Panama With Kids: How to get there and where to stay!

We started spring break planning the way a lot of parents do: with a big dream destination, a group text, and the quiet question of what will actually work with kids. Fiji nearly stole the show until we looked hard at the overnight flights, the time change, and the price tag for a one week trip. Costa Rica was next, because it’s one of our favorite family travel destinations, but we wanted a new country and a fresh kind of adventure.

That’s how Panama climbed to the top. We talk through the exact criteria that made Panama City a smart choice for real life travel with kids: a manageable time zone shift, strong flight options from major hubs, and the mix of history, green space, and walkable neighborhoods like Casco Viejo. We also get specific about logistics, including traveling with friends when families arrive on different days, how we use points and miles to cut flight costs, and why we finally broke our “direct flights only” rule to save a huge chunk of points.

Then we build the fun part: a kid paced plan for the Panama Canal, heat friendly routines like early mornings and midday downtime, and a packing tip we swear by for hot weather travel and stomach bugs: rehydration packets. We also add a second leg to Boca del Toro and explain how we picked Red Frog Island Resort for that sweet spot of multiple bedrooms, a kitchen, and resort amenities. Hit play, share this with a travel friend, and leave a review if it helps, then tell us: what destination surprised you once you actually did the research?

Hotels:
Casco Viejo: Hotel Compañia, Hyatt, Central Hotel, La Concordia Boutique Hotel, Tantalo Hotel

Bocas Del Toro: Azul Paradise Resort, La Loma Jungle Lodge, Isla Palenque, Popa Paradise Beach Resort, Red Frog Island Resort

Flight Carriers:
United Airlines, FlyTrip, AirPanama

Transcript

VRBO Or Verbo Debate

Kathleen 0:00

Is it VRBO or verbo? Like somebody chime in and tell me if I'm saying it right or wrong. I don't know. What do you what do you say?

Melissa 0:07

I think it's verbo, but the only reason I think that is because I watched the Kardashian show and they call it Verbo, and I feel like they know what's up. Welcome back to another episode of the show. Your place for real talk about traveling with kids, planning trips with friends, and making big adventures doable for real families.

Kathleen 0:40

Today we're diving into how we decided on Panama for our spring break family trip. We almost booked Fiji, then we almost booked Costa Rica, but somehow Panama won. And we're walking you through all of it.

Melissa 0:54

So let's get into it.

Kids 0:55

Welcome to Organized Chaos.

Cracking The Social Media Algorithm

Kathleen 1:09

I feel like we should talk real quick about the Instagram and the TikTok algorithm. And how does the internet decide what is gonna get more views than like one thing versus another? I have zero clue.

Melissa 1:24

The posts that I feel like I spend a lot of time on never do well, and the ones that it's like a five-second thing hit. And everybody likes it. So I seriously can't figure it out.

Kathleen 1:36

Oh, I'm gonna make this really visually beautiful with nice music, and I'm gonna give a lot of facts, and it's like pffff that is not what the people want.

Melissa 1:48

No.

Kathleen 1:50

What I find interesting is what hits on TikTok doesn't necessarily translate to Instagram and vice versa. And whatever I post does not hit on TikTok.

Melissa 2:01

The TikTokers do not seem to like you.

Kathleen 2:04

They don't like my content, and like I don't take it personally. I think I'm just like an elder millennial.

Melissa 2:11

If we're gonna be very honest, it's that I'm chronically online and TikTokers are chronically online, and so that's part of it.

Kathleen 2:19

I think you know what the trends are, while I'm like a grandma over here. Like, I think everybody would love to know what to do when they lose their luggage. Not the case. Anyone who has any tips or tricks or can break down the algorithm for us, please message us. We would love some more information there.

Melissa 2:41

We want to figure it out.

Kathleen 2:42

We need virality. We need people to listen to our show. Help us out. Thanks.

Why Panama Beats Fiji

Kathleen 2:48

Let's talk Panama. I can't get that Van Halen song out of my head. It's an absolute banger.

Melissa 2:55

I feel like you've been singing it for like six months now, honestly.

Kathleen 2:58

My kids won't stop. Every time we bring up the trip, they start going Panama. I apologize for my terrible singing, but it is stuck in my head and I absolutely love that song.

Melissa 3:11

So let's start with why Panama even came up as a spring break trip.

Kathleen 3:16

Our kids go to different schools, so we can't always guarantee a family trip where our timing always overlaps and makes sense for both families. But this year, our kids' spring breaks were on the same week, and all of our kids are a year older. So this opened up a little bit more flexibility for our planning.

