Panama Canal Railway

I had a wonderful time at Hotel Riu Plaza Panama City. The check in process was quick and easy. My room was clean and well-maintained. The overall staff were very friendly and helpful. *Excellent breakfast buffet & friendly, attentive staff. *Excellent & clean pool area. I highly recommend this hotel!

The room itself was absolutely beautiful, spacious, and definitely one of the highlights of our stay. We stayed in the Supreme Corner Room, and I loved the panoramic layout and the soaking tub—it was everything! The housekeeping staff was also incredibly sweet, friendly, and welcoming. Unfortunately, the service surrounding our stay did not match the quality of the room. Before arriving, I completed an email/form for airport pickup and drop-off, but no transportation was there for us. We ended up having to get an Uber from the airport. I was also disappointed that one entire side of the panoramic windows was extremely dirty. When you specifically pay for a panoramic room, the VIEW is a major part of the experience, so having dirty windows definitely took away from it. The biggest issue, however, happened at check-in. Instead of placing a temporary hold on my credit card for incidentals, I was actually CHARGED over $300. No one properly explained this to me or made any real attempt to accommodate me for the mistake. I didn’t even fully learn what happened until checkout. I was then told that it could take up to 15 days to receive my money back because they needed to determine whether we had used anything from the minibar and what, if anything, needed to be deducted. That was extremely frustrating and, in my opinion, very unprofessional. If a guest’s card is mistakenly charged instead of having a hold placed on it, that should be addressed immediately and clearly not disco