Panamá City Hotel Tips by Dabs Top 5 Page for this destination

Doubletree by Hilton: Newer hotel in the Cangrejo area

I booked the Doubletree after seeing quite a few good reviews on Trip Advisor and the price couldn't be beat, $119+ 7% tax on booking.com. From reading the reviews it seems like this hotel was remodeled in November 2011, I'm not sure what it used to be but I don't think it was a Doubletree. On check in they hand you a warm chocolate chip cookie, check in was smooth and our room was ready.

The hotel does have a pool on the roof, but it's very small with no shaded areas. There's also a whirlpool and nearby there's an exercise room with some treadmills, elliptical machines and free weights.

I liked the location of the hotel, it was close to many restaurants including Tinajas and a few blocks from a Rey supermarket, walking distance to the restaurants along Via Argentina like El Trapiche. It's across the street from El Carmen church, the bells start at 6am and are a little loud, we were on the church side so maybe the non church side is a little quieter. There's construction going on nearby for the new metro line, it made it a little less convenient to walk around but I didn't hear noise from it in our room

Unique Qualities: We were in room 225 on the 2nd floor on the church side of the hotel. The room was large and nicely decorated, the bed comfortable. There's a work desk, flat screen TV with a handful of channels including HBO and a small refrigerator/mini bar. There's an in room safe and ironing board in the closet.

The bathroom had a shower, plenty of hot water and good water pressure. Toiletries included soap, shampoo, conditioner and lotion plus they had a sign stating that they could provide anything you had forgotten. Portable hair dryer in the bathroom.

Wifi was free in the room which is always a plus and usually an extra charge at most business hotels.

My only real complaint about the hotel is that the staff doesn't seem to be well trained yet, perhaps because it's a newer hotel. The room wasn't always restocked properly, they never seemed to be able to tell us where anything was, couldn't locate the hotel on a map, couldn't tell us where to find postage stamps, weren't quite sure how to check us out. We finally got frustrated and headed to the Marriott and asked their concierege when we couldn't get ours to answer any questions and the nearby Crowne Plaza helped us with our postage issues.

There is a tour desk in the hotel but the trip we booked with them ended up just being a driver and not a guide and there were additional costs that we weren't advised of.

Address: Via Espana & Federico Boyd Bella V

Comparison: about average

Phone: 507-395-9100

Price: US$80-120

Theme: Hotel

Website: http://doubletree1.hilton.com/en_US/dt/hotel/PTYDTDI-DoubleTree-by-Hilton-Hotel-Panama-City-/index.do