We just completed an 8 day Panama Tour with Caravan and the only disappointment was the 2 night stay at Playa Blanca. Although it has the amenities to be a first class resort, it is showing signs of age. The rooms although spacious, were not as clean as they should have been and the furniture showed signs of wear and needs to be upgraded. The bed was as hard as a rock and the bathroom tiles in the shower were moldy.
The open air dining room looked lovely, but the quality of the food and the presentation left something to be desired. I realize that we were in a Spanish speaking country, but the majority of the service help did not speak any English. The saving grace was the beach which was lovely and had a sufficient amount of chaises; although they were the kind with the hard plastic slats and most uncomfortable. I have been told that Caravan will no longer book into this resort.

OK resort, nothing special... music is really loud in the pool, the food was ok, the rooms were ok... for this price, I would much rather stay in a nice B&B.
you have to make reservations for the restaurants... we went to the sushi restaurant & after we ordered our first dish, we were told we could not order any more... that we were only allowed 1 dish. Of course, we complained enough until we got a second plate, and the waitress forgot to even ask us what we wanted so she just brought us the same dish again.
The beach is OK...

Left Montreal on Saturday Jan. 7 - Jan 14th. The two hour drive to the hotel was beautiful and you basically drive across the provinces, seeing the panama canal, mountains, panama city for free. Panama it self has a lot of garbage around but no worse than in Jamaca, Mexico, Dominican, Cuba or San Andres. You are either rich or poor. The down side is any excursion you do takes 2 hours to get to. The resort itself La Playa Blanca is clean, not tooo large, beautiful beach and 2 nice pools ( one for activities and the other is a quiet pool). The one alert I will give you about the beach is that when the red flags are out be aware that at low tide there are jelly fish and sting rays burrowed under the sand and stepping on one is likely, It happened to my Husband. We used the Medical Clinic on the resort, payed $50. and the doctor took great care of him. The doctor gave us a receipt and later in the week looked at the foot again. The beach goes a long way, is clean and is very safe to walk up and down it. Make sure to take a walk down the beach towards the Decameron because there is a bar called Pipas that is good and a Canadian run bar called Woodies that has great food. You think you are isolated but you are not. The food was excellent and with only 2 a la cartes that makes a difference. 1 is Sushi and the other is oriental. I heard great reviews about the Sushi and we really enjoyed the oriental twice. The buffet area had a great variety of food all week, also they held two b.b.qs. The entertainment was great and Jamie Solis and his crew does a great job and is made even better by the people staying at the resort. The visitors need to participate to help make the show. The bar tenders were super. We went on 2 of the excursions, the eco canal where we went on the Gatun Lake saw wildlife, walked through the rain forest, had lunch and then was given the opportunity to kayak or fish in the lake. It cost us $88.00 each. Not a bad day, but you have to travel for 2 hours there and back. My husband went on the panama partial transit excursion and felt it was well worth seeing. They took a ride in the lock system and was given a lot of information, it also was 2 hours to get there and back. We horse back rode on the beach for $20 an hour and it gives you a great view of the beach front. The Catermeran was also great. The hotel just got brand new loungers in the day we left which would allow a lot of chairs for the beach. Rooms were clean, the safe was included, we had water on our floor in our bathroom every night and our fan did not work, but this was minor. Good Food, Family friendly, Good People, Beautiful Weather, Nice Place what more do you want!

The food was ok, nothing to write home about. They had good quality booze, Bicardi, Finlandia vodca and other top brands, makes a difference to me. The locals overrun this place, you feel like your in the wrong place, everything is in spanish, games, contests, activities. So you miss a lot of activities for not understanding the announcement. They don't cater to north americans in any way. There were only about 2 dozen of us in the whole resort or 800. I wouldn't call the nightly entertainment worth watching, again seems like it appeals to local spanish people. Great staff, very pleasant and helpful in every way, thanks guys. I wouldn't go back simply because the beach receives the brunt of the city's waste when the river swells and runs into the ocean right next to the resort, and it stinks!!! If it doesn't rain the beach is ok not great though. ROYAL DECAMERON IS BETTER I think because there's more people and things to do.