What it cost: Panama
Nov 30 – Dec 10, 2014
<This is a breakdown of the money we spent exclusively in Panama. This Post will give you the broader look at how we planned, saved, etc. for the trip in general.>
Total Cost $1,047.26
Nights in Country 11
Cost/Day $95.21
Exchange Rate: Panama uses the US dollar
. Total Per Day
Transportation* $72.90 $6.08
Housing* $577.00 $48.08
Food $335.70 $27.98
Entertainment* $48.87 $4.07
Gear $0.00
Postage $8.79
Laundry $4.00
Medical/Pharmacy $0.00
* A couple of notes and lessons learned in Panama
Transportation – We are tracking inter-country transportation separately. In the case of Panama, we used credit card points to cover one ticket and spent about $450 on the other to fly from Panama City to Guayaquil, Ecuador on Copa Air.
Housing – we moved from our $39 hostel to a budget hotel part-way through our stay. We moved to be a little closer to downtown. From what we understood from the internet and a conversation in Spanish with the front desk at the hotel, the room was only going to cost a little more than the hostel ($55/night). It was a very nice budget hotel (read: hot water and non-stop water pressure! Plus, a real breakfast was included) so naturally we just stayed there. When we checked out they charged us $10/night more than we were expecting! Obviously we should have gotten the quote in writing. It’s possible we didn’t understand the Spanish or maybe they were just taking advantage of us. Who knows?! Another lesson learned: sometimes it is cheaper to book online rather than in-person as the hotel staff might not be authorized to match pricing (usually they can in the US).
Entertainment – If we had a Panama do-over, I think we’d spend fewer days in Panama and we would definitely sink a good bit of money into a tour traveling the length of the Panama Canal (about $300+ per person). We thought we could get a good price once we were in-country, but it turns out that transiting the Canal is just plain expensive! Another lesson learned.