It was around 17 years ago…
A trusted Panama contact had promised that if I could withstand a rough drive, I’d get to see one of the prettiest beaches in all of Panama. It was a big claim. I’d already seen many of Panama’s best beaches, both on the Pacific and the Caribbean coasts.
So this promised beach would need to be really something to impress me.
My contact, though, was true to his word. At the end of a bone-shaking road, he showed me a white-sand beach that opened up to the Pacific Ocean sparkling like a jewel in the sun. And beyond that, I could see Panama City shimmering in the distance.
I knew right away that this something spectacular: the closest, nicest stretch of beach to the booming metropolis of Panama City.
Back then, this coast was unknown and undeveloped. But my contact, developer Alfredo Aleman, had big plans to turn this stretch of coast into the premier beach community in Panama.
Fast-forward to today and this vision is becoming a reality…

The white-sand beaches at Caracol are picture-postcard perfect and the warm waters are ideal for swimming, surfing, fishing…
The community set on this beach is called Playa Caracol.
Visit today and you’ll find a stunning modern resort-style community that puts you steps from the sand. There are paved roads, excellent infrastructure, a luxury hotel, a beach club, restaurants, sports bars… And everything here is oriented toward the beach, designed to make the most of this incredible environment. Even the next-level amenities like basketball courts, swimming pools and pickleball courts, are all seconds from the ocean.
True beachfront living like this is so rare globally.
But to find it within easy reach of a world-class capital like Panama City? Well, scarce doesn’t even begin to cover it…
That’s why I’m so excited about the new deal I’ve negotiated here for members of my Real Estate Trend Alert group.
Next week, RETA members will have an opportunity to own spacious three-bed beachfront homes in Playa Caracol…right on that white-sand beach…at RETA-only pricing…with exclusive developer financing…
We’ve never ever had a deal like this at RETA. I expect gains of $310,000 five years after delivery. But we only have 12 of these homes! So, anyone who wants to act needs to be ready…
Tomorrow, I’m sending my full briefing on this opportunity to RETA members. And because this deal is so special, so unique in the history of RETA, I’m going to share a special preview of it with you here in Overseas Dream Home too.
That will drop at 1 p.m. ET tomorrow (Saturday, October 19).
But today, I wanted to step back for a moment and explore what’s it really like to live in this community…literally steps from the sand…
U.S. expat David Hinton is part of the Real Estate Trend Alert concierge team, he lives in Panama. And for an entire year, he lived right on the beach in Playa Caracol.
Below, he shares his experience of living the true beachfront lifestyle…
Ronan McMahon, Founder, Overseas Dream Home & Real Estate Trend Alert
P.S. To learn more about this coastline, check out my free report on Panama’s Pacific Riviera. It details the rise of the Pacific Riviera…the communities you need to know here…the origins of Playa Caracol…the best things to do in Panama City…the visa situation in Panama…and so much more. Access it here.
The Truth About Living in Playa Caracol
By David Hinton
Less than a minute…
That’s how long it’d take me to get from my condo in Playa Caracol to the ocean.
Whenever the mood took me, within 30 to 60 seconds, I could be floating in the warm waters of the Pacific, looking back at the glistening, white-sand beach…my fellow residents playing volleyball, swaying in hammocks, or lounging in deck chairs on the soft, pristine sand.
It’s an almost surreal experience living right on the beach like this…a literal paradise right outside your door. Your days are filled with sun and sand. The ocean is a constant presence. You fall asleep to the sound of lapping waves and awake to them every morning.
It’s like being inside a postcard. Stress melts away.
When I was back in the States, I dreamed of this lifestyle—a modern home with the beach on my doorstep. But honestly, I don’t think I ever really believed it would happen.
During the heady days of my career, I lived all over America, born and raised in Queens, New York I then moved on to Phoenix and Los Angeles, before working in account management roles in Atlanta for three decades.
I’d seen what true beachfront costs. Millions of dollars.
It seemed unattainable for a middle-class guy like me…someone who’d raised four kids and now has five grandkids.
Truth is, I’d probably still be in the States if it wasn’t for COVID. But when the pandemic struck, it pushed my wife and I to follow our dream. We started looking for a place where we could live by the ocean. It didn’t take us long to decide on a move to tropical Panama.
For two years we lived in the coastal retirement community of Coronado. It was warm and beautiful, with a nice black and white sand beach. Then we heard talk of a master-planned gated community on the most stunning stretch of white-sand beach, located 30 minutes away from Coronado. A bold project by a visionary developer.
We had to check it out…
This was Playa Caracol. And it was everything we’d dreamed of. Modern resort-style communities right up on the beach. Next-level amenities like basketball courts and swimming pools and pickleball courts, all seconds from the ocean. After a few visits, we were determined to move there.
We looked at buying, but somehow lucked into the most incredible rental arrangement. We got the chance to rent a two-bed, two-bath patio condo for $1,100 per month. I still don’t know how we got this price. I’ve seen similar condos listed in the $1,500 to $1,800 per month range. Sometimes even more.
The condos here are exceptionally well built and well-appointed, with excellent finishings and all mod-cons like big TVs and top-of-the-line air conditioning. Our spacious, covered patio became a favorite hangout spot for friends.
Moving to Playa Caracol was transformational…in unexpected ways. When you live on a beach as striking as this, it has an unerring attraction. You can’t help but build your days around it. Time must be carved out for laying in a hammock…for laying by the pool, cocktail in hand…for strolling barefoot on the sand…
The environment simply demands it. And then there’s all the community activities and nearby attractions.
In Playa Caracol, your days become busy—not with things you have to do, but things you want to do. This is the way life is supposed to be lived.
I’d often start my day on the pickleball courts, sometimes as early as 6 a.m.—a daily dose of exercise amid the warm Pacific breeze. Then, after completing my calls and emails to RETA members as part of my role as a RETA concierge, my wife and I would relax on our patio, before going for a dip in the pool…located just 30 seconds from our door.
In the afternoons, my wife would head to the beach to walk the sands and swim in the ocean. My routine was to take a ride on my e-bike along the community’s excellent private roads.
Sometimes I’d take the 30- to 40-minute bike ride up to Punta Chame—a charming little beach community with restaurants and bars located on a stunning peninsula northeast of Playa Caracol where you can also go kite surfing. Or if I was feeling a tad lazy, I might head to Vento—the outstanding beach club within Playa Caracol, just a five-minute walk from my door.
Vento is an excellent place to have breakfast, lunch, or dinner as well as play pool, foosball or even ping pong. I must say that I think they serve the best pizza in Panama (which has gone some way to negating the health benefits of my frequent bike rides and pickleball games).
This community is developing so fast… It feels like every month, something new opens. Or new plans are unveiled. Or new infrastructure is developed.
If you’d explained Playa Caracol to me a few years ago, I’m not sure I would have believed all this was possible. Frankly, for most developers, it wouldn’t have been. But Alfredo Aleman is no ordinary developer… He’s one of the best in the entire region. Someone who’s built two ultra-luxe manmade islands off the center of downtown Panama City.
Now, Alfredo’s shaping Playa Caracol into a major, internationally recognized beach community.
Alfredo is remarkably friendly and approachable. When he visits Playa Caracol, he often takes time to talk to residents. I’ve had conversations with him about things like the orientation and covering for the pickleball courts…and I could tell he was really listening. He’s got an uncommon ability to consider both the big vision and the small details.
Talk among residents is that Playa Caracol is going to be Panama’s Playa del Carmen.
That’s a reference to the destination in Caribbean Mexico that went from fishing village to thriving beach city in record time. I would have said that’s impossible…until I lived here. Now I can see it.
Of course, that’s still some years away. But I’ve watched the trajectory of this community. I’m a believer.
I’ve tried to describe what it’s like to live on a true beachfront to friends and family back home. I worry they think I’m embellishing.
After all, life in Playa Caracol sounds impossibly idyllic…
Days filled with dips in the pool and swims in the ocean…strolls on the sand and naps in the hammock…games of pickleball, paddleball, basketball, or volleyball followed by those occasional barbecue competitions that the community organizes with live music, the kind that turn into all-night parties…
A true beachfront lifestyle, just an hour or so from the thriving metropolis of Panama City. And it doesn’t cost millions.
Ronan says: The Panamanian government is pouring billions of dollars into infrastructure projects along Panama’s Pacific Riviera—a new eight-lane highway, bridges, a metro…all connecting booming Panama City to the beach areas west.
Right now, it takes between just 60 and 90 minutes to get from Playa Caracol to the city. It’s without doubt the closest, nicest beach and it’s being discovered now that developer Alfredo Aleman and his GLP group are into the next phase of development (the market-making Surfside hotel is open and just down the beach Panama’s first-ever Margaritaville is under construction).
As I said above, when I first visited Playa Caracol it was literally a virgin beach…and not at all easy to get to. Today Playa Caracol is an incredible luxury beachfront community (if you missed my report about the Pacific Riviera and the development of Playa Caracol, you can catch up here). The transformation from wild, hard-to-reach beach to unique luxury community has been astonishing.

