Bambuda Bocas Town

The location was excellent, right by the calm water where you can swim and spot numerous starfish. They offered different activities every night to keep you entertained, creating a great overall vibe.

My first time in a Bambuda and did not disappoint. What other hostels used to be but no linger are. Excellent service, delicious food, quite easy to meet new people, various events, can take paddleboard out, central location from which to walk or take boats to other islands. Excellent vibe with very servicial personnel (Yuri always smiling), Ziarey greeting me warmly as I arrived, Luz/Zuly, Angie often my server also very kind, so many names I wish to mention). Appreciated all the attention that made my stay so special

I would say if you are looking for an 'Instagram hotel' - this is the perfect place for you. However, in terms of service and the experience itself, we thought there was room for improvement. The front desk seemed too busy to look up from their laptop or say hello and make us feel welcome. We felt like we were bothering them if we asked a question or brought issues to their attention. Upon early arrival, we were told our room wasn't ready and we would need to return in hour. We went to their bar had a similar experience. We were the only ones sitting there and had to work to get someone attention. We bought some drinks and returned to the front desk after closing our tab. We were then given 2 welcome drink coupons, which we never used. It would have been much nicer to have been given these when we first arrived. They told us our room was up the stairs and the code and that was it. Some basic information about the hotel, Bocas town, their restaurant, check out time, and even where our room was would have been helpful. We did reserve a suite and lugged our suitcases up and down the stairs trying to find which floor it was on. (could someone have taken 2 minutes to walk us there?) Later that evening my husband was in the middle of showering when the water stopped working in the whole hotel. It did not go back on to a few hours later. Not their fault, but it would have been nice if they send us a What's App message to let us know it was fixed. Then he tried to sit in the hammock on the deck and the whole thing was dry rotted and snapped. Luckily we are young enough that he slammed onto his back and was still ok. Again looks pretty, but not sure if the function or safety is there. Glad I splurged and went for the Oceanview King Suite. The AC worked well, the Nespresso machine in the room was a plus and we slept fine despite being in the party town on Filthy Friday. We do appreciate the discount they gave us for the water not working without us asking. Perhaps our expectations were just unreasonably high for this hostel style hotel. However, the price point, photos, and recommendation from the hotel we stayed in previously on Isla Solarte made us expect a different experience, if even for a single night.

The best hostel I stayed at in Panama. Super modern and clean with excellent air con in the rooms and a lovely waterfront patio and bar area. The food I ordered wasn't very good (still frozen) and food and drinks highly expensive like everywhere in the area. Bocas itself is a dump and I thoroughly regret going. The only good thing I have to say about Bocas is the boat trips you can take to places that are beautiful and there is a pizza restaurant on the main drag that does the best pizza and also best chocolate cake I ever ate. Careful buying food in shops though, they don't gave air con, power often goes down for hours and there is an aroma of rotten food in shops and aroma of sewage throughout Bocas. Sewage goes in the seawater often directly so don't swim around Bocas.

Super clean hotel, nice view and the price ratio is great! There are also further activities to do (yoga etc.). Meals are also good and there are vegetarian options, if this is relevant. The stuff speaks english and if there are problems with the room they are extremely fast in helping out.