One of the biggest questions people have before taking their first solo backpacking trip is not actually about buses, beaches, money or safety. It is the much more personal question: “What if I get there and nobody talks to me?”
It is a completely reasonable fear. Travelling alone sounds incredibly liberating when you imagine yourself sitting on a tropical beach with a backpack, deciding where to go next. But there is another side to the fantasy. You arrive at a hostel, everyone seems to already have their own little group, couples are sitting together, somebody is talking to somebody they met yesterday, and suddenly you are standing there wondering whether you have accidentally signed up for three weeks of eating dinner alone.
Fortunately, Panama is one of those countries where travelling alone does not necessarily mean being lonely.
Panama has a well established backpacker route, and hostels are particularly common in places such as Panama City, Boquete and Bocas del Toro. Lonely Planet specifically notes that hostels are useful for solo travellers because they provide inexpensive accommodation while also creating opportunities to meet other travellers.
And there is an interesting reason for this.
Panama Has a Backpacker Trail
Panama is geographically quite compact, but it has an enormous variety of environments. You can go from skyscrapers and colonial streets in Panama City to Caribbean islands, Pacific beaches, cloud forests, volcanoes and jungle within a relatively short journey.
That creates something extremely useful for a solo backpacker: you keep running into the same type of traveller.
Someone you meet in Panama City might be heading toward the same places you are. You may meet another traveller going to Bocas del Toro, then discover somebody else is heading to Boquete, Santa Catalina or the mountains.
The backpacker route essentially becomes a moving social network.
There are several popular routes through Panama, with Panama City, El Valle, Santa Catalina, Boquete and Bocas del Toro appearing frequently in backpacking itineraries.
That means you don't necessarily have to manufacture friendships from nothing. You are often surrounded by people doing exactly what you are doing.
So, Is It Difficult to Meet People?
Usually, no. But where you stay makes an enormous difference.
If you stay in a private hotel room, eat alone at restaurants and spend your evenings watching Netflix, you can absolutely travel through Panama without meeting anybody.
That isn't really a Panama problem.
That's a travel-alone-without-interacting-with-anyone problem.
Stay in a social hostel dorm, however, and the situation changes dramatically.
You are suddenly sleeping in a room with other travellers, sitting beside strangers at breakfast, waiting for buses with people carrying backpacks, asking somebody where they are going next, joining a hike, sharing a taxi, playing cards, having dinner together or sitting at a hostel bar.
The barriers to conversation disappear.
And perhaps the most important thing to understand is that many of the people around you are also travelling alone.
That makes the first conversation incredibly easy.
“Where are you from?”
“Where are you going next?”
“How long have you been travelling?”
“Have you been to Bocas yet?”
“Is that waterfall worth going to?”
And suddenly you have been talking for twenty minutes.
The First Day Can Feel Different
There is a strange psychological phenomenon that happens when you travel alone.
Before you leave home, you imagine yourself meeting dozens of fascinating people every day.
Then you arrive.
And for the first few hours you may feel slightly awkward.
You don't know where anything is. You don't know anybody. You don't know whether you should sit at the table with those three people talking over beers. You don't know whether they are friends who have travelled together for six months or strangers who met fifteen minutes ago.
Most of the time, you have no idea.
And that is exactly why you should simply sit down.
Backpackers are generally used to strangers appearing and disappearing constantly. Someone can arrive at breakfast alone and be part of a group heading to the beach two hours later.
Then that person disappears the following morning because they caught a bus to the next destination.
That temporary nature of backpacking actually makes socializing easier.
There is very little pressure.
You don't need to become lifelong friends.
You just need someone to go have dinner with tonight.
And sometimes that person ends up becoming a travel companion for the next three weeks.
Hostels Are Basically Social Machines
A good hostel is much more than a cheap bed.
It is a social environment specifically designed to put people together.
Communal kitchens, dormitories, lounges, bars, hammocks, swimming pools, group dinners, walking tours, hiking trips, surfing lessons and organized activities all create natural opportunities for interaction.
Some Panamanian hostels are strongly oriented around nightlife. Others focus more on adventure, nature, surfing, hiking or simply creating a relaxed community.
That distinction is important.
If you are travelling alone and want to meet people, don't simply choose a hostel because it has the cheapest bed.
Choose it because the atmosphere matches the kind of people you want to meet.
A party hostel can be fantastic if you want nightlife.
A surf hostel can be fantastic if you want people who want to surf.
A jungle hostel can be fantastic if you want hikers, nature lovers and adventurous backpackers.
The activity becomes the conversation starter.
You don't have to walk up to someone and say, “Hello, would you like to be my friend?”
You simply say:
“Are you doing the hike?”
And you're in.
Bocas del Toro Can Be Extremely Social
Bocas del Toro is particularly well known for its backpacker atmosphere.
The combination of hostels, beaches, boat trips, nightlife and international travellers creates an environment where solo travellers can easily find other people looking for something to do.
This is one of those places where you might meet somebody in your hostel in the morning, go swimming with them in the afternoon, have dinner together in the evening and end up going out later.
The next day, you might meet completely different people.
Or you might discover that half the people you met yesterday are going to the same beach.
That's backpacking.
Boquete Has a Different Kind of Social Scene
Boquete tends to attract a somewhat different crowd.
The mountains, cooler climate, coffee, hiking and outdoor activities naturally attract travellers interested in nature and adventure.
This can actually be excellent for solo travellers because activities give people something to do together.
Instead of trying to make conversation for the sake of conversation, you're hiking up a mountain together.
You're looking for wildlife.
You're drinking coffee.
You're comparing routes.
You're discussing where you're heading next.
Conversation happens naturally.
And Then There Is the Jungle
One of the interesting things about Panama is that you don't necessarily have to be in a major tourist town to meet people.
