GS Hotel Galeria in Santiago Panama
Jan 11th, 2007 by Don Ray
I flew to Panama City on the 10th and started a return trip by car the same day. When I got to Santiago I was tired and decided to stop for the day because I knew the roads to David from Santiago would not be good. I stayed at the GS Hotel Galería. I don’t remember seeing it before. It was a nice hotel. My room with the jubliado discount came to $27.50. The hotel has a nice private parking area on the side and security in the lot at night. My room was clean and the bed was good.
I took the following photos of the hotel the evening I arrived. You will notice that they have Christmas decorations that are ready to be taken down. This morning they were loading them into a truck.
If you decide you are driving to or from Panama City and plan on staying in this hotel. Jeer is their business card. Their email is hotelgaleria@cwpanama.net.
The hotel had a very good restaurant. I had shrimp in an asparagus sauce for dinner and really enjoyed it. For breakfast this morning I had an Italian Omelet with pepperoni, ham, tomato and onion and hojaldres. I really enjoyed the breakfast too. It was good that I had a good breakfast because the drive was not fun. In many places the road was in bad repair and in others it was being repaired. If you have never driven on a road under repair in Panama, it is a real experience.
They take large notches out of the road. These notches will have sharp drop-offs of at least a foot. Sometimes they are in the middle of the road and sometimes on the side. I guarantee that if you drive to the side and hit one of these holes, your car is not going to survive. I recommend if you are taking a bus from David to Panama City or vice versa, you only go during the day. The buses were driving like bats out of hell and the road was dangerous. I did see one wreck and I think it was a truck rear ending a small car that had slowed to miss a hole.
I made it without a mishap, but it was a stressful drive.
Good to hear you made it safely to David, Don. I’ve been to the restaurant of Hotel Galeria several times and it has always been a very good experience. I’ve never stayed in the Hotel but the lobby and the restaurant are always very clean and the waitresses very cordial and helpful.
It’s very good to know that there’s a clean and safe place to stay in Santiago.
Thanks also for the important information regarding road conditions from Santiago to David.
Hi Lilia,
Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. Yes, I would not want to be driving that stretch of highway at night.
It was interesting there ware several locations with construction that had police. It is the first time i remember seeing police watching how cars drove through the construction areas.
I’m glad that you made it home safely as well. While we haven’t done the road trip to PC or even Santiago for a while, we do travel the road to San Felix many times a week. The work that’s being done from San Felix to San Lorenzo is a slow process and the areas of construction are poorly marked. The evidence that these sites take drivers by surprise are the vivid black skid marks… When (or if) the sign says ‘excavacion profunda’ they really mean it! Just one more reason not to drive this highway at night. As for police watching the construction zones, I haven’t yet seen any on this stretch of the Interamericana - they would be useful.
Hi Linda. Thanks for commenting. Glad to see you are home too.
I don’t think I have the nerve or the patience to drive on those roads at night.