VISTA CARIBE

Great place, great view, great host and great food. Thank you Franck.

Beautiful rural location. Very exotic. Very clean and tidy. We were lucky in finding this place.

A very nice and comfortable room with an amazing view. The owners are very welcoming and friendly and have plenty to show and say about the local area and wildlife.

Beautiful remote location, able to see sloths, toucans and hear the holler monkeys from the terrace.

The establishment does not follow booking.com policy. It is listed as free cancelation prior to a certain date. I had originally booked for new years, but canceled a week prior to the listed deadline as my friend's flight was canceled. When I re-booked 3 weeks later, the owners wrote me to say that- while the property was again listed as free cancelation, that no longer applied to me. I would have to leave a 200$ payment if I wanted my reservation. I should canceled then. It is not a boutique hotel and it does not have a restaurant. It is a bed and breakfast owned by owners that seem overwhelmed and are at times (unintendedly?) rude and offer poor service. When we arrived, the owner asked me "if my daughter was clean". His Spanish (and English) are a bit rusty, so I assumed I was misunderstanding. However he repeated it asking me if my daughter "is clean, or if she was going to make "chichi" in his beds" (while pointing at his groin for clarity). This may be a language barrier, but we are in Panama, it would be useful to know how to not offend your guests in Spanish. I had previously written asking if we needed a car or if we would be able to walk to the beach etc, I was told no car necessary. When we arrived at 5:30 pm, after the rude comments, we were informed that Booking.com was wrong, there was no restaurant or dinner for us. Dinner had to be requested in the morning at breakfast. Instead we could walk in the dark (this place is secluded) to a local Fonda. The Fonda was super close (200m), but it is a dusty, empty, remote, wooded road, where the light from a phone does nothing to illuminate the path. The next night, the fish plate was good. But we explained that one was a celiac who can't fish and asked for simple rice and vegetables. Instead he made couscous and was offended that they couldn't eat it. We were charged the full 25$ for the plate of vegetables.

Small property Owner run Excellent dinner Rural location

Hotel owners were pleasant and friendly

Hotel was remote driving down a difficult road which would have been worthwhile if the accommodation was worth it. Views from balcony were very nice but the room was at best sparse with little to no furniture, only hand soap in the bathroom, one very small and very old used bar of soap in shower, no drinking water in room, no toiletries, no fridge, no tea/coffee making facilities, no mosquito/insect deterrent just a bed and towels. Room was clean but rubbish not cleared from bathroom bin on arrival. These basic small amenities are standard especially at this price of $132 a night. Even if you had your own drink/food supplies, there was nowhere to use/store them. No beach within walking distance. Payment was to be made at the hotel and they in fact only accepted cash. This was really inconvenient and not clear when making reservation on bkg.com. It was only stated after confirmation email was received. This should have been made clear by bkg.com at the point of making the reservation so that you can make an informed decision to proceed. I would not. All in all sadly overpriced, Having read such good reviews before booking, I was surprised and greatly disappointed.