Description: The Courtyard Panama Real Hotel is one of two Marriott hotels located in Panama City, the other being the full service Marriott hotel. The Courtyard is located on Via Israel in downtown near the Ave Balboa. The hotel is about fifteen minutes from the airport, if you take the Corredor Sur, a toll road. If you end up taking the main road out of the airport, like we did, it will take about an hour because of traffic. The hotel is within easy walking distance of many of the business areas of downtown, which make its ideal for the business traveler.
The hotel has eight floors with 243 rooms and 5 suites. The basic guest room with a king bed offers a skyline view or a multiplaza view, which is the mall that is connected to the hotel. The rooms are 243 square feet with a spacious king bed, ergonomic chair, work desk, and a 32 inch flat screen television. The rooms have air conditioning, soundproof windows, and a mini-fridge. There is Wi-Fi in all of the rooms as well as a safe that is laptop size.
The hotel offers two different restaurant and lounge choices. The Corner Bar is located on the ground floor right of the front desk. It is more of a bar than a restaurant; however, they do serve sandwiches. It is a great place to grab a cocktail or beer as you wind down from a busy day. On the seventh floor of the hotel is the Pacific Grill specializing in International cuisine. It offers a breakfast and dinner buffet and a la carte lunch menu. There are numerous restaurants only a few miles away from the hotel. If you want something quick along the lines of fast food, there is a food court in the Multiplaza mall next to the hotel. They have Taco Bell, McDonalds, Burger King, and some local fast food restaurants.
There are no rooms on the seventh floor. This is where Pacific Grill is located along with all of the business meeting rooms. There is a fitness center on the floor as well as an outdoor pool. On the ground floor near the front desk is the business center with free internet access as well as a small area where you can buy drinks and snacks. There is also a touch screen monitor in the lobby that can assist you in picking a restaurant to eat at in town depending on what you want, Chinese, Panamanian, Mexican, etc. It also assists in planning activities by providing useful information such as hours, admission prices, and directions.
Connected to the hotel is the Multiplaza Pacific Mall, a three story mall containing over 100 stores. Many of those stores are high-end such as Tommy Hilfiger, Louis Vuitton, Cacharel, and Liz Claiborne. The third floor has the food court and the Cinepolis, one of the largest theaters in Panama City. Also connected to the mall is the Riba Smith Supermarket. This is a great place to pick up beer, soda, and snacks and store them in the room and the fridge and it is also a lot cheaper than buying it in the hotel. The mall closes at 8pm; however, the supermarket stays open later.
Parking at the hotel is complimentary. In the mall is a Budget car rental facility or across the street from the hotel is National car rental. The hotel has taxis to take you anywhere in the city. I would strongly advise not taking these taxis. They are very overpriced. For example, a ride from the hotel to the Amador Causeway was going to cost $20 one-way. We took a few steps over to the front of the mall where there was a taxi stand and we got a ride for $7. All taxis in Panama are painted yellow and are easily identifiable. The taxis come in all shapes and sizes. They are supposed to work off a zone fare type system, however, I never came across this and we pretty much had to barter the price of the ride. It is still a lot cheaper than taking the transportation provided by the hotels.
The only drawback to this hotel seemed to be the traffic congestion on Via Israel. Most of the time we needed to go back towards the water and that required a u-turn, which is when you need to be an aggressive driver or you will sit there all day in traffic. The hotel staff is probably the best that I have ever seen anywhere. We needed assistance in booking a room on the coast for a few days and most of these small hotels did not have English speaking staff. The hotel staff went out of their way to call these hotels that we wanted to stay at and translate for us so we could book a room. I was also surprised to be greeted by name every time I entered and exited the hotel. The person who checked us in remembered my name days later when I approached him with a question. I was pleasantly surprised to receive that kind of service.
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