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Hotel in Panama pre-cruise?


TrinaLC
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I did a search but couldn’t find any hotel recommendations. 
 

we plan to stay one or two nights in Panama City pre-cruise. 
 

would love hotel recommendations. Would prefer older, more historic than big modern chain, if there is a good option. 
 

Any advice on overnighting including restaurants welcome!  

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There are a number of smaller boutique hotels that can be found in the Casco Antiguo (aka Casco Viejo).  This is old potion of the City that was founded after Henry Morgan destroyed the original Panama City (now often called Panama Viejo) in 1671.  This area was considered to be more defensible and the architecture is reminiscent of what you would find in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

 

I have been away too long to provide any meaningful recommendations for a hotel and the last time I stayed in a hotel in Panama was on Ft. Amador at the Country Inn and Suites which overlooks the Canal and was decent.  The only restaurant I have any relatively recent experience most cabbies would not want to take you there!  It is not in a stellar part of town, but their pizza was just as good as I remembered it... maybe even better!  

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Ditto, We need an hotel in March for our NCL cruise on the 29th.

We would like something we can walk to see a few things, eat and is safe to be wandering around.

Also, any recommendations for the best way to Colon cruise port? Shuttle, Taxi? How long does it take?

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18 hours ago, cwatts15 said:

Also, any recommendations for the best way to Colon cruise port? Shuttle, Taxi? How long does it take?

 

In my previous post a recommendation for a hotel would be rather dated to be useful.  However, for an area for you to walk around to see a few things and eat, I would look in the Ft. Amador area.  At the sea end of the Ft. Amador Causeway are a number of places to eat and there a nice views of Panama City proper and the several islands adjacent to the Canal.  On the mainland end of the Causeway there is the Biodiversity Museum designed by Fran Gehry.  Your best bet is to consider getting to any of these destinations is to include a cab.  Another area to consider would be hotels near the Albrook Mall.

 

Getting to Colon, your hotel would be your best source for arranging transport.  Shuttle or taxi would depend more on the the number in your group and luggage.  For the most part the ride would be a little over an hour, but I would allow two hours.  Time for travel would also be a little dependent on if you take the most direct route which would be primarily on modern 4 lane or the more scenic route that would drive by the Pacific Locks and take you through a rain forest preserve that intersects the Las Cruces Trail.  Going the scenic route won't take that much time in normal traffic... maybe closer to an hour and a half.

Edited by BillB48
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  • 1 month later...

Bumping this to see if anyone has any recent experience with hotels in Panama City…

 

We’ve narrowed it down to:

- Hilton Panama - hotel Viking uses for their extensions, the safe known quantity but in the more modern downtown not Casco Viejo

- American Trade Hotel - in CV, boutique hotel (not our normal style) with great location, a bit pricier

- Central Hotel Panama - same pros and cons as ATH, better recent reviews online

 

Thoughts?

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  • 1 month later...

we are starting to poke around and have 8 months before we need lodging.  I see many condos via air bnb.  They are all in high rises.  I don't know the area at all.  Please post back about your stays and what you found good and bad.  There will be 4 of us and would prefer a 2 bedroom or 2 diff. rooms.  Thanks in advance.

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We stayed at Le Meridien Panama.  It's near the bay, so you can cross the streets to walk by the shore which is walled up.  It's close to a Megapolis Outlet Mall (1km away).  Nearby are Hilton and Intercontinental hotels and others.

 

For elite members you get free buffet breakfast at the lobby restaurant, very nice with local fruits.  The lounge is open but bare, no refreshment, just tables/chairs.  There is daily happy hour 6-7pm, with free drinks and snacks.  Often the snack is good enough as a light dinner.

 

The one downside is the banquet room is on 6th floor, and there was a party on Sat. night, really noisy till almost 2am.  That was one night we couldn't sleep.  Other nights were ok.  So if you're not staying weekends pre-cruise you'll be alright. 

