Panama travel tips

Panama is not the most popular travel destination. We didn't know exactly what to expect either. We therefore went into it fairly blankly and experienced everything ourselves. However, it can be nice to travel prepared, especially if you are traveling for a shorter period of time. Then you don't want to waste your time figuring these things out. So are you planning to travel to Panama soon? Then read these handy Panama travel tips!

Useful tips to save money in Panama

In Panama you can often pay with credit card or cash. In Panama you pay with dollars or Panamanian balboa. These two are equivalent and are used interchangeably. Your normal debit card is hardly accepted anywhere except at a bank. Even if you set it to worldwide, you cannot pay with your normal debit card anywhere. This means that you can withdraw cash with a debit card, but you cannot pay at a store or restaurant.

Paying with your card always entails extra costs, of course, every transaction has a certain conversion rate. When you pay with your credit card, you pay conversion costs of about 1.95%. Withdrawing cash with your normal debit card has a conversion of 1.4% and extra costs of €3.50. When you withdraw money with your credit card, it is even more expensive than with your normal debit card. You always pay the 1.95% conversion costs and 4% extra costs here. So, withdraw your cash especially with your normal debit card, because this is much cheaper than with your credit card. 

It is therefore most convenient to pay with your credit card as much as possible when this is a possibility. If this is not possible, you must pay in cash. It is better to withdraw this cash with your debit card instead of with your credit card. You can also choose to withdraw a lot of cash in one go with your debit card. Then pay in cash everywhere, this is even cheaper than paying with your credit card. You just shouldn't mind walking around with a lot of cash. So make sure you always go out with a credit card, debit card and enough cash.

Accommodations in Panama

Hotels in Panama are not really cheap. Despite the fact that it is not very busy with tourists, or perhaps because of that, the prices are quite on the high side. In addition, you do not always have a lot of choice, because there are simply not many accommodations in Panama. As a result, you often end up with a hotel of €20 a night, where you did not want to sleep ever if you were given money. Or a more expensive hotel of about €65 to €75 per night, which did provide you with all kinds of facilities.

The more expensive hotels seem very expensive, but when breakfast (and or gym) is included it is not much more expensive, sometimes even cheaper than when you have breakfast separately and possibly visit a gym. We spent an average of about €20 on breakfast for the two of us. A gym can also cost around €7.50 per person. If you calculate this, you end up at about €30 or €40 per night. That is why we often chose to sleep in a slightly more expensive hotel that included breakfast and a gym.

Travel tips for transportation in Panama

In Panama, especially in the cities, there are a lot of taxis. Everywhere you walk you will be honked by taxis. You can always use this. They are not extremely expensive, but can charge a bit more money for short drives. As a tourist you also often pay more for these taxis than residents of Panama. In addition to taxis, Uber is also available in Panama, just not everywhere. Especially in the larger cities there are plenty of ubers driving around to transport you. These Ubers are a lot cheaper than the taxis, often you pay only half or even less.

Besides being cheaper, it is also safer, because all journeys are registered in the app. In addition, you also know in advance who you are getting into the car with and there is a rating in the app. That's why our tip is to take an uber instead of a taxi if you have this option. 

Of course you can also go by bus, these are very cheap as you can read in this blog These buses only have no air conditioning and are quite crammed. This way you can quickly end up with 3 people on 1 bench or there is someone standing next to you in the path. We have often done this ourselves when we had to drive far, but found this not convenient and not necessary for short trips, from hotel to the city and vice versa.

Tip for the language in Panama

One of the Panama travel tips is to learn a little basic Spanish. In Panama they mainly speak Spanish (with an accent). It is therefore useful to know some basic Spanish because in some places few people speak (good) English. In addition, most people are also not very helpful, they often just say they don't speak English and don't bother to help you any further. Only at the reception of hotels and in some restaurants people do speak English, but this is certainly not always the case. Only in Boquete and on Bocas del Toro, the most touristic places, people can speak some good English. Of course you can always use Google Translate. Unfortunately, this makes having a reasonable conversation not very easy.

Useful tips for internet and calling in Panama

To be able to use the internet and call for a longer period of time, it is best to buy a SIM card in Panama. As soon as you arrive at the airport you can buy one right away. But you better not do this! Buying a SIM card at the airport is often much more expensive than outside of it. At the airport in Panama City, a SIM card costs $50 for 30 days. We thought this was quite expensive so we didn't take it.

Then we went looking for a SIM card in Panama City. Here we found one at CLARO for only €10 for 14 days. Later in David we had to buy a new one and we had a deal for even €5 for 14 days. These SIM cards all have unlimited internet and a number of calling minutes/text messages. So in the end we only paid €15 per person for 28 days of unlimited internet instead of €50. So we saved €35 per person. CLARO is not the only provider, you can also use digicel or movil. You can see for yourself what is most advantageous for you at that moment.

These were our key Panama travel tips to help you travel through Panama more safely, affordably, and easily. Also read all about our top destinations in Panama!