DansDeals Forum > Trip Reports
Panama with 6 kids incl San blas islands
chuchem:
In Switzerland the kids have 2 weeks vacation in February. The last few years we always traveled to Miami and enjoyed it very much. After going there quite a few times, it got quite boring. We have done all the attractions more than once and I wanted to try something new. I wanted a place with kosher food, warm weather and stuff to do with the kids. I checked a few options and decided, let's try panama
I looked for some cheap tickets from Europe and found a good rate from zrh via cdg with air France. When I travel with the kids, I fly economy (us airways days are over, I used them through trackitback to fly with kids business to Hawaii and Asia) but always pay the extra money for first row seats. I do need a little extra space and this makes the flight manageable, even in economy. Air France had a good rate in premium economy, that wasn't much more after buying premium seats in economy, so I booked that.
Advantages of air france:
When traveling with kids (we habe 6 boys age 2-12) I make sure that the travel is as easy possible, so that my dear wife will want to come along on these trips in the future. Air France only left at 10:40, so this made the stress in the morning easier. The other airlines that fly from Europe (lh, klm, ob) would have been much earlier. Also af premium economy gives premium access to premium economy, so business class check in, no wait by security. On the way back, they had a late 21:10 departure from pty, so the kids would sleep easy
So I had 10 days in panama, sun-wed and had to arrange a program for that time. My plan was to stay the first week in panama city and do all the activities and spend the second week at the beach relaxing somewhere. I checked a few hotels and the sortis had the best deal: 1 bedroom suite (separate living room, small kitchen and 2 bathrooms) for 240 dollars a night. That included 60 dollars spending money at the hotel daily. I decided to book 2 of these suites, that would be perfect for us. I kept on checking on the rate until departure and it lowered to 165 dollars a night. I booked it through hotels.com (every 10 night free) and some cashback, so I got the rate down to 145 usd a night. What a amazing rate for 90 m2 suite in a 5 star hotel. Beats crazy prices in miami. The hotel also had a kosher sushi restaurant in the lobby, so it was a no brainer. The only minus, it's a 25min walk from the Jewish area and is not in the eiruv (more on that later)
As I have older boys I wanted to spend the second week somewhere at the beach, but not have bumper to bumper traffic at the pool. The easiest option would have been the le meridien outside Panama city, that is on the beach. I didn't consider it, as the beach didn't seem to get a good review and the znius aspect at the pool wasn't to good.
I looked at quite a few villas along the coast, that had nice pools and beach access, but couldn't decide which one and kept on pushing it off. By the time I wanted to book one, all were taken. So I went back to a crazy idea I had: San blas islands. If you read about San blas, you will see its 100s of small islands along the coast of Panama that look stunning. White sand, secluded beaches, amazing water… basically a second Maldives.
The only problem, you can't find any decent accommodation and with 6 kids I couldn't sleep in a hut on the beach without electricity. This left us with one option: chartering a boat. Sounds crazy with 6 kids, but looking at these amazing pictures, I really wanted to make it happen. I reached out to a few companies that offer it and found the perfect boat. A beautiful Catamaran with 4 bedrooms. It was quite expensive (about 1200 a night) but it had a crew of 3 and gave us enough room comfortably for our family. I decided to book it for 2 nights and spend the last night before our flight back in panama city. Normally these charters come with food, I got a 10% discount, telling them I will bring my own food. I also arranged check in and check out at 15:00 afternoon and not at 9 in the morning. This gave us enough time to shop Sunday morning for food and make the drive to San Blas without getting up early.
The only way to get to San Blas, take a 4x4 for about 2 hour drive from Panama city. I contacted a few companies that offered transportation and all only had 7 seaters. They offered to squeeze us in, but I didn't want to be stuck for 2 hours on 6 seats (driver 1 seat) only other option was to take 2 suv or rent my own car. I did have to go shopping that morning and not being depended on a transport company seemed like the better deal. I checked prices and avis had a luxury 7 seater suv for 230 usd for 3 days incl insurance, so I went for that. Pick up was a 5 min drive from the hotel
Flights booked. Accommodations booked.
Just needed to arrange the tours for the first week. Landing Sunday at 7pm meant the kids would be very tired and I didn't want to stress the first day, so I left Monday empty to explore on our own pace. Friday erev shabbes, I wanted a little time to relax and get us food for shabbes, so this left tue,wed,thu to explore. After reading the previous trip reports on Ddf, I decided to book with Soray from therealpanamatours. Let me just say this in advance, she was amazing! I contacted her through whatsapp and told her the 3 tours I wanted to do
-embera village tour
-st Anton valley day trip
-Panama canal and lake gatun
We arranged these three tours for tue-thu. She was so easy to deal with and communication was top. I also booked her to pick us up from airport with a mini bus for 45 usd
All planning done….
