Bambuda Bocas Town — Hotel in Bocas del Toro

I would say if you are looking for an 'Instagram hotel' - this is the perfect place for you. However, in terms of service and the experience itself, we thought there was room for improvement. The front desk seemed too busy to look up from their laptop or say hello and make us feel welcome. We felt like we were bothering them if we asked a question or brought issues to their attention. Upon early arrival, we were told our room wasn't ready and we would need to return in hour. We went to their bar had a similar experience. We were the only ones sitting there and had to work to get someone attention. We bought some drinks and returned to the front desk after closing our tab. We were then given 2 welcome drink coupons, which we never used. It would have been much nicer to have been given these when we first arrived. They told us our room was up the stairs and the code and that was it. Some basic information about the hotel, Bocas town, their restaurant, check out time, and even where our room was would have been helpful. We did reserve a suite and lugged our suitcases up and down the stairs trying to find which floor it was on. (could someone have taken 2 minutes to walk us there?)||Later that evening my husband was in the middle of showering when the water stopped working in the whole hotel. It did not go back on to a few hours later. Not their fault, but it would have been nice if they send us a What's App message to let us know it was fixed. Then he tried to sit in the hammock on the deck and the whole thing was dry rotted and snapped. Luckily we are young enough that he slammed onto his back and was still ok. Again looks pretty, but not sure if the function or safety is there.||Glad I splurged and went for the Oceanview King Suite. The AC worked well, the Nespresso machine in the room was a plus and we slept fine despite being in the party town on Filthy Friday. We do appreciate the discount they gave us for the water not working without us asking. Perhaps our expectations were just unreasonably high for this hostel style hotel. However, the price point, photos, and recommendation from the hotel we stayed in previously on Isla Solarte made us expect a different experience, if even for a...

I would say if you are looking for an 'Instagram hotel' - this is the perfect place for you. However, in terms of service and the experience itself, we thought there was room for improvement. The front desk seemed too busy to look up from their laptop or say hello and make us feel welcome. We felt like we were bothering them if we asked a question or brought issues to their attention. Upon early arrival, we were told our room wasn't ready and we would need to return in hour. We went to their bar had a similar experience. We were the only ones sitting there and had to work to get someone attention. We bought some drinks and returned to the front desk after closing our tab. We were then given 2 welcome drink coupons, which we never used. It would have been much nicer to have been given these when we first arrived. They told us our room was up the stairs and the code and that was it. Some basic information about the hotel, Bocas town, their restaurant, check out time, and even where our room was would have been helpful. We did reserve a suite and lugged our suitcases up and down the stairs trying to find which floor it was on. (could someone have taken 2 minutes to walk us there?)||Later that evening my husband was in the middle of showering when the water stopped working in the whole hotel. It did not go back on to a few hours later. Not their fault, but it would have been nice if they send us a What's App message to let us know it was fixed. Then he tried to sit in the hammock on the deck and the whole thing was dry rotted and snapped. Luckily we are young enough that he slammed onto his back and was still ok. Again looks pretty, but not sure if the function or safety is there.||Glad I splurged and went for the Oceanview King Suite. The AC worked well, the Nespresso machine in the room was a plus and we slept fine despite being in the party town on Filthy Friday. We do appreciate the discount they gave us for the water not working without us asking. Perhaps our expectations were just unreasonably high for this hostel style hotel. However, the price point, photos, and recommendation from the hotel we stayed in previously on Isla Solarte made us expect a different experience, if even for a...

Unfortunately, I can’t rate our stay positively. We paid more than $350 for two nights and were given a room directly above a construction site for the hotel next door, where extremely loud work started at 6:45 AM and continued all day. If you're planning to stay here in the next few months (we stayed in May 2025), I believe it's unfair of the hotel not to mention this, and you should take the noise into account. Before the reservation, an amount of $200 is blocked on your account, which is only refunded several days after your stay ends. On-site, they charge the full amount again, not just the remaining balance, so be prepared to be without those funds for a few days. There’s a note in the bathroom about saving water, but the shower sprays water everywhere except on you, making everything take twice as long (room 22). The staff was bored and not helpful at all – we actually felt like we were bothering them, both at the reception and the bar. And lastly – though subjective – the place tries to present itself as relaxed, surfer-style, and Instagrammable, but it immediately feels fake. It has nothing to do with a boutique, backpacker-style hotel – it’s a fairly expensive hotel wrapped in gold ‚surfer’ foil, but the quality doesn’t necessarily match the price.

On the positive side, the Wi-Fi was good, the welcome drink came with an intro to available tours with super nice Chiara, breakfast was good (even though you get to choose your drinks from limited list, so we wondered if its not better to just buy it yourself instead of having it prepaid - same prices less choices), and the air conditioning worked very well. We also booked a tour to Zapatilla Island through the reception, which was outsourced to another company – it was an...