Happy President’s Day to those in the United States (or Family Day in Canada – what a nice thing to celebrate!).
We’ve been so busy with renovations that we forgot to mention that we are going to Panama next week! We’re very excited and ready to get away and unplug for a little while.
What’s the plan?
If you aren’t aware, Panama is part of Central American and home to the Panama Canal, one of the modern wonders of the world. It has coastline on both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, so depending on where you are, you can see the sun rise or set over the ocean in Panama. Costa Rica borders on the east and Colombia on the west. We’ll be spending a week in Juan Gallegos, Panama, which is on the Atlantic side of Panama, just north of Chagres National Park.
The house sits on the water and there are a few nearby islands we can explore by boat. Gene will also spend quite a bit of time snorkeling right in the front “yard!”
After our week of relaxation, sun, and surf, we will head back to Panama City and stay in Casco Viejo for a few days. Casco Viejo was constructed in 1673 and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It was built after the original city center was burned before an attack by pirates. This new city center contained more walls and was bordered by the sea on three sides.
In Casco Viejo we will stay in an Airbnb on the Cathedral Plaza, right in the heart of shopping, dining, and entertainment. Through Viator we’ve signed up for a Panamanian cooking class in the home of a local. We’re going to learn how to cook a few native dishes and try some local cocktails. We will definitely Uber home from that experience!
While in Panama, we will also, of course, see the Panama Canal. No trip to Panama would be complete without seeing this modern wonder of the world!
The cost breakdown
As with all of our trips, we’re going to go into the cost breakdown for this trip.
Flights
For this trip, we actually ended up booking one way flights: Kansas City to Panama on American Airlines, and Panama back to Kansas City on Delta Airlines. That way we were able to maximize points we had on different platforms.
Our flight from Kansas City to Panama cost is $0 out of pocket. We had signed up for an American Airlines travel rewards credit card and completed the required spending to get their 80,000 bonus miles. This trip for the both of us cost 68,000 bonus miles, which includes two free checked bags and seat selection.
Our flight from Panama to Kansas City on Delta was booked through Capital One Travel, where we had more miles accrued from our Capital One Venture X card (this is the main card we use for almost all of our day-to-day purchases). The cost for both flights was $776, and we used $340 in travel points to offset that cost.
Total cost for airfare to fly two people round trip from Kansas City to Panama City, Panama, with free checked bags both ways and seat selection for each leg of the flight: $436
Lodging
Our first Airbnb, in Juan Gallegos, Panama, is running us $1560. We’re traveling with another couple, so we’re responsible for half of this, which is $780. We had a credit from our bad Airbnb experience in Puerto Rico (link) for $120, and we also used another $300 in travel rewards from Capital One Venture X. So that Airbnb cost us $360 for 7 nights right on the Atlantic Ocean.
The Casco Viejo house was $493 for two nights (it’s a more expensive area than we usually choose, but we couldn’t resist being right in the heart of the action!). Our half is $246.
We also chose travel insurance for our Airbnb stays because the state of travel in Central America right now can change in an instant. That was another $70 per couple.
Total cost for 10 nights in Panama either right on the water, or right in the city center: $670. That’s $67 per night!
Rental car
The rental car will cost us $364 for 10 days (our half).
Grand total
Without any points, this trip would cost us $2,916 for airfare, lodging, travel insurance, and rental car.
Before food, beverages, additional experiences, and souvenirs, we have spent $1,460 for ten days in Panama, including airfare, lodging, and rental car. That comes out to $146 per day, or $73 per person per day!
That’s a savings of $1,456, so this trip was 50% off just by using travel rewards and points!
We’re pretty happy with this total. We chose very comfortable accommodations, secured them with trip insurance just in case, chose good seats on each plane, and will be checking one bag there and likely two on the way back (rum takes up space and can’t go in our carry on luggage).
Next week we’ll be coming to you from sunny Panama!
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