Rating: 
Summary: Helpful Guidebook but Not a Bible
Review: As the owner of a first and only backpackers hostel in David City,Panama (The Purple House) .... I see many people carrying this useful book around and it seems to be a great help to many. My only complaints about the book (not the writers' fault) is that 1) we are not in it yet because we weren't open at the time of his research. 2) the city of David is not made to sound attractive as a place to visit. There are lots of things to do here that aren't listed. Of course, that too is Not the writers fault, he can't possibly visit everything the way a person like me can. I have lived here for more than 3 years so I have been able to collect alot of information over that time.As with any guidebook, it should be used as a guide and not a bible, definitely worth buying and carrying, its the best book for Panama.
Rating: 
Summary: Tourism or Colonialism
Review: Having traveled for 3 months in Panama, I found the guide to contain many opinions and to be extremely judgemental. It is actually offensive in some parts with it's colonial nature. Also very ego heavy. The author believes his opinions to be golden. A big dissapointment.
The Panama yellow pages is a much better book. Go buy the Ulysesses guide.
Rating: 
Summary: Valuable guide, but some inaccuracies
Review: I am a big fan of LP travel guides. I always rely on them heavily when I travel. However, I was disappointed in this one. It was great for planning the trip, and it lives up to the LP standard, but barely. This book has some inaccuracies, but given the changes in Panama I'm sure it is to be expected. I tried to call up several of the local guides that were listed in this book, but the phone numbers were out of order or they had moved on to bigger and better things. I ended up hitting the highlights of Panama and leaving in three days for Costa Rica, instead of the week I originally planned. Still, this book is a great source for information about the history, culture, restaurants, hotels, etc. However, my advice would be to purchase a supplemental guide book or two.
Rating:
Summary: Valuable guide, but some inaccuracies
Review: I am a big fan of LP travel guides. I always rely on them heavily when I travel. However, I was disappointed in this one. It was great for planning the trip, and it lives up to the LP standard, but barely. This book has some inaccuracies, but given the changes in Panama I'm sure it is to be expected. I tried to call up several of the local guides that were listed in this book, but the phone numbers were out of order or they had moved on to bigger and better things. I ended up hitting the highlights of Panama and leaving in three days for Costa Rica, instead of the week I originally planned. Still, this book is a great source for information about the history, culture, restaurants, hotels, etc. However, my advice would be to purchase a supplemental guide book or two.
Rating:
Summary: Re-Discovery of Panama
Review: I am really enjoying this book. I was tired of going to the stores and not finding any publication about travelling to Panama. As a native panamanian, I feel that the author really did his research and he presented only the" best" information for travellers planning to explore the exciting adventures Panama offers. I bought the book to help me plan my trip to Chiriqui and found it very informative regarding new tourist attractions, particularly the ones dealing with eco-tourism opportunities. I am going back at the end of February 1999 and despite from the fact that I am going to miss carnival season ,this book gives me ample and detailed information on fun things to do in the Chiriqui Highlands. I am even planning to go and do some trout fishing in Volcan...well if my wife let's me do it. Once again, I highly recommend this book and encourage anybody who is re-discovering my "green Panama" to buy it!! It wil save you time and money ! Hasta Luego y que disfruten el libro!! Aquilino Sanjur
Rating:
Summary: Provides excellent preparation for a trip to Panama!
Review: I have visited Panama twice. I found this guide book to be both useful and interesting enough to read from cover to cover. I read all the sections, not just those that pertained to my areas of interest. I especially liked the author's insights and comments about Panama's history, culture and society. I got a sense of what Panama is "really" like. The frank reviews, both good and bad, of the restaurants and hotels, are very helpful. Also, there is contact information for a number of local guides. I would recommend this book for first time visitors to Panama as well as repeat visitors wishing to have current information.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent guidebook to Panama!
Review: I just returned from a 5-week trip to Panama with my husband and want to commend the author of this guidebook for doing such a terrific job. We stayed at eight hotels in all, every one a mid-range place recommended by the author, and we were very pleased with our accommodations. They were just as he said they would be. For the most part, we ate only at restaurants the author recommended, and we found the food just as the author described it. He was very accurate, and he steered us away from places where we might have had tummy problems. I appreciate that very much! Having tried to locate history books on Panama, I know how hard they are to come by. There are lots of books on the Panama Canal, but that's about it. And Panama is more than a canal. But the author includes lots of interesting history beyond simply the canal, and I commend him for doing such a fine job of it because I know how difficult obtaining that history must have been. I don't understand the earlier reviewer. Criticizing the author because he didn't compare a market in Panama with one in Ecuador? That's ridiculous. The author wrote that the crafts market in El Valle every Sunday is the best one in Panama, and it is according to our Panamanian friends. So that was a very unfair review. And bus schedules and bus fares the world over never stay the same very long. That they don't remain the same forever is hardly the author's fault. Criticizing the author for not writing more about Panama's Pacific beaches is ludicrous. It's like criticizing a guidebook on Jamaica because the author didn't write about Jamaica's winter sports. No one goes to Panama for its beaches. If you want beaches, you go to the Caribbean or Hawaii or about a million other places. Not Central America. Everyone knows that, or at least they should. This writer did an outstanding job. Once again, Lonely Planet came through for my husband and I.
Rating:
Summary: This book is right on
Review: I live in Santiago, Panama, and this book will be very helpful to me. There are still many places I want to explore in wonderful Pnama and I was very pleased to find an LP guide to my adopted country. What he writes about the places I know is accurate.
Rating:
Summary: Breadth of information is amazing
Review: I only used this book for Panama City and Bocas del Toro, but it was an invaluable asset for both. How can Doggett write knowledgably about so many hotels and restaurants, cultural issues, how to buy authentic jewelry, etc? Seems like he spent decades there. It would have been helpful if he wrote about how to bargain with taxi cab drivers for half day and full day rentals. Most one-way fares are pretty much fixed, but it is much nicer to have a driver show you the sights in P.City, which are spread out. My recommendation: Buy the book, and explore the places outside of Panama City.
Rating:
Summary: Useful... if you don't have anything else
Review: I spent six weeks in Panama last summer (2001): 4 weeks on Isla Colon in Bocas del Toro (and surrounding areas) and 2 weeks traveling around the rest of Panama. This book is a useful reference if you don't have anything else - especially if you don't speak Spanish. It provides a lot of valuable information on hotels, both budget hotels and very expensive ones. However, I often got the impression that Doggett is somewhat of a yuppie traveler. For instance, in the chapter on Bocas del Toro, he spends a paragraph or two trashing the bat cave found between the town of Bocas and Boca del Drago. I imagine he was so busy whining about the smell of the cave and the shriek of the bats that he did not stick around long enough to discover that there is a SECOND bat cave, very close to the first. This second cave contained an astounding variety of biodiversity, including a giant boa constrictor. Hands down, this cave was one of the most incredible natural wonders that I saw on my entire trip. If you are a traveler who is more into roughing it and seeing lush primary rainforest (even if it means tromping through rainforest with mud up to your knees), then this lonely planet guide may not be adventurous enough for you. Fortunately, in spite of the differences of opinion I had with this guidebook, I still had an amazing time in Panama. The rainforest left me speechless, the people were always friendly and helpful, everything is much less expensive than in the U.S., and there are fewer tourists in Panama than in Costa Rica. Still, I would recommend looking for a different guidebook before you settle on this one.
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