Marina Hotel at Shelter Bay — Hotel in Cristóbal

First I would like to start and say this is one of the top marina I have been to since I left Vancouver Island, BC, Canada and sailing for the last five years. The crew are very helpful and professional. The marina has everything you need and more, check it out. But sometime even the best can slip, and this is my experience when renting a room. I rented a room for two nights. As I laid in bed around 09:30 that night I felt itchiness so I got up, the reason “bug”, I took a picture and went to the front desk. That same room had leaky air conditioner, plus coffee stains on the wall. They gave me another room, yes I lifted the sheets right away and checked the mattress, again I went down and told the front desk I did not want to sleep in a dirty bed. They felt very bad and again gave me another room. At 115$ a night for a room, with no phone, no wifi and no fridge, to be honest I find that expensive. The next day after back and forth discussion, the front desk said the best they can do is 90$ a night, I left it to that thinking about my next step and before I left for Panama City I had a chat with the manager and at first he offered to buy me lunch but I deferred and then after discussions no cost for my room, also they had laundromat washed my clothes for free. I am only referring to the rooms at the hotel that I was given and nothing to do with the marina itself. The Managment were very quick to respond and to investigate the issue. I definitely recommend the marina and the hotel, I am confident they will...

We stayed at the hotel in a jungle view room for almost two weeks while getting our boat ready for storage. The building is an old US Army building and has been 'restored' for use as a marina office/hotel/restaurant and is not always the most well-planned out. Our room was comfortable enough with a queen sized bed and air conditioning, but the cleanliness left a lot to be desired. The housekeeper was very friendly, bringing us extra towels if we needed them but the floor, windowsills and even the edge of the bed had the dust of ages everywhere. Very little place to put your clothes (we basically lived out of our suitcases) and an airplane-sized bathroom in which it was almost impossible to sit on the toilet without turning sideways (plus the toilet seat was broken). The shower was okay with hot and cold water but the room was so damp all the time, nothing ever really dried out. I am not sure that I would call the room value for money, but it served our purposes. ||||No fridge, room safe, hair dryer or tea/coffee making equipment.||||We did have a number of meals at the restaurant and were pleasantly surprised at the quality - the South Pole brownie sandwich is delicious (best brownies ever!) as were all the meals we ate there. The staff (Carla, Anna, Nike, Marvin) were all super-friendly and efficient and made each meal a pleasure. Good value...

Once you spend eight days at this hotel and restaurant (not to be confused with the Marina portion)even with their imperfections, it would be hard to leave them anything other than five stars. The staff is absolutely amazing and treat you like family. If you have a problem it is taken care of immediately. I am called a picky person ( nah not me ) and I really really found the service and the people here to be amazing and I made some lifelong friends. I find that the restaurant prices are on track with any fine dining restaurant and the lunch specials are a great value and delicious. They have two chefs and each has their own way of cooking menu items but each is equally delicious. The price of the hotel is fair and includes a breakfast of coffee ( amazing coffee ) , seasonal fruit and toast. I give my reviews a lot of thought and I am confident in giving this place a 5. I do think that the restaurant should serve food later That being said, they have no problem with you hanging out on the patio with your guitar for as long as you want.Thank you Michael and Marvin. You guys are amazing. The girls are pretty...