Next: actual trip
Yammer:
--- Quote from: chuchem on February 18, 2018, 02:01:54 AM ---In Switzerland the kids have 2 weeks vacation in February. The last few years we always traveled to Miami and enjoyed it very much. After going there quite a few times, it got quite boring. We have done all the attractions more than once and I wanted to try something new. I wanted a place with kosher food, warm weather and stuff to do with the kids. I checked a few options and decided, let's try panama
I looked for some cheap tickets from Europe and found a good rate from zrh via cdg with air France. When I travel with the kids, I fly economy (us airways days are over, I used them through trackitback to fly with kids business to Hawaii and Asia) but always pay the extra money for first row seats. I do need a little extra space and this makes the flight manageable, even in economy. Air France had a good rate in premium economy, that wasn't much more after buying premium seats in economy, so I booked that.
Advantages of air france:
When traveling with kids (we habe 6 boys age 2-12) I make sure that the travel is as easy possible, so that my dear wife will want to come along on these trips in the future. Air France only left at 10:40, so this made the stress in the morning easier. The other airlines that fly from Europe (lh, klm, ob) would have been much earlier. Also af premium economy gives premium access to premium economy, so business class check in, no wait by security. On the way back, they had a late 21:10 departure from pty, so the kids would sleep easy
So I had 10 days in panama, sun-wed and had to arrange a program for that time. My plan was to stay the first week in panama city and do all the activities and spend the second week at the beach relaxing somewhere. I checked a few hotels and the sortis had the best deal: 1 bedroom suite (separate living room, small kitchen and 2 bathrooms) for 240 dollars a night. That included 60 dollars spending money at the hotel daily. I decided to book 2 of these suites, that would be perfect for us. I kept on checking on the rate until departure and it lowered to 165 dollars a night. I booked it through hotels.com (every 10 night free) and some cashback, so I got the rate down to 145 usd a night. What a amazing rate for 90 m2 suite in a 5 star hotel. Beats crazy prices in miami. The hotel also had a kosher sushi restaurant in the lobby, so it was a no brainer. The only minus, it's a 25min walk from the Jewish area and is not in the eiruv (more on that later)
As I have older boys I wanted to spend the second week somewhere at the beach, but not have bumper to bumper traffic at the pool. The easiest option would have been the le meridien outside Panama city, that is on the beach. I didn't consider it, as the beach didn't seem to get a good review and the znius aspect at the pool wasn't to good.
I looked at quite a few villas along the coast, that had nice pools and beach access, but couldn't decide which one and kept on pushing it off. By the time I wanted to book one, all were taken. So I went back to a crazy idea I had: San blas islands. If you read about San blas, you will see its 100s of small islands along the coast of Panama that look stunning. White sand, secluded beaches, amazing water… basically a second Maldives.
The only problem, you can't find any decent accommodation and with 6 kids I couldn't sleep in a hut on the beach without electricity. This left us with one option: chartering a boat. Sounds crazy with 6 kids, but looking at these amazing pictures, I really wanted to make it happen. I reached out to a few companies that offer it and found the perfect boat. A beautiful Catamaran with 4 bedrooms. It was quite expensive (about 1200 a night) but it had a crew of 3 and gave us enough room comfortably for our family. I decided to book it for 2 nights and spend the last night before our flight back in panama city. Normally these charters come with food, I got a 10% discount, telling them I will bring my own food. I also arranged check in and check out at 15:00 afternoon and not at 9 in the morning. This gave us enough time to shop Sunday morning for food and make the drive to San Blas without getting up early.
The only way to get to San Blas, take a 4x4 for about 2 hour drive from Panama city. I contacted a few companies that offered transportation and all only had 7 seaters. They offered to squeeze us in, but I didn't want to be stuck for 2 hours on 6 seats (driver 1 seat) only other option was to take 2 suv or rent my own car. I did have to go shopping that morning and not being depended on a transport company seemed like the better deal. I checked prices and avis had a luxury 7 seater suv for 230 usd for 3 days incl insurance, so I went for that. Pick up was a 5 min drive from the hotel
Flights booked. Accommodations booked.
Just needed to arrange the tours for the first week. Landing Sunday at 7pm meant the kids would be very tired and I didn't want to stress the first day, so I left Monday empty to explore on our own pace. Friday erev shabbes, I wanted a little time to relax and get us food for shabbes, so this left tue,wed,thu to explore. After reading the previous trip reports on Ddf, I decided to book with Soray from therealpanamatours. Let me just say this in advance, she was amazing! I contacted her through whatsapp and told her the 3 tours I wanted to do
-embera village tour
-st Anton valley day trip
-Panama canal and lake gatun
We arranged these three tours for tue-thu. She was so easy to deal with and communication was top. I also booked her to pick us up from airport with a mini bus for 45 usd
All planning done….
