Santa Catalina Inn opened during the summer of 2010 only steps from the center of Santa Catalina. The hotel is conveniently located on a quiet side road, within a short walk from beaches, restaurants, the surf break and dive shops.Our hotel offers five air-conditioned, spacious and well-decorated rooms each with a ceiling fan, hot water and private balconies or patios where guests can relax and watch the sunset.
Places to stay are graded on a 0-100 scale. The higher the grade, the easier it is for travellers to find restaurants and things to do within walking distance.
In order to review this hotel or in fact any property in Santa Catalina, you must first understand the world of Santa Catalina. This is a remote village, cut off from the world, (except for one very bad, extremely pot holed road) where everything has to be brought in, and business owners have to be very resourceful. There are no 5 star resorts with marble floors, golf courses and infinity pools. Santa Catalina simply is a beautiful beach town from 50 years ago, with some A/C, and restaurants that make the best of what they can get. What Santa Catalina does have, is access to some of the most spectacular Ocean archipelago you could ever imagine and some of the best surfing beaches in Central America. If the above appeals to you, then you will love your stay at The Santa Catalina Inn as we did. This small hotel was only built two years ago, and as already mentioned it is affiliated with Scuba Coiba who provide diving trips to the Coiba Islands. The Inn is a great place to spend the night before and after your island trip. Rooms are basic with concrete floors and minimal furniture, but beds are comfortable and the rooms are clean, A/C worked well. The bathroom sink has pretty mosaic around it and the shower is almost the size of a small room, we had only luke warm water, but this was fine as it is so hot here that a hot shower is far from your mind. The room had a strong musty smell when we first entered, probably due to the warm and humid environment, this smell dissapeared once the A/C had run for a while. The owner Susie, is super friendly and accomodating, we felt like old friends after five minutes, she will make you just about anything you feel like in the small hotel restaurant, and her banana pancakes are fabulous. If life in Santa Catalina is your cup of tea, then you will definitely enjoy staying here. Price for 3 persons...$57 incl. tx, breakfast extra
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Date of stay: January 2011
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Trip type: Travelled as a couple
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The only thing missing at this inn is a view of the Pacific, but since you are a 5-minute walk from almost anything in the town, including the beach, it is easy to get to wherever you want to go.
The owner, Suzie, was welcoming and enthusiastic, and the inn offers free WiFi, a rarity in sleepy Santa Catalina. Great value for the price!
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Date of stay: January 2016
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Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Clean and very beautiful place. The people working there are really helpful and friendly and made the time we spent there extraordinary having great recommendations for diving, surfing, and restaurants. Thanks to Janet and Adrian who made the time in this nice village unique.
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Date of stay: March 2014
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Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Adrian S, Manager at Santa Catalina Inn
Responded Apr 7, 2014
Thank you for your review. Myself and my staff try our best to help our guests and hope they have a pleasant stay in the hotel but also in Santa Catalina village. Thanks again and hope to see you soon Adrian, Janet, Christine
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Thoroughly disappointing interaction. I hope this is a one off for them as our experience doesn't match that of the other reviewers.
We had booked to stay here on the 12th July and was surprised to receive an email the morning of, that the Inn was closed for renovations. As we had payed a deposit we were destined to stay in the place that they had booked for us. They found us accomodation at a place outside of town which was not what we were after or had paid for. We had wanted something very central as we have two young children (5 years and 7 years) who cannot walk very far in the Panama heat, particularly when we also have bags.
To compensate for the hotel being out of the main part of town, the Manager agreed to give us a lift back into town the following morning (there are no taxis' in Santa Catalina) to meet the start of our tour. He never showed up and could not be reached by phone.
I am surprised they took a booking when they had obviously (due to the permanent signage and word from others in the town) been closed for a while. The sign out the front of the Santa Catalina Inn has been spray-painted with "closed" which didn't look new, so I am a little confused / surprised by the other reviewer who said they stayed there recently.
The Manager also helped us arrange a transfer to and from Santa Catalina. This driver did an excellent job between Boquete and Santa Catalina. However he got lost on the transfer between Santa Catalina and El Valle. This driver did not show up as agreed for the second transfer and had to be tracked down for over an hour. When he did show up, he sat down with the owner of the place we were staying at for a drink, even though we were super keen by this point to get on our way. Between the late start and getting lost, we reached our final destination quite late into the evening which was far from ideal. Then to top it off, the Manager from Santa Catalina Inn then accused us of short changing his driver, which was certainly not the case.
I think the Manager (Adrian) probably has good intentions, but lacks on the follow through. Thankfully for our two weeks travelling through Panama this was our only hiccup.
One star because they had the decency to find us something else when he couldn't make good on his promise.
