La Romántica — Hotel in Saboga

Sea Las Perlas… overpriced and underserviced, it is the perfect example of a 'Panamanian Chiva' on the water. You pay almost $100 to travel 2 hours like a cow on its way to the slaughterhouse. Horrible experience. If you can find alternatives, please, I strongly advise doing so.||Overall, Contadora is unjustifiably expensive, and that quality translates to every aspect of the island… accommodation, food, transport. It's all about short-term profit, but not long-term business. Very little customer service; all everyone is thinking about is how to get the very last dollar from you. You should definitely be getting more for what you are paying for… and it’s even more expensive if you are not traveling with a large group. Couples and families of 4, you've been warned!||La Romántica seems to be a once family home turned B&B, managed by a landlord and his wife. Heavily hit by the Pandemic (and currently on sale), it’s frozen in time… not in bad shape, but no improvements and no attention to detail. It seems much nicer in photos (USD 100 - 120 per night). Though the bedroom size was comfortable, clean, the air conditioner is really cold, and the breakfast is good, take into account that there is no bathroom and no air conditioning in the lobby… so be ready to endure the 3-hour wait you'll experience once you check out at 11:30 AM and take the ferry at 2:30 PM.||Undoubtedly, Mar y Oro is the best hotel and restaurant on the Island (and the most expensive as well). Good food and good service don't come cheap. However, the best budget-friendly recommendation would be to travel with a party of +6, rent a modestly comfy apartment (through the app we all know), bring some food with you from Panama City, and buy whatever small thing you might need at the local supermarket (not much variety, though).||The 'mulas' (golf carts) are old and expensive, and if rented in the hotel, you have 24 hours to return them (USD 100). If you are staying for the weekend, no advice is given to better rent them at 2:30 PM the day you arrive, to have it until it's time to catch the ferry the following day. If you want it for some extra hours to get the most of your last day, you'll have to pay almost half of a full day (USD 50). Then again, it's a short-sighted approach to business.||Playa Larga is the best beach you'll find, because you have some shelter and a place to buy fresh water and food at a reasonable price. Be sure to get there (and any other beach) early in the morning and late in the afternoon. DO NOT go when the tides are low and during midday; you'll be slow-cooked by the sun and the heat. I can guarantee you won't enjoy it.||Casa Tortuga is a nice place if you have (and want) to spend between USD 25-35 per meal. The same applies to Mar y Oro. Nevertheless, the best option would be to cook your meals in your rented apartment and, if you are just too tired or don't feel like it, find local restaurants like 'Restaurante Angelina' and order...

Well to be honest we are very disappointed with our stay. First hotel is far from the beach, the closest Kamaron is a private beach and we were going every day to hotel Mar y Oro to swim. No restaurants around, we did few kms walking to Restaurant Clarita and again to Mar y Oro to eat or supermarket next to airport. Second is there was no hot water in our room for 3 days. Administrator Yaris said that gonna repair that soon but didn't happen. About cleaning. Young girls teenagers preparing rooms for guests. Of course they don't care much. The room was dirty, black hair in a shower, no towels for the face and feet and they didn't change towels until I asked myself. Draining in washbasin doesn't work, I asked to have a look, but it was ignorance. At the breakfast next door couple said that they don't have toilet papers already for a second day and room is also not cleaned!!! And I can continue with negative points: No iron, no hairdryer, no paper towels at the breakfast, very noisy around, no sound protection, administrator's kids are always around with friends playing and talking, it's not really romantic place for couples. At night when heavy raining it's impossible to sleep, roof doesn't protect much, there are noises, like it's a hard rock concert above you. !!!!! And the last one: Yaris didn't want to give us invoice and 10% discount on price even we payed cash. Yaris said its already an offer price (probably for hot water problem) and no 10% less. Well to solve the problem we called the owner Charlie and we got all the papers we needed and 10% cash back in 10 minutes. It's a disaster for a hotel service I think. I have no any idea how they received all these positive feedbacks. Probably there are some tricks. I'm really sorry to say that but I would not recommend to anyone to stay at this hotel. A lot of stress, no relaxing. We were celebrating our check out....

Excellent place to stay in Contadora. Was a bit worried but everything was much better than expexted. This is a small B&B, only 4 rooms, that tries and succeed in making you feel very welcomed and that you're staying with friends. Owner is very nice and goes above and beyond in trying to ease thing up for you. Breakfast is one of the best I have had, finally someone understood that quality and not quantity is what matters most, and they spared no money in this. And a good breakfast is a good start of the day. They taken us from the airport, given us a tour, rented us a golf cart, helped us with recommendations and given us a tour of the small island. Room itself was big, came with a very useful fridge, bed (round one!) was comfortable and bathroom was nice, with hot water. Property had a nice patio that you could use, buyed some things from supermarket and it was a bice place to stay. Stayed 4 nights and then moved to the only beachfront hotel on the island, Mar y Oro, which was twice as expensive, and the rooms and breakfast there were nowhere near La Romantica (but nice beachfront location). Beaches and supermercado are 10 min walk or rent a...