# One-week trip: Panama vs. Costa Rica? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 14, 2015, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-week-trip-panama-vs-costa-rica/709790 "2015-01-14T03:50:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2015, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-week-trip-panama-vs-costa-rica/709790/41 "2015-01-17T18:50:02Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > For the Caribbean, the Portobelo/Isla Grande area mentioned by **KarlGrenze** offers a combination of history, beaches, culture and snorkeling. Accommodation in the area ranges from funky to luxury. It’s maybe an hour and a half from Panama City. I’m not sure how it would be getting around without a car but your hotel might be able to facilitate taxi pick up and drop off. > > Farther afield on the Pacific is the [Pedasi](http://internationalliving.com/2014/01/in-pictures-uncovering-the-charms-of-pedasi-panama/)/Punta Mala area. It’s about five hours by car, but you can also fly there. It much more low-key and far more charming than the major beach areas about one hour west of Panama City like Coronado. Isla Iguana is a major snorkeling site and frigatebird nesting island just off the coast. Your hotel can arrange transport once you’re there. > > Let me know your preferences and can make specific recommendations. They both sound pretty fabulous, honestly. I wouldn’t mind renting a car part of the time to go somewhere not too far where a car is fairly necessary for getting around. I’m still kicking myself for not doing it in the Yucatan when we had not even a whole day to get from Puerto Morelos to Tulum - we ended up taking a local van to the main highway, a bus to Playa del Carmen, and another bus down to Tulum, but it didn’t leave us much time there. I just don’t want to spend the whole time driving, because that’s not very relaxing either. Snd I dodn’t want to drive any 8-hour stretches if we only have a week. Hmm, maybe land Saturday afternoon, stay the night in Panama City, leave Sunday for somewhere closeish like Portobelo for a day or so, then somewhere further afield until Thursday night or Friday, then back to the city until Sunday evening departure? Lots to think about - I just wanted to nail down the long-haul flight while we could still get the nonstop on Copa for miles. Thanks, guys, and keep the ideas coming! ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2015, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-week-trip-panama-vs-costa-rica/709790/42 "2015-01-17T19:27:24Z")
> [@Eva\_Luna](#): > > Hmm, maybe land Saturday afternoon, stay the night in Panama City, leave Sunday for somewhere closeish like Portobelo for a day or so, then somewhere further afield until Thursday night or Friday, then back to the city until Sunday evening departure? Sounds like a plan. It takes only 40 minutes on the new highway to cross the isthmus from Panama City to Sabanitas, the turn off to Portobelo, then maybe a half hour to Portobelo itself. A car there would give you more flexibility to explore. There are flights to Pedasi on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for about $190 round trip. The flight is under an hour. As I said, if you mainly want to do beach/snorkeling you should be able to make arrangements with your hotel. My favorite place is [Dim’s Hostal.](http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g608651-d548905-Reviews-Dim_s_Hostal-Pedasi_Los_Santos_Province.html) ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2015, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-week-trip-panama-vs-costa-rica/709790/43 "2015-01-18T02:54:37Z")
Portobelo was an easy ride compared to the Pacific side, which uses the Panamerican road that is under construction in some stretches. Also, there are places to do scuba/snorkeling on that side (Caribbean), but that would depend on the weather. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2015, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-week-trip-panama-vs-costa-rica/709790/44 "2015-01-18T16:27:29Z")
> [@KarlGrenze](#): > > Portobelo was an easy ride compared to the Pacific side, which uses the Panamerican road that is under construction in some stretches. Yeah, they’re making the highway four-lane all the way to Costa Rica, so the stretch between Santiago and David (the last two-lane stretch) will be under construction. There are a few other parts before that they always seem to be repairing. But in general, the roads in Panama are pretty good and have vastly improved in the past 10 years. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-week-trip-panama-vs-costa-rica/709790.md?page=2)