The San Blas islands located just off Panama is the most beautiful place I’ve ever visited. This ultimate guide will help you find out how you can visit them, what to pack and what to expect. Definitely add the San Blas islands to your Central America backpacking trip.
How do I visit San Blas islands?
There are various ways to visit. A popular choice is to take a sailing boat from Cartagena in Colombia and finish in Panama visiting San Blas on the way. Blue Sailing are a popular choice for this. However, with the sailing tour you spend 2 days on open water before you even see an islands.
San Blas adventures offer a speedboat tour where you sleep on the islands but the start point is a day and a half travel from Cartagena in Colombia and isn’t organised by the company.
For the above reasons I decided to fly to Panama City from Colombia and booked a 3 day San Blas tour from there. This included a driver picking me up and dropping me off to my hostel in Panama, all boat tours, snorkelling, paddle boarding equipment, meals and accommodation.
I booked through Viator- there are a range of options I’d suggest looking closely at the reviews to pick the option best for you.
What should I bring to the San Blas islands?
I would recommend packing light and arrange to leave your suitcase with your hotel/hostel in Panama as you’ll be regularly taking your bag on and off small boats for the 3 days. I brought a backpack (day bag) and extra bag with water and snacks.
I would bring a big water of water, gatorade, crisps and cookies with you to tide you over between meals. Although you can buy drinks at the restaurants on the islands they’re quite expensive.
Take a quick drying towel, bikinis, tevas/flip flops, a few t shirts and a pair of shorts as well as your toiletries.
Oh and bring a portable charger that’s fully charged as there’s no electricity on these islands!
If you’re someone who gets board easily maybe bring a fully charged tablet with movies downloaded for the evenings. However, we enjoyed staying out and watching the stars.
Most importantly take SPF and plenty of insect repellent.
And cash for drinks, souvenirs, cocktails etc.
What’s the food like on San Blas islands?
As there is only power for 2 days at dinner time the food is very basic. We had eggs and bred for breakfast and for lunch and dinner it was whole fried fish rice and plantains. This is why you need to bring snacks and more so if you’re a fussy eater. But you’re not visiting for the food you’re there to spend just a few days disconnected from the real world and enjoy the beautiful scenery.
What is there to do on the San Blas islands?
Volleyball, snorkelling, stand up paddle boarding are some of the activities we did on our tour. Activities vary between islands and tour operators.
At Perro Chico (small dog island) there’s a ship wreck you can snorkel round which was really good and is the most fish I’d seen during the 3 days.
The water is so beautiful and clear you can open your eyes.
There’s not really any nightlife so it’s down to you and who you’re travelling with to make the most of it.
When visiting other islands you can buy cocktails like the popular Coco-loco.
