Gran Evenia Bijao - All Inclusive — Hotel in Coclé

Absolutely worst Resort experience I have currently experienced, food poisoning…. Grand Evenia Bijao, first let’s discuss customer service, the reception staff acts as they are doing the hotel guest a favor by attending them, complete disregard for the necessity of their guest. Our group booked a 3 day adventure, at this location, (mind you 2nd trip to bijao) to perform our end of course show for the dance academy. We arrived early 12ish 1, to coordinate with the event coordinator, and set location for where the performance will be. First, regardless if we were performing on their stage as an act for their event night, you would assume they would be more eager to assist us in need. However, they wanted to charge 35 dollars per person “for early check in” and all we wanted to do was see the stage, and run some rehearsals. Even though, we performed the previous year, and even called ahead of arrival, and spoke to the event coordinator, who was completely aware of our arrival. In continuation, the parking situation, is decent for the first 20 spots, after you have to park in gravel, don’t bring nothing fancy to this “5 Star - 4 Star Resort” continuing on, the amenities, decor, walls, ceiling fixtures, structures, don’t yell above 2 stars. You can notice some areas have been remolded, but visual presence is not priority at this location, it still needs work. The rooms are ok, decent in size, some rooms have a small 4x4 balcony, other rooms have a family size balcony, and others have a cat walk type balcony. The bathroom is basic, you get 2 towels, (you’re charged additional if you request more than two). No wash cloths, 1 little disc soap. No lotion, All in 1 liquid soap in the bathroom, but no wash cloth, not really soaring high above a 1.5 Star in my opinion at this point. Continuing on, the TV does not connect to the Bijao WiFi to connect with your favorite apps, especially if you choose to spend the time in your room relaxing. Since this is my second trip to this location, I chose to take my personal clothing iron, because they only have a few for the hotel, and the guest have to share, (I truly don’t see how that’s possible for over the 1000 guest they serve, to add, in the hand made closet, they have the fixture for the iron and board, but no iron and board. Continuing on, mildew type spot on the ceiling, (which would indicate leaking, or moisture somewhere between floors). Residue of old fixtures, chipped bathroom floor, rusty faucet components, and terrible tiling. No room service, so don’t plan on getting comfortable. The resort has a buffet, a sports bar, and 2 additional restaurants. The Hibachi restaurant you have to reserve super early 8am, 9am or you won’t get the reservation. The other restaurant is by the main pool, and it’s a grilled meat type situation, it was decent. My son enjoyed his tres leches desert. In my opinion, the food is ok, breakfast was the best break of the day, compared to the other courses. Checkout day, the night prior, around 15 of the 60 that consumed food the night prior, indulged in some nachos with cheese and meat, that seem to have lead to some food poisoning, the morning of checkout. One of our dance academy girls, in the middle of the dining room at her table, threw up and was feeling terrible. Another of our guest, his son collapsed in the elevator, and defecated on himself, she ran him to the hospital where he was diagnosed with Salmonella. Others not as intense, but same symptoms. Once this was brought up to the attention of the hotel, first they claimed it was because of the water, which in the bathroom, there’s a sign that reads “Agua no potable” “Water not potable” but no one has drank the water, and I who used it to brush my teeth had 0 symptoms of any poison. I did not eat nachos or any of the food the others ate, who got sick. Salmonella can be transmitted human to human via nutrition, chicken, beef, vegetables, fruits, so on, and even carried by birds, which doesn’t help that they have a huge plant pot hanging from the ceiling in the center of the main...

I’m currently here so I thought I’d do a review now! When I was trying to choose a place to stay the information I wanted didn’t seem to be consistent so I will review as I would have liked to have seen. I am 35, have travelled a lot from backpacking to high end places. I do all inclusive if it’s a fast trip or if I’m with my elderly mom. (Like now). My all inclusive preferences are generally mid range (which varies from country) and mid size. I prefer mid range as too high end is not my thing; I’ve found the staff usually overworked and almost scared of supervisors. The difference in facilities isn’t worth the atmosphere for me. I also like mid size as walking miles for anything isn’t my thing.

I’m not a picky traveller as that’s just a way to be always miserable. I accept a few bad things as a matter of course.

So now that you have a reasonable idea of my preferences here are my thoughts on the GEB.

Location: on a great, non wavey beach. So not for surfing but great to just sit in the water. It’s shallow for a while, so no drop offs. Water is warm. Beach has no seaweed or trash. Life guard is there. Panama is HOT. Most people are on the beach from the morning to noon, and then from 3-6:30. Too hot even in shade from 12-3. There are some lounge chairs and shaded huts, but most people don’t last long lounging and are either in the ocean or leave.

There is no food or bar service on the beach. Steps down to the beach are in need of repair and can be a little hazardous. If you’re a beach person this is a great place.

The pool area has about 4-5 pools of different depths. Some for kids height. None past shoulder depth for most people. Pools are cool. Bottoms are slippery so maybe not as cleaned regularly as they should be, but water is clear. Lots of longer chairs but most have no shade so that can be a pain. I’m not a sun worshiper so I rarely hung out around the pool.

