The Informed Traveler
The Informed Traveler
Rail Travel & Hotel La Compania Del Valle, Panama
According to current trends, rail travel is gaining significant popularity in 2025 with data indicating a substantial increase in demand compared to previous years. So on this week's podcast travel expert Onanta Forbes will join me to discuss the rising interest in rail travel. Then we'll head to Panama to learn all about the Hotel La Compañía del Valle in Panama.
Well, hello and welcome to the Informed Traveller podcast, a weekly travel podcast where our goal is to help you become a more informed traveller. I'm your host, Randy Sharman. According to current trends, rail travel is gaining significant popularity in 2025, with data indicating a substantial increase in demand compared to previous years. So in a few seconds, travel expert Onanta Forbes will join me to discuss the rising interest in rail travel. And then we'll head to Panama to learn all about the hotel and La Campanilla del Valle in Panama, which sits in the crater of an extinct volcano and features 70 rooms and suites with private balconies or terraces. Sounds wonderful, doesn't it? So we'll learn all about that. But first, let's kick things off chatting with travel expert Onanta Forbes, who joins us each week to discuss some of the travel news and travel trends. You can follow her adventures on Instagram, Facebook, and X at Onanta Forbes. Onantaforbes.com is her website. Hi, Onanta.
SPEAKER_03:Hi. Randy, how are you?
SPEAKER_01:I'm good, thank you. I'm excited to talk about rail travel because I am a big railway buff. Every time I go to a place, I look to see if they have a railway museum and I love to go see all the old rail cars and that kind of stuff. So I'm excited. How about you? Are you a railway buff?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, you know what? I do exactly like you do, is look for different opportunities at different destinations to see if I can experience it. And it's amazing because rail travel definitely is coming back. It's bigger than ever before. The demand is growing. There are new train systems, or pardon me, services, itineraries and destinations, and they continue to hit the market. One of our vacation rail packages, rail bookers, they reported at its second annual global summit in December that they saw a record year in 2024 with 30% growth. And it's already strong for bookings in 2025. Again, leading 31%. So lots of investment from suppliers like Belmont or adventure tour operators like Intrepid. And it was just a resurgent of night trains in Europe. So, you know, you can go like I hope to go, probably haven't gotten there yet, very ultra deluxe, or you can look for affordable, sustainable alternatives when you're flying across the continent, right?
SPEAKER_01:Well, and funny you mentioned railbookers. I'll jokingly say that their increase happened to be because they were guests on our podcast.
SPEAKER_03:I'm sure that is right. Yes. Yes,
SPEAKER_01:yeah. So we have had them as guests. And yes, that's a good place to start if you're looking for rail travel. But even companies like Rocky Mountaineer, which I've experienced, it's amazing. And Via Rail also, I'll give them kudos. They've upped their game. Amtrak is upped their game for North America. But no matter, like when you think rail travel, I always think of Europe and Eurorail and all the rail passes that you can get. And it's really easy to go from country to country. Well, mostly because of the geography. There are a lot smaller countries, but it is really a cool way to travel.
SPEAKER_03:Right. Absolutely. And Belmont, who, you know, if people can remember, they actually bought the Venezuelan Express years ago. They're certainly leading the way when it comes to luxury train travel. And in July 2025, they're going to introduce a brand new Britannic Explorer, which will be the first luxury sleeper train to serve England and Wales. And it will depart from London and will offer three-night journeys on three different itineraries that will visit Cornwall, the Lake District, and Wales. And what I like about this is, number one, it's the UK. And I love all those destinations. And they're all must-see destinations when you go to Europe. So what a better way to explore that destination. And also launching in 2025, it's La Dolce Vita Orient Express. And this is a new luxury overnight train from Accor, which owns Fairmount, and luxury hospitality group Arsenal. And they'll operate in Italy, providing travelers with this really timeless way to go across the country in style. And they have eight different itineraries that span one to two nights. So again, lots of choice. You know, speaking of the term upping their game, they certainly are.
SPEAKER_01:Mm-hmm. Well, I like to call it almost like cruising on wheels now because, you know, depending on your budget, you can get quite pampered on some of these rail packages.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, yeah. And it's not just day travel. It includes night trains. And these trains typically leave late at night, arrive early the next morning. And so this provides travelers an alternative to flying when traveling by night. So they can include different kinds of accommodation, like reclining seats, couch hats, or private or shared cabins. Maybe they're a little bit less about luxury, but more about providing a greater amount of people with comfort and convenience of getting around. Now, you can also look at destinations in Saudi Arabia. They're going to launch their first luxury rail service, the Dream of the Desert Train, beginning fall of 2026. It'll be the country's first luxury train, and it will traverse the Arabian continent Peninsula. And it's the same company working with La Dolce Orient Express. So I think that would be amazing. Saudi Arabia, it definitely is a destination that's in the spotlight lately as far as growing in interest. So keep that in mind. And also, companies like Intrepid, they're introducing a new sustainable train journey in Mongolia this year, bid this year. So it's a... 11-day voyage from China to Mongolia, and it will explore national parks, dunes of the Gobi Desert. It just sounds so amazing. And not only do you get to spend a night traveling on the famous railway, you have seven nights where we spent in a hotel, two nights in a traditional tourist camp. So it's a lot of different experiences. types of accommodation that you can enjoy. And again, different destinations, which I think is huge. People are looking for perhaps maybe somewhere different that they've already done.
