Palmar Beach Lodge

I booked Palmar Beach Lodge as a splurge for myself during a recent first time trip to Panama. It was by far the most expensive lodging (at least double to even four times the amount of other lodging I booked) of my entire trip and I was very excited to head there for some relaxation. I did my research and understood I’d have to walk in a ways from the water taxi drop off point. I figured this meant it would be even more peaceful and relaxing, which was right up my alley. After coming from Boquete on a shuttle, I paid for a water taxi to Palmar Beach Lodge. This cost a bit more than I was anticipating, as there was no one else headed to the location. I was still feeling excited. After the drop off at the dock on Isla Bastimentos, I began heading inland on the trail. At one point, the trail turned but was not well marked, so I had to backtrack and find where I was supposed to go. I was insanely hot carrying my heavy backpack and another smaller backpack, and more than ready to relax and cool off. As I walked along the path, I walked past an area of construction, where several tall building were in the process of being built. I thought to myself, well, that would suck to pay for a quiet vacation and end up next to that! I finally made it to the reception area and was greeted by lovely employees who then showed me to my room. I booked a room with A/C, as a I prefer to sleep in the coolness and dislike constantly sweating lol. It was very much a big splurge for me, as it cost so much more than anything else I booked on this trip. Imagine my shock and dismay when the employee led me down the sandy path to my room. It was literally right next to all the construction going on. I’m sweating buckets and now listening to all sorts of hammering and saws and whatnot. The room itself was nice. It seemed clean and organized, although the “spacious closet” that was advertised was not even a real closet, just a small section with a rod and a few shelves. Regardless, it had A/C and I attempted to cool off, both literally and figuratively. The lock on my only door, a patio door, was bizarre and took some finagling in order to get it to lock and unlock, which you had to do with a key from both sides. This made me feel slightly unsafe as a solo female traveler. It seemed like it wouldn’t take much to break the lock and enter the room. The construction noise continued, and I decided that the amount I paid for this room was not worth this complete lack of peace and quiet. I went back to reception and asked for a refund due to the construction. I was handed off to a male employee who was pleasant but told me they would not do a refund and the best he could offer me was possibly a free meal. This never happened. I headed down to the beach to try to cool off in the water. The ocean at Red Frog Beach, which I was not aware of, was incredibly powerful, with red flags indicating it wasn’t safe for swimming. I’m not a strong swimmer and simply wanted to be able to

The Palmar Beach Lodge is something very special. Wonderfully situated between the jungle and the beach. Wonderfully uncomplicated and with nice, friendly staff. Starting with the maintenance staff, who transport suitcases on request, and Alejandra at reception, who always has a smile for guests and takes care of all their needs. All the restaurant and bar staff contribute to the good mood and in particular Lucas, Jimmy and Eduardo, who were always friendly, helpful and willing to go the extra mile. The bungalow was very good, the AC was working and it was well equipped. The food was good and the beach was just great! Highly recommended.

We travelled for 3 weeks through Costa Rica and Panamá and Palmar was by far the best location we've ever been to. We stayed for 6 nights in a bungalow at Palmar and had an incredibly good time there. Our bungalow was very clean, comfortable and had a good and quiet AC. The bungalow was perfectly located between jungle and beach, thats why we were able to enjoy the nature and various animals around us. The beach was only 1 minute away and absolutely fantastic! We also booked a tour to Zapatilla Island at the reception and had a great day by seeing dolphins, snorkeling and relaxing at another beautiful beach. The restaurant at Palmar is probably one of the best in the neighborhood. Food and drinks were very delicious and beautifully arranged every time. They were offering enough different dishes from which we tried something new every day. Furthermore there was a happy hour slot between 5 to 7pm where you got 2 drinks for 1. All employees at Palmar were very friendly and nice and gave us a good feeling staying here, especially Lucas, Jimmy & Eduard at the restaurant/bar. Furthermore they had daily changing activities, like bonfire, cocktail classes (with Jimmy), live music, movie nights with popcorn at the beach and sport activities. Fiona, the girl that organized all of them, was super nice and motivated us ever day to join. Actually we don't join hotel activities, but in this case we joined almost all of them and had a really good time here. I definitely recommend staying at Palmar. It's the perfect location to relax, have delicious food & drinks and meet new people!

