It's with mixed emotions that I write this review. On the one hand, the island was beautiful and peaceful and very relaxing. On the other, I found the disorganization of the operators to be stressful. If you're the type of person who feels the need to be kept in the loop, this is not the trip for you.
First, we were picked up at our hotel at 5:15 by a man driving an SUV a little smaller than a Toyota 4Runner and there were already 4 other people in the car. With three of us in the middle row and everyone's bags, it was pretty cramped. And the driver DIDN'T TELL US ANYTHING. We had no idea if he was taking us to a larger bus with more people or all the way to the port to catch the boat. Nor did he tell us anything about how long it would take or what time we'd be stopping for snacks or anything about the region we would be visiting. Literally, nothing. Turns out he did take us all the way to the port and please believe me when I tell you that trip is NO JOKE (especially being cramped in the middle row between 2 other people). The first part isn't too bad and I wondered why people complained about the road being so curvy. But I soon learned after stopping for snacks (side note: I highly recommend either bringing or buying a cooler at the convenience store where they stop and loading it with drinks and/or snacks because any drinks you want to buy on the island including water are $2 each).
It's the part of the trip AFTER the store that would have been unbearable if I hadn't taken prescription strength motion sickness medicine. The road is paved, but it's VERY NARROW and HILLY and CURVY....and it seems to go on FOREVER. Just when you think you are getting close to the end, you aren't. And I understand that the tour operators can't do anything about the road, but to not have any information from the driver and being cramped in an SUV was just not the least bit fun, much less relaxing. No one talked or got to know each other, we were just subjected to listen to the awful music our driver chose to listen to for the entire 3+ hours in the car.
Eventually we arrived at a rudimentary port and everyone got out of the car except for us. The only info we got out of the driver was that we had to go to another "port". Luckily, it was only a few minutes down the road. Once there, we moved to a shaded seating area where several other people were waiting.
Again, there was NO communication from the tour operators. It would have been nice to have someone explain the procedure so we would know what to expect, but everyone just sat around wondering what time we would be departing and how long it would take and where we were (like some history or information on the region). One man was going from group to group asking for names, essentially checking to see if everyone who had booked had made it there. We waited for about 20 minutes before being directed to a boat with about 18 other tourists on it and 3 "guides". The boat trip was about 40 minutes and wasn't bad at all.
Once at the island, one of the "guides" who had been on the boat directed everyone to a seating area and asked for passports and money (if you had not already paid for the trip. If you had already paid, you had to show the payment confirmation). It took about 30 minutes for them to get to us and ultimately take us to the room we would be staying in. AGAIN, note that there is no welcome to the island with any explanation of where things were or what was available to us. For me, it would have made all the difference to have heard even a short 5 min spiel along the lines of "we are so glad you are all here. This island has been in our family for X number of years. You can find the bathrooms over there. We have kayaks for rent and at mealtime, simply sit down at one of these tables and we will bring your food out to you. After lunch today we will be taking a trip to island _______ where you can snorkle or relax in a hammock or swim".
There are 4 private huts on this island and one larger building with 8 individual rooms, which is where our room was. The walls of the rooms do not go all the way to the ceiling, meaning you can hear other people talking (and snoring!) in the other rooms. I expected our room to be very basic, but the only thing in it was a bed and a hook on the wall. There was no table or even a shelf so your only two options to place anything are on the bed or the sandy wooden floor.
We were served lunch (which I thought was delicious!) and then taken on a couple of excursions. The first one being a sand bar where you could snorkel or just swim and the second being another larger island where there was a sunken ship just off shore. This island has a small bar where you can buy tropical drinks. We were there for about an hour before returning to our island. The afternoon is open to do whatever you want which I found to be very relaxing, but if you have a hard time just napping or reading or playing solitaire or building a sandcastle, you might become bored pretty quickly. We went to bed right after dinner and left right after breakfast the next morning to head back to Panama City. Same thing on the trip back...cramped in the middle row with 2 other people and the ride seemed even longer that time.
All in all, I certainly didn't hate it but I can honestly say I wouldn't do it again. And I struggle to recommend this particular tour. Maybe some of the others are better at communication and execution, but this one is definitely lacking in both.