San Blas surfing and 2021 packages! The San Blas Islands are magical. With their pristine white sands and clear blue seas many people compare them to the Fiji Islands. I’ve met lots of very experienced travellers, who’ve been all around the world, who say that this multi-day adventure is one of their best travelling highlights. With 390 unique Islands you could visit an island each day of the year and you’ll still have some left over! Most of them are so small that you even have trouble finding them on Google Maps. What’s better is that travelling to this unspoiled natural wonder is actually very affordable. In this article I’d like to tell you the most important things you need to know to experience this amazing place as well!
Our last stop, an island famous among sailors who know the best kept secrets in San Blas, gives you more time to swim in the beautiful calm waters. With two islands right next to each other and home to a big shipwreck, stranded on its outer reef, you can enjoy the pristine beaches and beautiful scenery. Between 3-4pm we will leave this island paradise and head back to the Port of Carti. Your driver will be waiting for you and safely drive you back to Panama City, dropping you off at your lodging by 7pm. San Blas is one of the last unspoiled and undeveloped places in the world and we hope you will get to experience the beauty of the islands and the innocence of the unique Kuna culture. For our guests who only have one day to travel to the “Guna Yala” nation, the San Blas Day tour is the best option and will surely make you want to come back again. See extra info at https://www.taotravel365.com/surf-camp-mexico.
One of Panama’s top surf destinations is Santa Catalina, on the Pacific Coast. This small but growing town has a laid-back surfer feeling about it. Small guesthouses and hotels, and funky restaurants, force you to slow down and relax. If you aren’t here to surf, great snorkeling and scuba diving spots are nearby, and horseback tours through the surrounding countryside are good options for those not interested in getting wet. One of Santa Catalina’s main draws is Isla Coiba. This lush island, now Coiba National Park, is almost untouched and is considered a biodiversity hot spot, with close to 200 bird species, crocodiles, turtles, and snakes. The scuba diving here is very popular due to the enormous whale sharks that frequent the area. These gentle giants are curious creatures and enjoy interacting with divers. Tours to Isla Coiba can be arranged in Santa Catalina. One of the most fun things to do near Boquete is visiting the local swimming hole at Los Cangilones. Set at a lower elevation than Boquete, the climate here is much warmer, and on hot days you’ll find a fun scene, complete with music, barbecues, food vendors, and Panamanians from far and wide splashing and jumping off the gorge edges into the crystal-clear, warm waters below. In this unique geological place, the river narrows into a gorge before opening up again in a shallow pool at the bottom. Daring adults and older kids jump off the edges into the slowly moving waters and then float down to the bottom, climb out, and do it all over again. Youngsters and visitors who are looking for something a little milder can wade into the shallow waters where the gorge opens up. The walls vary in height, so it depends on how brave you are and how high you want to go. This is very much a family destination.
Few attractions include Isla Taboga is Panama’s favorite escape out of the city to bathe in its sandy beaches, ride Jet Ski’s, speed boats and fishing charters. First settled by the Spanish in 1515, Isla Taboga has a charming village with the second-oldest church in the western hemisphere, a few narrow streets with a few restaurants and great views to Panama City from the top of the Island.
In this place the first Spanish settlement in the area was built in the early seventeenth century and was also where San Blas was founded. On the San Basilio Hill the most important Colonial Ruins on the Pacific Coast are found. The old fort of San Blas also known as La Contaduria (now semi-restored) and the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary «La Marinera» dating from 1769, where you can find the famous bronze bells immortalized by Henry W. Longfellow in his posthumous poem «The Bells of San Blas.» These Colonial ruins are not restored but well worth visiting… The church is beautiful and gives us a clear idea of the Spanish community that settled in San Blas in those days.
And, as with any travel agency, we’re making a booking for you in a hotel in San Blas. We don’t operate the hotel nor are we in charge of their reservations. Once we receive a request for a reservation from yourself we will see if the hotel has a vacancy. We will then confirm a reservation for you and ask you for payment. We will ONLY confirm a reservation with you once we have received confirmation from the hotel. We ask for a payment as the hotels in San Blas usually request full payment before your arrival. We will make those payments on your behalf and obviously reconfirm your booking before your arrival. Now, as anywhere in the world, problems can arise and mistakes can be made. It has been known that a hotel can cancel at short notice, even though a deposit or full payment has been made. This is rare and we try not to work with the hotels that have done this. If this does happen then we will make all efforts to find you a new place to stay and to obtain a refund from the original hotel. As we said, San Blas is certainly not like it is back home and it doesn’t operate like it is. Don’t expect your hotel to be the equivalent of a hotel of equal value in Panama City. Accommodation will be very basic and you may well be sleeping in a grass hut with a sand floor. But I guess that is part of the attraction right? The very fact that you’re not back home and things aren’t the same. If they were, you wouldn’t have come.
San Blas adventure travel locations are a trendy thing to do right now. Fly. There are two ways to fly. You can do an Air Panama flight from the smaller Albrook airport in the city (not Tocumen International) to El Porvenir or Playan Chico. These are 20-seaters and are around $100 one-way. This isn’t bad and you’ll then take a taxi to the port and then a boat out to wherever you’re staying. I flew Air Panama several times and they are great. The other option is a privately charted flight. These go from Albrook as well out to tiny landing strips on the islands so you can go straight to your sailboat. We’re talking $3,000 for an 8-seater. You can talk with the sailboat company that you book with to see if there are better prices. A flight was chartered in when we left, so we got a deal of $75 per person to go back to Panama City because it was going back empty. Jackpot! Find extra details at TaoTravel365.