San Blas or Bocas del Toro

Hello,

At the end of October we'll go for five weeks to Costa Rica and Panama! Still deciding on what to visit, so much to see and so little time!

What would you do? Go to Bocas del Toro (I heard Bastimentos is really nice?) or go instead to San Blas?

We like nature and don't want to go where it's crowded!

Can someone give some advice?

Thanks,
An

Bocas is much easier to get to from Costa Rica - cross the border at Sixoala - and the taxi to Changuinola and boat to Bocas.

There are a lot of nice options around Bocas that are out of the way - Bocas town is the place for a bit of night life otherwise the other islands such as Bastimentos would be the places to chill.
www.bocas.com has a good listing of most of the accommodation options - Solarte, Bastimentos (although a Bocas native mentioned to me yesterday that he felt the Bastimentos was getting overun with people wanting to smoke dope - in his eyes anyway), Carenero, Zapatillas Cay or on Colon Island up by Bocas del Drago...

San Blas is great for two days of chilling on a deserted sand island with nothign but a few palm trees and visiting the Kuna villages.
You would need to get to Panama City to fly to San Blas (flights leave at 6:00am) and overnight...

More "nature" in Bocas - dolphins, colored frogs, mangroves etc.

Hope this helps,

Andrew