twocents

What are some good hotels to stay in on a student budget? I don't need much, but the next time I go back I want to get out of the city more and travel around. Need places that are ok and safe but dont cost as much.

Laura

Hi twocents. Anything outside of the city is automatically cheaper than in the city but unfortunately I can't give any specific recommendations as I'm very much a full-fledged city mouse. If you are looking for anything in Panama City, I'd recommend you check out the El Cangrejo zone, where everything you need is pretty much within walking distance (all kinds of restaurants, casinos, banks, night clubs, supermarkets, etc.) and there are A LOT of hotels and suites to choose from. There are aparthotels like Sevilla Suites www.sevillasuites.com, or Torres de Alba www.torresdealba.com.pa - they have swimming pool, internet, cable, kitchen, breakfast included, etc. There are also other aparthotels and regular hotels in the same block, like Las Vegas Suites, which charge a lot less but are not that fancy. It really depends on what you need and feel comfortable with. Then again, if you are staying for more than a month it might be cheaper to rent a nice apartment for $1500 to $2000 a month.

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Laura

soltero

twocents, have you even picked up a travel book? Both Moon and Lonely Planet are excellent. However, they're both a couple years old, so you'll need to double hotel prices shown.

dsc

Look on hostel sites.

Here's a few:

www.hostelworld.com
www.hostels.com
www.hostelbookers.com

Or simply Google 'hostels' if you want more..

twocents

Thanks, I own both books. While they were published two years ago, the information is four years old at best. When I left Panama this past Christmas, much of the information needed updating.

soltero

Right -- I think I said that -- but those books are still the best place to start; pursue their recommendations individually to get updated prices, etc. (And the new Moon will be out this Fall.) In addition to the hostel sites dsc recommended, just google the cities/towns where you want to stay, and you'll find more options. E.g., http://www.bocas.com/ is a portal for Bocas; there are others. The three places Laura suggested are nice, but they're definitely not in the "student budget" category.

GordonS

I just googled " hotels in Panama" and found quite a few listings. I also found that Google Earth's links to places and related websites pulls up a lot of websites which might require a bit of digging to find otherwise.

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Gordon and Randy,
Canada

twocents

Yeah, I think I get the same results which is why I figured I would ask and hopefully someone on here would have a few good suggestions. I find it is always better to get first hand recommendations from someone who just returned than stuff off a website or a book.