After a few days of solo exploring through Panama City, I retreated to the Dreams Resort Playa Bonita to meet friends for a few days of R&R. Other than the couple of cruises I have been on, this was my first experience with an all-inclusive resort.. It was definitely nice to get away and relax for a few days, but I found myself itching for more. It felt like almost everything fell just shy of where it should be. Here is a full report of my stay at the Dreams Resort Playa Bonita.
Read More: 7 Reasons Your Next Trip Should be to Panamá
Arrival and Check-In
Arriving at Dreams Resort Playa Bonita was a very easy and secure process. I checked out of my first hotel in Casco Viejo, the Old Town of Panama City and took an Uber to the resort. It was a scenic 20 minute ride over the Bridge of the Americas and the Panama Canal. Upon arrival, the gate agent asked for my name and confirmed that I was a registered guest. After confirmation, the gate opened and we proceeded to the main lobby building. It was really reassuring to see how tight the security was. It was after seeing this that I felt completely safe during my stay at the resort.
Once you arrive at the main building, porters will meet you immediately and bring your bags inside (make sure you have $1-2 per bag ready for a tip). You will then have a seat in comfy arm chairs while your agent checks you in, all while sipping a complementary glass of wine. I arrived about an hour before check-in time and, despite early check in being one the perks I was offered while booking, my room was not yet ready. I was then given the Wi-Fi password and directed towards the lunch buffet where I could grab some food and kill time.
Pro Tip: When checking into a resort, keep your swimsuit in your day bag so you can easily access it in case your room isn’t ready!
Before I could make it to the buffet, I was told to go over to the “VIP Desk” to claim my coupons for my stay. During my booking I was promised a $100 experience credit as part of reserving a “Luxury Hotel” through the Citi card portal. It was beyond disappointing to learn this wasn’t a $100 credit, but rather five $20 coupons that couldn’t be combined. For that reason, I didn’t visit the spa or opt for any of their (expensive) additions. It was also at this VIP Desk that I was pressured to sign up for a timeshare presentation for over 15 minutes. No matter how many times I said no thank you, the woman persisted. This was incredibly annoying and aggressive, and it was a very poor way to start my stay at Dreams Resort Playa Bonita.
Rooms
After killing time at the lunch buffet and sweating because I wasn’t able to get to my swimsuit, my room was finally ready. During booking, another perk that I was promised was a free upgrade. In the end my “upgrade” was just that they moved me to the 5th floor instead of the 4th. Not exactly what I had in mind.
All of the rooms at Dreams Resort Playa Bonita face the water, which is a nice touch. While I loved the patio and views of the resort from it, the rooms themselves were dated and basic. They lacked inspiration and felt very “bare-bones”. There was very little art, and the art that was on the walls were Ikea-esque prints of places like London and Paris. This was so odd to me- why not have art or prints showcasing Panama? We couldn’t have been further away from London both geographically and metaphorically so the art was an odd choice.
However, the bright side was that the AC in the rooms worked very well (even if it was the loudest thing I had ever heard). And at the end of the day, the room had everything I needed for a stay: bed, shower, toilet. Other than sleeping, a quick afternoon break, or a shower before dinner, I didn’t spend much time in the room anyway.
Pools
There are four main pools at Dreams Resort Playa Bonita. The first one I will call the “main” pool. This one had the swim up bar, a volleyball net, and a sun deck. The sun deck was a nice touch. It was a wide area of about 1′ deep water (the photo at the very top!). I enjoyed relaxing here when I listened to my music or podcasts because I could easily lay in the water while my head and AirPods stayed dry.
The second pool was the infinity pool. While this pool is in desperate need of a refinishing, it was otherwise really nice. It looked right over the beach, water, and rainforest to the right. I ended up spending a lot of time here leaning on the wall and looking out at the water. It was really relaxing. The third pool was a kids pool and it was a shallow area far enough away from the other pools where the noise wasn’t much of a factor.
The fourth pool was the adults-only pool, which apparently you needed to pay an upcharge to use. They tried to sell me on it during check in but I didn’t bite. Turns out, there is no security or wristbands or anything. We just walked right in several times during our visit and used the pool! There is a fun fountain in the middle of the pool that is a nice feature and fun to stand under. I was a bit disappointed to learn the pools closed each day at 6:30 pm. It felt so early, and I love a good night swim!