Next: actual trip
--- End quote ---
Keep em coming
Denverite:
--- Quote from: Yammer on February 18, 2018, 03:18:43 AM ---Keep em coming
--- End quote ---
+1, can't wait to see all your pictures! I'm hoping to add San Blas with the kids in as well so I'm especially looking forward. :)
chuchem:
Sunday:
We made our way to the airport and checked in very fast using the business class check in. As we got to the airport quite late we didn't have time for any lounge and went straight to the gate. The flight zrh-cdg is quite short and no ksml was served. We had a little less then 2 hours in Paris and the connection went quite smooth. We were able to use the priority line for passport control. The only pain in cdg: they don't give back the stroller. They will check it straight to final destination. Our son can walk already, so not so bad, but with small kids quite a pain.
Our flight to pty should have been a new 787 but got changed last minute to a 777.
The premium economy on the 787 is a little better and it also didn't have wifi. Flight was full in all cabins, but we didn't really feel it as this small PE cabin only had 24 seats. The entertainment system was very good and it worked from sitting down. Some airlines don't start the system until in the air, I really like it right away, as it helps settling the kids down
The seat was very comfortable, we had plenty of legroom, it was wide enough… for sure worth it for a 11 hour flight.
The food from Paris was a Desaster. I knew that in advance and took along our own sandwiches. For main course they served fish! It comes from Amsterdam and was one of the worst ever tasted.
The flight dragged quite long and our 2 year old wasn't easy all the time, as this is the hardest age to travel. Wants to walk around and doesn't want to watch movies. We landed in pty 30 min before schedule and passed immigration quite fast, as we exited the plane before the entire economy cabin. Pty is a small airport and luggage didn't take long to arrive. Soray’s driver was waiting for us and the drive to the hotel took about 30 min.
I was in contact with the manager before arrival and he promised 2 suites on the same floor. Checking in at 8:30 pm that wasn't available. I was very upset, but there was nothing they could do. I could have waited 2 hours or take a suite and a regular room on same floor and move the regular room to a suite the next day. As we didn't really need the second room to be a suite, that's what we did. Staff was very friendly and the lobby looked quite nice. We got to our rooms and the suite was exactly like on the pictures. We had plenty of space and the sofabed in the living room comfortably fit 2 kids. Suite was very modern and spacious, really nothing to complain. For us it was 3 in the morning and none of my kids slept on the plane, so I figured it would be a easy ‘good night’ but they remembered to be hungry and couldn't go to sleep without food. This is were kava came in really handy. A good kosher sushi/pizza place in the lobby. Got some pizza and sushi-was very good and finally made it to bed after a long day
Monday:
We got up quite late and went to for breakfast to the guy easiest way to get around is by Uber, so my wife and I each ordered a separate Uber from the app.
We only eat cholov Yisroel and realized that all restaurants don't keep it. You have a very limited amount of things you can order, that is chalav Yisroel, so be aware if you want to eat milky in panama and keep it,The pizza was Cy, everything else not. No milkshakes, no pastas… this is why it was the last time we went to eat milky. Food was ok, nothing special
We decided to check out the kosher food situation and went to multicentro not far from there. At the -2 level in the parking garage there is a huge kosher shop. Its called deli k and really has anything you can ask for. It's bigger than a lot of shops in Israel or usa.
We bought stuff that we need for the next days: nosh, cereal and milk for breakfast, bread for lunch sandwiches….
On the way back we dropped the stuff at the hotel and continued to ancon hill. Ancon hill is a small hill outside Panama city, that has amazing views from the top. It's a 45 min hike per way through the jungle and very stroller friendly. We got to see some animals on the way and took some amazing pics on the top. Make sure to bring plenty of water, as there is nobody selling it on top
We then walked down and at the bottom it had a small stall selling drinks and fruits. It also had a small museum on Panamanian culture, but we didn't go
After a while we headed back to the hotel and hit the pool for 2 hours. It was quite empty and I had no problem taking my little We also changed our second room to a suite on the same floor.
For dinner we went to Luna by darna. Food was very good and it was nice sitting outside. It's a short 3 min walk from the sortis, that made it quite convenient. As we still had a little jetlag and had to get up relatively early, we called it a early night
Tomorrow: embrea village tour
cozmohoot:
Thanks for sharing. It's very cool that Panama has all these kosher food options.
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