SPEAKER_01:Well, and if you're someone like me who I don't necessarily not want to rent a car and drive, but if I can avoid it, I will. But this is just a whole different way to experience it because the trains go into different areas that road travel doesn't. And it's just a way more relaxed sort of atmosphere. And it's no longer just a mode of transportation, right? Getting from one place to another. It's like you mentioned, it is part of the journey.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, absolutely. And you did mention Rocky Mountaineer, and they have two new packages in 2025, expanding its Rockies to the Reds. Red Rocks. So they are going to include stays at the Glenwood Hot Springs Hotel Resort, pardon me, and then just have the opportunity. It's like a circle trip from Denver, so not far from Canada. And then you can also look at North America as far as not just the US, but Canada too, like a lot of a lot of interest, especially from people Coming from outside of Canada, wanting to experience this. Can you imagine, though, just enjoying the Rockies this way if you don't live here? It's just an aha moment.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I have done the Vancouver to Banff run and the Rocky Mountaineer is interesting as they do not have an overnight stay on the train. They stop at different places between Vancouver and Calgary, for example. They'll stop in Kamloops overnight. So you do get to experience the places that you stop in. But yeah, the scenery is absolutely spectacular and there's no other way to describe it to experience the Rockies than taking the Rocky Mountaineer Amtrak's got a cool one, too, that's following Teddy Roosevelt's path from Chicago to San Francisco. It's 14 days, which I think would be really cool to experience across Yosemite and the Yellowstone National Parks and seeing the sights of North America, basically. And even G Adventures is getting involved with rail travel, too, with some packages.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, you know what? There's lots of choice with regards to different levels of accommodation, different levels for your budget so you know and you can even like I happen to explore when we were in Australia we were able to go on the Indian Pacific from Sydney to Adelaide just a one-nighter I have to say that the food the people like the people who were on board to help you and to make your experience amazing were very gracious very kind you have the opportunity you know to have dinner enjoy local Australian wines and the cuisine and And then, you know, just all of a sudden, lift your head, look outside, and you see three kangaroos just bouncing along.
SPEAKER_01:And to me, there's nothing better than the sound of the clickety-clack of the tracks going. I don't know. I'm just weird that way, I guess. But you can also add a rail portion to an Alaska cruise as well up through Alaska.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, rail tours, huge in popularity. Definitely recommend it. The opportunity to stay at different cruise lines, large Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly. Lots of ways to get around on the rails. Onanta Forbes is a travel expert. You can follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and X at Onanta Forbes. OnantaForbes.com is her website. Great chatting, Onanta.
SPEAKER_03:Thank you. You take care.
SPEAKER_01:This is the Informed Traveller podcast. I'm Randy Sharman. Just want to remind you of our website, theinformedtraveller.org. That's where you can find our contact page if you have any questions or comments about the podcast. You can also email me too with any questions you might have or podcast segment ideas. My email address is randy at theinformedtraveller.org. And if you want to get up-to-date travel info through the week or just see a few amusing travel stories and links, you can like us on Facebook at facebook.com slash informedtraveller on Instagram at informedtraveller or on X at informedtraveller. Plus, you can now sign up for our monthly newsletter. It's released at the beginning of every month. Our May issue is now available. Just go to our website, theinformedtraveller.org, click on the newsletter button, and it'll take you right there. Or better yet, subscribe to it and have it arrive in your inbox each month. So continuing now with our podcast, Panama has always been high on my list. Hi, Chris. Hi, Chris. Randy, how are you? So I'm excited to learn about Hotel La Compania del Valle. It's in Panama. We know that much. So give me some background on it, how it
SPEAKER_00:got where it is today. All right. Well, let's start with the name. La Compania in English is the company, which is an odd name for a hotel group. In Panama, we actually have three properties here. We have Hotel La Compania, which is in the old town of Panama City. Then we have La Compania del Valle, where I am today. That's the company of the valley directly in English. And then we have another product called Villa Ana, which is a 12,000 square foot mansion restored into a restaurant, jazz club and cigar lounge. That's also in the old city. La Compania de Jesus in Spanish is the company of Jesus. This is what we refer to normally in English as Jesuit. So our first hotel that we opened three years ago in the old town is a restoration of a convent from 1688, a Jesuit convent and a Jesuit university. In fact, the university is building, which is one of our wings of the hotel today, is the seventh oldest university in North and South America. So many people don't realize the age of Panama of Panama City is the oldest city in North and South America on the Pacific Coast. I did not know that. Yeah, most people don't. It's a little bit, you know, if we take the Hudson Bay Company in Canada, which is a point of reference at the moment, and how Hudson Bay Company through the fur trade expanded through the west of Canada.