There are social hostels located in much more remote environments, where the environment itself forces travellers together.
Lost and Found Hostel is a good example.
It is located in the cloud forest between Boquete and Bocas del Toro, so there isn't a busy tourist town outside the front door.
Instead, travellers spend time together hiking, exploring waterfalls, looking for wildlife, eating together, playing games, relaxing in hammocks and hanging out in the jungle.
That can create a particularly strong social atmosphere because there are fewer distractions.
You aren't wandering around a city for eight hours and then returning to your room.
The hostel becomes the destination.
And when everyone is staying in the same jungle environment, strangers can become friends surprisingly quickly.
The Secret: Don't Wait for Someone Else to Talk to You
This is probably the most important advice for a solo backpacker.
Don't sit in the corner waiting for somebody to notice you.
The people who have the easiest time meeting others aren't necessarily the most outgoing people.
They are often simply the people who make the first tiny move.
Sit at the communal table.
Ask somebody where they're going.
Join the group heading for dinner.
Ask whether anyone wants to split a taxi.
Go on the hostel activity.
Put your phone away for twenty minutes.
Say hello.
That's it.
You don't need to become the loudest person in the hostel.
You don't need to be the life of the party.
You don't even need to be particularly extroverted.
You simply need to make yourself available to interaction.
Travelling Alone Can Actually Make You More Social
There is another strange thing about solo backpacking.
When you're travelling with your girlfriend, boyfriend, husband, wife or a group of friends, you already have people to talk to.
You don't necessarily need anybody else.
When you're alone, you have a reason to interact.
You might ask somebody for directions.
You might join somebody for dinner.
You might ask whether they have already visited a particular attraction.
You might discover that they are going in the same direction tomorrow.
And before you know it, you have a travel companion.
In that sense, travelling alone can actually push you into situations that you might never experience while travelling with friends.
You Will Also Have Lonely Moments
It would be dishonest to pretend that solo travel means you will constantly be surrounded by friends.
There will probably be moments when you feel lonely.
You might arrive at a hostel on a quiet night.
You might spend a long bus journey staring out the window.
You might have dinner by yourself.
You might wake up one morning and realize that everybody you met yesterday has already left.
That's normal.
The social nature of backpacking is constantly changing.
People arrive.
People leave.
People change plans.
Someone you thought you would travel with for a week suddenly catches a bus in the opposite direction.
That's part of the experience.
And ironically, once you become comfortable with that, solo travel becomes much easier.
You stop thinking “I need to find friends.”
Instead, you think:
“Let's see who I meet today.”
You Don't Have to Party to Make Friends
Another misconception is that you have to drink or party to have a social backpacking experience.
You don't.
Panama gives you plenty of alternatives.
Go hiking.
Take a surf lesson.
Go snorkeling.
Join a boat trip.
Go birdwatching.
Explore a waterfall.
Take a coffee tour.
Join a yoga class.
Play cards at the hostel.
Cook dinner with other travellers.
Watch the sunset.
Go for a night walk.
These activities are often better conversation starters than standing around at a bar trying to think of something clever to say.
A Few Simple Tricks Make a Huge Difference
If you're travelling alone through Panama, there are a few things that dramatically increase your chances of meeting people.
Stay in dorms at least some of the time.
You don't have to sleep in a dorm every night. But if meeting people is important to you, shared accommodation gives you many more opportunities.
Choose social hostels rather than simply cheap hostels.
Cheap doesn't automatically mean social.
Join activities.
A group hike or boat trip gives you an instant shared experience.
Eat at communal tables.
Don't automatically find the smallest table in the corner.
Ask people where they're going next.
This is one of the easiest backpacker questions in existence.
Don't spend your entire evening on your phone.
You can't meet people who don't know you're there.
And finally:
Don't be afraid to say hello first.
The other person may be just as nervous as you are.
Panama Is Particularly Good for the Solo Backpacker Who Wants Both Adventure and People
Perhaps that's what makes Panama interesting.
You can have genuine independence without necessarily experiencing isolation.
You can wake up and decide that you want to hike.
You can spend an afternoon completely by yourself.
You can catch a bus to another part of the country.
And then, when you feel like being social, you can walk into a hostel and immediately find other travellers doing exactly the same thing.
Panama's transportation network also makes independent travel relatively practical, with buses connecting major destinations and water taxis serving parts of the Caribbean and other areas.
There is also something reassuring about the fact that the backpacker route is relatively concentrated. You aren't wandering through an enormous country where travellers are scattered thousands of kilometres apart.
You tend to encounter the same destinations again and again.
And sometimes you will see the same backpack.
Then the same person.
Then someone you met three days earlier suddenly walks into your hostel.
“Hey! What are you doing here?”
That's when travelling alone starts to feel very different.
You aren't really alone anymore.
So, Should You Travel Through Panama Alone?
If the only thing stopping you is the fear that you won't meet anyone, don't let that be the reason you stay home.
Panama has an established hostel and backpacker culture, and solo travellers are a normal part of it. Hostels are particularly concentrated around the country's major backpacker destinations and are specifically useful for meeting other travellers.
You may have a quiet day.
You may occasionally eat dinner alone.
You may even spend an entire bus ride without speaking to anybody.
But you are also likely to have those completely unexpected moments that are at the heart of backpacking: meeting somebody over breakfast, discovering that you're both going the same direction, deciding to share a taxi, ending up on a hike together, and eventually realizing that you have spent the last week travelling with someone who was a complete stranger when you arrived.
That is the strange magic of travelling alone.
You leave home alone.
You arrive alone.
And then, somewhere between the jungle, the beaches, the buses, the hostels and the next adventure, you start collecting people.
And sometimes, those people become the best part of the trip.