Panama Hostel by Luis — Hotel in San Francisco

We've stayed in a quite a few hostels and cheap hotels in Latin America and this one was slightly below average. We got a private room with a bathroom and the room was in pretty poor shape. Broken furniture, bathroom had seen better days, linens were old, and overall seemed less than clean. My favorite part was how the TV would turn on in the middle of the night and the only way to shut it off was to unplug it from the surge protector near the ceiling. The best part of the room was the A/C, which worked perfectly. The location is OK near a great grocery store but there isn't much else to do in the area, aside from Panama Viejo.||||The staff were friendly and spoke English, and they had my reservation information when we arrived. It was pretty ridiculous when they sold me a map for $3, which turned out to be the free map you get from the hop-on hop off bus. Also, the $5 key deposit is a joke--we left early in the morning and they closed the office early the night before so they kept...

Luna Castle was booked, so I stayed here instead hoping for the backpacker vibe. A mix of older and younger crowd, I did meet a lot of really awesome people. Omar, one of the managers, good man. There is also a group of locals that just hang out there, can't really say why, but it seemed like they were up to no good.||||The hostel environment wasn't bad, but the location is rather poor. Perfectly safe, but away from all the action. There is a bus stop just outside that can take where you need to go but those things are hectic! Always ended up taking cabs.||||I took a stroll through Old Town during my stay, and came across Luna's Castle. My god. Backpacker haven. The number of young, beautiful women and friendly people from all around the world coming in and out of there... I felt like I was really missing out. Old Town has some quite lively nightlife, I must add.||||So if you want backpacker and can't do Luna's, this place is a good...

I have no major complaints, spent a few nights here. Room was clean, had its own bathroom which was clean. Complimentary pancakes and coffee for breakfast. (though the pancakes were not that good). Its walking distance from a 24 hour super market (super 99) so that was helpful. Its easy to catch a taxi to get around. ||||However security was ridiculous. We had no problems. but I think they could have been a bit more vigilant. So they say 24 hours check in... we arrived at 3 am in the pouring rain... we called and we were told how to open the gate and where to get the keys to our room from. Anyone could have come off the street opened the gate and gotten keys to vacant rooms! We left at 5 am (raining again too) all we did was pack up and leave the room keys on the desk since there isn't a receptionist at the desk 24/7.||||All in all, its an ok place to stay if you are looking for a low budget accommodation and will only be...