Gamboa Rainforest Resort

This review limits us to the Rooms, Service, and Location, so my review is not as clear as it should be. Let me say, the campus is very old and run down. They main attention has been on the hotel - it is well re-painted and pretty (lipstick on a pig). We enjoyed our stay as the are is beautiful. Our disappointment is with the booking process, the management, and the unprofessional handling of issues that we faced during our Anniversary trip. Those issues overshadowed the beauty of the place and left a bad taste in our mouth. Booking starts with WhatsApp and then email and responses are very slow. Like most places, during the sale process it is better, but if you have questions or problems, those emails are delayed or ignored. When you finally contact management, the games begin. Without detailing the issues, let me provide this summary: The location is beautiful - but you may want to consider other venues. The facilities are beautiful (especially the pool) but the rooms and building show their age - old but well painted over. The customer service / management is definitely third world, not customer focused, and either untrained, aloof, or disinterested. Had the management responded appropriately, then our trip would have been 4 to 5 stars. But once the beauty of the trip faded the lasting impact of the management experience overshadowed those. If you don't have any issues, you will enjoy the stay. But ... We recommend another venue to enjoy the splendor of the Gamboa Rainforest.

We had a wonderful time here with our 4 year old for 4 nights. I was a bit nervous after seeing some of the other reviews but I needn’t have worried. Our room was very clean, the wi-fi was strong and the customer service was good. It is a resort in the rainforest so it was not the same level of maintenance or customer service of a sparkling, sanitized Mexican resort but it was still clean and comfortable. Pack your bug spray. As a family, we did three tours together- the aerial tramway, the sloth sanctuary and the boat tour in the Panama Canal. We also did the night safari which was included with our stay. My husband did the pipeline road birding tour solo and I did the night boat tour solo. I was able to book all the tours online ahead of time so we could enjoy more time in the sun while we were there. I generally recommend the tours we did but I want to spend some time describing the Panama Canal boat tour so people know what to expect. Most of the tour is spent in a diesel boat jockeying with other similar tour boats for a good position to see the monkeys with the guides playing monkey sounds on their phones and bringing fruit to bribe the monkeys onto their boat. Other tour guides were even helping their clients feed the monkeys directly from their hands. It was not exactly an eco-friendly natural experience. I don’t want to be too judgemental - I also enjoy seeing the cute monkeys but I just want to give folks reading this a heads up on what to expect. We ate one lunch at the Monkey Bar. It took a long time to get a mediocre meal. However, the rest of the time we ate at the buffet restaurant with our meal package. I was really impressed with this buffet - a big variety of hot food, cold food, dessert/pastries and coffee/tea. The food always included delicious Panamanian dishes and other food featuring Panamanian produce. They also always had food for the less adventurous (think rice, chicken fingers or nachos). There was also always soup and buns. The dessert bar was always good and featured some Panamanian desserts. We appreciated that our four year old was free - a move they probably regretted considering how much she ate. One last thing to talk about is the pool - it’s a nice size and a lovely temperature. It was surprisingly never very crowded. We were glad to have brought a floatie and a beach ball to keep our kid occupied - we spent hours there each day.

What an experience! We were on a Caravan tour and stayed two nights there. Our room was amazing, overlooking the water and having a hammock on our balcony. We had to walk a LONG way from the main part of the resort to our room, but it was quite quiet so it was worth it. Also, there are no ice machines so we had to keep pestering the staff at the beautiful restaurant for it. Their buffets are delish. The grounds spectacular. Highly recommend this place in the rain forest, so so close to the Panama Canal.

Overall beautiful location and adequate facilities with incredibly poor communication and service from reservations and front desk. Online reservations easy to make in late december but impossible to change. Attempted to call twice an emailed the reservation three times time with never a response. Luckily, we were able to alter the reservation from 3 nights to 2 without extra charges. Front desk check in lasted over forty five minutes and the trainee never gave us any explanation about the inclusive wristband that was needed for free drinks and meals. Actually showed them the reservations, stating it included free meals and then they proceeded to charge us for the first two lunches. Finally, the second evening after confusion again about trying to eat the buffet the manager came and apologized, and distributed the wristbands and credited the previous meals. Overall the setting is stunning, the rooms are spacious and clean and the buffet, including breakfast and dinner, was better than average. The value is excellent if you are actually properly instructed about the benefits. Free tours are actually interesting and would highly recommend the tram ride with the hike up to the observation point.

Location is isolated so you are required to have all your meals at the Reserve. The buffet becomes tiresome after a few days. Staff are not motivated, although some try. Translation app is helpful to confirm communication. We checked out, received a paper receipt outlining all charges. Then within 15 minutes a $300USD charge was made on our VISA. We did not authorize this charge and we were already en route to the airport. The manager Clara sent our complaint to accounting. About a week later the charges were corrected ( again they used our VISA without our authorization) On top of all this at the start of our trip the driver we had booked through the Reserve to get us at the airport was a no show - they forgot to call him. We did not receive an apology or compensation. Luckily a West Jet Airline staff who had a phone and spoke Spanish got us a new driver.