SPEAKER_02:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00:So Panama, the Spaniards, obviously the isthmus of Panama is only 50 miles across. When Balboa realized and discovered the Pacific Ocean on the other side, they built a city, Panama City. which is about 504 years old today. And they started building ships on the Pacific side because nobody knew how to get from Europe through the Pacific at that point. And they started to explore into Mexico and modern day Peru and the Incas. And that's what developed. And it was basically the trade route where the stuff, the gold and silver would be brought mostly from Peru to Panama City, carried across the country to Portobello or there's different ports they had on the Atlantic side. and then they would return that. They then knew their way back to Europe, and from there they would take the goods back to Europe. So it's a bit of a trading link that established Panama in the early days. Of course, today we see it as the Panama Canal, but that's version 10.2 of Panama's history. Well, lots
SPEAKER_01:of history, which I love, a big history buff. So let's talk about Hotel La Compania del Valle itself, where it is, some of the amenities, how big it is, how many rooms, and what's your normal clientele?
SPEAKER_00:All right. Well, El Valle de Anton, the Valley of Anton, is located two hours from Panama City away. So you leave Panama City, you drive southwest along the Pacific coast, and then you turn right and go straight up into the mountains. You're And then you come down inside the crater or the caldera. So the Valley of Anton, El Valle de Anton in Spanish, is the second largest inhabited caldera in the world. Obviously, it's this extinct volcano. Amazing flora and fauna, 19 waterfalls in the Valley of Anton. About 8,000 people live here. La Compania del Valle, the hotel here, is a 70-room hotel. It's sort of a Tuscan-influenced architecture. The property is over 16 acres, so it's quite a large physical property. And ironically, we have 16 buildings on it. So some of the buildings are larger with more hotel rooms. Some of the buildings are actually individual hotel rooms. We have three restaurants in the hotel, Tiempo, Time, Terra, which is earth, and Fuego, which is fire. So three restaurants in the hotel, a bar... Tennis facilities are being built indoor, paddleball indoor, pickleball indoor. And the two pieces de resistance are our spa, which will be opening in end of June, early July. It's an 18,000 square foot spa where guests will go inside, reception, get changed from the change rooms. They'll go out through tunnels. down spiral staircases into the ground where they'll find themselves in water-filled tunnels that they could either swim or walk through to get to the underground Roman baths. So it's a really significant spot. It sounds
SPEAKER_01:pretty amazing.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no, it is really quite incredible. We're doing all brick Boveda ceilings. There'll be salt pools, underground salt pools, where you can float and sleep in 18 tons of Epsom salt water. Steam rooms, Himalayan rock salt baths, salt baths, saunas, madrasas, a hammam. So it's very extensive. So we call it La Compania del Valle, an art and wellness house. Obviously, the wellness is the spa area. The art component... We have an outdoor sculpture park with about 62 sculptures, I believe it is at the moment, between bronze and marble and granite, alabaster. And inside the hotel is about another 160 sculptures and art pieces. So our hotel in the city is a living museum built inside an old convent from 1688. So it's a historical property, contemporarily designed historical property. that tells a story of the evolution of Panama through three wings, an American colonial wing, a Spanish and a French colonial wing. And our mountain hotel here, El Valle d'Anton, is an art and wellness house. So neither of our hotels are stereotypical, I don't want to say box hotels. Yeah, I
SPEAKER_01:understand what you're saying, though. They're not your standard steel and glass.
SPEAKER_00:Look, I think there's many hotels, if you wake up in a world with the curtains closed, you'd never know where you are. And throughout the public areas of the hotel, you don't feel the identity of the location you're visiting. And that takes a big chunk away from the reason we travel. I often tell guests, if you want a safe, clean hotel room, Go somewhere else. There's cheaper versions. Yeah, if you want an experience and a memory, we're in the memory business. We're in the experience business. And we're significantly different from most hotels. And with the two hotels we have now, we provide transport in between. So many of our guests are visiting both hotels. So they experience the old town historic quarter.
SPEAKER_02:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00:They then transport it two hours away to, you know, lush vegetations, six degrees cooler in the mountains here where we are. A completely different experience, you know, electric bicycles, regular bicycles, horseback riding, sports, spa, art and wellness. So completely two different experiences, but we can basically take the pain out of some of the planning. Yeah. We intend and we do deliver on our promises.
