Panama-Bocas del Toro travel advise
I want to assure anyone who thinks that this information is too lengthy, that it is a very condensed version of the
original. We have no financial gain by providing this information. This makes the information truly free.
Before we go into any detail here I would like assure you that this place is not necessarily unsafer than any other places you visited. However, considering that the islands are so small and "tranquil" I have to admit that  there are possibly more "opportunists" per capita than I would have expected.  
These are just some common sense suggestions that you should follow everywhere you travel.  This should by no means discourage you from coming here, but should help you avoid unnecessary problems.
This place makes it easy to drop your guard and not all the friendly people are what they appear to be. Make sure you have all your belongings when you arrive in Bocas on a water taxi.  Things left behind are hard to get back.  Upon your arrival you will find many people who want to help you find a place to stay or who offer you boat trips on the street or anything else you might not want.  Although these people hang around the water taxi office they do not work for us and we are not responsible for any deals you make with them.  

If you are a woman travelling alone:
Some of the local machos are no strangers to rape.  However, almost all of the incidents we are aware of happened because some one partied to the point where they lost their ability to use common sense.  
If you go home with a guy at 3:00 am in the morning because his "grandmother would just love to meet you" don´t be surprised when you get into trouble.  Once something happened you basically have no recourse in the way of the courts, because you are a visitor and most likely not able to be present at any trial that may or may not come.  You are not here, so case dismissed. Don´t give anyone your room number.  A girl recently, very young and in tropical euphoria gave one of the machos the name of her hotel and the room number.  What a surprise she had when suddenly in the early morning hours she wok up having to guys standing over her.  In this case nothing happened because she had a friend staying with her who started making lots of noise.  If you appear to be looking for trouble, you will find them here just like anywhere else.  Violence is rare.  Most incidences are grab and run.  Avoid dark noisy places:  For example the area around 5th & 6th street close to the power generating plant.  Keep on the main roads after dark.  If you are with others stay together at night.  Be aware of your surroundings, look around and behind you frequently when you walk the streets after dark.  Be careful around the area called "Saigon".  Never take all your important documents (passport, airline tickets, travellers checks etc..) and all of your money on your day trips or when you are going out at night.  Just take what you absolutely need.  One of the first things after arriving in Bocas would be to make a copy of your passport.  The front page with your picture on it and the page that shows the immigration entry stamp into Panama.  Then you don't need to carry your passport around any longer.  By law every person on the street or in a bar or restaurant after 09:00pm (21:00) has to carry identification.

The border crossing on the carribbean coast:
It happens in Sixaola (Costa Rica side of the border) and Guabito (Panama side of the border. The Sixaola river separates the two countries and you will have to cross the bridge on foot after you finished your exit paperwork in Sixaola.
The bridge is basically a railroad bridge, but some big trucks are crossing occasionally as well and it is quite an experience. On the Costa Rica side is an added walkway, but the Panama side lacks that luxury.
Immediately after crossing the bridge you arrive at the immigration office in Panama. This whole procedure should not take more than 30 minutes.
****NOTE**** There are scumbags on both sides of the border, calling themselfs "Tourist Guides", trying to assist you with your luggage and trying to sell you a "package transportation deal". Don`t accept any of these scams. They are ending up costing you more than if you go on by yourself. There are no "package deals". More inormation can be found under "Taxi Warning!!!!" on this page.
There are taxis and public buses right after your leave immigration and walk down the stairs. A taxi to Finca 60 (our dock in Changuinola) cotst $ 5.00 and it is about a 30-40 min. ride. You can also take a bus to Changuinola $ 1.50 and from there take another collective bus to Finca 60 for another $.
All in all I would recommend to take the $ 5.00 ride because there is no hassle changing buses and finding your way around. If you are on a shoestring budget take the buses.
******Another important note here:
If you arrive at the border on or after 05:00 pm Panama time, you might as well go on to Almirante, which is another 14 miles from Changuinola because our last Changuinola boat leaves at 05:30 pm. Our last Almirante boat leaves at 06:30 pm.

The border crossing on the pacific side is called Paso Canoas.
This crossing is on the interamerican highway. From there you will need to take a bus to David and then a bus to Almirante to get to Bocas.

What else can I expect from Bocas del Toro?.
Let’s start with what you might not like:
To me the most annoying thing are the self proclaimed “Tour guides”. This typical 3rd. world nuisance of hustling people. They are working on commission to bring tourists to hotels, local Taxi boats, selling discount tours on the street without telling you that you also only receive less than a standard tour etc. They are running around with official looking badges, making badges is big business here, they love them. And they have an extremely hard time accepting the words “no thank you”. You are going to hear that they need to eat, they need to feed their children, their wife(s) is sick, the father died and god knows what else they come up with. I am frequently surprised by new lines, although I thought I knew most of them already. And of course there is the shoe shine boy, probably no older than 7 or 8, who comes in the restaurant and wants to mess with your feet while you are eating. If you tell him “no gracias” he wants to get paid anyway. That’s about it. I don’t want to sound too negative here, but I believe that if you are prepared and know what to expect you can have a better vacation. At the end it is not such a big deal.