Melissa 3:35

Right. So just to recap, my kids are now eight years old, six years old, and three years old. And Kathleen's kids are seven and five.

Kathleen 3:44

We try to make these decisions on the destination collectively. Everybody gets a say. And for a while, we were really going hard on Fiji.

Melissa 3:54

Fiji was so tempting. I have a really, really good friend who had gone to Fiji semi-recently with her kids, and she had nothing but glowing reviews. And this is a girl who travels with her kids and her family everywhere. So if she says go to Fiji, I was like, yep, I'm all in. Maybe we'll have to have her as a guest on a future episode. Once we did dig into the Fiji research, we just decided it might not be right for us for this particular trip.

Kathleen 4:24

It was gonna involve an overnight flight, and our families, both of us, had not tackled that yet.

Melissa 4:30

If any listener has done a red eye with a kid, please do send us your tips and talk us through those logistics. Because I'm definitely all ears. I have people who have said that red eyes are great with kids, but I'm really intimidated.

Kathleen 4:45

Me too. And also the time change for a one-week trip to Fiji seemed intimidating. Plus, all the places we were researching seemed to cost more than either of us really wanted to spend on this particular vacation. So I think we just decided it made sense to save Fiji for another time.

Melissa 5:05

I feel like we'll do Fiji maybe when we have more time, so the time change makes sense, and when the kids are a little older, and when we want a little bit more of a splurge trip.

Kathleen 5:14

A greed. And when they can appreciate it too. I just had this feeling that we'd be going to this island and spending all this money on this all-inclusive trip, and they'd be like, "Where are my chicken fingers?" And it's like, "Do you know how much this meal plan costs?" So I think we save it till they can appreciate it.

Melissa 5:31

Yeah, a little less resentment for the kids and their chicken finger meals.

Kathleen 5:36

Y eah.

Melissa 5:37

Then we pivoted to Costa Rica. We'll do an entire episode on Costa Rica because we have done that with the kids before and we loved it. But as we were going down that path, we did collectively decide, "Let's just check out a new country. Let's not repeat a country that we've already done." Even though there's obviously so much more we could do in Costa Rica that we haven't done with the kids, I feel like we all wanted to get another stamp on our passports.

Kathleen 6:01

Melissa's right. Costa Rica offers so many different areas to explore. And when we did the trip, which we'll talk about, it was one place in one location because our kids were young, and that's what made sense. Costa Rica does have a spot in our travel itinerary in the future, especially the kids will be bigger and they can do a lot of the adventurous activities like ziplining, but we said, let's shelve it, let's go explore somewhere new. And that's when someone threw out Panama. And why we never considered this, I'm not sure.

Melissa 6:31

Yeah, I don't know why Panama hasn't come up as part of our options before. So, honest moment, what was your initial reaction when I threw out Panama?

Kathleen 6:40

I didn't have any sort of reaction. It wasn't even on my radar. The only thing I really knew about Panama was the canal, of course. But also my dad, who's a big outdoorsman, goes there fishing a ton. So in my my head, I'm like, "Oh, it's just like a place for fishermen," which is wildly incorrect. And speaking of the algorithm, my phone heard me, and then Instagram started serving me all this content on Panama. And it's really quite beautiful if you go and do the research.

Melissa 7:12

The more we looked into it, the more it just seemed like it checked every box. It had beaches, it had jungles, it had big city energy, especially on the mainland. And then for us, that two-hour time change is just basically a gift. It's not a big jet lag issue. The kids will be able to stay a little bit on their rhythm, especially when it's just a one-week spring break trip, and everyone has to go back to work and school right afterwards. Seemed like it was making sense.

Kathleen 7:40

Right. And going east two hours is definitely a gift. So instead of getting up at six, they're getting up at eight. For my family, we generally don't try to encourage switching to the new time zone. We just let them get up and go to sleep at the time that they would when we were at home. And it tends to work out well because then we can stay out later for dinners and we can sleep in a little bit. It's nice to go east an hour or two. And price-wise, Panama is much more affordable than some places like Fiji.

Melissa 8:10

Even though our kids do have the same spring break week off, our travel logistics are a little bit interesting because we're gonna leave on different dates. So my family is gonna come in a day later than Kathleen's family due to commitments to mine and my husband's day jobs. After all, we do want to keep our bosses and our nine to fives happy with this. That is how we pay for these trips, after all.