Probably the best hotel I have ever been to with my wife. The location itself is fantastic and the hotel is amazing too. We stayed in a bungalow which had great amenities and a comfortable bed and good AC which is always most important to us. The bar/restaurant was great too. They had delicious food and drinks and the staff did an amazing job. We got to know some of them. Jimmy at the bar and Lucas and Eduard in service were doing great work and made this trip worth 5 stars. To top it of there were daily activities planned by Fiona. We got to mix cocktails, prepare S'mores at a bonfire and watch movies at night. It was nice to connect to people that way when you are in the mood to do so. Other nights we spend having a drink from the bar and watching the stunning night sky with all the stars. We can only recommend this hotel and hope to be back in the near future.

I was there in the afternoon for drinks and dinner. When we sat near the beach, they served us the drinks in plastic cups, it was selfservice there, while a couple next to us (the same spot, same tables) was served and has become their drinks in glasses. Afterwards we had dinner there, it was really good. We then ordered a watertaxi, paid for it and became those vouchers. The guy at the reception said to us, that the taxi will be at the dock in 15 minutes, we were at the dock 8 minutes later, no watertaxi came. It was dark, we were in the jungle, waiting in the pouring rain, no taxi came for over 1.5 hours, when finally one brought some guests, he didn't acceptet those vouchers so we had to pay him again, we've never used the voucher since we didn't wanted to go back there because of this experience. It was a poor experience, I think they shouldn't work with those vouchers, they should make sure that a watertaxi is coming....It's not a nice thing to stand there, alone, in the night, in the jungle, in the pouring rain and no one is coming.......and keep in mind the money we lost....

Overall, we had an amazing stay at Palmar! It is a gorgeous lodge, everything is so convenient - room, restaurant, concierge, beach. All the staff was friendly, helpful, and accommodating. I took yoga one day and loved it! We had massages one day and it was so relaxing! We would definitely recommend setting up the wheelbarrow person to come help you from the water taxi to the lodge, unless you can carry your travel backpack 10-15min in the heat ok. You can roll your suitcase only so much - rocky and small steps at some parts. Our reason for 4 stars is that the first 2 days there were a few issues with getting our food. it was the tail end of a busy week which is my guess as to why there were issues. It took very long to get our meals, and they were out of many of the items on the menu. Also one night we ordered room service through the website and found out after it hadn't come yet for an hour and we checked with the front desk that they never got the order. Later found out that there are glitches on the site so its not working yet. After those two days we had no issues with getting food (although never tried room service again).

It is with great disappointment that I am writing a review for the Palmar Beach Lodge. I don't usually leave reviews, but I am very surprised by the lack of customer service and empathy by this company. If you are booking here, please make sure that you take note of the 'Advanced Purchase' terms. I had booked Sunday evening and immediately realized I had made the incorrect purchase. Turns out I am not able to travel. I reached out to them on various support channels and did not receive any communications back to Tuesday morning. At 8am, my card was charged and within the hour I received an email back that there are no exceptions and they cannot offer any solutions or a refund. While I did go through the booking process, and understand that it is my responsible, I spent a day writing back and forth with a rep and their Sales director who repeatedly told me the same line over and over that they could not doing anything per their terms. Having worked in Customer Service I know that there are policies that must be followed to ensure consistency and that they don't lose profit, but really? I emailed them early the next morning explaining my situation. Personally, I wouldn't want to work with any company that has zero empathy and does not even try to remedy the situation in the slightest. I should have known better by the previous replies. This company only cares about your money and that's all. Hope you can learn from my mistake.