Open post
El Valle de Anton, Panama

How much does it cost to travel in Panama? Our budget and tips

In Panama we spend 1070 euro for 24 days so 22.30 euro per person per day. Although it's not visible in the budget, it's not a cheap country compared with Colombia or other South American countries. But we saved a lot of money by volunteering for 2 weeks.

 

Where did we go?

In Panama we visited Bocas del Toro region, Valle del Anton and Panama City.

How did we travel?

Long distance travel we did by buses but in Panama City we used mostly Uber both for transport and a nice conversation 🙂 in the area of Bocas we had to use boat taxis. All of that fun transport costed us 92 euros.

Example: Bus from Almirante (mainland next to Bocas del Toro) to Panama City costed 13.9 dollar (round 12 euro) per person and it was  an overnightbus. Uber taxi from our hostel in Panama City to the Canal (which was the most expensive fare ever because we stopped in a few places and saw the Canal from a lot of viewpoints) was 16.11 dollars (around 14 euro) and a ride from our hostel to the city center or other parts of the city was about 3-5 dollar (around 2.8 - 4.4 euro). Boat taxis in Bocas were around 3-5 dollars (2.8- 4.4 euro)

Where did we stay?

On accommodation we spend 296 euro spending 4 days in a private room on Bastimentos (Bocas del Toro) and
the rest in cosy dorms in El Valle and Panama City.

Examples: private room on Bastimentos was 45 dollar (around 39 euro) per night per room and a bed in dorms were around 15 dollar per night (around 13 euro) although we volunteered for two weeks so we didn't pay for our cosy bed during that period.

What did we eat?

As usual we mostly cooked ourselves but really good food, we are not instant noodles type of people:) that's how we spend 343 euros. Unfortunately fresh vegetables and fruit is not cheap in Panama, it also didn't help that the closest supermarket in Panama City was kosher.... (yep it was a shock for us too).

On Bastimentos we didn't have a kitchen so we had to eat out and we also treated ourselves with a nice meal in Panama City so all of that resulted in 266 euros. Few of those euros came with ice cream so necessary in such a warm country:)

How expensive are museums, tours etc?

On tourism we spent 66 euro taking a tour on Bocas del Toro to an idyllic beach of Isla Zapatilla. Except for that we did mostly hikes and the nature we saw was for free:)

What else did we spend our dollars on?

6 euros went on peeing in public toilets and putting stitches on JD's head.

Our tips to save money in Panama:

  1. Cooking on your own is the best way to save money. It's healthier, often more delicious and almost always cheaper
  2. If you don't want to use public transport in Panama City, use Uber! It's easy, fast and very safe. And it's not very expensive especially if you travel with the 2 of you or more.
  3. Volunteer! We did that and it not only saved us some money but it gave us the opportunity to meet incredible people and stay longer in places. We used workaway to volunteer in El Valle in Panama.

P.S. Exchange rate used for the overal budget 1 USD= 1.11EURO
If you have any questions or you would like to take a look at our spreadsheet, let us know:)

Bastimentos, Bocas del Toro, Panama

In “the Mouth of the Bull”- Bocas del Toro

Bocas del Toro is THE destination in Panama formed by a group of islands. Going on a boat to get there in pouring rain, we couldn’t see anything, except for water under and above us. Soaking wet and cold we reached our hostel and we reminded ourselves of the cold winter in Europe as soon as we entered our frozen room (AC!! :O) and a freezing shower didn’t help.

We knew Bocas Town was THE place in Bocas del Toro so we decided not only to not stay in the city but also not on the main island and it wasa good decision. 15 minutes from there it was idyllic and green. Although it might change if they don’t start to pick up their garbage. As soon as we woke up and the sun came through we saw our Bastimentos, charming little island with stilt houses and just behind them, the green almighty jungle. Bastimentos, Bocas del Toro, PanamaIt even had idyllic beaches, one of them called Wizards Beach probably because you would disappear swimming there as the waves and currents were insane even to look at. But there was enough to do above water. Green hikes, bird watching and the cafes!!! There was this amazing café situated in the middle of the greenness. The food and the atmosphere were really worth the hike up the hill so we spent a few hours there going through their books, talking to the staff and other hikers. And at some point I saw a pictures of a red frog, really pretty with black dots. “Do you ever see those here?” I asked to one of the waitresses, “Yeah, strawberry poison- dart frog, they're here all the time”.

And she left everything to go for a search with us. She explained what the sound is that they make and where to search for them. Afterwards we were seeing them everywhere!! And all of them were eager to pose for a picture.

Too bad the boa that we saw on a hiking path was not as friendly.
It scared us probably as much as we scared him and then he ran away. Thankfully he was not that shy and so he didn’t ran away too far and with a bit of effort we managed to take a picture of him hidden in the bushes.Bastimentos, Bocas del Toro, Panama

The islands were truly wonderful for us, just so much variety in nature and so much to do. When we wanted nice hikes, we had them just next to us, when we wanted to chill out on a peaceful island there was Cayo Zapatilla. Just the underwater was disappointing, low visibility and even if it was high, well there was not much to see.

And the way back was a nightmare, we went on a small boat back to Bocas Town to take another boat to get to the main land. And as usual, the boat was small, the life jackets were nowhere to be found and the captain was super chilled out and way above the acceptable speed. Out of the sudden we were covered by a huge wave that he didn’t see as he was too chilled out to see anything. Almost we capsized, we got soaking wet and so did our backpacks. At least my first instinct was to grab the small backpacks and push them above my head to save all the electronics. The captain woke up quite fast to throw all the water out of the boat as his only source of income was about to share Titanic’s fate. Well at least it was a free ride and we were “only” going on a night bus soaking wet. Let’s say we have seen enough boats for a while…