markenwen

We have 2 hours to get from Panama city airport to the Albrook airport,in March.
Should we buy tickets on panama air ahead of time? I'm worried if we have any delays we may miss flight to David...we're traveling from Detroit and are suppose to arrive at PTY at 2pm and the last David flight is at 4pm. Thanks for any suggestions.

glover

Sounds like a big chance to me. Do you have time to just stay the night in PC and fly to David next day? You could stay at La Estancia B&B - quite near Allbrook - see a bit of PC that afternoon, have a nice dinner in town (Manolo Caracol) and then fly out next am.

AndrewSSH

At that time of day even if you get out of the airport really quickly you will be hard pushed to get to Albrook in time. Average time to clear immigration and customs is about 30 to 40 minutes, then 10 minutes to get in the cab and get going, 20 minutes on the toll highway into the city and then it can take 30 to 45+ minutes to get along Balboa Avenue to Albrook Airport. You are supposed to check in at least 45 minutes before departure... Really don't think it's possible unless the stars, sun and moon are all in perfect alignment!!!!

I would look at a relaxing evening in Panama City - heaps of great restaurants, nightlife, etc.

Book the 2nd flight out in the morning - they leave around 9am on both airlines so you don't have to get up so early - if you stay at La Estancia (bedandbreakfastpanama.com) you are only 15 minutes away from the airport - another new small hotel I looked at is called Inn on the Canal, their website is that run together .com... They are also quite close to Albrook airport.
In Casco Viejo there's a new 3 room guesthouse - very nice but rates are not cheap called the Canal House (canalhousepanama.com).

Hope this helps,
Andrew

ttraveler

Andrew,
Whatever you decide I would purchase my tickets. We had flights reserved to fly from David back to Panama City on our last night.Even though we arrived on time they had already sold our seats. We had to take an bus back to Panama City so that we could catch our flight out the next day. It really wasn't that bad but it did cut into our plans for a visit to a craft market and a nice dinner on our last night. Instead we ate at a bus stop... we will never forget that meal. Rice and chocolate milk. Have a great trip

markenwen

Thanks for all the responses. Although it wasn't what I wanted to hear, it was what I thought I would be told after my posting. Ttraveler, what do you mean you reserved a flight but had to take a bus anyways...had you pre- paid for your tickets? What airlines was it..should we avoid that one? Thanks,
Markenwen

ttraveler

Markenwren,
No, we didn't prepay our flight. That was our mistake. We had two flights booked. One to Bocas and one to Panama City from David. We reserved both of them though a travel agent. We took our first flight with no problem (except a travelers check issue. After I signed my check they wouldn't accept it saying my writing looked different) so we didn't even think to pay for our second flight. We did report to the airport in plenty of what we thought was enough time. I guess we should have skipped the swim in the refreshing lake!