I have traveled all over the world and I have stayed at several all-inclusive resorts and the Royal Decameron is one of the worst resorts I have ever been. The food, service and staff were all below average. The rooms are your basic hotel room minus wash clothes, soap, tissues or an iron. The bathrooms don’t have screens on the window so you should expect to have bugs in the bathrooms and the bedroom. If you don’t get an Oceanfront room be prepared to walk up and down hills every time you would like to go the majority of the restaurants and pools. I also do not recommend this resort if you are traveling with anyone that has trouble walking. The resort is huge and the shuttles/vans do not run on a regular schedule.
I read all of the reviews before I went to the resort and I knew what I was getting into. My friend was getting married there and I had no choice on the resort. We made the best out of the situation.
If you do decide to go I do recommend Woody’s which is a short walk on the beach is. We got two small Lobsters with a salad and rice for $30. We also had a few people go out fishing with Capt. Bob, they caught some great Red Snapper. The Captain arranged for one of the chefs to prepare it for us and it was really good.
There are some many great all-inclusive resorts in Mexico and the Caribbean for the same price of even cheaper than this resort. I would highly recommend going anyplace else besides the Royal Decameron

After reading many reviews before our vacay to Panama this past Jan 2012, i was skeptical on what to expect.. "staff unfriendly" "food horrible" etc etc. When we arrived at the Decameron, i was pleasantly surprised to find how nice the resort actually was and how friendly the staff were. Even the security staff that roam the paths through the night would spout out a quick "hola" as you pass by. The resort is very big, so EXPECT to walk. This didn't bother us at all. Sometimes trekking up the hill got a bit tiring (our room was "ocean view").. but i didn't mind, nothing wrong with some exercise after pigging out and drinking all day! I imagine for the elderly, this would be a deal breaker, rightfully. However, there are beach front rooms right on the main land, and loads of pools and buffets all over the resort. So even if one couldn't make it around the entire resort, this could still be an excellent vacation. Our room was in building 46. The room was VERY spacious and extremely clean. I am not sure what other rooms/buidlings are like. We could also walk out of our balcony straight onto the adult infinity pool which was awesome. I found the people and staff of Panama to be incredibly friendly and the service was great. There are alot of staff that do speak english contrary to what others have said. But there are of course alot of staff that do not (to be expected, this is a spanish country!). Mainly cleaning staff, maintenance workers, and some of the servers didn't speak english. All of the lobby staff i spoke to seemed to have great english. I found that if i tried my basic spanish with the non english speaking locals, they would become smiley and appreciative. Also, make sure you TIP the staff for better service. Remember you are staying in a fancy hotel in a country whose minimum wage is like $3. They also work 6 day work weeks. You can't blame them for thinking you are a jerk if you never tip. I tipped our cleaning lady $5 every day and i could tell this always made her day. She consistently left us fresh flowers every day and every time i would pass her on the paths, she would shyly give us a big huge smile. The food wasn't bad, but wasn't great.. Also something to be expected when staying at an all inclusive resort. They are cooking for mass amounts of tourists, don't expect quality. We got sick of the food by the end of the trip, but all in all it was not bad food. Definitely book al la carte's early in the morning for better quality dinners. The beach was very nice, the ocean wasn't as rough as i was expecting. We were able to swim in the ocean every day. Some of our group did some snorkelling about 10 min out, and were stung by alot of baby jelly fish. It didn't stop them though. I never had an issue with jelly fish swimming along shore. There are some locals selling jewellery etc along the beach. They are very friendly and do not hassle. Its nice to be able to buy some goodies while relaxing on the beach. There is a town about a ten minute walk down the road (Farallon). I did not make it over there, but some of my group did. There is a grocery store down there that sells items MUCH cheaper than the hotel stores do. So definitely check it out before dropping double the $ on any kind of item you might find at the grocery store. I believe it is on Mon, Weds, and Fridays, there is a little market outside of lobby 1. This was super nice to have as some of the Kuna tribe sell their crafts here, plus many other crafts & vendors. I also found that these items were much cheaper to buy here than similar items found in the hotel stores. This market was also cheaper than the markets we shopped at in Panama city. However Panama city does have a little more selection with different items, so that is worth checking out too. All in all this was a great trip, and if anyone has questions about some good excursions outside the hotel, pass me a message because we did a couple of gooders through the trip.

After three nights in Panama City and six at the Gamboa Rainforest Resort it was time for a relaxing experience on the coast (10 nights) after a busy time touring around the Canal area including both Pacific and Atlantic ends. We saw a three-toed sloth clinging to a fence with a bsuy road one side, adjacent to the construction work for the widening of the canal and informed the staff, who arranged for the creature to be moved to a safer stretch of forest.

