Choosing the perfect Bocas del Toro hotel during your visit to Panama is not an easy task. Many tourists to Bocas del Toro are confronted by the complex task of understanding the Caribbean Island geography. The average tourist first needs to understand that the location of Bocas del Toro can mean three things: 1) Bocas del Toro is a province and includes a large portion of the mainland. This is important because people will read about a mudslide in “Bocas del Toro” that happened in the mountains on the Panama mainland 100s of miles away. 2) Bocas del Toro the island area made up of over 60 islands and the Bocas del Toro hotels are spread throughout these islands with the greatest concentration of standard hotels located in Bocas town located on Isla Colon. 3) Isla Colon in Bocas del Toro is not the same as the city of Colon located at the Atlantic end of the Canal; the town of Colon is not a safe city and tourist get confused and think that Isla Colon is a crime ridden city (it’s not).
The next thing to understand when choosing a Bocas del Toro Hotel is that Bocas town does not have a beach nearby. The entire waterfront in Bocas town has been developed with hotels and restaurants. There is a main street just behind the waterfront buildings with more hotels, restaurants and a few grocery stores along that road. These Bocas del Toro Hotels range in price from around $40 to $180/night. The nicest hotels are probably Tropical Suites and El Limbo. There are also several Bocas del Toro hotels in town as Bocas has a reputation for being a party place with bars such as the “wreck deck” which includes a floating bar over an underwater-lit submerged ship (note that in Bocas there are no railings on the floating docks…watch your step).
There are other Bocas del Toro Hotels on Isla Colon 10 – 40 minutes away from town. The most famous is Punta Carocol which is the Tahitian looking aqua lodge accommodations that are frequently shown in Panama’s tourism media. There is no beach here and it is a little pricey because of the over the water experience. There is a newer resort 15 minutes from Bocas town called Playa Tortuga. It is advertised as 5-star and not sure how they get away with that? It has a very small beach and a beautiful pool area.
Most of the other Bocas del Toro Hotels off of Isla Colon are what Trip Advisor calls specialty lodging or B&B type places that can accommodate 4—15 people typically. You will need to get a water taxi to get to these other locations and it is typically very easy to do and price depends on how far the hotel is located from Bocas town. Popa Paradise Resort (on Isla Popa) is a 30 minute boat ride away from Bocas town and this hotel is new and has received some good reviews and has a lovely pool area and some beach.
Isla Bastimentos is about 10 minutes from Bocas town and this island is known for the beaches and the national marine park that encompasses about half of the island. Most of the Bocas del Toro hotels on this island are on the backside (mangrove side) of the island so there is not a tremendous amount of beach on this side of the island. Al Natural and Tranquilo Bay are both great Bocas del Toro Hotels on this island. There is a new resort called Red Frog Beach and Bocas Bound that is on the north beach side of Bastimentos that has good access to those beaches (called Red Frog Beach and Turtle Beach).
One can look on trip advisor and see that there are probably 30+ Bocas del Toro hotels to choose from. Every traveler is different and there are a lot of good choices of where to stay during your trip to Panama. Many tourists start with deciding what they want to do during their stay in Bocas del Toro (zip line, cave tour, dolphin tour, yoga, surfing, bird watching, etc…..); once they determine the activities, choosing a Bocas del Toro hotel becomes easier.
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