Hostal La Choza de Playa Venao

Friendly people, good service, funky chill atmosphere right near the heart of town. Exactly as you'd hope for a hostel plus private rooms. Brought our 3 kids and we all liked it, somehow we overpaid for the rooms so they gave us free board rentals. Left a phone lying around a common area one night, returned the next morning no problem. Gracias!!

The hostel had way better photos on the website than it was in real life. The rooms were simple, which wasn’t a problem for us, but our room was next to the shared toilets and showers and it smelled horribly most of our time here. The toilets and showers were not cleaned (we have reason to assume) while we were there (2 days).. In the town the hostel is located very well. 1/2 minutes to all the stores, cafes and beach. However Venao itself really isn’t that interesting apart from the surf. For us, after visiting other places, a pretty anticlimactic. I’d recommend reading about the political viewpoints of the community of playa venao so you can make a well-considered decision before going.

Don't believe the photos; the place doesn't look like that. They use old pictures, and there is no vegetation. Moreover, the service is terrible—they don't respond when you message them. The place looks like a gray, abandoned dump. Even at 7:40 AM, there was no one to open the kitchen, and our belongings were still inside. I do not recommend this place for women, especially if traveling alone. Recuerdo este lugar año atras era un lindo hostal, ya no lo es.

The hostel is just a two-minute walk from the beach. The staff is consistently kind and welcoming, and they offer the best prices for surfboard rentals! The vibe is always friendly and laid-back, making it easy to meet other travelers, and you get so comfortable here that you won’t want to leave!

Great hostel the owner Ido help me a lot and seat with us at the night to give us feel like home. Except from the owner the hostel is at prime location right in the center and next to all of the restaurant's and two minutes from the beach. There is a fully equipped kitchen. The bathroom and shower are clean and there is hit water in the shower. I think the best part in the hostel is Sol the dog hostel. Really recommend place to come and stay, if you want to stay at the best place in playa venao and cheapest place

This has been one of the grossest hostels I have stayed in on my backpack trip. There were cockroaches in the room. The bathroom in the room was never cleaned, had no toilet paper and lost the toilet seat came of and was never repaired. In the shower in the room were tons of insects. The mattresses were so hard, you could feel the springs in your body. The bathrooms downstairs were super gross, smelled like piss and had poops stuck in the toilet. People were even having sex in the showers. The kitchens were really gross, mold in the fridge and kept clean really poorly. One stove that worked and one kitchen had 3 stoves that all didn’t work. People stole food from the fridge. Eat your yogurt and drink your milk. The vibe was really weird, not inviting and not at all like a fun social hostel

Worst place we have ever been!!! My girlfriend and I booked a private bedroom at this hostel for €240 for 3 nights (which was one of the most expensive on our Panama trip). We are used to the hostel like hotels and don’t mind to get the travellers experience. However, when we arrived at La Choza hostel, our stomachs turned. The host showed us our room and we were surprised. The room looked more like a prison cell, it was that small. Besides that it was not clean at all in the room. The mattress was very dirty and also the sheets. We told the host at the frostdesk and she was kind enough to help us right away with clean sheets. Not only our room was a bit dirty the only 3 toilets in de whole hostel were as well. 3 toilets is definitely not enough for a crammed hostel like this one. The dirtyness can be applied for the 4 showers as well. In the 2 kitchens you can store your groceries in the fridges but we decided not to do that since there is a lot of old food and fruits covered in molt. We never leave our hotels/hostels early and are not very picky persons. But we had no choice to stay any longer than 1 of the 3 nights here. We would never recommend anyone stay at La Choza and are never ever returning here!!

DO NOT COME HERE Worse place I've ever slept in, unhealthy and insalubrious, room full insects of any kind, the roof is not fully closed and the "building" (2 stories chabola/fabela) is rounded full of nature, as it's in Playa Venao, so free-for-all to insects and whatever wants to come around. Maintenance is missing. Disgusting experience. Bedbugs bites. We were going to stay some days and stayed 1 night and run away. Good homeless experience tho.