This hotel is fantastic! Family-owned and operated. The hotel has a kitchen and sits right over the water overlooking an open bay to Bocas del Toro. This is an authentic Caribbean experience. The family that runs the hotel are the friendliest people you will ever meet. The rooms come with an a/c and are very affordable. They offer tours and will gladly offer information on all the best places to visit while in Bocas del Toro. The food is fantastic and you can paddle around in a kayak while you wait or even throw a line in the water. Family-friendly and also a great stop for those with a tour group. There are small grocery stores nearby and plenty of opportunities to meet friendly local people. Highly Recommend!
Caribbean View is a neat little hotel owned and operated by a charming family. The rooms are equipped with private bathrooms, A.C., and some of them have balconies overlooking the water that was great for sunset viewing. Their son, Luis, runs a small private tour business for the hotel, and provides taxi services to Bocas Town, which was very convenient. Even if you're not staying at the hotel, I would recommend dropping in to coordinate your private tour with Luis while you enjoy a delicious breakfast, and a soursop smoothie!
The rooms are very small and there is not noise privacy. Everything is hear from room to room. Food is great but extremely slow sometimes dinner from ordering to eating over two hours. Staff are very friendly Prices are good for what you get but don’t expect anything fancy like shampoo.
Hotel Caribbean View is a small family run hotel on the water. I was there with a group of 20 highschool students for about a week. Luis and his family could not have been more helpful or more welcoming. There were small issues with the AC and the plumbing, but they were quickly fixed. We had breakfast at the hotel every day and it was always good. When Luis found how much some of the kids liked pancakes, he made them again. All in all we had a nice stay.
We are spending a month in Chiriqui and decided to make a quick visit to the Bocas region. Enjoyed very much Luis and his family who provided excellent service and a very comfortable bed in an air conditioned room. The area is not what you would want if 5 star all-incl is your game, but everything we were looking for. Quiet community with no noisy bars. By the way, the dining was perfect with fresh, excellently prepared food.
Unfortunately we did not love the Hotel Caribbean View. We had a room on the ground floor at the back and every sound, particularly people moving around above, just reverberated through the room. The ceiling fan did not work. Twice there was no water when we needed to shower and we had to ask for water to be turned on – perhaps an explanation on times that water is available would be a good move? The breakfast was just OK. The WIFI worked well in the communal areas. There is a nice sitting area on the top floor and some rooms up there have balconies which would be much better than a ground floor room so if you do choose to stay, request one of the top floor rooms.
I arrived with a tour group, there was some mix up with the numbers so we had to wait while the rooms were sorted out. Then we were told there was a water shortage and the water would come on at 6pm so a few of us jumped off the front steps into the sea for a swim. When 6pm came - no running water - not even in the toilets. We had to keep pestering the manager for an answer. The attitude seemed to be 'don't mention it and it might go away'. we stayed there for 2 nights and had to fill buckets of sea water to flush the toilets and use bottled waters for cold DIY showers. While we manged to laugh at it in the end, the biggest issue for me was not the water shortage but how they handled it and their attitude towards it - as if it was nothing to do with them. Don't stay here!
From the onset, our experience was negative. This is a rickety little lodging that is built on the water so you arrive by small boat taxi up to the wooden steps to the main dining area of this so-called hotel. The proprietor, Luis, claimed that they were expecting 7 of us when there were 11 of us. SO, we had to wait a bit while they re-organized rooms. Meanwhile we were very hungry after hours of travelling and wanted to eat but they did not have enough room to accommodate us so we had to mill around the dining room while other guests were eating. When we finally were able to get a table and order, it took forever for our meals to be served; a couple of orders got lost and in fact they would be served one at a time with a 2-5 minute waiting span before the next plate came out. This was just the beginning of our "adventure". We were then told that they had a water shortage. They had the water turned off and advised us that they would turn it on around 6pm and leave it on until we turned in for the night. Well, the plumbing did not work. No tap water, no shower, NO TOILET WATER to flush the toilets. Then the owner told us we could use buckets of water and that we could just dip the buckets into the sea and use that for the toilet cisterns. The next day was no better and when I asked Luis for water he told me to just use the buckets and fill them from the sea - which meant stepping down the 2 wooden steps to the water's edge and scooping..... We had housekeeping service but my towel (which I had used to sponge bathe myself the night before) was not replaced with a clean one so I had to ask for a clean one after returning from a day of touring and swimming in the sea. Once again no water at all and because of this they would be limited in meal preparation - but at that point we had no desire to eat there. Any other place would have been better and as it turned out we made plans to take a boat taxi to Isla Colon for dinner. And so we were given 2 full buckets of fresh water to use as bathing water. The next morning there of course was no water and once again we found ourselves scooping up buckets of sea water to fill our toilets so that we could flush them. This was our departure morning. We had paid our tab the night before.This included what we were planning on having for breakfast because they promised they could provide breakfast. This is where the "straw broke the camel's back" - Luis had the nerve to ask me if I had paid for 2 coffees after I asked for a refill. The conditions were SO SUBSTANDARD it was disgusting and certainly did not match the cost of accommodations there. Camping and using a latrine would have been better. Not once during our stay did the proprietor nor any of his staff acknowledge or apologize for our disappointment-displeasure-discomfort. This place is totally unacceptable.…
The hotel is located on a quiet island where there are not many tourists. You can get a boat to the main island or one of the nearby beaches. The room was small and the bathroom was tiny. The room was clean and fortunately had air conditioning. The food in the restaurant is good but the service was terrible. You need to order food at least an hour before you are hungry.
Hubby had whole freshly caught jap fish, he said it was great. I had Carribean chicken which was very tasty. Had the best pina colada ever! A small place, very clean, right on the water. Great service, ice cold beer and reasonably priced.
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