Casa Acuario Boutique Hotel

All. The confort and great location

The noise but we are in bocas and with a lot of boat traffic

Breakfast is delicious. Location is perfect and the staff is super friendly.

Right on the water with snorkeling - I saw stingray, barracuda, starfish and other variety of fish! The coffee is delish! Ariel and the staff were amazing!

As you will read with all the reviews, the sand flies are relentless and nothing will prevent getting bit. It’s worth it though!

I loved everything about our stay. The hosts and staff were so helpful and friendly, the hotel is beautiful and relaxing, the breakfast was great. I loved the honor system fridge, all the dogs hanging out, and general atmosphere.

I liked everything, so not applicable.

Great experience wonderful host and staff!!! We will comeback

Excelente

Nothing

We loved everything about our stay. The island is beautiful and the hotel is clean and comfortable and charming and our family loved sleeping over the water. We saw dolphins, pelicans and pufferfish (and lots of other fish) right off the deck - amazing. Breakfasts were delicious and Mandy, JP and Ariel went the extra mile to ensure we had a perfect vacation including suggesting things to do and where to eat and organizing a boat for us. Our kids loved the very well behaved dogs and the extra touches like the snorkels, kayaks, paddle boards and board games!

Nothing - everything was perfect!

We loved this boutique hotel. We never had the breakfast but the freedom allowed at the hotel was great. Coffee was available in the mornings, free of charge. In the evening, we were able to help ourselves to ice or glasses that we needed to make our own cocktails. The staff, specifically Ariel, and his dog Lobo, was great. He was very friendly and helpful. We loved that the hotel was so laid back, so close to Bocas Town, and yet had restaurants nearby that we could easily walk to. The view from the deck of our hotel room was great. And the owner, Mandy, was very helpful even though she was not at the hotel during our stay. If we ever come back we will stay at this hotel again.

Sand fleas, although the hotel had some bug screens made of oil that helped. If you go, make sure you put a lot of the oil on your body if you are near the beach especially.

My family and I stayed in six different hotels across Panama over a two week period and the consensus at the end was that Casa Acuario was the favourite. And by quite a distance. First of all, it’s just a cool place to stay. On stilts, over clear warm water, perfect for the kids (and adults) to snorkel, we got to see shawls of small fish along with a few big ones and the odd ray within seconds of our arrival. We were a two minute boat-taxi away from Bocas town and its modest number of good bars and restaurants, but staying at Casa Acuario meant we got the peace and quiet which the mainland didn’t look like it easily provided. The room we were in (upstairs) was easily big enough for two adults and the kids (aged 13 and 10), nicely decorated and with really comfortable beds and a hammock from which you could overlook the sea. As dog lovers, my children were over the moon that there were three (clean, friendly and well behaved) dogs on site. There were a couple of good places to eat and drink on the small island which we could get to on foot from Casa Acuario, and a nice beach about 15mins walk from the hotel. The fridge full of beer on the decking was also a nice touch! But alongside all of these positives, the main thing that gave Casa Acuario the ‘X Factor’ were the owners, Mandy and JP. We were made to feel welcome from minute one, they could not have been more helpful and they made a real impression on the whole family in our three days with them. And just to provide a little context, after Casa Acuario were went to the nearby, and much more expensive, Eclypse de Mar Acqua Lodge for two nights which, before arriving, I thought was going to be the highlight of the Bocas itinerary. Take nothing away from The Eclypse which was seriously nice, but I wish I’d stayed at Casa Acuario for the full duration. Definitely in the top 5 favourite hotels I’ve stayed in across six continents.

Genuinely, nothing to report. If you held a gun to my head and told me to find fault I'd say the water-taxis were sometimes a bit noisy during the night, but this was mitigated by a sound bar in each of the hotel's rooms gently playing white noise* so it didn't affect me personally. *Another nice touch from Mandy and JP.