Yo everyone, I hope this blog find your well, if you are here then you may have found yourself in the industrial hub city of David, Panama, (perhaps the worst place to be in Panama) so lets get you the heck out as quickly as possible!
If you want to get to Costa Rica then you can do this journey in reverse to get from Bocas Del Toro to David then David to San Jose, but we will be taking on the David to Bocas Del Toro journey. Its fairly simple, just follow these steps and we will have you sipping cocktails on the Bocas Del Toro coast line in no time at all! If you want to see me feeling sorry for myself then go to the Panama backpacking travel guide page where you can also find tips on things to do in Bocas Del Toro. Its a fantastic place that is super chill and a bit of a backpackers paradise.
David To Bocas Del Toro
From David you will end up leaving at an ungodly hour in the morning! Bambu hostel booked a cab from me for around 1am to allow me to catch a shuttle from David at around 2/2:30am. This shuttle was slightly late leaving and when I say shuttle, it is half shuttle half local bus. The locals jump on and off this bus to get to and from work.
The taxi dropped me off in the dark and with no one else around! At this time in the morning the bus terminal is pretty quiet and feels a bit sketchy, it was one of those travel moments where you are thinking 'am I about to get mugged'! But I did not and eventually (maybe after 15 minutes or so) someone turned up, opened up what looked like a hole in the wall and sold me a ticket for a ride to Almirante. I hopped on the bus with the driver and one other Panamanian and away we went.
You are going to be on this bus for a long while, do not let the ETA on any map service fool you. it will likely say around 3 hours, after leaving at around 2am, I did not arrive into Almirante until around 8am as you can see from the screen shot I took on my phone!
What you are aiming for is the first water crossing from Palanga to Bocas Del Toro which is around 9/ 9:30am. If you miss the first it will be a while until the next trip as you effectively have to wait for the boat to return and the trip is around an hour on the boat.
Taxi from drop off to Almirante dock
So once you have jumped out of the shuttle there will be taxi drivers at the ready to take you to the dock, you can walk it, it is not far, but loaded up with all your backpacking gear and shattered from the early start I decided to pay for a taxi, and it was the whopping price of 1 dollar!!! The taxi driver will drop you off right outside the door of the ticket booth even better! This booth is in a little wooden hut and does not look like a ticket office but it is so join the line grab your ticket (around 6USD) and wait. Do your best sheep impression and follow the group as everyone will be going to Bocas Del Toro so hop onto the (little) boat and get ready for morning ocean spray in your face as you bump across the open water.
There is a second option with the ferry, but frankly I would try to avoid it. Its bigger and slower and only heads across a couple of times a day. All in from leaving at 1am I did not arrive into Bocas Del Toro until around 10am! Finally after jumping off the boat you will have a short walk to get to your hostel! I have put hostel options for good prices in the blog post below. I stayed in the Selina for the first night and the red frog Selina on Bastimentos island, more on that in the travel guide but also stayed in Bambu on Bocas, which I really liked, but it was less social than some of the other more party/ social orientated hostels in Bocas. You can check them both out on Hostel world in the links below.
WELCOME TO BOCAS DEL TORO, have an incredible time and let me and your fellow backpackers know of any updates or the route you took in the comments below.
Lets talk about the reverse trip to get you to Panama City.
Bocas Del Toro To Panama City
Ok so this is super simple but you will be on your own for it as once you have booked your tickets, the rest of the world will not be awake when you undertake the journey (much like the David to Bocas journey)
The biggest travel hack here is to simply book this through the Selina on Bocas Town Island, why because they will sort the boat and the bus for you in once payment. It was around $60USD when I did it so not cheap, but its a fairly long journey to get to Panama City, you will be travelling all day again.
Once you have booked the ticket, you will be back at the same boat dock that you jumped off the boat to get onto Bocas on at 7am! The boat will get you back to Alamirante around 7:30, pay the taxi driver a dollar again to get to the same bus station on the top of the fork road and wait!
The bus will turn up, show your ticket jump on and away you go. There is a shop at the bus terminal in Alamirante so make sure to grab a coffee/ snacks for the road and settle in with your favourite podcast. Heck listen to mine on the history of Panama!
Simple Panama has its routes fairly well covered, as far as backpacking this country goes, its pretty easy and well set up. In fact its much the same for David to Boquette or David to Panama City. I guess in a long slim country its easier to set up the bus net work.
Again drop comments or advice below and speak soon backpackers
Much love Jack.
For the curious explorer
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