Las Clementinas — Hotel in San Felipe

My wife and I spent a week in Panamá City and Casco Viejo and as such wanted to have a kitchen to cook the great fresh foods available from nearby markets (such as Mercado San Felipe). Las Clementinas was our choice for accommodation and it was a good choice! We had flat #6 which is on the top floor and very tastefully and comfortably decorated. French doors in both the sitting room and bedroom open up to your own balconies with potted clementine trees that had ripe oranges to add to the charm. The central AC is located in the flat and worked very well, and as you realize when visiting this part of the world is a very important feature! The kitchen was sufficiently equipped to cook many meals with an electric four burner stove and microwave oven. An enormous fridge freezer provided ample space for food and beverages. The queen size bed was very comfortable and the bathroom with large walk-in shower was very good too. The staff are very friendly and you can arrange and choose on how frequently you want your room cleaned, etc. If anything is needed, just ask. Important to know: There is no elevator... and so being on the fourth floor (3rd Euro) you choose your outings carefully as it is a bit of a hike upstairs. The flipside benefit is that this lessens the street noise which is omnipresent in the neighbourhood on Friday and Saturday nights until well into the wee hours. The excellent double glazed doors and windows also do a good job of reducing the street sounds. Mahalo restaurant and bar are on the ground floor of the hotel and we made a habit of enjoying its happy hour and the skills of Anthony the bartender. The food menu is both creative and tasty. Logistics: The hotel assisted our arrival and departure by arranging a driver for pick-up from and to the airport (the price of which was only slightly higher than Uber, but better for the sake of certainty). Ubers are plentiful, prompt and inexpensive for outings to the central districts of San Francisco, Bella Vista, Punte Paetilla, etc. Also: There is a rooftop terrace for hotel guests only with tables and chairs and great views of the sunset behind Ancon Hill, the Financial District and of course the other rooftops of Casco Viejo. We used it and never had any company... essentially a private roof deck! Bring your own wine and cheese up to relax and soak in the evening views. Location-wise the hotel is toward the northwestern end of the historic district and as such one should not go too much further west as you will quickly get into the less than savoury district of El Chorillo. Do not go there. However, we did not have any issues in the immediate vicinity of the Hotel, nor have any bad vibes either, and, there is a police station right across the street! One block the other direction is the beautiful historic church, Santa Maria de la Merced, very nice for Sunday morning Mass to balance out one's hedonism with a contemplative and spiritual hour. Also nearby, one block away is the 'famous' American Trade Hotel. So truly, staying at Las Clementinas, you are in Casco Viejo even though the "border" is only two streets away to the west. We enjoyed many restaurants, bars, and cafés and day tours during our week-long stay and can happily recommend Hotel Las Clementinas as a big part of our great holiday to...

The Las Clementinas Boutique Hotel is run out of a beautifully restored building discretely located in the heart of Casco Viejo, with incredible views of the Panama City skyline. Keep in mind this is a restored building (no elevators)--it's an authentic and charming boutique hotel with old school vibes. It's full of history and located in a historic area with a unique social story. We were lucky to get Apartment #4. It's on the middle floor and has several beautiful balconies, with equally beautiful views, and is perfect for couples or groups of 2. The apartment itself is clean, bright, open and fully equipped--it has a large living room area, a dining area, a full kitchen and strong air conditioning. Stocking your kitchen for your stay is super easy--there's a small supermarket only a couple minutes' walk away as well as little markets along the streets (side note: everything in Casco is walkable from the hotel). The bedroom is spacious and has a large armoire and other amenities (iron, ironing board, small safe, etc.). Another side note: the safe is small--it can hold some jewelry, money, passports, etc., but this isn't something I would worry about. We came with over $10k worth of camera equipment/laptops and it was safe the entire time. The heavy doors and window closings keep noise levels low in the evening and at night, when it gets lively in the streets outside. Cocoon yourself by also closing the bedroom doors at night and sleep like a baby (doesn't hurt that the pillows and mattress are super comfy)! The room itself has double doors that open up to the apartment's main balcony. It has a cute little table and chairs where you can sit and enjoy a drink or cup of coffee. We spent a lot of our downtime time out there! The bathroom has a large and powerful shower (hot water and good pressure!) with beautiful tiling. I loved loved loved the rooftop--the bar area wasn't active while we were there so we found ourselves up there alone quite often...it was actually really nice to be able to take a bottle of wine up in the evening, look at the skyline/landscape and take in life below. The hotel has a couple other great spaces too, including the restaurant's (definitely give it a try, it has a great and fairly priced menu) hidden garden, the event space and the quiet sunbed area just outside of the studios. It's also worth mentioning that the hotel even offers a complimentary airport transfer with a 3-night minimum booking. Hotel aside, the staff made our stay extra special. Miguel was our go-to local expert and even kindly helped us make our dinner reservations. Everyone is super friendly and always willing to help. The entire staff definitely keeps the spirit of Las Clementinas alive (which you can read about on the hotel website's blog) and do everything they can to make your stay comfortable and memorable. I would revisit in a...

Wow what a disappointment. First impression was great, the rooms are beautiful, the garden was too, staff were pleasant. But after settling in we noticed so many issues that forced us to check out early and move to another hotel, which we’ve NEVER done.

The biggest issue was the lack of cleanliness. We were extremely uncomfortable. The floors had debris throughout the unit, the toilet had yellow stains, the shower had dirt stains on the floor, there was a strange smell coming from the washroom, hand prints on the balcony window, and the WORST were the dirty beds. It felt like they didn’t change the sheets after the previous guest. The pillows had brown discolouration, and a few pillows felt grimy like someone with oily hair had slept on it. When I lifted the blanket I saw skin flakes like dandruff or scabs, hair, stains, there was black stains on the pillow and blanket possibly mascara, and other indications that this was a used bed. We all spent the first night sleeping on top of the blankets. They don’t have housekeeping clean throughout your stay so it’s not like they can just come clean the room too. This is what ultimately made us so uncomfortable we had to leave. We couldn’t even sleep properly and we had to rest before our long flight home.

In addition, we didn’t love the location, it was on the edge of a sketchy area. When you walk out of the hotel and turn left you head towards the tourist area, but if you turn right it gets a bit sketchy. We turned right to find a store and there were some homeless people, one of which was yelling in the streets and tried to approach us. And the view outside our window overlooked a home that is extremely less fortunate, not a problem, the problem is that there are people constantly sitting outside the home and in direct view of our balcony and window. So we constantly had our windows shut to maintain privacy. And was a bit awkward every time we went out on the balcony we were being stared at. The water pressure was very low as well, adding to the frustration.

It’s disappointing because Las Clementinas has so much potential but these issues ruined the beauty of the hotel. There are many other beautiful hotels in Casco Viejo, this one was...