SPEAKER_01:Well, and that way I think you would get a
SPEAKER_00:really good feel of Panama overall. No, absolutely. In between our mountain hotel and the city hotel. So we're two hours from the city. The mountain hotel is one hour from the beach and the city is one hour from the beach. So we actually have guests that come up to our mountain hotel that want to partake in golf. We have four golf courses within an hour. And the beach is within an hour. So if they want to do three days in the mountain, but they want one day on a beach, we can bring them down to the beach for a day trip and back up. So, yeah, you know, the ultimate plans are actually for a beach hotel in our own planes and our own runways in between the three hotels to really make the trifecta perfecta. But that's not in development. It's in development, the beach hotel, but not in construction yet. So that's a few years away, but... At the moment, we have the two hotel experiences, and they're completely different. So you get to see two very different sides of Panama that, until now, has been more difficult. La Compañía del Valle is the first internationally branded property in the interior of Panama designed for tourism. The tourism of Panama is... in an embryo stage, I would say. We have, I won't say significant, but we have, of course, tourism to the city in the Panama Canal. The interior of Panama is really yet undiscovered. So what we're doing here is quite groundbreaking. And for the adventure traveler, let's say, we can give the luxury and comfort and the adventure experience all in one.
SPEAKER_01:Well, it sounds amazing. I am looking on the Hyatt website, hyatt.com, where you can find the Hotel de Compagnia de Valle. And it says, well, decompress at our mountainside resort in Panama. That says a lot. But also there's a line in here, chocolate and wine therapy. What's that all about?
SPEAKER_00:Well, there's different types of massages. So when we open the spa, our guests will partake in the spa and enjoy all the different public areas, jacuzzis, cold plunge pools, the salt pool, the regular thermal pool, the baths. And then when we take them for their appointment for therapy, Well, we're going to bring them to our Haman, sort of a Middle Eastern experience that most people haven't experienced. And that is more of a hot water scrub massage in a hot room. From there, they'll be then brought to the therapy rooms. There's a chocolate therapy, which is a massage with raw cacao. There's a wine therapy. We'll be doing hot stones. We'll be doing deep tissue. We'll be doing regular oil massages. We'll be doing a physiotherapy type of therapy. type of massage. And we're actually looking towards the end of the year. We'll start going more into the wellness with yoga retreats. We have a significant yoga area and a part of the property we've carved out and made 16 different styles of human birds nests. Some of these birds nests are big enough that two people can relax inside. Others are for one person. This isn't a part of the property where the birds are prolific. So it's a decompress area and all part of the wellness dialogue that we're creating.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, like I said, it sounds amazing. I'm looking at some of the images too. It's a beautiful resort area property. So what do you like most about Panama,
SPEAKER_00:quickly? You know, I came here, I spent a big part of my life in Asia. I retired once, built a sailboat, sailed around the world with my wife and children. And we came through the Panama Canal together. to get to the Pacific on route back to Thailand. And I looked at the Panama skyline and most people don't realize if you Google Panama skyline, you might be shocked. This is a Miami type skyline. Most people don't realize that Miami is a first world city. I said to my wife, I said, you know what, maybe we should stay here for two years and let our kids learn Spanish. And we decided to do that. And I fell in love with the country, you know, flora, fauna, language, culture, and a general happiness level of the people. And it just enthralled me. And the old town is just incredible. It's in a rebirth stage. And I looked for a small project to do there while my kids were learning Spanish. And I ended up acquiring a city block and building the first lock company. And my wife was, why are you coming out of retirement? I said, I I have a chance to restore a convent from 1688. This is not something that happens in most people's lives.
SPEAKER_01:Very true. And
SPEAKER_00:we were able to make a significant contribution to culture, to artistry, and to tourism. And when La Compania del Valle was an existing hotel, we had the opportunity to take over. It was just too good to be true that... It's very rare that you get to go to a country that hasn't quite developed yet. And you can make a significant impact. And I fell in love with the opportunity to make change. And 11 years later, I'm still here.
SPEAKER_01:Chris Lenz is the founder and CEO of Hotel La Compania, which has two different properties. You can check out the website on the Hyatt website, hyatt.com. It was real fun chatting with you, Chris. I really appreciate it.
SPEAKER_00:Randy, I thank you very much and wish everybody a great day.
SPEAKER_01:And that is our show for this week. If you have comments or questions, we'd love to hear from you. If you have a show idea, send that along as well. My email is randy at theinformedtraveller.org. And if you like what you heard, tell a friend. You can check out our website too at theinformedtraveller.org. In the meantime, thanks for listening. Travel safe and be an informed traveller.