 

We had 4 couples staying at this same hotel, so I arranged a mini shuttle bus to take us together leaving at 8am, with a detour to Fort San Lorenzo for 1hr, then to Colon Cruise Terminal for 11:30am.  In time for check-in and lunch.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 3/10/2022 at 9:00 AM, bookbabe said:

Bumping this to see if anyone has any recent experience with hotels in Panama City…

 

We’ve narrowed it down to:

- Hilton Panama - hotel Viking uses for their extensions, the safe known quantity but in the more modern downtown not Casco Viejo

- American Trade Hotel - in CV, boutique hotel (not our normal style) with great location, a bit pricier

- Central Hotel Panama - same pros and cons as ATH, better recent reviews online

 

Thoughts?

We are looking at pre-cruise hotel with NCL, and they are using the Hilton Panama as well.

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23 hours ago, quillwercruisers said:

We are cruising in March 2023, and we are booked at the Radisson

In the thread where I recently responded to you about the airport serving both Ft. Amador (Panama City) and Colon, I mentioned that I had stayed in the Country Inn and Suites.  The Radisson you referenced is the same facility that was the County Inn and Suites.

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On 5/4/2022 at 8:58 AM, BillB48 said:

In the thread where I recently responded to you about the airport serving both Ft. Amador (Panama City) and Colon, I mentioned that I had stayed in the Country Inn and Suites.  The Radisson you referenced is the same facility that was the County Inn and Suites.

I was thinking that might be the case since I didn't see the Country Inn and Suites on the map.  Thank you again for all your help.

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On 5/3/2022 at 10:20 AM, quillwercruisers said:

We are cruising in March 2023, and we are booked at the Radisson.  They don't have a shuttle from the airport (didn't look like the Hilton did either), but they do have a shuttle to the port.  Rates were great too.

What was the rate for the shuttle to the port?  I emailed them awhile ago but haven’t heard back yet.  

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32 minutes ago, jtdlmc said:

What was the rate for the shuttle to the port?  I emailed them awhile ago but haven’t heard back yet.  

They didn't actually give me a rate.  I figured it would change between now & then so I didn't ask.  The rates for the hotel itself were good though.  

 

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45 minutes ago, quillwercruisers said:

They didn't actually give me a rate.  I figured it would change between now & then so I didn't ask.  The rates for the hotel itself were good though.  

 

Oh okay.  Yes the rate for the hotel is excellent.  

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On 5/11/2022 at 10:53 AM, quillwercruisers said:

I emailed them back and asked about the rate to the cruise port, and was told that there is no charge for the shuttle to the cruise port.

Wow that is a really good deal then.  I asked my TA 3-1/2 weeks ago to get me a price on hotel package through NCL and she still hasn’t got back to me, even with a “anything yet?” earlier this week 🙄.  I think I will go ahead and book this own my own.  Thanks for the info!

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On 5/13/2022 at 2:05 PM, jtdlmc said:

Wow that is a really good deal then.  I asked my TA 3-1/2 weeks ago to get me a price on hotel package through NCL and she still hasn’t got back to me, even with a “anything yet?” earlier this week 🙄.  I think I will go ahead and book this own my own.  Thanks for the info!

It will be much more expensive going through NCL for the hotel than booking the hotel outright.  At least whenever I have compared them in the past.  The NCL website doesn't show a cost for the Hilton, but usually the rate that is shown is per person.  https://www.ncl.com/cruise-destinations/panama-canal-cruises#!#hotels

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Also cruising the Panama Canal in March 2023.  Still trying to get clarification from our PCC on transfers from the Panama Hilton to the cruise port in Colon.  According to NCL's website transportation IS included however this seems difficult for NCL to confirm....  The NCL rate for the Panama Hilton is $250 per night for my wife and me.  I also have a reservation direct with the Hilton for $160 per night which I'll cancel once I get the clarification on transportation to the cruise port.  I figured I'd rather go with NCL transportation as opposed to booking privately since we've never been to Panama and didn't want to risk getting ripped off for the approx. 1 hour ride to the pier.  FYI, it's about a 20 minute ride from Tocumen airport to the Hilton.  Private transfer is around $25.  

