Name: On The Reef Hotel
Address: Veraguas, Panama, Santa Catalina, Santa Catalina, Santa Catalina, 01850, Panama
Rating: 8

Air conditioning

Garden

Terrace

Patio

General

Fridge

Family room

Cable TV

Shower/Bathtub

Rooms

Coffee/tea for guests

Common kitchen

Kettle

Meals

Tour assistance

Tourist services

Barbecue grill(s)

Fishing

Recreation

Free parking

Parking

Beach/pool towels

Next to the beach

Pool and beach

Diving

Sports

Family/Kid Friendly

Kids

Pets Not Allowed

Pets

Location

At the hotel

Room amenities

On The Reef Hotel

Santa Catalina

The location is great but the website indicates there is a pool, which is false unless you are renting the house next door.  The view is amazing and the room is nice but also the beach in front is not really for swimming due to the amount of rocks. It didnt include food as well and the man who attended us didn't know any answers to questions about the hotel.

Nice room, beautiful view but no pool

A very well situated establishment on the seafront and which may have had its moment of glory. It is well finished! Complex access except 4x4 Common kitchen and cigarette paper partitions: the quality of the stay and nights is very dependent on the other occupants... Excentric enough and no meal offer on site The guardian - one cannot speak of welcome - seems well outdated by the situation; a booking error...

What to Avoid

The on the Reef has a special charm and a certain luxury that one cannot misunderstand: the bungalow with its own kitchen, large double bed, view of the sea and its own pool is something great. Especially for people who appreciate a certain comfort, like to be away from something and not be deterred by a painted pool. Because yes, the on the reef has its best days behind it and is nothing for people who expect a 4-bed hotel. For this place, it takes a break - and yet in about 20 minutes to drive to a shopping mall/commercial/dives is very good.

A special place

We booked this hotel online well in advance and paying a fairly high price for the product.The photos and descriptions do not match the actual state of the place, which is in poor condition, the old and disused furniture, the place with a lack of cleanliness and maintenance.If it arrives through a stone road in such a bad condition that we could barely get through the rental car, a pickup truck, we were caught by several broken and abandoned houses that gave us distrust when we were traveling with my wife and my little device.I had the entire reservation prepaid (6 nights) and on the second day we decided to break the air conditioning, an old, unstable device that was connected directly to an old place in a very bad way, that also had a formal complaint about the interruption of the service, that he had received a complaint about the owner of the property, and that the hotel's properties had been damaged, but we could not withdraw the hotel's services.

There is a staff.

We stayed in the villa. The view is unbeatable, but the house looked tired and in need of maintenance. There wasn’t any electricity when we arrived and perhaps because of that the pool was half empty. Although it is overlooking the reef, there did not seem to be any direct beach access. I guess it depends very much on the expectations that you have, but we weren’t particularly impressed. 

Majestic view, but tired facilities

Owner of this hotel (house) is super helpful and nice! I asked him a lot of questions via email a lot of times and he replied all of them and also very fast. He was also announced and transparent regarding every thing. We (family of 4, 2 kids 12 and 6) arrived with taxi. I had downloaded a offline map. I was glad I had that as the internet connection disappeared on the taxi drivers gps. Last path to the house was not a road, it had rained a lot the night before so the "road" was more like a muddy sidewalk. We was prepared for that so we had luggage we easily could carry (and not rolling) the taxi driver did drive us to the house without complaining even it was hard for the car I can imagine. The room was clean. Aircon worked fine. No wi-fi but we did know that and liked that. We played cards with the kids instead:-) pool is only for the people renting the bungalow. 2 minutes walk (just beside the room) is a hotel where you can eat lunch and dinner. That was a really good restaurant with nice and helpful staff. The room we rented had a patio just outside the room. We bought our own wine , beer and snacks at the local store and sat there every evening after dinner. We didn't see any spiders or other insects but we did get a few mosquito bites (not so many and we didn't have any spray so I guess we could only blame ourselves) 

Special experience

We arrived at the hotel, not really a entree you expect, closed rusty gate. The keeper of the territory was there to meet us. But he didn’t really know who we were and he didn’t speak English at all. 

We also expected something else so the arrival was a bit confusing. On booking.com it shows photos of the room with kitchen and a pool, but we must have read it wrong, we had a different room. A fine room, clean, with towels and of course the view was stunning. But, do not expect luxury. First night; no electricity. Second night; no warm water, and just a little water at all. The Air conditioning is perfect here, never seen a new thing like that. But watch out with using the van. It broke my two charging cables because of a default connection when putting on the van. 
The shared kitchen is not really clean. There are to many pots and pans which are old and you really don’t wanna use. 

Last but not least, we had to a tax for tourism of 40 dollars for two nights! Insane without any service at all. There is no tourism in this town, it’s off season first of all and there are no taxi’s, no bank, just one little Supermarkt with limited choices. It’s is a lot, which is not mentioned on Booking.com. 



Nice view but back to basics

The neighbors themselves believed that the hotel had been closed for months.We booked by booking and when we got there it was impossible to get in, the road was ruined and a 4X4 and a lot of driving experience was needed to get in (this is something they don't count on in their promotions).They didn't answer the calls.After more than half an hour and a half of the night closed a neighbor from the area went to look for the guard at the property and told us that there was no other one, which could only go by outdoor train.No constaba our reservation was even paid for!!!We had to look for a nearby hostel and the next day a booking to make us pay.There are other hotels with the same views and better services.No risks.

We couldn't even enter.

The setting is on a private point/bluff, and could easily have been the backdrop of a Swimsuit Illustrated photo shoot.

The views are just gorgeous. 

The gatekeeper (Noel) has been there for years (we've been coming for 4 or 5 years), and the two homes are behind the gate at the end of the road.

One home has a small pool in front of it, and the other is about 50 yards away, and has a huge covered patio, outdoor bar and kitchen. 

The 2nd home is the one we prefer.

As mentioned earlier by another poster, if you're looking for a Trump Tower experience,  then keep looking. 

However, we plan on returning soon...

Swimsuit Illustrated...

I came to St. Catharines with a friend to enjoy a long weekend, everything was perfect the first day we arrived, the hotel looked all beautiful (though a little expensive for what it really was), the double room very nice. Instead of at 3:30 at night, while we were sleeping deeply after a day's bus ride, I woke up because I had noticed that I was doing something wrong. I opened my eyes and didn't ask for a second to realize that the room was in the best shape of my life!!!! But when I finally got back to my room, my friend was in the best shape of my life!!!!! We were just trying to make sure that the room was cleaned up, that the room was cleaned up, that the room was cleaned up, and then we were able to get back to the hotel.

On The Reef Hotel

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