International Flights:

As part of Central America, Panama is just a short plane ride away.  Seven major US cities offer direct daily flights to Panama City: Atlanta, Dallas, Fort Lauderdale, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Newark, Orlando and Washington, D.C.  All international flights arrive at Tocumen International Airport.  You can also fly into San Jose, Costa Rica and take a flight from San Jose directly to Bocas Del Toro. Flights from San Jose are an estimated one hour of flying time (instead of a 6-hour drive).

Domestic Flights:

All domestic flights leave from Marcos A. Gelabert airport in Albrook which is about thirty minutes away from Tocumen International Airport and only 10 minutes from downtown Panama City.  Both Aeroperlas Regional and Air Panama fly to Bocas International Airport on Isla Colon in the Bocas del Toro Archipelago several times daily.  Nature Air flies from several locations in Costa Rica to Bocas del Toro four times a week.

by Matt Landau

My flight to Bocas del Toro, Panama was surprisingly easy. There are several in-country airlines that fly to Bocas from elsewhere in Panama, their main hub being Albrook Airport in Panama City. I approached the counter at Albrook and requested a seat. The flight, according to the small woman behind the desk, would cost $72.29 roundtrip: an odd number, I thought, but definitely nothing I was about to protest.

The plane itself was very small: one row with two seats and the other with only one. These sorts of flights sometimes irk me because you end up rubbing shoulders, knees, and other personal body parts with the stranger next to you. There was no seatbelt spiel nor did anyone seem to care that I was seated in the exit row, and that perhaps I wasn’t strong enough to lift the latch should the time come. I cracked open a Snapple and sat back to enjoy.

There were two pilots, one of whom I met before hand, who had worked for a bunch of years in the states, before moving down to Panama with his wife. He assured me that the flight would be smooth and that it wouldn’t last more than an hour. They sat up front in the cockpit and there were about 15 other people on the flight: the cabin about 3/4ths full.

As the plane began to lean in on Bocas, I looked out the water and found just what I was expecting: this crystal clear emerald green water, dotted with islands, as if it was some sort of hellish golf course. My pilot friend announced to the cabin that if we looked out the window to our right, we could see a large school of stingrays—something that I was infatuated with, yet something that poor people on the left hand side of the plane never got to see. I took that chance to brag about how huge and beautiful the rays were, even exaggerating and throwing in a comment that I might have even seen a whale.

The flight to Bocas del Toro landed at Bocas airport: a shockingly-clean and surprisingly-well built compound. There were lots of taxi men there offering their services, but I already had a ride. Jim, one of the owners at Tranquilo Bay stood off to the side wearing some cool black shades and this slim smile—the kind of smile that you see on someone who knows they are in paradise and that they are not leaving. Jim took me over to a docking area, less than a mile away, where we boarded that had been waiting. He then motored us out, over those beautiful waters and through those stunning islands, to the place he calls home. The rest…is history.