El Valle is filled with weekend homes for Panama City's old money elite. This home (which supposedly used to be in pretty tough shape) has recently been remodeled as a luxury boutique hotel with about ten rooms. Rooms are somewhat small but have high quality beds and linens. The bathroom however is quite spacious with a walk-in shower with two shower heads. Very quiet - have both fans or AC depending upon your mood.

However the reason to stay are the grounds...beautiful pool, small brook and fish ponds, enormous old trees (quite shady) and many plantings. We saw many birds including a large rail, many hummers and the resident tropical screech-owl.

They have a special promotion during the week which makes it a steal if you stay for two or three days.

Best:
- The "Pilón" room is modern, design and clean with a big bed.
- Huge bathroom and shower.
- They put lovely flowers in the room when we came back from a walk.
- The flatscreen TV with cable channels has a USB plug so we could see our own TV series brought from our home country on a USB drive.
- The staff was very nice and helpful.
- Freshly cooked little breads for breakfast are delicious.
- You can have dinner there if you let them know early afternoon. We were served a delicious entrance salad made of vegetables from the hotel's vegetable garden.
- My girlfriend has a food allergy and the staff was very attentive to this.
- Remote location, in the middle of the nature, quiet, lovely to use the hot garden jaccuzzi then the cold swimming pool, the hammac, the outdoor beds.
- Garden with exotic plants: Cannella, encens, pineapple, etc...
- There is a beautiful enormous tree and a Japanese garden with lotus flowers.
- Lovely fish ponds.
- Nice relaxing hotel to spend 1-3 days stopover on a roadtrip from Panama City.

Could be improved:
- We ordered 2 meat main courses for dinner and we were served a meat and a fish. The fish was delicious and it was not a big deal.
- the room window on the outside was without translucid curtain so we had to close the window shutter at all time to keep our privacy.
- There is no minibar in the room, it could be useful to dry cool water or soda during the night.
- indicate better how to reach the hotel from the main road (the signs are not easy to spot and the color is a bit gone with the sun). Maybe give GPS coordinates on the webpage.
- update the photos of their website http://www.crater-valley.com/, it misguidingly shows the old ugly design of the rooms instead of the beautifuly refurbushed rooms.

To visit in the village:
- The Nispero Zoo (although animals look sad in very small cages).
- The painted rocks (2 sculpted rocks, 3 small waterfalls and a walk in the forest).
- The Macho waterfall (less impressive in summer with a few water).
- The square three and a walk in the forest (the crickets are making amazing noises).

When we lived in Panama, Crater Valley was our favorite escape away from a bustling everyday llife in Panama City. The children loved the swimmingpool and the garden and as parents we could fully relax and enjoy tranquility and nature while simoultansely keep an eye on the children. We especially appreciated management who was always service oriented, friendly, attentative and lovely. I went back on a short visit last Saturday and to my happiness I found that management was still there, as engaged as always, but the remodeling has made this already lovely place even more beautiful! If you have the chance, take the opportunity to spend a few days in heaven at Crater Valley.