The Westin Playa Bonita Panama

excellent experience - 6 of us including 2 children (8&10). Food was varied with lots of selection....a la carte dining was high quality and delicious. Staff were helpful and available as needed. Activities on site were varied with good options for children. Rooms very clean. Optional off-site tours were available which allowed all of our family to participate in the activity that they wanted. Lots of seating at the pools and it was never busy which was a pleasant surprise considering it was March break time in Canada and lots of out of country travelling. [Details]

Upon arrival we were given a room without a balcony. We immediately told the front desk and they switched it with no issues. We went in the off season so it was pretty dead at the hotel, this was nice to have space to yourself. The first few days we found it kind of confusing being unsure what we were and weren't allowed to do. There was no entrainment at the hotel. Their activities listed for the day often consisted of things such as "stretching by the garden" "walk on the beach" which are things you could do yourself anyways. Mid stay two huge conferences showed up. They had night parties and music and were treated extremely well. The rest of the guest were excluded from these things and often areas of the hotel that were once accessible were now closed off to regular guests. So there was now even less for guest to do while they watched people at the conference have a good time. The hotel itself was fairly clean but very short staffed. Probably because it was the off season. The swim up pool bar was never open when we were there even though there were plenty of people swimming in the pool. There is also low and high tide at the beach which was not shown on the website so we were kind of surprised to see the lack of water at the beach when we arrived. We made the most of this though and explored the ocean floor while the tide was gone. [Details]