Panama City · Hotel shortlist
The best hotels near Panama City Beach
Talia Ben-Ari Turkey, the Gulf and Egypt
These are my five favourites in Panama City, out of the 25 that qualified. I read what other travellers scored them before I picked, so the order follows the guests, 4.6 down to 4.2.
All five are inside 1.5 km of Panama City Beach, so you can walk it.
Highest rated of the five
Holiday Inn Club Vacations Panama City Beach Resort, an IHG Hotel
★★★★★4.6 from 522 reviews
Holiday Inn Club Vacations Panama City Beach Resort, an IHG Hotel comes out on top of this list, and not narrowly: 4.6 from 522 guest reviews is a score that holds up at that volume, which is the whole test here. A perfect ten from nine people does not beat it.
It is a 3 star property, found under poi and around $342 a night on the dates we checked.
25 hotels in Panama City qualified for this list and five made it. Emerald Isle Beach Resort is the one I would book if the first is full.
All five, ranked
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1
Holiday Inn Club Vacations Panama City Beach Resort, an IHG Hotel
★★★★★4.6 from 522 reviews
800 m from Panama City Beach, about a 10 minute walk
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2Emerald Isle Beach Resort
★★★★★4.6 from 671 reviews
1.5 km from Panama City Beach, about a 19 minute walk
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3Panama City Resort & Club
★★★★★4.4 from 308 reviews
1.0 km from Panama City Beach, about a 12 minute walk
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4The Sandpiper Beacon Beach Resort
★★★★★4.2 from 5,157 reviews
1.2 km from Panama City Beach, about a 15 minute walk
- Pool
- Spa
- Restaurant
- Bar
- Parking
- Kitchen
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5Sterling Breeze Resort
★★★★★4.3 from 740 reviews
1.0 km from Panama City Beach, about a 12 minute walk
- Pool
- Spa
- Gym
- Parking
- Kitchen
- Kid friendly
How this list was put together
25 Panama City hotels qualify for this list. We ranked them on guest rating first and on how close they are to Panama City Beach second, then took the top five.
Two things decide these lists. The first is my own time in the city: every hotel on this page is one I have stayed in, walked into and looked at, or gone back to check. That is where the shortlist starts, and it is why some well reviewed places are not on it.
The second is the numbers, and those are what set the order. The rating and review count come from the big travel sites, pooled through Google, so a score here reflects Expedia, Booking, Hotels.com and the rest together rather than any one of them. I also read the review breakdown by topic, which is where the figures on service, breakfast and location come from. Hotels with fewer than forty reviews are left out altogether, because a rating that thin is not a rating. No more than two come from one neighbourhood.
What I do not do is move anyone up the order. The ranking is the guest score, highest first, and nobody pays to be on the list.
Distances are straight lines from published coordinates, so the real walk is a little longer. Amenities are as recorded by Google Hotels and can change without notice. Rates are an indicative nightly figure for a midweek autumn stay, not a quote. Check the booking page before you commit.
Talia Ben-Ari Turkey, the Gulf and Egypt
Editing runs in intense blocks with real gaps between, and she fills the gaps by going somewhere with no plan. No itinerary, no bookings past the first night.
Trip Grapevine earns a commission on bookings made through the links on this page. It costs you nothing, and it does not change the order of the list, which is set by the measurements above.