The following happened to a group of European friends when they came down to visit Panama. It’s very representative of Panama and even more so of Panama tourism with its quirky glitches and underlying beauty.

The Arrival: they arrived at Panama’s international airport but no one was there to pick them up. The agency they booked through in England had forgotten the driver so they were left no other option but to take a taxi to the hotel.

The City Hotel: They checked into a hotel in El Cangrejo where no one had their reservation (which they made on their own). When they luckily did score three rooms at the hotel, they were asked to wait, understandably, until check-in at 2PM. The rooms weren’t ready at 2 though, nor at 3. They got the last of their rooms at 7PM.

The Tour: They booked a City tour through the hotel and it was conducted by a man who spoke very little English. As a result, the man didn’t explain much on the tour, rather handed them several guide books and suggested they look around.

The Dinner: Dinner at one of Panama’s most notable restaurants was completely botched as a) the wrong food came out, b) the right food arrived extremely late, and c) the check included several things they never ordered. Nothing was offered as complimentary, nothing discounted either.

The Beach Hotel: They arrived via luxury transfer at a large beach resort hotel where only two rooms had been prepared (not three). The final meal at the hotel took roughly 2 hours to be delivered. And the rooms, all of which were several hundred unobstructed meters form the ocean, faced in the direction of the pool.

This for me is very representative of a Panama vacation and what one can expect. While they did have a number of horrible glitches in their itinerary, they came away with a wonderful view of Panama having walked the streets, met the people, and seen the landscape: it was a comedy of errors they nearly fell in love with. Not many places in the world can you visit, have your vacation botched left and right, and still come away from with respect and appeal.

This is also a good opportunity to suggest everyone use a good in-country Panama travel agency in addition to a loose itinerary and an easy frame of mind seeing as though things in Panama are bound to go wrong. The good part is that you’re in a beautiful country so through the grimace you just have to smile. This is not meant to say glitches happen all the time, but it is to say that it’s part of what makes Panama a newly evolving place: like it or not.

If you have had any experiences like these, please post them so people know what to expect about Panama as a tourism destination in its early stages.

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Filed under: Country Guide on May 27th, 2008