In the fall of 2021, we booked our Panama Relocation Tour for June 10, 2022. There are at least two relocation tour companies based in Panama. We chose Panama Relocation Tours. The other that I know of is Retire in Panama. We chose the Panama Relocation Tour company because it had great reviews and seemed that it offered a lot more support following the tour for those who do in fact decide to relocate to Panama. We had a great experience and have been glad we chose the tour as our option.
There are a number of options when it comes to flying to Panama from the U.S. All U.S. flights to Panama fly into Panama City’s Tocumen Airport (PTY). Our options at the time for flying out of Austin, our closest airport. were United, Delta, or American and none of them offer direct flights from Austin to Panama City. United has a stop in Houston, Delta has a stop in Atlanta, and American has a stop in Miami. We chose American because the flights were the cheapest, around $600 round trip. Keep in mind this was toward the end of COVID restrictions and flying, especially American Airlines, ended up being a bit of a nightmare. I will get more into that later.
Because we knew there was a chance for delays, we did a couple of things we don’t usually do when flying for a trip. We flew in a day earlier than we needed to for our tour, and we made sure to get travel insurance. Because we were planning to arrive a day early, we decided to book a day trip to San Blas Islands the first day. We also decided to extend our stay in Panama beyond the seven-day tour to travel to Bocas del Toro on the Caribbean side of Panama, since our tour did not take us to that side. Those arrangements we made on our own and were relatively easy to make. The day finally arrived, and we were beyond excited. I just have to say, we didn’t know at the time that we were in for quite an adventure getting to Panama this time.
Our flight was set to leave Austin at 12:30 PM. We had our two carryon bags and a backpack each packed (all that was allowed on the tour) and ready to go. Mike just happened to wake up around midnight and checked his phone. We had a message from American that our flight had been delayed out of Austin which would cause us to miss our connection in Miami. He called the airline and found that they wouldn’t be able to get us to Panama until the 13th. Our tour left on the 10th. Obviously, he couldn’t let that slide, so after an hour on the phone he was able to get flights out of Austin on American at 7:00 AM to NYC to connect to a COPA flight to Panama. Great, but this meant that we had to leave our house at 3:30 AM to get to the airport in time for our flight. Short night.
We got to the airport where we had to board in two separate groups (B for me, C for him). I made sure I saved a seat for him as well as a spot in the overhead storage for the bag. Unfortunately, he ended up being forced to check his bag, even though there was plenty of space in the overhead bins in addition to the space I saved. I am only including this, since this situation ended up affecting our entire plan. Long story short, his bag ended up not making it to Panama. Sadly, his bag ended up being my bag (they are identical except for the name tags attached). This caused us to have to cancel our trip to San Blas the next day, since that tour left at 6:00 AM and I had no clothes. I would have been ok making do with what I had and borrowing from Mike, but our tour left the next day so if my bag didn’t show, I was going to have to do some quick shopping for stuff for the week of our tour. As it turned out, we made a trip back to the airport the next morning and the bag had shown up, so shopping trip averted but no trip to the beautiful islands. Oh well, we spent the day exploring one of the beautiful malls in Panama City and going to Casco Viejo (my favorite part of the city) to revisit some of our favorite spots from our first trip.
Our relocation tour began Friday morning with breakfast and an orientation meeting. There were 28 people on our tour. We got to meet our tour guides and had a bit of time to get to know the other members of the tour. We were provided with a lot of information and a local Panamanian attorney spoke with us about some of the legal requirement for obtaining residency in Panama and various visa options. Then we were off.
We made our way out of the city and checked out the areas around Coronado and Nueva Gorgona, had lunch, looked at rental properties, and ended the day at a beautiful resort on the beach where we had a fabulous dinner, spent time on the beach and at the pools, sang some karaoke, and spent a restful night.
During travel from place to place, we were provided with a wealth of information from finding properties to buying a car to work options for those relocating other than for retirement and everything in between. We had plenty of opportunities to get to know other folks on the tour as well. We really connected with several couples and communicate regularly with another couple who are working to retire in Panama. We continue to exchange information and stories of our respective return trips since the tour.
Our next area to explore were the towns of Chitre and Las Tablas on the Azuero Penninsula where we again had delicious food, explored the towns, and looked at rentals.
After another restful night, we were back on the road and heading to the mountain town of Boquete. After a wonderful stop for lunch and some time on the beach at Las Lajas Beach Resort, we made our way to the city of David where we explored various shopping options in Panama’s second largest city.
We then made our way on to Boquete for the night and a few days of exploring the mountain areas about thirty to forty-five minutes from David. We again saw rental options, took a shuttle tour through the area where we visited a coffee farm, beautiful nature and waterfalls, and saw numerous vegetable farms. We also took a day trip to the town of Volcan near Panama’s famous volcano, Baru. The tour ended in Boquete where the bus would take those who were leaving back to David to catch a short flight to Panama City.
Some of us chose to stay in Boquete a bit longer, others were staying a few more days back in the city, and Mike and I took a shuttle to the other side of the country to Bocas del Toro.
We discovered a whole different culture in Bocas. Bocas del Toro is on the Caribbean side of Panama and includes part of the mainland but is primarily an archipelago. Its main town is Bocas Town which is located on the island of Isla Colon. Our shuttle price included the water taxi over to Bocas Town where we were immersed in an Afro-Caribbean culture reminiscent of the Caribbean Islands we have visited on our cruises. We LOVED Bocas but decided it was more of a vacation spot for us than a place we might want to live. We stayed at a wonderful little bed and breakfast.
Saigon Bay Bed and Breakfast was just outside of town but was walking distance for us. Our stay in Bocas included a day of horseback riding along the beach and through the jungle where we saw monkeys and other interesting wildlife. We spent another day exploring various islands, watching dolphins play in Dolphin Bay, searching for starfish in the shallows of the mangos, snorkeling at an awesome reef, and observing sloths in several different areas all courtesy of our private boat captain arranged by our friend Carmen that we met at lunch the day before. Of course, no trip to Bocas is complete without a trip to the Floating Bar.
Alas, our trip had come to an end. We caught a short flight from Bocas Town to Panama City where we spent the night at Greg’s place, our favorite AirBnB in Allbrook, then up early for our fight back home, which was way less eventful than our flights to Panama. Our take aways: the Panama Relocation Tour was absolutely a great choice for us, staying longer to explore Bocas del Toro was for sure a great idea, and we began to fall in love with Panama. We began planning our next trip as soon as we got home.
Thoughts to share: If you decide to take a relocation tour, it’s worth the effort to plan to stay at least a few extra days if you have the time in order to explore some of the areas the tour does not cover. Do a bit of research ahead of time to see what other areas you might be interested in. Take notes of what you like and dislike about each area you visit. No need to take notes of all the info that they share with you, since you will get a copy of the online guide that has everything in it and will also get updates as they come out via email. Take time to talk to the others on the tour and make sure to exchange contact information with them.