My family of four spent 6 nights at Purple House 2. It was lovely. The house was spotless and well equipped for us to make some of our own meals. Jeanne and her husband were amazing hosts. Jeanne's incredibly warm and friendly manner made us feel at home, yet the layout of the complex is such that we had our own private space. We were all sad to leave and wished we could have stayed longer. If you're looking for a quiet, friendly place to stay with access to someone who has incredible local knowledge about the island, stay here.

Hello, We stayed in the Orange House for 10 nights in Feb. The Orange House is located in Saigon Bay, a village made up of mostly local panamanians, some expats, businesses (saw mill, bed and breakfasts, vacation rentals etc). The area is not for everyone as some feel uneasy staying in an underprivileged neighbourhood with run down homes, dogs tethered to short (really short) ropes, and trash etc. We, however, like the area and have always felt safe living amongst the local and friendly Saigon residents. The Orange House is a very clean, well maintained and well equipped home. The linens and towels are of good quality. The kitchen has quality cookware and is not missing anything (except maybe a microwave). The front door has a deadbolt and a chain, the door to the bedroom locks and the patio door locks but needs an adjustment as it is very tricky to figure it out. The bathroom has two sinks, a walk-in shower with decent water pressure and sort of hot water (don't really need hot water) and a toilet hooked to the sewer system rather than a septic system (significant in the area) - the toilet needs to be repaired as it wobbles when you sit on it, likely due to rusty bolt. The king bed upstairs is comfy and the AC (the only AC in the house) works very well. If you need anything such as TP, change of sheets, towels etc during your stay, Jeanne & Steve, are as they say in their description "a shout away" which brings me to "this one little thing". The Orange House is at the end of the property and to get to it, you walk past the two purple houses. If you are lucky you will meet your super fun and interesting neighbors - as we did - and perhaps get to spend some time together sharing travel stories, a meal, drinks and some laughs - as we did. This is where that "one little thing" happened -twice! On two separate occasions we were sitting outside with our new neighbors and friends and Steve, very inappropriately and rudely yelled at us to "keep the noise down"! Never in my life (and i have travelled a fair bit and stayed in various accommodations) have i been yelled at by a property owner/manager or from any member of the staff. I must mention that these incidents occurred between 10:30 and 11:30 at night and we were not yelling, swearing or playing loud music. We were all quite shocked, and offended as we were made to feel like scolded children. A more appropriate response might have been for Steven to wander over (a mere 20 paces) and politely and quietly ask us to keep our voices down. The next morning, i made a point of asking our neighbors (both locals and tourists) if we had disturbed them and were assured that no one had heard anything. To add insult to injury you should be aware that Saigon is a neighborhood where you may have to listen to barking dogs all night long, construction work - hammering and sawing well into darkness (after 11pm) or early in the morning (7am) and local discos blaring music into the wee hours depending on the night of the week. We know all this about Saigon and accept it so you can only imagine how offended we were to be yelled at for talking and laughing ON VACATION (ya I'm yelling)! I would recommend all houses that make up the Over the Water Rentals because it is a solid and well run vacation rental and the views are pretty but Steve seriously needs to work on his guest relations skills. The only other, i call it negative point, is that if you borrow the BBQ there is a cost of $5.00 per use. You may note i have been kicking around Trip Advisor for quite some time, written many reviews and very seldom do I write anything negative - take that for what it is worth. Cheers folks

My wife and I stayed at the over the water rental for our honeymoon this past July, and it was incredible! Jeanne is an incredible and energetic host and knows the area inside and out, never hesitating to provide suggestions on what to do with your day! (She even provided us with a bottle of champagne for our first night)! With a front porch view of the Caribbean and a quiet and secluded atmosphere, this is the perfect location for a romantic getaway. We would love to visit again!

Great location, house was perfect for our needs, beautiful view, and the host was incredible. Jeanne filled us in on all the great spots in Bocas to eat, shop, and explore. She didn't let us down. We'd love to return again.

I stayed in the Orange House for 3 weeks while attending Spanish courses nearby. I found the accommodations to be very comfortable. The kitchen is well stocked, the bed is very comfortable, and the deck is a wonderfully peaceful place to pass the evening watching some spectacular sunsets. The managers are very friendly and gave me plenty of information as to the way things are done in Bocas. The neighborhood is a mix of vacation rentals and working families, but I never felt anything but safe. It is a ways from the center of town, but there are many cabs that cost only a couple of dollars to get you there. The biggest drawback to the location is the garbage that is around, but this is a problem that seems commonplace everywhere in Bocas, not just in this location. And while garbage is definitely a problem on the island, it was not as bad as I feared it might be from reading some of the reviews. And when I was sitting on the deck overlooking the bay, despite the odd bit of trash floating by, it isn't a defining characteristic of the view. All-in-all, should I return to Bocas, I would stay at this location again.

Over the Water was a fantastic stay. Claudia, Denis and everyone else who helps manage the property were very helpful and wonderful hosts. The house is very clean and comfortable, with a wonderfully stocked kitchen. A market is very close by to make shopping and cooking easy. It's an easy 15 mins (give or take) walk into the main part of Bocas, or a $1 taxi ride. Yes, it's Panama - there is some poverty and garbage you may have to look at. This location isn't in the main 'tourist' area so that is not as well hidden away as it is in other areas. However, the community is safe, the people are friendly and we very much enjoyed our stay. We would return to the little purple house anytime!