Kathleen 8:31

Melissa and I are very lucky because we have unlimited PTO with our work. Not that we abuse it. Unfortunately, both of our husbands only get a certain number of days per year. So we've really got to maximize when we use them so that we can do all these fun vacations together.

Melissa 8:48

That goes back to our motto that we've talked about in prior episodes. Each family is in charge of getting yourself to the international destination. We're not making Kathleen's family wait a day for us. They're just gonna go ahead, get set up, and we'll meet them there.

Kathleen 9:04

But we're not gonna have any fun when Melissa and her family aren't there. We already made that promise to her. It's gonna be so boring. We'll just make sure we do all the boring things and we don't have any fun so she doesn't miss out on anything.

Melissa 9:16

So we have been itinerary planning for this trip, and I made it very clear that day one cannot be any fun at all. And they have to talk about how they miss us at least three times per person.

Kathleen 9:28

Uh, can you tell Melissa has a lot of FOMO?

Melissa 9:31

So much FOMO.

Kathleen 9:33

Let's

Flights On Points With A Layover

Kathleen 9:34

talk flights real quick. We looked into a lot of different options. We normally go to a flight aggregator like kayak to see who flies where first, what's direct, what's has maybe one stop in between. And so there are direct flights from LAX to Panama. And I believe that's the case for a lot of major flight hubs within the US, just because it's a jump-off point for South America. And I believe the carrier from LAX is Copa, which is a Star Alliance United partner. However, for this trip, it was very expensive to book the direct flight. So we started exploring connections.

Melissa 10:16

Even though we're going on different days, both of us elected to fly on United. We are also breaking our direct flight rule, and we're both going to be taking a layover on this flight out. But the nice thing is that we'll both be flying out of Orange County, which is where we live, instead of out of LAX. So we don't have to do that hour drive up to LA.

Kathleen 10:39

And save the cost on an Uber or taxi too. And points wise, both of our families booked these flights on points. If we were looking at a direct out of LAX, it was around 80,000 points. Fast forward, guess what? The connection only costs 40,000. And that's just a significant difference in cost and points. I mean, the points don't cost anything. They're funny money, right?

Melissa 11:06

It did end up being a no-brainer for us. We will check back in after this vacation on whether that layover and the cheaper points was the right decision, but I'm already feeling confident that the combination of less points, flying out of a closer airport, and having just an hour and a half layover for each of us, I think it's the right decision. I think it'll be fine.

Kathleen 11:28

I think so too. And the kids are older this year too. So I'm not as anxious getting on a flight, having a connection, having them wait in the airport. We're not skipping naps and them to be very cranky. So it felt like an appropriate time to say, all right, let's try a connection, see what happens.

Where To Stay In Casco Viejo

Melissa 11:46

So as we mentioned, we're both flying into Panama City. Since we're both arriving on different days, we ended up getting two separate rental houses for our families in Casco Viejo, which on the map looks like they're gonna be a block away from each other. So I think we're gonna still have the benefit of being super close on vacation, but obviously, since you're getting in a day earlier, you didn't need the extra two to three bedrooms that my family commands. So I think it's the cost-effective decision, too.

Kathleen 12:13

We chose to stay in Casco Viejo because it looks really charming, super walkable, and easy with kids.

Melissa 12:20

It's considered a UNESCO historic district, and there's a huge push to renovate and to bring some of those dilapidated buildings back into their former glory from when the area was first developed back in 1673. There's also an older part of town called Panama Viejo that was destroyed by pirates, apparently. And that predates Casco Viejo, but it seems like it's mostly just ruins based on what I've seen online so far. We'll have to find out when we're there.

Kathleen 12:48

Yeah, it's funny. Casco Viejo means old town, but it's the new old town. And then the other one, Panama Viejo, is like the old, old town. So not to confuse anybody, we'll we'll go visit and let you know what it's all about.

Melissa 13:04

We'll learn all about it.

Kathleen 13:06

Some insight on Central America. We are going during Samana Santa, which translates to Holy Week and it's over Easter. So this is a big time for celebration in Panama. It's coupled with spring break. So flights and hotels were more expensive and pretty booked up when we were looking into this. Shame on us for not checking into this earlier. I would say, and we've talked about this on the podcast before, we both have a preference for VRBOs. Is it VRBO or verbo? Like somebody chime in and tell me if I'm saying it right or wrong. I don't know. What do you what do you say?

Melissa 13:39

I think it's verbo, but the only reason I think that is because I watch the Kardashian shows and they call it verbo, and I feel like they know what's up. So if it's good enough to call it verbo from the Kardashian perspective, I will call it Verbo as well.