What you might like:
Visiting vast beaches, watching birds, butterflies and dolphins, going snorkeling, going surfing, going scuba diving, renting a 4 wheeler, ride a bike from one end of the island to the other, island hopping, go horseback riding, go fishing, visit a chocolate farm (they actually make their natural chocolate right there). It is for sale in many places and has quite an interesting flavor.
Enjoy the variety of restaurants, room selection from $ 7.00 to $ 200.00, dancing, etc…

Do you recommend any tour provider?
Everybody who has something that floats and has a motor attached to it is in the tour business. With these individuals your tour will start out with spending half an hout at the fuel dock because they have to get your money first before they can buy fuel. These people operate illegally und usually under cut the legitimate tour prices which are in my opinion too low anyway considering the expense a legitimte business has to endure. These illegal operators are causing a decline in tour quality over all and bargain hunting tourists are contributing to this decline.
Our Mothers day trip from hell back to Bocas.
We wanted to spend the day at Red Frog Beach and made the mistake of hiring one of these illegal water taxis. I keep preaching about not using these people and yet I made the same mistake.
We agreed to the outrageous price of $ 25.00 for a private 16 min. Round trip. Before we even left Bocas he loaded 3 more people in the boat to go to Carenero. Then we spent another 20 minutes at the gas dock in Carenero, because the guy had no fuel. 90% of the time you hire any of these self proclaimed water taxis your tour will start out at the gas dock. There is only one pump and depending how busy they are you might be sitting for up to an hour in the boat before the tour even gets started.
By the time we left the gas dock we should have been laying on the beach already. Anyway, the agreement was to be picked up at 04:30 pm. He was only 15 min. late which was not too bad. Immediately after leaving the dock he almost ran over a cayuco (dugout) we missed it by about 5 feet at full speed, then continuing at full throttle through openings in the mangrove that were not much bigger than the boat itself. When we reached open water the boat stopped without warning and we almost fell off the bench (our 2.5 year old was on the boat as well). The reason for the sudden stop was the driver’s craving for a cigarette. After he fiddled around with his matches for a few minutes we took off full speed again, not back towards Bocas but back towards Bastimentos in search for more passengers who were also found at Roots restaurant. Then off again on collision course with the banana dock. A last second hard left maneuver and we cleared that dock as well and on to Carenero. Several passengers waiting at the Buccaneer Resort, who waved us over first, butt waved us off again after the driver did a full speed 90 degree towards their dock. I don’t want to go into detail about what happened after we finally arrived at our dock in Bocas, but I had a lot off steam to let off.
There are several legitimate tourproviders with offices. Boteros Unidos (next to the Reef Restaurant), Transparente tours (next to the Pirate Restaurant) and the two dive shops Bocas Water Sports and Starfleet Scuba are offering tours as well. Their average price for a day of touring is abut $ 20.00. There is also Catamaran Adventures located at Boca Bills Restaurant, price $ 35.00 We offer tours on a limit basis mostly for groups at this time as we only sell on a per boat basis and not per person. This might change with the addition of more boats in the future.
Photo of drunk driver who
actually made us fear for
our lives.  I believe that
the empty beer case he is
sitting on was full earlier
in the day.
Where is most of the night time action?
Most of the action is in Bocas Town. There are individual events on other islands as well. For a while there was “blue Monday” going on in Bastimentos, but I believe that has been suspended for the time.
What you have for evening leisure in Bocas, listed alphabetical not in order of preference:

Bocas Bills Bar & Restaurant over the water, traditional American, sea food etc., very good breakfast, happy hour 5-7 pm

Bocas del Toro Hotel, Bar & Restaurant over the water. Mixed menu, outdoor bar on the street side, happy hour 5-7 pm.

Buena Vista Bar & Grill over the water. Typical American style restaurant and atmosphere, happy hour 5-7 pm

Cashba Restaurant located next to hotel Las Brisas. Frech chef.

El Limbo Hotel Bar & Restaurant over the water. Big variety menu, somewhat pricy.

El Pecado (the sin) Bar and Restaurant, located across from Hotel Las Brisas. French Canadian kitchen, somewhat pricy.

El Ultimo Refugio Restaurant over the water

Laguna Hotel Bar & Restaurant on main street. Italian kitchen, very good beakfast.

Le Pirate Bar & Restaurant over the water. Very limited but acceptable inexpensive menu, strong and inexpensive drinks (rum and coke $ 1.50), very good breakfast.

Lemon Grass Bar & Restaurant over the water above Starfleet. Good menu with a lot of Thai style food.

Mr. Roberts Steak House located inside Tropical Market on the water. Don´t know the menu.

Ohm Café located behind municipal building. Oriental kitchen

The Big Bamboo Sports Bar and restaurant located next to the Super Gourmet, good menu and food.

The Reef Bar & Restaurant over the water. Similar in pricing and quality to the Pirate, but larger menu.

Night Life:
Barco Hundido (formerly and in English still known as the Wreck Deck). On the water next and above an old ship wreck. Bar, Music and for a lot of people the final destination after an evening of bar and restaurant hopping.

El Templo, Tecno music over the water. Located next to the “local” hangout El Encanto. Visting El Encanto is by the way not recommended.

Iguana Bar. Self-proclaimed surfer hangout and supposedly pretty popular.

Mondo Taitu Bar. This is really a hostel, but because of their inexpensive drinks and the type of crowd that hangs out it is very popular with young people and surfers.

This is not a complete list and you can find the exact locations on our Bocas Town Map Link on the main page.
****A word of advise for those staying on neighboring islands. If you go to do some Bocas night life make sure you have transportation back to where you are staying. Otherwise you might be stuck in town over night.