We rented the orange house, front of the sea. It was the first time in Bocas del Toro, and we found the opinions on tripadvisor conflicting, so we opted to spend more money on a place with a lot of good reviews, this one. There was not exactly a nice idea. You need to know how things works in Bocas del Toro: there is no public transport and there are two common ways of moving: taxis or collective transports. The prices depends on your face, if you're a tourist they try to make you spend more. Anyway moving in Bocas town costs 1 dollars with a taxi, going to a good beach like the Boca del Drago or playa de las estrellas costs 2.5 dollars and the same to go back. For the playa buff you need to spend more and more with a taxi because there is not a paved road, but you can (hardly) go there with a bicycle. In any case the point is that everything originates in the center of Bocas, where is the public park. There, you find the collective buses to go to the nice beaches or the renting service for the bikes or even the water taxi or the organized tours. This house on the contrary is in a slum called "Saigon" far from the center of the town, the houses of the property are nice, but the surroundings are a nightmare: the shack on the left it is like a dump: everything has been thrown into the water, trash, plastic bottles, bags, everything, not talking about the open connection of the sewers, just hope to be lucky that the wind doesn't blow in the wrong direction or you have to close the windows. The water in the front of the house is clean, but it is just inches away so we didn't even think to have a bath there. So "minutes to the beach" it says... And here we go: the nearest beach is on the isthmus, you will find only few people there because there is trash everywere... So take a taxi and go to the town, then go somewhere else. We arrived at the local airport, and host was there waiting us, the transportation was organized by her with a collective transport, so after a large tour for the other people on the bus, we arrived at the house (that is near the airport...) and suffered the "tourist rate" of 4 dollars, note that with a taxi we would have spent exactly the half (this is what we did when we left). We stood in the house 9 days (for about 960 dollars) and in the house there was a soap bar and two rolls of toilet paper, we should have asked to the host for the change of the sheets and the towels. There was the necessary to cook but nothing for washing and ironing the clothes, if not a cord on the balcony for hanging them for drying. We think to have spent a lot of money there, in any case the hosts (that lives just nearby in the house to the right) didn't have any problem of making a great variety of loud noises in the morning (on 8 a.m. ...) cutting woods and beginning to restore their boat just when we were there, and I repeat, spending a lot of money for the pleasure, this meant cutting woods, scraping, making noise and then that good smell of fresh paint that forces you to close all the windows with the heat of the carribbeans incumpent, that was just bad. We chose the house thinking of some tranquility, this was not what we had. The last four days the hosts just left, so we had no one to ask if we need something, and they just said nothing. We left a message the last day on their phone to say that we were leaving, no reply, so we left leaving the keys on the table. That was just strange... Ok, synthetically: a place in Bocas Town centre is just better, you've to go there anyway to move to a good place (if you don't want to swim in the trash) or, if you want a more quiet place, go over the isthmus. The place here is highly overpriced for the place where it is and for what you will have.

We were 2 couples booking the purple house over the water for one week. First of all, we need to thank Claudia who made our staying perfect. She is a very friendly person, she was very kind through the whole process and never got tired of answering our few hundred questions. ;-) She was very helpful explaining many things, giving hints and tips and just being very nice. We really appreciate that. The house is very clean compared to any other rentals we have seen in panama. In the kitchen there is everything what we needed for cooking and drinking. The bathroom is clean as well and has a nice looking shower and enough space to get ready. Upstairs there are 2 sleeping rooms. One is very spacious and the other a bit smaler but with TV. Mostly we enjoyed the big terrace. It is a really nice place to eat, read, take naps and watch the water- we mostly hang out there, even when it rained we could hang out there as it has a roof. There is a table to eat, a hammock for naps and more than enough place for anything else you desire to do there :) The house is spacious, very clean and has everything you need. We highly recommend it!!!

We had a great stay and Claudia was a very friendly host. We stayed in one of the houses a bit to the back, sharing an outside deck with the neighbouring house. The house itself was really nice and clean. Because there were no other guests we could use the other decks as well, including the one overlooking the bay. Like I said, the house itself was great! The only comments I have is that the sheets were very synthetic, which felt so uncomfortable I slept in my cotton sleeping bag. (Others had less of a problem with that though). The other thing was that the kitchen supplies are measured to 4 people exactly, meaning you're doing dishes constantly. A double set (8 of everything) would have been a bit more convenient. The surroundings of the house are something else, though. Most houses looked like they could collapse at any moment and there is trash everywhere, in the sea as well. Sewers have an open connection to the sea, so even though the water is reasonably clear you're swimming in a mix of sewer water, remnants of food and loads of plastic. There is a beach within walking distance, but that was only good for surfing. We can recommend starfish beach and Bastimentos for trips! Also, there are two supermarkets within walking distance. Not loads of variety, but that is to be expected :)

We had the Orange house on the water. Great deck, opens up nicely for a breeze cool and nice for hosting people. Nice place, nice people and had a great stay there. Thanks Claudia.