I'm landing in PTY airport at 17:00 and I want to catch the night bus to Almirante (Bocas del Toro) around 20:00. If there is a delay I know I'll need a taxi, but if not I think I have time to go to Albrook bus station on bus or similar. What's the cheapest way to get there?
1 Answer
Bus Is Cheapest But You Need a METROBUS Card
The English version of the Tocumen Airport webpage on public transport mentions only taxis, which makes it easy to assume that taxis are the only form of public transport connecting the airport to the city. This is not the case however, as the Spanish version of the Tocumen Airport webpage on public transport also mentions buses. It also states that bus rides cost 0.25PAB
at the time of writing, regardless of the journey distance.
Searching on the Panama public transport website yields the Tocumen - Via Espana - Albrook bus line which, as the name suggests, should take you yo Albrook. Note however that you can't board a bus without swiping your METROBUS card first. What other websites suggest is to ask for locals to swipe theirs for you in exchange for a bit more than the nominal bus fee.
Taxis and Other Shuttle Services
You've probably also tried Rome2Rio which also suggest a number of combinations with a taxi/driving segment. These include taxi-train combinations, which seem to be the cheapest (20-25EUR
), as well as single taxi rides (30-35EUR
). The last entry in Rome2Rio however mentions a shuttle, which seems to cost the same as a taxi ride (30-35EUR
). Checking on the shuttle service website shows that these shuttles are not buses. Rather they are a private minibus/minivan service which might or might not take you to Almirante per se as this destination isn't shown on the aforementioned webpage.
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The Spanish version of the Tocumen airport webpage mentions buses (tocumenpanama.aero/…). I've read that you can take a bus outside the airport, but it takes you to the city center, not explains the best way to go to other places.– IvanMar 28, 2015 at 18:39
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Thanks for the heads up. I dug a bit more and found a bus route that takes you to Albrook from Tocumen. Couldn't find timetables though.– JoErNanO ♦Mar 29, 2015 at 12:45