Thread: First Trip to Panama

Good Evening all,
My wife and I are coming to Panama for the month of February and renting a Suzuki Swift Sport for three weeks. We will be traveling around the country without lodging reservations and looking for base hotels or weekly rentals in the western part of the country. We have an open itinerary and will be looking for special places or hotels to use as a base in our explorations. Just a couple of questions if you please:
1. Will it be hard to finding lodging this time of year without prior reservations?
2. Will this little two wheel drive vehicle limit my exploring areas I need to see?
Any help to either of the questions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
RJM

RJM:

YOu will have a great time.The main roads and city roads you will have no problem. Going on some secondary roads may be a problem for your 2 wheel vehicle.
I never had a problem finding a place in February in Panama; however, tourism is increasing and I have not been to Panama in February in a couple of years. What you have to be concerned about is festivals and weekends. This may hamper your search for hotels.

Carnival does start on Friday so it will be busy, no guarantee on hotel availability. The towns of Chitre, Las Tablas, and Pedasi will probably be booked solid. As far as touring around the country and having a 4x4 really helped. You can get around in a two wheel drive but you have really limited what you can do. You will not be happy once you realize how limited you are.

Thanks for the quick replies...I will look into getting a 4x4 at the time I pickup my vehicle...I am hoping by mid February things might be starting to quiet down. I think we will be using the area around David/Volcan as a hub to take day trips out of. Any and all travel tips or "must see ideas" will be most appreciated.
Again, thanks for the information...in the past our trips have always been special by listening to input from others.

RJM