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Date of stay: July 2014
Service
Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
me and my sister stayed here during peak season/xmas time. the town is chill, laid back, with a good mix of laid back tourists and friendly locals. far enough from an airport/big city to attract tons of tourists but enough activites and restaurants/bars etc to accomadate them. the inn itself is super cute, clean and a great value for the $. also, not too busy that you feel like you are in a hotel. the restaurant ( which feels like your at a friends terrace) has cheap beer and yummy pizzas. We loved this place! the owner Adrian was super friendly as was everyone else we met here (at the inn and the whole town!). he even went out of his way to call my airline and arrange for my lost luggage to make it to santa catalina and then held it for me while we were on a 2 day island trip since neither me or my sister had a cell or are fluent in spanish. Amazing! Highly reccomend Santa Catalina Inn to anyone visiting and hope I can make it back again sometime!
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Date of stay: December 2012
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Trip type: Travelled with friends
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We staid in the Santa Catalina Inn for 2 nights in the beginning of May 2014. The rooms are Ok, the shower and the toilest are clean. For us it was disapointing that the Restaurant closed down. Nice grils operating the Hotel. Apart from the diving Location i would not recommend the visit of Santa Catalina.
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Date of stay: May 2014
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Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Stayed here for two nights Did a Coiba snorkel trip through them (was amazing!). First night there was no water so we got one night for free which shows excellent managment.
It was rainy season during our stay so a great variety of insects in our room and bed (the reason why we cannot give excellent even if we wanted to otherwise). No wifi (which is much the case in Santa Catalina).
If you want to take surfing lessons Adrian will know a guy for you :)
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Date of stay: May 2014Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Adrian S, Manager at Santa Catalina Inn
Responded May 25, 2014
Hi...thank you for your review. Im sorry for the water situation that had developed since the water pump form our water well broke down. I appreciate your understanding and always welcome to visit us again.
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I stayed in Santa Catalina for 2 nights and my room was wonderful. The rooms are large with a big bathroom and shower. The inn is within walking distance to a cornerstore as well as a few restaurants, although you will need to bike or drive to a nearby beach. The owners, adrienn and Christine are super nice, and they have a big dog Hudson who is a sweetheart. I would absolutely stay again! PS some of the locals in this town are not nice to dogs so prepare yourself
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Date of stay: February 2014
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Trip type: Travelled with friends
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Adrian S, Manager at Santa Catalina Inn
Responded Apr 7, 2014
Dear Samantha thank you for your review. Perito, the white dog, now is at our new house recovering. It was great meeting you, and hope to see you soon.Adrian Christine
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We found out about Santa Catalina Inn through Scuba Coiba (and got a bit of a discount when we booked). Adrian, the owner, was a dive intructor and recommended the discover scuba dive for us noobie divers. It was spectacular! The rooms at the inn were beautiful and there is tons of room to unpack and relax. We were on the second floor and had our own private balcony. I seem to recall the shower was also amazing. A true European shower with tons of pressure and hot water. The ac kept us nice and cool in the blistering heat but cooled us down to freezing in the middle of the night. No kitchen because of issues with the restaurant but the pizza near by at Jammin' was so good. I would highly recommend this place to anyone looking for a relaxing time in Santa cat. Only downside was no wifi when we were there. That being said we didn't miss the Internet at all during our 3 night stay.
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Date of stay: February 2014
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Adrian S, Manager at Santa Catalina Inn
Responded Apr 7, 2014
Hello hope all is fine. Thanks for you review. I know the WIFI is still an isse in center of Santa Catalina. But well ...shuuting down from the web is sometimes a good thing. Hope when you are back, the wifi would be much better. Take care Adrian and the staff
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The Santa Catalina Inn is a great little place to stay if you are traveling to Santa Catalina. Please keep in mind that the rooms are very basic, but the beds are comfortable and the rooms are clean. The AC works great (as long as the electricity is working in Santa Catalina --- which has the occasional power outages). The balconies are a nice feature to dry out your wet clothes. No internet, no TVs in the rooms, but you are most likely in Santa Catalina to get away and disconnect from it all. It's a quick downhill walk into town. Santa Catalina is really off the beaten path. I stayed here the night before and the night after my 3-day dive trip. They have an onsite restaurant (which I didn't try). The restaurant is not open everyday, but on my last night, it was quite festive. ***NOTE*** if you are a light sleeper, the "guard dogs" on the premises bark at all hours of the night!
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Date of stay: January 2014
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Trip type: Travelled solo
Room Tip:upstairs with a balcony
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Adrian S, Manager at Santa Catalina Inn
Responded Apr 7, 2014
Thank you for your review. We appreciate all your comments. The dogs have been relocated to my house. Hope to see you again. regards Adrian
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"We had a room on the second floor. There is kind of a staircase. I think that during the high season it will be stellar with great sunset views! Bathroom however was gross."
"The rooms on the firts fllor are suited for couples and solos and teh huge room on the first floor can host families and groups. They are very well sized and airy"
There are more places to choose from in the Santa Catalina area.
LOCATION
PanamaVeraguas ProvinceSanta Catalina
NUMBER OF ROOMS
5
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