Panama Relocation Tours Blog

Last Updated Jun 5, 2014 - by Panama Relocation Tours

The Border Hop for Perpetual Tourists

Tourists from most countries can visit Panama for 90 days without getting a visa. To enter Panama all you need to show is your passport. At the immigration office at the airport or any border, they will put a stamp in your passport which indicates the day you arrived.

Some expats in Panama have made the decision to become perpetual tourists, meaning they never apply for a residency visa.

Instead, every 90 days they go to the nearest border, usually Costa Rica, to spend a few hours, then they get their passport stamped to enter Panama again. Expats in Panama call this the “border run” or “border hop.” Surprisingly, some have been doing this for many years.

Of course, if they applied for a residency visa they could completely eliminate the need to go to Costa Rica every 90 days.

Even though the Costa Rica border is only a 1 1/2 hour drive from my house in Boquete, I would not want to make that trip every 90 days so I gladly got a residency visa which also entitles me to apply for a Panama passport after 5 years.

Perpetual tourists do the border hop for several reasons. Some don’t want to spend the $1000 per person to get a Pensionado visa. Others can’t prove the minimum of $1000 per month in lifetime income to get a Pensionado visa or the $5000 deposit in to a Panamanian bank account to get the Friendly Nations visa which requires no income verification.

Some don’t want to establish legal residency in any country so they have no commitments to any country.

Others cannot produce a clean criminal history so they would not be able to get a residency visa in Panama. If there were minor infractions many years ago, Panama will usually dismiss them so a residency visa is possible even for people with a criminal history. But if you have a serious offense, you would not be able to get a residency visa in Panama or most other countries either.

My attorney in Panama says the new President plans to crack down on the people who do the border hop to encourage anyone who is living in Panama full time to get a residency visa. President Elect Varela does not want people with criminal records living in Panama so there is talk that he will make is necessary to leave the country for six months before you can enter again as a 90-day tourist. This would force the people who do the Border Run to either get a residency visa or move.

We’ll see what happens. ….

Last Updated May 31, 2014 - by Panama Relocation Tours

Beware of Imitations

If you thinking about signing up for Panama Relocation Tours make sure you are getting information and a phone number from www.PanamaRelocationTours.com web site. Call 972-496-6032 or 972-496-4500 or email [email protected]

Otherwise, it is not MY company. Beware of the imitators.

I tell you this because

This is my 4th year of doing all-inclusive tours in Panama. As you can see from www.PanamaRelocationTours.com web site there are many photos of our tour groups and many testimonials from customers who said the tour exceeded their expectations. These are real photos taken during tours (not photo shopped) and real testimonials from people who have been on my tour.

When people sign up for our tours we deliver!

More proof….

Richard Detrich often joins me on the tours and has written about the tours on his blog at www.RichardDetrich.com

Bob Adams of www.RetirementWave.com usually meets with the group and my tour company is the only one he endorses because he knows I deliver what I promise and we do not sell real estate or have any other financial arrangement with the places we go during the tour or the people we meet with the tour.

I tell you this because…

Unfortunately, last October a travel agent out of Arizona started advertising ‘Panama Relocation Tours’ on her web site and all over the internet. She is also working with a guy in Panama to do marketing for her and a guy in Canada to do marketing for her. They both have Panama Relocation Tours on their web sites, social media sites and other places online.

They are all using MY tour company name, Panama Relocation Tours in their marketing.

They have even used my video testimonials and my tour pictures on their web site.

I have contacted these imitators many times to ask them to stop using my tour company name to promote their tours. Finally after no results, I had my attorney in the USA and in Panama send them a Cease and Desist Notice.

But they have not backed down. In the last couple of weeks, I discovered why…

Last week I got a call from two couples demanding a refund for the tour they never got. I had never heard of the people before.
They did not sign up for MY tour.

Panama Escape Artist told me about another guy who had the same problem, he signed up for a tour but a week before the tour was told it was postponed because not enough people signed up.