Kathleen 13:57

Okay, I will try to fix my pronunciation.

Melissa 14:00

Channel your inner Kardashian.

Kathleen 14:02

We have a preference to stay in a Verbo, and we try to book Airbnbs because they have laundry, there's a kitchen situation, but in Casco Viejo, I was very tempted by the hotels. There are a bunch of quaint little boutique apartments and other hotel chains that looked awesome for reference. The rental that we're staying in is going to run us about $400 per night per family. I do believe that if it wasn't Samana Santa, that the accommodations would actually be much cheaper.

Melissa 14:36

The fact that we're going over this holiday time is definitely driving up the prices. I love staying in a rental house for all the reasons you just mentioned, but when we were doing the research, we were sort of starting to get swayed by some of those hotels. Like hotel

Kathleen 14:54

How's your Spanish, Melissa?

Melissa 14:57

Why do I have all the Spanish ones?

Kathleen 14:59

Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna chime in here.

Melissa 15:03

Guys, we write notes of the hotels that we looked into, and I just looked at all the names, and I'm gonna butcher how to pronounce every single one of these hotel names.

Kathleen 15:11

So the first one's Hotel La Compañía Casco Antiguo. Go ahead, Melissa.

Melissa 15:18

So that one looked incredible. That one is fully brooked though. The grounds were beautiful. It had a pool. There is this beautiful Hyatt property. The prices there range from about $250 all the way up to $750. Again, though, this was booked up for the room types that we would have needed for each of our family sizes. Another hotel that looked really promising was Central Hotel, which is off of the main square. And then how about you tell us

Kathleen 15:49

so the next one's La Concordia Boutique Hotel and Tantalo Hotel, which they had really awesome rooftop bars to check out. So we might go look at them anyway while we're there. And then the Concordia was about $200 per night. And on the higher side, Tontalo was around $350 per night. And I believe those were for one bedrooms with two queens. And just for reference, the rental that we got has multiple bedrooms so that our family can be sleeping separately and split up, everybody can get better rest. And for $400 per night for the family, it just checked more boxes for us. I'd say in Panama, there are a lot of beautiful hotels. That's the easy way to go. But if you want a little more room for your family, there's some awesome rentals as well.

Canal Plans And Heat Strategy

Melissa 16:40

So on the activity planning side, we're both using a lot of AI in order to get a general sense of what to do and what to see. And then once something piques our interest, we're going deeper in our own research. Lots of shared documents between us to keep us all organized with the travel logistics. As for activities, my super nerdy bucket list item is the Panama Canal. I cannot wait to see it.

Kathleen 17:03

So Melissa and I have this in common. We love learning new things about historical monuments and like going on interesting tours like this. So I am very excited about the canal as well. For reference, the ships move one way in the morning and then they switch the flow and they move back the other direction in the evening. We'll probably go early because the kids will be up anyway. And then we can beat the midday sun. But people do keep recommending this canal movie experience. I think that'll be our schedule. We'll see the boats move, which I don't know what to expect there. I think ships move pretty slow. So how exciting or thrilling that will be, I'm not sure. And my kids would love to sit through a movie. Those are the two things we're gonna focus on during the tour experience.

Melissa 17:53

And then it also looks like the city has a ton of amazing green spaces nearby that area. We'll probably be able to run around there in order to get the sillies out for the kids. It does look like it's gonna be really hot. I think it's always hot there. Panama is so close to the equator. A lot of our activity planning, we are keeping the heat in mind. I'm picturing early mornings and then afternoons back at the rental houses for naps and downtime and all of that. And then we'll probably venture back out once the heat dies down a little bit.

Kathleen 18:26

That brings up a really good point. We always pack rehydration packets to add to the water wherever we go. Think like drip drop or liquid IV. When it's very hot in these tropical climbs, it's sometimes hard to get the kids to drink a lot of fluids.

Melissa 18:42

The rehydration packets really help keep the kids from being dehydrated. Also, us too. I drink them.

Kathleen 18:48

Y eah. It gets me to drink my water at home. I'm like, ew, boring, regular water. And then you add in like a liquid IV and it's like delicious. I'll drink three liters. It's like a fun little sweet treat. We've talked about traveler's diarrhea before. The primary thing with kids when they have that is to keep them hydrated. The rehydration packets cover that as well. Panama City has a lot to offer, but we also wanted to add in another leg of the trip.

Boca Del Toro And Resort Pick

Kathleen 19:14

And so we decided to go to Bocas Del Toro. It's a beautiful chain of islands on the Caribbean side of Panama.