Food
The food wasn’t terrible, but I wasn’t blown away either. Each morning for breakfast they had a buffet at their indoor room right off of the lobby. It was a sit down room where waiters served your drinks, but you served yourself at the buffet. The options were… strange. Chicken fajitas and sautéed vegetables? They did have a few staples like eggs and omelets but this really wasn’t the breakfast buffet I had in mind! Both days I ended up just eating toast with Nutella and cereal.
For lunch, your only options are the buffet again. I found this to be okay as I really didn’t see myself getting showered, dressed, and ready for a sit down lunch in the middle of the day anyway. On day one the theme was Mexican and day two it was Caribbean. My thoughts? It was fine. No real complaints other than the lack of variety was a bit disappointing. I suppose they were going for quality over quantity, but I would have liked a little more options at a buffet.
Dinners both nights were sit-down at their main restaurants. Night one we ate at Bordeaux, their French restaurant right off the lobby. I ordered some battered and fried meat sticks for an appetizer (not sure on the name!), a chicken dish for an entrée, and profiteroles for dessert. Night two was at Portofino, their Italian restaurant. I wasn’t too hungry this night so I just got their bread to start and a pasta and chicken dish for an entrée. Both nights, the food at the sit down restaurants were delicious and plated beautifully. Again, I just wish there were more options on the menu.
Bar
The only real bar I had first-had experience with was the swim-up bar in the main pool. It was a small bar and service was slow, even when there wasn’t anyone else waiting. However, the staff (once they paid attention to you) were very pleasant and kind. The drinks themselves were tasty and refreshing. However, I was surprised at how small the portions were! I suppose this is the norm at all-inclusive resorts, but we were given our drinks in 6 oz. plastic cups. After only a few hearty sips, we were back to the bar for a refill! This was discouraging and annoying. I understand wanting to limit portion sizes, especially for alcohol, but they should have made them bigger. This just puts more stress on the staff to have guests constantly returning for refills!
At our sit-down dinners however, you received full-sized glasses. The waiters were constantly making rounds refilling our wine glasses or bringing refills on drinks. This was more what I was expecting!
Beach
For a name that literally translates to “Beautiful Beach”, it fell short to me. I will say, if you caught the beach just at the right level of tide, it was very pretty. However, during low and high tides it was a different story.
Low tide gets really low and the water is a far walk out. It exposes a ton of rocks and makes the beach look like an empty wasteland. High tide on the other hand, comes right up to the break wall of the resort. There are strong currents, high waves, and no sand to walk on. Of course it will vary by the season and time you visit, but “mid-tide” for me was early in the morning, around 7 or 8 am. The beach was nice and walkable, and even a few people went out to swim. It’s very rocky though, so if you do want to go in the water be sure to wear water shoes.
The views looking west (like above) were great. I loved seeing the lush, dense, rainforest peninsula that bordered the resort. The beach was nice to walk on but you couldn’t make it far in any direction. My plan was to walk down to the Westin one morning – not to crash, but just to have a “destination”. There was a constant stream of flowing water that seemed to “separate” the two properties. I’m sure I could have walked across but it seemed kind of dirty and was flowing rather quickly, so I didn’t. Hard to tell if it was man-made or just a natural flow of water, but either way that was a bummer. I did enjoy sea shell hunting on the beach and aweing at the big ships out in the water waiting to enter the canal!
Overall
Overall, I’d give my stay at the Dreams Resort Playa Bonita a 6/10. Would I return? Probably not. If a friend was in the area and was looking for a resort to stay at for a few days, I would mention it but wouldn’t insist they stay here. My two-night stay seemed to be perfect, as I already started getting a little bored by my last morning. The staff at the resort were very friendly and made my stay extra enjoyable. However, it felt like they were very understaffed and overworked, so I felt for them. I shouldn’t have to feel bad about asking for a refill on water at breakfast because they all seem too busy.
All in all, it was a quick little getaway and a nice place to trade Buffalo snow for Panamanian sunshine!
Traveling soon? Check out my Travel Tips page to help you score good deals on flights, packing tips, tools to help you plan, and more!
No Comments