Just look at those white sands… little surprise Playa Caracol is emerging as the standout beach destination in Panama.
Despite the massive scale of development at Playa Caracol, there’s still time to get in here on the “ground floor.”
As word gets out about this outstanding community, the international and wealthy folks in Panama City will arrive. But there’s still opportunity to buy ahead of them.
Next week, members of my Real Estate Trend Alert group will have the chance to own luxury ocean-view homes here, just steps from the beach. At a killer RETA-only price. And I expect gains of $310,000 five years after delivery.
As I say, you’ll get my full briefing on this opportunity tomorrow…
I showed you this image earlier in the week, but I want to share it again. This is a developer’s render of one of the homes in this upcoming exclusive, RETA-only deal.
Although renders shouldn’t be considered final, I’m sharing this to give you an idea of the stunning ocean-views these homes will have, just seconds from the sand….

This is beach living at its finest. My upcoming RETA deal is an opportunity to own spacious homes on the nicest beach close to Panama City and I expect gains of $310,000 five years after delivery.
This is an incredible opportunity to own a true beachfront home on a stunning tropical beach in Panama…one of the world’s safest and most dynamic havens.
Keep an eye on your inbox…I’ll be sending more details about this exclusive RETA deal tomorrow.
Your Daily Dream Home
Sassari, Sardegna, Italy
This charming five-bedroom house has 1,722 square foot of living space and is located just steps from a hilltop village and 20 minutes from northern Sardinia’s best beaches. The house has a kitchen, bathroom, storage room, and garage, and sits on a 21,500 square feet lot.
The home is in Sassari, the second-largest city in Sardinia, which offers a blend of history, culture, and natural beauty. Located in the northwestern part of the island, it’s surrounded by rolling hills and is just a short drive from pristine Mediterranean beaches.
Sassari’s architecture reflects its rich history, with notable examples including the Piazza d’Italia, a grand 19th-century square, and the Gothic-Catalan style Cathedral of San Nicola.
Sassari serves as a gateway to the nearby Asinara National Park, an island known for its unique albino donkeys and stunning beaches.