How Much Did Our 2 Month Trip to Panama Cost?

Every dollar, broken down by category, for 8 weeks in paradise.

In January 2024, we packed up our family and moved to Panama for 2 months.

This was the first of many extended travel adventures in our future and was a life changing experience.

When you really settle into a community, it becomes less of a ‘vacation’ and more of an immersive travel experience.

You learn what time the truck from the local bakery shows up on your street.

You make friendships, find your routine and become familiar with the layout of your local grocery store.

You purchase fresh fish, caught that morning in the bay and take it home to fry up for breakfast.

It starts to feel like home.

So in this diary entry, I wanted to share the answer to the question: How much does a trip like this cost?

The Breakdown (All $ in CAD)

We tracked our expenses on a Google Sheet pretty closely for this trip because it would help us plan for upcoming trips.

We recorded costs in 4 categories: Travel, Accommodations, Food & Entertainment, & Miscellaneous.

On this trip, there were four of us: me, my husband and our 2 girls aged 3 & 1.

Travel: $3,682.03 for 8 Weeks

Round Trip Flights (YVR to PTY) …. $2,154.33
Flight Insurance ………………………….. $172.36
Travel Medical Insurance …………….. $332.99
Car Rentals (5 days)……………………. $455.41
Car Service ………………………………….$537.32

For the flights, we selected the “infant on lap” option and flew economy.

Car rentals were REALLY expensive in the capital of Panama City, around $80.00 USD per day. It isn’t the car rentals that are expensive, but the mandatory insurance. We did get the CDW insurance waived with a letter from our credit card. Rentals were significantly cheaper in Rio Hato.

We stayed in 3 cities - Panama City, Nueva Gorgona and Rio Hato. We hired a private driver to take us between cities as it was air conditioned, spacious and had free drinks on board! The car service category also includes taxis, which we took almost everywhere.

Accommodations: $9,047.78 for 8 Weeks

Airport Layover (1 night)……………………….$105.66
Panama City AirBNB (4 nights)…………….. $709.34
Nueva Gorgona AirBNB (28 nights)………. $3,667.52
Rio Hato AirBNB (22 nights)…………………. $4,709.12
Hotel Near Departure Airport (1 night) …. $191.71

This category was a disaster! Our AirBNB in Panama City cancelled on us 3 nights before we arrived and we shifted into an airBNB that was nice, but not prepared for guests. (ie: only wine glasses for kids, not enough towels, no laundry detergent or dish soap)

Then, a week before we were to move to Rio Hato, another AirBNB cancelled on us. The host claimed there were gas line repairs, but AirBNB said the owner sold the unit.

Regardless, we were frantically finding new AirBNBs last minute on the biggest holiday weekend (Carnivale) in Panama, which left us with minimal options that were WAY more expensive than we wanted to pay.

This category ended up costing us an extra $1000 from booking to completion because of all of these changes.

We budget about $1000/week on our trips as we like to stay ON the beach as much as possible with two young children. Beach is our main activity.

Food & Entertainment: $2,895.92 for 8 Weeks

Groceries………………………….. $1851.33
Dining Out…………………………. $654.33
Activities/Entertainment……… $348.43
Other………………………………….. $31.30 (I bought a medical brace for my wrist)

Groceries, especially meat, were reasonably priced in Panama. We cooked 90% of our meals fresh at home and did a bi-weekly grocery haul and meal planning system, just like we did at home. Restaurants were expensive (the four of us eating at Olive Garden in Panama City was $110 USD!)

For activities, in Panama City we visited the Gamboa Rainforest Reserve and walked around beautiful Casco Viejo.

When staying in Rio Hato, we drove up to Anton Valley for the day to do a small hike called El Chorro Macho and visited a Snake & Serpent Sanctuary, and visited the Buenaventura Zoo.

Miscellaneous & Travel Prep: $1,452.38

Passport Photos …...………………... $78.36
Passport Renewal Fees ………………$274.00 (My renewal + first passports for the girls)
Suitcases ……………………………………$750.00 (None of us had suitcases!)
Panamanian Phone Plan …………….. $35.58 (5x1 week Unlimited SIM Cards)
Supplies/Shopping ………………………$314.45

We had to get new passport photos and me and my girls all needed new passports! None of us had suitcases either, so we bought 2 full sized and 2 carry on sized bags on a Black Friday sale at The Bay.

For our phones, we bought 5 x 1 week Unlimited Data/Calling/Texting plan from Mas Movil and spaced our usage out throughout our trip. We stayed at the beach a lot so we didn’t need a SIM card all of the time because we had WiFi. Most of the country runs on WhatsApp calling and messaging!

For supplies, we stocked up on sunscreen, aloe vera, bug spray, new backpacks, suit case straps, a tablet for the kids, kid headphones, & travel medications (ie: diarrhea meds, gravol etc.) before we left.

Credit Card Rewards & Redemptions: -$775.00

For this trip, we mostly used our HSBC Elite Mastercard which was amazing for travel rewards and points. Unfortunately, HSBC was bought out right after we returned so we won’t be able to use that card for future trips.

We redeemed $775.00 off of our trip related expenses in travel reward cash bonuses!

Included in the above categorized expenses, we received a $335.00 AirBNB credit because there were missing amenities from the listing photos. We also had one of our “between cities” private car service trips covered as the last minute AirBNB cancellation cost us more in travel (~$177.00).

The Grand Total

The entire trip cost us $16,303.11, or $8,151.56/month.

This spanned 8 weeks (Jan 11 - Mar 7, 2024).

We had budgeted about $17,000 for the trip, so we were happy with how this turned out as we stayed on the beach for the entire trip.

Since our kids are so little, we spent most of the days slow living on the beach, napping and playing in the pool. There were not a ton of outings and adventures.

For fun, we totalled up the expenses from our regular budget that we DID NOT pay for as we were not home (things like groceries, car insurance, gas, house cleaning etc.), which came out to $1,863.00/month.

As another way of looking at this trip, we wanted to find out how much EXTRA this trip cost us as opposed to staying at home.

If we subtract out 2 months of “at home expenses” that we would have paid for regardless ($1863.00 x2), the trip cost us $12,578.11 above our normal 2 month expenses.

Now that we have a rough idea of how much our trips cost, we can plan for future travels!

Hope that has been helpful :)

Keep chasing freedom,
Tanessa