The Unknown Ahead

Pursuing beautiful, clear waters full of colorful fish? Interested in eating some fresh red snapper and lobster? Want pristine white sand beaches? I have the perfect location for you! Hello, Bocas del Toro! If you want the beauty of those over-the-water houses in Bali or the Maldives a little closer to home, Panama is the place for you.

If you’re starting out in the USA or Canada, you might not even have to deal with a time zone change! From Chicago, we flew to Panama City and landed mid-afternoon with plenty of time to explore. Panama City is certainly worth checking out too! We stayed at La Compañia which is a Hyatt affiliate. The hotel was located perfectly in the old section of the city (aka Casco Viejo) and boasted a rooftop pool and amazing cocktails. The room had two queen beds, was really clean, and check-in was a breeze. Highly recommend!

Our flight to Bocas del Toro took off the next morning around 10am. Be aware that there are two different airports in Panama City. The large International airport is Tocumen International Airport. That’s likely where you’ll fly into from anywhere in the world. The smaller domestic flight to Bocas del Toro is on the other side of town at Albrook Gelabert Airport (the flight is an hour). Both airports are a very quick drive from the old quarter in Panama City. Ubers were plentiful too, and all of our drivers were the nicest of people.

If you find yourself with awkward timing between flights and you’re stuck with luggage, check out Radical Storage. They have a few safe, secure, and easy spots in Panama City where you can stash your bags for a few hours or the whole day. We’ve used them to store luggage when check-in times weren’t convenient and we still wanted to explore without the burden of all our stuff. Highly recommend!

Once you land in Bocas, you could honestly walk to the downtown area. It’s a small town with a few main blocks for tourists. Our Airbnb came with a personal driver, so Teo picked us up from the airport, dropped us off at Buena Vista for lunch, directed us to a grocery store, and took us right to the house. If your hotel or rental doesn’t hook you up with a boat, there are a ton of water taxis hanging about for a nominal fee.

There are plenty of hotels in Bocas; however, I would highly recommend checking out an Airbnb or VRBO that’s over the water. We rented Casa Clearwater (currently on the market for $800,000 as of April 2025). It’s just as magical as anything you’d see in the Maldives, and a relative steal at $500 per night.

The house had two bedrooms, a large kitchen, and a sitting area. But the “aaahhhhh” moment was the back deck with a “swimming pool” in the ocean. The waves were gently lapping, there were seriously fish everywhere, and the sunsets were breath-taking. Our rental also had kayaks and paddle boards, so there was plenty to explore.

A few considerations….

1. Many of the house rentals are pretty off-the-grid. You can really only access many of the houses from a boat. The power is all solar, and the water is determined by the amount of rain you receive. We went as a family of four and had no problems. But be aware that if you take long showers, you may not have water for your kitchen sink later. Our house did not have a dishwasher, so I tried to rinse…turn off water…soap up…rinse…turn off water. There was also no air conditioning. We visited in early April and enjoyed a gorgeous ocean breeze 96% of the time.
2. It rains. Thankfully for our water tank situation, it did rain a few mornings during our week. But just know that you may be in for a few showers in the mornings. If you have plans to visit a beach or go on a guided trip, you may want to go after 10AM when the skies clear. The rain didn’t bother us much overall; however, since we had no washer/dryer, everything felt pretty damp throughout our stay. Even with a great ocean breeze, it’s a humid and damp environment.
3. Bring a few towels, your own snorkel gear, a backpack, water shoes, and cash. Since you’ll be taking a boat frequently, have a dry-bag to keep things fresh on your journey. Panama accepts USD everywhere. My husband said it best when he said “Bocas isn’t really ready for prime time yet”. There are plenty of restaurants and tourist excursion options, but there really weren’t spots to buy snorkels, sand toys, etc. I’m really glad we bought ours before the trip or we would have been disappointed.
4. As mentioned above, Bocas is a town in progress. We ate lunch out daily, but went to the local grocery stores for dinner to cook at the house. I was surprised that a lot of the seafood was frozen. If you’re looking for protein at the grocery, it was mostly chicken. We did find a fish place, but it was still mostly frozen and they definitely misidentified some of the fish (perhaps a language barrier?). The fresh produce items were also limited. They often had squash, onion, tomato, plantain, and some fruit…but other than that, it was frozen or canned.

