Location:
El Cangrejo
This is the older gambling district of Panama City, so you can find casinos like Wyndham’s Veneto, and Crowne Plaza’s casino within short walking distance. As the casino district, there are also lots of late night eateries, e.g. Niko’s, and a bunch of others around the casinos. It is also between two of the metro stations, making public transportation easy. There are also bus stops running in front of Via Espana, one of which serves Tocumen International Airport. Rey’s supermarket is also within short walking distance. So, there are many amenities within a short walk from the hotel.
Check In/Check out:
There were two couples in front of me at check in at 2.45 pm. There was just one guy manning the counter, so that took a while. I used the time to take photos of the lobby. I was given the room that I booked – a non-smoking King bed room, but I was given the accessible room on the lowest floor (Level 1) on a 10-level building, so that was rather annoying.
I checked out at 5.45 am for my early flight, so suffice to say, there was nobody there, and so the check out took all of 1 min.
The room:
I booked into a city-view King room. It had a ‘city’ view, but at the first level, I really couldn’t see much. The room was very spacious and clean, and the bed was comfortable. I liked that their power plugs are updated with USB chargers.
The bathroom was also very spacious. I am not sure if this was a standard thing, or because this is an accessible room. They stock neutrogena bath products. The drainage of the room had some issues. The shower stall had a tendency to flood, and because it was an accessible room, they couldn’t have the shower area sunken in, so that made for a whole lot of fun. I also had an issue with the toilet plugging up on the second day.
They provide a “coffee maker” in the room, which is once again, slightly misleading. I did not use it, but it looked more like a hot water boiler more so than a coffee maker. They did make packs of instant coffee and tea bags available.
Breakfast:
The breakfast was actually pretty good. They had at least four hot stations, and my favorite part – a waffle maker! The waffle maker was very popular, but the make-it-yourself waffle was a total crowd pleaser. They had your usual breads, cereals, and also, drip coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and two-three juices.
Service:
It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad either. I called for the toilet to be unclogged, and left the room after the phone call. Perhaps a plumber came by and knocked, and didn’t enter when I didn’t answer, but regardless, my toilet wasn’t unclogged that evening. It only got unclogged when I left the room for the day. But for what it’s worth, this was the only place that I stayed that acknowledged my Hilton status, even if it didn’t mean much.
Amenities:
They have a pool at the roof top, which closes at 11 pm. It seemed very popular. As I swim to exercise, and am a lap swimmer, I decided against it – didn’t want to kill families having some fun in the pool. They also have a gym beside the pool. It was smallish, but adequate.
Other stuff:
They do have a kitchen, so you could order room service, or eat in the dining area. The entrees (e.g. pizza, pasta) were around 10+ USD, which is slightly pricey, but also somewhat reasonable for Panama City prices.
One of my favorite things about this hotel is, from 9 pm – 11 pm, they put out coffee, tea, and hot chocolate for guests in the lobby area. So if you are just coming in from your day’s adventures, it is kinda nice to have a hot beverage before turning in for the night. Or maybe you just need your late night caffeine fix for gambling.
Overall:
I am not sure how long this hotel will remain a category 1 hotel. But at 5000 Hilton points, it was a pretty good deal. Generally, casino hotels in Panama City aren’t very expensive, but hey, if you can just spend 5000 Hilton points, and not pay anything out of your pocket, it’s hard to argue with that.
Wanderlust 