The Buenaventura Golf & Beach Resort Panama, Autograph Collection

Adored the staff. They were all extremely friendly and helpful, especially Daniel. The food was delicious. Pools nice and specious. Rooms are beautiful. The entire family had an amazing time.

While a very pretty resort with a friendly enough staff, the service and dining options were seriously lacking for a resort in the Autograph Collection. Non-meat eaters in our party had very limited options (pasta or mediocre pizza for the most part) with dining. While I appreciate this is a Central American country, if there are a significant number of Americans and Canadians on property, it would help to have menus offered in English as well. We were grateful our kids’ take Spanish in school and were our translators for the trip. Service was hit or miss. Waiting an hour plus for room service or for a response from staff was not a one-time event. Booking water sports was a challenge as no one in the office spoke English (thanks again to our kids and a couple of very kind staff members) and more than once they did not show up on time—even over an hour late—despite confirmations of day and time the morning of. Still, the resort is clean. The rooms are lovely. The views are beautiful. The water is relatively calm and the beach is spectacular with its black sand. The water sports were great fun. And the value was high. If they are hoping to attract more US and Canadian tourism, which many said they are, there are some kinks to be worked out which could be easily done if the time is taken. Overall, it was a positive experience just don’t know if we would go back given the multitude of other options.