There is a little trick to travelling around Panama that many backpackers discover only after spending weeks in the country: you do not always need to book a hotel room to enjoy the hotel.
Across Panama, a growing number of hotels and resorts sell day passes, allowing non guests to walk through the front doors, spend several hours beside the pool, use selected resort facilities, eat lunch, enjoy drinks and sometimes access a private beach area, all without paying for an overnight stay. It can be one of the smartest ways to experience Panama's more luxurious side without blowing an entire backpacking budget.
The concept is particularly interesting in Panama because there is such a huge difference between the price of a normal backpacker day and the price of staying at a luxury resort. A traveller might spend the night in a hostel for $15 to $25, then use a day pass to spend the following day in a resort with an enormous swimming pool, loungers, restaurants and tropical gardens. In other words, the backpacker does not have to choose between cheap travel and occasional luxury.
The trick most travellers miss
The biggest secret is that a hotel day pass is not necessarily an expensive luxury experience.
Current listings for Panama show a surprisingly wide range of prices. For example, day passes listed for Panama City include options beginning around $35 at the Waldorf Astoria Panama, around $65 at Hilton Panama, and around $85 at Gamboa Rainforest Resort. Beach resorts can cost more, with Dreams Playa Bonita currently listed from around $89 and The Westin Playa Bonita from around $100, with the latter listed as all inclusive. Prices and inclusions can change, so the individual property should always be checked before going.
And this is where the mathematics become interesting.
A backpacker might look at a $90 resort and immediately think, That's way too much. But if that $90 includes a full day at the resort, food, drinks and access to swimming pools and other facilities, it can be a completely different proposition from paying $90 for a hotel room.
You are essentially buying one very good day rather than one night.
Panama City is surprisingly good for this
Many travellers associate day passes with beach resorts, but Panama City has some interesting possibilities too.
The luxury hotels around the city have pools that can feel like another world compared with the traffic, heat and concrete outside. Current day pass listings include the Waldorf Astoria and Hilton Panama, while other hotels periodically introduce their own pool, brunch or weekend packages.
This makes the day pass particularly useful after a few weeks of backpacking.
Imagine spending the morning walking through Casco Viejo, taking the Metro or Uber back toward the modern city, and then spending the afternoon beside a rooftop or resort pool instead of sitting in a cramped hostel common room.
For travellers who have been living out of a backpack, a comfortable pool, proper shower, cold drink and air conditioning can feel ridiculously luxurious.
The beach resort version is even better
The real temptation comes when the day pass includes a resort outside the city.
Playa Bonita is one of the most accessible resort areas from Panama City, and both Dreams Playa Bonita and The Westin Playa Bonita currently appear in day pass listings. Dreams is listed as an all inclusive day pass, while The Westin is also listed with an all inclusive day pass option.
This is where the concept becomes especially attractive to backpackers.
Instead of spending several hundred dollars on a resort room, a traveller can stay somewhere inexpensive in Panama City and dedicate one day to the resort.
It becomes a luxury day trip rather than a luxury vacation.
The smartest way to use one
The secret is to choose your day carefully.
A day pass makes much more sense when the weather is good and when you have enough hours to actually use the facilities. Arriving at 3 p.m. for something that finishes at 6 p.m. is obviously poor value.
Many day passes operate roughly within daytime hours, commonly beginning in the morning and finishing in the late afternoon, although the exact hours vary by property.
For the best value, arrive early.
Have breakfast beforehand, spend the morning swimming, relax around the pool, have lunch at the resort, take advantage of whatever is included, and stay until the pass expires.
Suddenly that $50, $80 or $100 does not look like an expensive few hours. It becomes an entire mini vacation.
But there is another secret: ask directly
One of the most useful pieces of advice is not to assume that every hotel advertises its day pass prominently online.
Hotels change their promotions, create weekend packages, offer brunch and pool combinations, and sometimes have special arrangements for local residents or groups.
That means it can be worthwhile contacting the hotel directly and asking:
“Do you offer a day pass for the pool?”
Then ask exactly what is included.
Does it include food?
Does it include drinks?
Is beach access included?
Are towels provided?
Can you use the gym?
Is there a minimum food and beverage spend?
Are weekends different?
Do you need a reservation?
Can the price be credited toward food and drinks?
Those questions can completely change whether a day pass is a bargain or not.
The biggest mistake: assuming every day pass is all inclusive
This is where travellers need to be careful.
A pool day pass and an all inclusive day pass are not necessarily the same thing.
One might simply give you access to a swimming pool and lounge chairs. Another might include lunch and drinks. Another might include a food and beverage credit. A more expensive resort pass could include considerably more.
Current Panama listings demonstrate this difference clearly. Some properties advertise straightforward day passes, while others specifically identify their passes as all inclusive.
Always read the inclusions before paying.
A $40 pool pass followed by $60 spent on food and drinks is a very different experience from a $90 all inclusive pass where everything is already covered.
It can be brilliant for the last day of a trip
There is another particularly clever use for hotel day passes: the awkward final day.
Perhaps the flight does not leave until late at night.
The hostel checkout is at 11 a.m.
The backpack is packed.
There are eight hours to kill.
Instead of wandering around Panama City carrying luggage and sweating in the tropical heat, a traveller can potentially arrange a day pass, spend the afternoon somewhere comfortable and then head to the airport.
It can turn one of the most annoying parts of travelling into one of the nicest.
The same applies to travellers arriving very early before their accommodation is ready.
Day passes are also a great backpacker splurge
Backpacking does not mean refusing to spend money on anything nice.
In fact, occasional splurges can make a long trip much more enjoyable.
After several nights in dorms, taking buses, carrying a backpack through the rain and eating inexpensive meals, spending one day at a beautiful resort can feel far more rewarding than spending the same amount on another ordinary hotel night.
There is something psychologically satisfying about knowing that the backpacker budget has not been abandoned.
The traveller is still sleeping cheaply.
Still taking buses.
Still staying in hostels.
But one day is completely different.
The Panama day pass formula
For budget travellers, a particularly good strategy is:
Cheap accommodation + expensive day pass + no expensive hotel room.
Stay at a hostel.
Use public transportation or an inexpensive Uber to reach the resort.
Buy the day pass.
Spend the entire day there.
Return to the cheap accommodation in the evening.
That can give travellers a taste of a $200 or $300-per-night vacation without actually paying the overnight resort rate.
It is one of those travel tricks that makes Panama considerably more interesting for people travelling on a budget.
And it is not just about luxury
Day passes can also be useful for people who simply want a break from sightseeing.
Panama can be hot.
Very hot.
After several days of walking around Panama City, exploring ruins, climbing trails or travelling between destinations, sometimes the best possible activity is absolutely nothing.
A swimming pool becomes an attraction.
A sun lounger becomes an attraction.
A cold drink becomes an attraction.
And spending six hours doing almost nothing can be exactly what a backpacker needs.
The real secret
The real secret of Panama's hotel day passes is not simply that they exist.
It is that they change the economics of luxury travel.
A hotel room gives you a place to sleep.
A day pass gives you the part of the hotel that you actually wanted to use.
For many travellers, that is the pool, the view, the beach, the food, the drinks and the feeling of being somewhere beautiful.
If sleeping there is not important, paying for the room can be unnecessary.
So when travelling through Panama, it is worth looking beyond hostels and hotels and asking a different question:
“What if I could visit the resort without staying there?”
Sometimes the answer is a surprisingly affordable day in one of Panama's nicest hotels.
And for a backpacker, that might be one of the best little luxury hacks in the entire country.