Today, I learned that a couple came in to Explora Ya in Boquete complaining that they paid thousands of dollars for Panama Relocation Tours but a week before the tour were told that the tour was postponed because not enough people signed up. Since they already had their airplane tickets, they came to Panama anyway. They, like many others, paid for a tour they did not receive and never got a refund for.

Needless to say this was NOT MY Panama Relocation Tours.!

I would never do that to anyone. And I have never, ever cancelled a tour because not enough people were signed up.

There is no telling how many people have been hurt by this unscrupulous travel agent from Arizona and her marketing partners. Plus this travel agent is doing “tours” in Belize and Costa Rica too so her scam may extend way beyond Panama.

I need to figure out how to stop them before more people are hurt and my excellent reputation is damaged. That is one reason for this post.

Many expats, and would be expats, have a tendency to think they can trust people from their home country more. That is not necessarily so in Panama or other countries. Trust but verify before you do business with anyone. Con artists come and go in Panama too.

Last Updated Mar 27, 2019 - by Panama Relocation Tours

Exploring New Areas in Panama

My daughter, Melissa, flew to Panama last Sunday so we could spend more time exploring various areas in Panama and also see some of the tourist things we thought our tour guests might be interested in.

Monday morning, we were guided down a river in a canoe by a couple of guys in loin cloths (literally) to an Embrea Indian Village.

From the distance, we thought we could see a monkey in the tree. As we got closer, he/she came to greet us.

We saw strange bird nests. I don’t remember the kind of bird. Our guide told us they have nests over the water so snakes can’t get to the eggs.

The Embrea live in primitive huts made out of bamboo and palm thatched roofs.

A medicine man showed us all the plants he uses to cure cancer, prevent cancer, numb an area, for fertility, etc. We had a great lunch of peacock bass, plantains, and fresh fruit. The Embrea entertained us with their traditional music and dance. We saw monkeys, toucan and caimen crocadiles

A cute little monkey made friends with Melissa at the Embrea Village

Tuesday we flew to the western side of Panama where I live and spent the afternoon just relaxing. Wednesday Melissa went on a hike in the rain forest near my house. The trail goes by a haunted castle.

Thursday we went to a monkey sanctuary and got to see and hold a howler monkey, a baby howler, and a few capuchin monkeys. All around us we could hear howler monkey’s in the jungle. The sanctuary is run by primate experts who raise then train the usually orphaned monkeys to return to the wild.

See the baby howler monkey below.

Beautiful view from the monkey sanctuary

We ended the day in Boca Chica for a late lunch at Seagull Cove Lodge. Boca Chica is a pricey area just East of David.

Friday we headed to Puerto Armuelles which is about 2 hours from my house. I had been there several times but Melissa had not. It is a super affordable beach town with clear blue waters, great surf, fishing and snorkeling. Oceanfront rentals are as low as $500 a month. This is an area I’m considering investing in because it has a deep water port which is being re-developed by Del Monte. There is a 4 lane road most of the way from Costa Rica to Puerto. It’s only 30 minutes to the Costa Rica border so I think with the improvements it will be even more attractive to expats and tourists. We now offer a day trip to Puerta Armuelles as an optional tour after the main Panama Relocation Tour.

** UPDATE: Starting in July 2019 the Puerto Armuelles day trip is included as part of the Panama Relocation Tour and no longer costs extra. **

Saturday, Melissa needed to be at the airport at 5 pm to catch a flight back to Panama City for her departure on Sunday morning. We left my house early so we could check out a few hotels in David then go to Los Olas Beach Resort which Melissa had not seen before.

After Los Olas, we found out Melissa’s flight was cancelled because of heavy rain in Panama City.

She had at 8:30 am flight the next day so Melissa and I took the 8 hour bus ride from David to Panama City. The bus was a comfortable double-decker bus but it was freezing cold. We arrived at 4:30 am. I rented a hotel room so she could take a hot shower to thaw out after the really cold bus ride. I got 2 hours of sleep before my flight back to the western side of Panama. When I got home, I slept for 12 hours straight to recover from all the running around.

What a week!

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