad considering there were already 4 other people in the room) but there was a terrible smell of urine throughout the room (not even in the bathroom itself). Also be aware that it’s kind of a party place so if you are in the dorms it will get noisy (unless you are partying too 😉) As the place is more or less off the grid, there's no hot water or aircon (but you can ask for as many fans as you like!). as you can imagine, since you're on an island where there's nothing, you'll have to pay for water cabs every time you want to go somewhere and then come back, which can get expensive! My advice, choose this hostel if you want to chill and relax in a beautiful place rather than to visit, there’s a time for everything!

We are just wrapping up eight wonderful days at the lovely Palmar Resort celebrating our wedding anniversary. The grounds are lush and lovely, and very well kept. It is about a 10-15 minute walk from the Red Frog Beach shortcut boat dock to the resort. The pathway is primarily sand, which may not be the best for rolling luggage, but if you call ahead, you can have someone assist you by taking your luggage in a wheelbarrow. When you reach the resort itself, you will be greeted with a view of the absolutely magnificent, white sand beach. Check-in is a breeze; the staff at Palmar is exceedingly accommodating and friendly. We stayed in Capuchin, a second story villa. It is private and quiet. The room was well equipped for our week’s stay, with a comfortable bed and hot water with good pressure in the shower. Housekeeping services were provided daily with good quality linens and bath towels. While you can take a water taxi (US$8 one way) to Bocas town for dining, know that the resort restaurant is very good, with a varied menu accommodating carnivore, vegan, and vegetarian diets. The staff is very helpful setting up tours and excursions. We particularly liked the day trip to Isla Escudo de Veraguas, and the two hour night time bioluminescence tour. At the beach, there are plenty of lounge chairs and nightly activities. The bar area has board games. We would come back to Palmar in a heartbeat.