Beaches

After visiting some beaches in the Caribbean with a lot of urchins, we always have water shoes available. But I’m happy to report that the beaches in Panama are sandy and gorgeously pristine. I still wore the water shoes, because I’m a big baby, but you really didn’t need them.

Here are some beaches that we visited and a little run-down of the highlights. Since our house rental introduced us to Teo, we just used him as our guide and paid him cash for the trips. Most people use WhatsApp in Panama, so if you find a guide that you like be sure to get their number! If you want to reach out to Teo, send me an email and I’ll give you his number (theunknownahead1@gmail.com). But there are a ton of water taxis and pre-booked trips available from Bocas. Most of our beach excursions cost about $80 for a private boat all day depending on the distance (2 adults, and 2 kids).

Red Frog Beach – This was probably our favorite beach. The water taxis drop you off on the bay side of the island and you take a little walk to get to the beach. The walk was very well marked, well groomed, and short enough that you didn’t mind carrying all of your beach stuff. There was a nominal entrance fee of $3 per person, so have some cash ready. The beach itself is out of a movie. The sand is beautiful, there are waves to play in, most of the beach is waist deep, and there are two little restaurants/bars to keep the drinks flowing. For only $25 USD we secured a little cabana for a whole day. Yeah…$25 for the whole day! The food at Nacho Mamas was terrific and the drinks were plentiful. Why is it called Red Frog Beach? There are red poison dart frogs all over the paths near the beach! Feel free to photo…but probably don’t lick them…

Starfish Beach – This was a nice spot to chill out, have lunch, and enjoy wildlife. This beach definitely has a vibe. There are many spots to eat, grab a lounge chair, and get some pretty strong drinks. Souvenir vendors dot the beach, but they were not aggressive or intrusive at all. The beach is really shallow and then has a steep fall-off, so it’s great for snorkeling. And, of course, you probably guessed from the name of the beach that there are super fat starfish everywhere! There are signs asking you not to touch them, but there were seriously hundreds of these guys in the shallows. The kids were thrilled. In addition to ample starfish, we also saw a sloth, a huge snake, some rays, and dolphins! We visited in early April which is low season, so there were a lot of options for lounge chairs, but I’ve heard that it can get a lot busier during their high season.

Zapatilla Island – This uninhabited island is part of Parque National Marino Bastimentos. You’ll need to go online and buy a pass to the park before you enter (easy and kids are free). Once your boat drops you off, the whole island is yours to explore. Although there are bathrooms and showers, there is literally nothing else on the island. I’d suggest packing some snacks (my daughter left the Goldfish package open and it was devoured by birds in minutes…ugh) and a cooler full of beer and water. Bring those beach towels and dry-bag too! The beach here is truly gorgeous and surrounded by reef. There were a lot of kids snorkeling about as the waves were super gentle and the water wasn’t deep. The beach is lined by trees, so it’s easy to carve out some shade for your family as well. To keep the kids occupied, you might some water toys too. My son loves these floating skip balls!

There were a few other beaches on our list that we didn’t get to on this trip. There is a beach called Istmito Beach that you can walk to from Bocas town. Another one that gets good reviews is Wizard Beach which is on the same strip as Red Frog Beach.

Other Options…

If you wanted to extend your trip or be a bit more adventurous, there are some other awesome nearby attractions that we didn’t get to experience. You may want to check out Green Acres Chocolate Farm, Cave of the Bats (about 3 hours away, unfortunately), Bastimentos Sky Ziplines, and Plastic Bottle Castle.

As I reflect on this trip, I think my favorite thing was just being off grid, off my cell phone, and watching my kiddos enjoy nature. One of the best things about travel is making everyone get off the devices, looking around at the beauty in front of us, and being grateful for the opportunity to connect with nature and each other.

Find all of my Bocas del Toro suggestions on my interactive Google Map!