Miramar

No Intercontinental Hotel is alike. This Miramar Hotel is a Panamanian hotel and it shows.
The location was not bad and maybe is not bad - but things have changed the last few years.

The Miramar Intercontinental used to be right on the sea on Balboa Avenue. But a few years ago a coastal road was constructed on reclaimed land between the hotel and the sea.
This means access to the hotel is now not only from the 6-lane old road but also from the 5- lane coastal road. Practically highways. The hotel is in the middle of what could be called an enormous traffic island.
If you want to go by foot (in itself not recommendable in Panamá City) from the hotel to the nearby restaurants (Calle Nicaragua) you will have to cross the 6-lane road. This is not easy.
Often however there are helpful Police ladies who manage to stop the - at great speed - oncoming traffic.
If you want to cross over on the other side to the sea: May God help you.

So there you are, squeezed in between wide traffic lanes.
The traffic is quite noisy, especially after 10 p.m. (22.00 hrs) when young Panamanians like to demonstrate their skills. Trucks and lorries also feel proud to make ‘extra’ noise. With ‘extra’ I mean that the noise has no purpose at all. It is really incredible and drivers elsewhere in the world would get the highest fines (OK maybe India and Pakistan excepted).
Add to this noise the party music from the hotel that may go on till 02.00 after midnight and you have a good idea what it is like to have room in a hotel that has NO double glazing so no sound proofing at all and exhaust fumes are all around and do get into the rooms. During the rest of the night cars with ghettoblasters circulate. The hotel was built without much soundproofing between floors and running toilets and washbasins can be heard, not to mention tripling high heels.

If you think of a Continental Hotel as a businessman’s hotel then you are mistaken in this case.
Maybe the odd businessman still books here and business conventions absolutely do take place here but the hotel seems to have become dependent on group bookings and meetings more than on individual bookings.
So this means an altogether different clientele. These people just love the buffets.

This hotel must be about 15 years old but it looks a lot older. It must already have had one or more serious renovations but it still looks old fashioned. Partly this is due to the eclectic decorations. They reminded me of old Indian hotels. Were they a suggestion by the architect or was it the owner?
Anyhow there is plenty of dark wood, sometimes with lots of carvings that show no great talent. Marble abounds, which is good ,but one has to be terribly careful in its application as it also tends to give a place a dated look. I found ‘rojo alicante’ marble, from the opening of the hotel but also ‘multicolour red’ from India, probably from a later renovation.

The rooms I saw had showers, even the suites, no bath tubs. There were plenty of flat screen television sets, all in dark wood furniture. Beds were good. Service was haphazard. Just luck.
Newspaper: one day yes, other day no. Amenities: maybe yes maybe no. Towels yes/no.
Bring a small toolbox. Most rooms have defective items.
How come, you may ask? No supervision. The higher your rank the less you do.
Staff speak Spanish reasonably well but very few speak any other languages.
They are quite friendly but have no idea of what service they should provide and nobody is telling them and we cannot afford to send them to Switzerland, alas.

There is a pool on the ground floor (another pool on a higher floor was closed). As the hotel is part of the Miramar complex the pool is also available to residents of the Miramar apartments or the other way round.

There is only one restaurant. It is well geared to cater to groups. A la carte dining is not recommended but there are plenty good restaurants nearby. Room service was good and the food was better than in the restaurant. The club lounge is acceptable.

Free Internet is supposed to be available in all the rooms and indeed sometimes there was a connection. Sometimes it disappeared all of a sudden so one has to save texts continually.
Conclusion: it is unreliable. Don’t think you can depend on a connection.
As in most international hotel and certainly the Intercontinental chain, room telephones have a button “INSTANT service” , so you don’t have to round up room service or housekeeping yourself. I used this button a number of times and contrary to the Asian hotels where the phones are picked up on the first ring and you are greeted by name even on your first visit here the phone was picked up after about a minute some days.

The location of the hotel is still good and if you can endure some little shortcomings and if you are able to negotiate a good price the it is fine.