Melissa 19:22

But to get there, we're gonna have to take a tiny puddle jumper flight, which triggers my fear of flying once again.

Kathleen 19:31

Melissa, you're being so brave. It's gonna be fine. I will pack some snacks for you and make sure that you're comfy on the flight, okay?

Melissa 19:39

Thank you, thank you. There is a bus option to get there, but but it looks like it's a nine-hour bus drive. And with how limited we are with time, it just didn't really seem like it would make sense. So when the logistics make sense for the flight, I will obviously always take this flight and suck it up. So we're flying to the islands, guys.

Kathleen 20:03

Could you imagine if we all like took the flight and then Melissa's like, "I'm taking the bus, I'll see you in a day."

Melissa 20:09

See ya in nine hours.

Kathleen 20:12

Bocas is known as the Galapagos of the Caribbean, and there are a ton of islands in the archipelago. Isla Colon is the main hub where you fly in, and it's the bigger city with dining and nightlife. We wanted to do more of a laid-back island vibe, so we were going to stay on Isla Bastimientos. Or sorry. We are going to stay on Isla. We are gonna stay on Isla Bastimientos. We are going to stay on Isla Bastimentos. Bastimentos. Bastimentos. Bastimentos.

Melissa 20:47

So when we were looking into accommodations in Bocas, they all looked super stunning. Some of the awesome places that you can stay were Azul Paradise resort, which had overwater bungalows. My husband and I have stayed in an overwater bungalow in Tahiti, and it was unreal. But I'm just not sure about my kids in an overwater bungalow.

Kathleen 21:10

It does give me a bit of anxiety because say somebody decides to get out of bed in the middle of the night and just like goes out the door and plop into the water. You really can't control that. I know that's probably a mom fear, and I'm giving it too much credit, but it would keep me up at night.

Melissa 21:31

Yes. And we want good sleep on this trip. That was out. La Loma included a chocolate farm and tree houses that were suspended in the jungle, which looked super awesome.

Kathleen 21:41

Once again, in the middle of the night, wandering out and falling out of the church.

Melissa 21:46

Okay, yeah. I guess that's you're reminding me why we talked ourselves out of that one. And then I sla Palenque seemed like a dream, but it was a little bit more on the expensive side for what we were looking to spend. But If you're willing to splurge, that one looked really cool.

Kathleen 22:03

It honestly didn't seem like there was one bad option for our group, except for Popa Paradise Beach, which appeared to be a clothing optional resort. So I don't think that one was for the kids. Yes.

Melissa 22:17

There were less vrbos in Bocus than on the mainland. We ultimately chose Red Frog Island Resort because we could rent a huge house that would fit our families and still get the resort amenities. That's the sweet spot with kids, honestly. The house rental means snacks on demand, your own kitchen for breakfast, spaces to decompress, but we're all still kind of together so the kids can run around. Red Frog has also just been very accommodating to us before we have even arrived.

Kathleen 22:47

They've been so nice and very responsive via WhatsApp, and I talked to them on the phone as well. It's hard to assess on site what the units look like on the map. So I was able to communicate with them back and forth to figure out which was the right unit for our group. We also asked if they had any book direct discounts. So make sure to talk them to get the best deals. And then one thing to note, specifically in Bocas, it did seem that many resorts were eco-lodges and perhaps did not have air conditioning. Since Panama is near the equator, it can be very hot. And so while a pool is refreshing, I find it really hard to sleep at night if there's not air conditioning. Make sure to check in on this with the resort before you book. I know this is a first-world problem, but I need my air conditioning.

Melissa 23:37

So

Send Tips And Share The Show

Melissa 23:38

that's the overview of how Panama became the winner for this year's big family adventure. As of this recording, we haven't gone on the trip yet. So if anyone has tips or suggestions for us, please send them our way by visiting our website, ourorganizedchaos.com, or DMing us on TikTok or on Instagram at our.organized.chaos.

Kathleen 24:17

We started this podcast three months ago and we are loving every minute of this wild ride. We have hundreds of downloads and a special shout out to all our international listeners.

Melissa 24:22

Yes, organized chaos has gone global. We have listeners in Canada, France, Singapore, Ghana, Fiji, and the UK. We do have a small favor for you all. If you like what you're hearing, please share our podcast with a friend.

Kathleen 24:35

Any listen counts. Thank you for listening, and don't forget to follow our socials and subscribe to our podcast so you never miss an episode.

Kids 24:43

 Thanks for listening. See you on our next adventure.