Hotel El Panama

Please. Please. Please don't stay here! The website makes this place look like paradise, equipped with luxurious suites and five star accomodation. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

We stayed here for two nights in one of the "modern" City View Suites. What a tremendous waste of money. The room was large, but ill equipped and dirty. Much like the rest of the hotel, the room had not been updated since 1970, which would have been kind of charming had it been clean. Additionally, the service we received was miserable. None of the three telephones in our room worked, so we had to stop by reception every time we had a request -- like begging to have our room cleaned.

While the pool that the hotel has is nice, it simply does not make up for the low quality of the rest of the this hotel. Don't stay here.

Unique Quality: Elevators that didn't work
Staff that were totally unhelpful
A disgusting breakfast bar

Directions: Located in the what appears to be the red light district of Panama City.

I haven't stayed here, but the people I know who have, said it is very nice. The rooms are large and suite-like. They are very well cared-for.
Room rates range from $150-500 per night, all include buffet breakfast.
Cabana rooms on the pool level are $160.
They also have meeting rooms of all sizes up to a football field-sized banquet hall.

Unique Quality: Hotel is near bancaria district and cangrejo. Several casinos close by, one adjactent to the property. There are two fine restaurants on site, Flamingo's, which has an outstanding lunch buffet, and Las Palmas Bar-B-Q. Check for other offers at the restaurants, they have specials continuously.
The pool is large and nicely located near the restaurants, the pool bar is open evenings from 5-8 and weekends from about noon.
This is a fine hotel for sophisticated travelers and has all the amenities one could expect from a first-class hotel.

Directions: Via Espana y Via Venetto, adjacent to Bancaria district and Cangrejo district.

Hotel Panama has a great location and the hotel is very nice. The food is great and the rooms are quite clean. The hotel definitely has a Panamanian feel to it .. Very outdoorsy . And you can choose from having a room in the highrise part of it or the cabanas right by the pool. The pool has a bar that you can swim right up to and sit in the pool and have a cuba libre ... cerveza or whatever you want!! The casino is quite nice too which is part of the hotel or you can choose to cross the street and go to the Crown Casino which has a little more action and a better bar area...

Unique Quality: Free breakfast.... and food 24 hrs .... great location.... nice pool bar.... I'd come back here in a heartbeat!!

Hotel El Panama is located in what seemed to be a safe part of the city. There's a decent Chinese restaurant across the street, lots of other great restaurants nearby, and it's not too far to walk to many of the city's spots of interest.

The hotel has two parts: the main hotel plus some rooms out back. The "out back" rooms (I can't find any information about this on their website, and not sure what they called them when we booked) were much cheaper than, and not nearly as nice as the main hotel’s rooms. The benefit of having a ground floor balcony looking out on the pretty pool area (plus the much lower cost), however, was worth experiencing the lower quality of rooms.

Morning breakfasts were served in an outdoor setting, looking over the pool - very nice. The hotel restaurants were pretty good, but way too expensive for the quality, and the staff was a bit standoffish.

Overall a pretty decent hotel and worth the price we paid (got a good discount). At its advertised rates, however ($140USD for a standard room), I think this hotel would be overpriced.

Unique Quality: - Nice pool with a swim up bar
- Decent restaurants
- Cigar shop just around the corner
- Good location