Whenever possible we like to visit resorts with some wildlife interest and Panama proved to be a great opportunity for this.

Arriving at the Decameron we were somewhat daunted by the sheer size of the resort - almost the size of a small village in England ! We were taken to one of three check-in areas and allocated a room with good views near to an adult-only swimming pool complete with swim-up bar. The faults with this room were to become apparent very soon. Paper thin walls, an adjoining access door and a family with three very unruly kids who liked the TV turned up full all day and night. The other side we four youngsters in adjoinging rooms who came in during the early hours and woke us up. This can be a problem as some people have no regard for others who wish to sleep. Worse was to come when disco nights started. Although some distance away, the volume was so high as to make it impossible to sleep, to such an extent that the pillow seemed to vibrate ! We asked to be moved, which took a couple of days to find us matching accomodation. This room was fine as it was located well away from the noisy area and more to the centre of the resort.

The resort has several fine restaurants (some a la carte) but you have to book very early to get in and several days in advance. This is not made readily apparent when you first arrive but you learn very quickly. Breakfasts had everything you could wish - for all in a buffet style. As an all inclusive resort, lunch is also buffet style, with many appetising dishes so you are spoilt for choice.

Numerous large trees abound in the grounds, carefully retained to allow large areas of shade adding to the natural feeling of the grounds, always pleasant to walk through and with some interesting wildlife plus the resident Peacocks. Iguanas move freely around climbing trees, giving very good opportunities for those who like to observe these almost pre-historic animals. The resort is set into an hillside, and one steep pathway we called 'cardiac hill'.

During part of our stay we were the only two English, and one evening we were asked if we minded a lady from Germany joining us for dinner. We had a very pleasant time and discussed our travels, and have since had contact with her. The majority of people appeared to be from Canada, and we met some from Guatemala, Colombia and Chile, which added to our enjoyment as we had some interesting conversations (all in English) and learned about their respective countries.

One of the hotel management staff (Santiago) was from Argentina; he spoke good English and he was very helpful and always came over to speak to us and made us feel most welcome.

There was always plenty of room around all the swimming pools - all with a bar close by. The beach is smooth sand and swimming in the sea is pleasant. We spent most of the time around the adult pool which was quiet except for one occasion when a group arrived to take over the pool. The swim-up bar was very handy, and the staff around the resort were pleasant: occasionally someone would not understand fully what we wanted, but then we do not speak Spanish !

We took a walk to the nearby village and were invited by the large family into a lovely blue house. Although none of us spoke each others language it was a very pleasant occasion, and we walked back along the beach.

Transfers are lengthy from Panama and when our trip came to an end it was a 0400hrs start to attempt to reach the outskirts of the city before the chronic chaos of Panama 's rush hour.
This a prelude to flying to Houston before our final flight home to Heathrow. It was a very long journey, as was our outward trip. When travelling from the UK remember that a USA visa is required to transit at New York Newark airport on the outward leg. Houston apparently not, this is not made clear. Always check as our tour operator, Virgin, failed to inform us of this situation, leading to a frantic on-line visa application on the morning of departure. We later heard that we were lucky to receive this so quickly as it can take up to 72 hours.

The very long transit time is the only thing that puts us off returning to this fascinating area of Central America.

A little off the beaten path but well worth it. Gorgeous beach, plenty of pools, outstanding tours and comfortable rooms all make this a wonderful spot for families and couples. This is a fairly new resort so English can be a challenge with servers and room staff, but desk and tour people are pretty fluent. There is security absolutely everywhere (which is a bit creepy sometimes) but you're never more than 50 feet from an employee.

The rooms are clean but pretty spartan. Take your own clock, shampoo and conditioner. We had one room that wasn't cleaned at all one day, so make sure you hang the tag on the door asking for a cleaning. The golf course is lovely but again the staff have some language issues that can make it a little challenging to rent clubs.

The food at the buffets is pretty good but nothing special. Make a reservation at Cayugo for great grilled meats and at Club Med for nice Mediterranean. Don't bother with the Japanese place; it's an embarrassing display of burning oil and flying spatulas. They have significant portion issues as well; two or three tables did not get the second course because they ran out and the poor server didn't have enough English to explain.

The nightly entertainment is a bit lame but if the audience is well-lubricated enough, it's kind of fun anyway. The games room, which is allegedly for teens, is pretty run down and our kids refused to go there more than once.

The canopy tour and the canal expedition are well-organized, informative and tons of fun! The Nolitours rep is always around and happy to help with advice .

The grounds are lovely and the beautiful trees and shrubs are well maintained; however, not as much attention is paid to litter so there are often gum wrappers and bits and pieces on the ground for days. We tracked one Q-trip in a flower bed for five days straight. It's probably still there.

Overall great value and a perfect winter escape.