Watch the replay of the Livestream interview with William, who drove to Panama with his pets. He has driven to Panama several times now.
See the photo above of the first time William drove to Panama with two dogs and two vehicles fully packed.
Why would someone consider driving to Panama?
1. The adventure
2. A way to get your vehicle(s) to Panama
3. A way to get pets to Panama
4. A way to get household goods to Panama
5. To reduce the costs of doing #2-4.
If you have many pets or large pets, driving to Panama is an affordable way to get them to Panama.
If you want to bring some of your household goods to Panama but avoid the expense of an international mover, driving to Panama may be the solution.
Our next Livestream will be about three other ways to get your pets to Panama, including commercial flights, charter flights, and pet relocation companies.
Interesting video. Sounds like quite the adventure. Makes me glad that I moved my car down here by ship (roll on roll off). It cost me only $3500 to ship it from Houston to Panama City although rates have probably increased since 2021 when we moved. You also cannot ship it with any personal goods stored in the vehicle. The other costs for the customs brokerage, storage fees, and other miscellaneous fees here in Panama City were minimal (about $700). The only mistake that I made was that I didn’t yet have my permanent pensionado visa so I had to pay the 20% import duty. Could have kept it in storage until the permanent visa came through but the trade off between renting a car and paying for storage did not make sense.
The car runs fine here (American built Honda) although people should recognize that 91 and 95 octane in Panama corresponds to 87 and 91 octane in the U.S. as they use a different octane rating system. While we were waiting for our car we rented a car locally here and it was a U.S. import with high mileage and it ran fine as well. As far as car repairs, we found through friends a good local mechanic and have had no problems there although no major repairs required as yet, just standard maintenance. I note that two repair shops here (one in Panama City which did the inspection for the car insurance and one in Coronado which does our repairs) have had no problem reading the on board computer that does all of the car diagnostics. One surprise was that the Panama dealerships for Honda will not perform repairs (even an oil change) on your car if you did not buy it from them, although they will sell you parts. But I am told that might be a blessing as their work are very costly.
How do I access the contact info for William including the route he took driving down. I am not able to locate the link in the video
The route is in the description of the video.