Looking for some affordable R & R during the
lovely Liman winter break we headed for an all-inclusive resort
in Panama. Flights to Panama City are cheap through Copa Airlines
and they have an online service. We used a travel agent, Pilar
(CH Tours - the school's travel agent), who arranged everything
for us. We stayed at a resort called Decameron Costa Blanca (http://www.decameron.com)
which was about two hours from the airport by bus. The resort
is located on the Pacific side, west of Panama City.
The resort was very clean and modern and the service there was
excellent. It was also advertised as absolutely no tipping of
staff allowed (included in price) and it was actually true. The
resort had an excellent variety of different restaurants but the
food was only average, satisfying your hunger but definitely not
gourmet by any means. On the other hand the drink selection was
excellent (I think rare for an all-inclusive) and the bartenders
gave excellent service. They even had all you can smoke cigarettes
(their national brand of course) for those on their way to an
early retirement.
The resort also would arrange tours for you and there was a lot
to choose from. We went on a shopping/canal tour that satisfied
both of our interests. The shopping tour went to a huge shopping
complex in Panama City that had a great selection of stores from
North, Central and South America. Some good deals on clothing,
shoes and lots of other stuff could be found. The canal tour was
very interesting as they showed the history of the Panama Canal.
We then watched a container ship make the transit through the
Miraflores Locks just outside of Panama City in the now defunct
Canal Zone (it was demilitarized recently when the canal was transferred
to complete Panamanian control).
Most of the guests at the resort were Columbian or from Central
America as July is the off-season there. It is their rainy season
but we had about half of our days there be mainly sunny. Overall
it was a very relaxing vacation.