There is a beach bar and food area that is open most of the day. Burger fries hotdogs nachos. That sort of thing. Standard. Pop machines that you can do your own refills. I only ate nachos there and they were fine.

There is a pool bar, hard to get a stool as usually full. And when i did it wasn’t great as it smelled funny. I think it’s the side of the bar where people lounge against and isn’t properly cleaned.

The rooms are pretty standard. Not brand new and but not decrepit. The bathrooms are a little tired looking but they work and the showers have hot water. The rooms have flat tv with Amazon and internet on them, there are small fridges that have a few beer and canned pop when you arrive. Water bottles are new daily. Coffee pod machines are also here.

There is the main buffet, and three restaurants and the pool bar area. It is standard buffet food. Lots of fruit and salad stuff. Bread. Desserts. Food that kids will like and food that adults will like. Turkey. Pork. Fish. Nothing bad, just normal. Went to the “Japanese” restaurant and well, it’s obvious the space is being used because it was there. (The report used to be a Sheraton). The chefs try and recreate the cook before you atmosphere but if you’ve been to one before, this is a little underwhelming. Food was fine, and something different to do (we’re here for 2 weeks). But not something I’d repeat. I haven’t gone to the others.

There is a lobby bar that seems a little out of place but it’s a place you get a drink or two coffee.

This is a family place, which means there are kids, so if that’s not your thing, don’t come. I don’t particularly like adult only as they tend to be couples only which can be a bit dull.

It’s also mostly Spanish guests which was a first for me. In fact i think it’s 70% Panamanian people. It’s a nice change from just other people from Canada or the states. But English isn’t the main language so that may be an issue for some.

The drinks are, frankly, awful. I’m not a big drinker, but on vacation, cocktails are the best. The beer is keg, only one type which is fine. But it’s a little bland. There is red or white wine. Ran...

They have the worst customer service at this resort. First of all, these folks does not cater for black people. They only cater for their own or white folks that actually speaks Spanish. The hotel is so nasty and filthy even have wild animals roaming around in the dining area. The few days we were there for, we saw two big old dogs there and a cat walking around in the eating area.You do not know if any of the guest there are allergic to animals.

The rooms are nasty. The toilets are nasty because they do not clean them. I could not even sit on the toilet bowl. Both the inside and outside of the bowl looks like it hasn't been clean from the time it had installed. The showers are the same, nasty with alot of mildew etc. The floors are nasty. They dining area is always nasty with wet papers on the floor and what looks like someone's vomit on the floor. Since we've been there, I've found a piece of hair on my cake.

The dining tables are always dirty and filthy. Everytime we go there to eat, we have to walk around with a plate of food in our hands for 30 minutes because there were no clean tables and it's not a whole lot of tables there to sit around. I kept asking the ladies there to clean the tables so we could get to sit and eat and they refuse to. They refuse to even serve us anything. They payed more attention to the white folks there and there kind of people.

There were flies pitching on the food there and they didn't bother to cover them up. The glasses that they used to serve drinks were so dirty. I went to get a glass of drink and the first cup I took up was dirty. The second and third cup was disgusting. I removed the 3 dirty cups and told the young lady to remove them and all she did was looked at me.

More than half of the guest there were complaining about the nastiness in the hotel. We were there for about 4 days and had to move to another hotel that was by far better than that piece of shack. There were so much going on at the hotel that was wrong on so many levels. When we complain about the condition of the hotel, instead of them fixing the problem, they want to move us into a Junior suit. We refuse and told them that we rather go elsewhere because moving us to a bigger suit will not change all the nastiness that was going on there.

When we checked in that morning, they gave us a different room from the one we payed for. We paid for an ocean view room, they gave us garden view. When we went to our room, later on that early morning, they sent someone with cold snack and 2 glass of open soda to our room for $8. We didn't even order room service. We payed the guy the $8 but we didn't touch the food the young man bring. We dont even drink soda either

First off, we didn't order any food. Second, the distance from where they kept those snacks to the floor where we were located on, anything could have happened. How would we know that those open glass of drink they bring wasn't laced with something. How would we know whether or not you didn't spit, sneeze, or pick your nostrils and put in it, or put your body parts in it. We do not know what happen on the elevator with that food because other people ride that elevator also.

There were even snakes there crawling around in the open. This hotel is the worst I've seen. I wouldn't recommend my worst enemy to go there. These people are so shady. They only cater for a certain group of people there. To spend thousands of dollars to go to an all inclusive hotel that doesn't even give you snacks, beer, icecream etc. We have to pay for a can of beer and pay for that nasty plate with small cuts of bread. They do not have much entertainment there either. When you do request them to play a song for you, they refuse to even do that. It was all about taking care of their own.

Warning: Do not book this hotel for you and your family. Spend that extra bucks and go to a better resort. It would...