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On 5/11/2022 at 10:53 AM, quillwercruisers said:

I emailed them back and asked about the rate to the cruise port, and was told that there is no charge for the shuttle to the cruise port.


Just FYI you may want to reconfirm I just received an answer and they state it is $70 for two which still isn’t too bad.  NCL is $62 CND per person so I’m figuring $50 US. 
 

“You are departing from the Colon Port, we do not offer shuttle service to that port, we can make transportation arragements at a cost of US$ 70.00 for one or two people, each additional person will pay another US$ 10.00”

4 hours ago, Bullies3 said:

Also cruising the Panama Canal in March 2023.  Still trying to get clarification from our PCC on transfers from the Panama Hilton to the cruise port in Colon.  According to NCL's website transportation IS included however this seems difficult for NCL to confirm....  The NCL rate for the Panama Hilton is $250 per night for my wife and me.  I also have a reservation direct with the Hilton for $160 per night which I'll cancel once I get the clarification on transportation to the cruise port.  I figured I'd rather go with NCL transportation as opposed to booking privately since we've never been to Panama and didn't want to risk getting ripped off for the approx. 1 hour ride to the pier.  FYI, it's about a 20 minute ride from Tocumen airport to the Hilton.  Private transfer is around $25.  

Just got an answer today from my TA, although NCL can’t confirm the pricing until they make the booking - very odd lol - I’ve not heard of this before but…. they say it is $167/person CND plus $64/person for return transfer from port to airport.  So a total of $459 CND for transfer from airport to hotel and round trip transfers to port (or thereabouts depending on verification when NCL actually books the hotel).  Not certain but I think that would be around $300 US.

 

Just for ease and peace of mind we are going to go ahead and book through NCL (if they ever secure a firm price lol).  

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1 hour ago, jtdlmc said:


Just FYI you may want to reconfirm I just received an answer and they state it is $70 for two which still isn’t too bad.  NCL is $62 CND per person so I’m figuring $50 US. 
 

“You are departing from the Colon Port, we do not offer shuttle service to that port, we can make transportation arragements at a cost of US$ 70.00 for one or two people, each additional person will pay another US$ 10.00”

Just got an answer today from my TA, although NCL can’t confirm the pricing until they make the booking - very odd lol - I’ve not heard of this before but…. they say it is $167/person CND plus $64/person for return transfer from port to airport.  So a total of $459 CND for transfer from airport to hotel and round trip transfers to port (or thereabouts depending on verification when NCL actually books the hotel).  Not certain but I think that would be around $300 US.

 

Just for ease and peace of mind we are going to go ahead and book through NCL (if they ever secure a firm price lol).  

We are departing from Panama City (Fuerte Amador) not Colon Port.  That might be the difference.  The Radisson is near Fuerte Amador port.  I hope they get you a firm price soon.

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10 minutes ago, quillwercruisers said:

We are departing from Panama City (Fuerte Amador) not Colon Port.  That might be the difference.  The Radisson is near Fuerte Amador port.  I hope they get you a firm price soon.

Okay, yes that makes sense then.  We return to Fuerte Amador.  If we departed from there then I wouldn’t have a problem booking a nearby hotel and finding our own way there, but when it is an hour+ drive to the port I feel more comfortable holding NCL responsible 😁

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14 hours ago, jtdlmc said:

Okay, yes that makes sense then.  We return to Fuerte Amador.  If we departed from there then I wouldn’t have a problem booking a nearby hotel and finding our own way there, but when it is an hour+ drive to the port I feel more comfortable holding NCL responsible 😁

I completely understand that sentiment.  I would be the same way.  Have a fantastic cruise!!

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