Hotel Bahia, on the main drag in Bocas is a fan favorite. It’s very quaint and has the feel of a old cottage. The staff is charming and the clientele ranges from backpacker to honeymooning couple. As with Bocas, and even Panama as a whole, the hotel is a hodgepodge as the converted headquarters of The United Fruit Company. The hotel slowly transformed from a deserted government address to a fully-functioning tourism hotspot over the course of the past 30 years and today, Hotel Bahia’s staff is deservedly proud to tell you how it all went down. Phone: 757.9626 Email: info@hotelbahia.biz Website: www.bocas.com/bahia.htm

At Tranquilo Bay, the owners are sincere, the tours are outstanding, and the overall feeling is that you are a guest in their home, not a customer in their hotel.
About 45 minutes off the main island of Colon (Bocas) sits a tree house for adults. Tranquilo Bay, is a hotel that sits on about 100 acres of ocean-nudging rainforest on one of the Bocas del Toro archipelago’s ten (or so) large islands. It defies the “tree house” stereotype and totally shatters any preconceived notions that a vacationer might have about staying in a jungle. It’s this perfect blend of rugged tropics and modern luxury—where you can sip a margarita on the porch while listening to the ribbeting dart frogs and watch acrobatic dolphins in the sea. Where you can watch monkeys swing over head, snorkel off the coast of an Indian village, catch a 700 lb fish, and still get back in time for a BBQ dinner. Email: info@tranquilobay.com Website: www.tranquilobay.com

Filed under: Panama on June 5th, 2008