Seahorse Point Nature Reserve
Visit Seahorse Point
Bastimentos Island, Bocas del Toro, Panama
Sloths • Tree net • Jungle walks • Kayaks • Café • Workshops
Walk the mangrove, climb the tree net and look for sloths at a working nature reserve and botanic garden.
Where
Bahía Honda, Isla Bastimentos, Bocas del Toro. 15 to 20 minutes by boat from Bocas Town.
Opening times
Fridays and Saturdays for booked visitors. Thursdays and Sundays by appointment. Tours run from 10am to 3pm. The Seagrass Café closes at 4pm, unless there is a special event.
Contact us
WhatsApp +507 6741 7104 (opens in a new tab)
nature@seahorsepoint.org
Why visit
A day in a rainforest and mangrove reserve
Spend the day on Bahía Honda. Climb into a tree net high in the forest canopy, walk six kilometres of jungle paths and look for sloths from the mangrove boardwalk. Explore a botanic garden of over 200 named plants and finish with coffee at the Seagrass Café.
Wet or dry, there is plenty to do. Seahorse Point is a wet-weather location, and most of our activities run in the rain.
Seahorse Point is a working nature reserve and botanic garden, not just a tourist attraction. We are a profit for purpose business, and we support local educational and environmental projects.
We keep our groups small. Someone who knows the reserve will be with you, or you can explore on your own with our pre-prepared tour pack.
See Seahorse Point
Day visits and tours
Choose your visit
Pick a visit and book your date online. It helps us greatly if you book in advance.
Visit the Seagrass Café
No day pass needed. The café offers coffee, teas, coconut ice cream and home baking, and is licensed for alcoholic beverages. It closes at 4pm.
Self-guided day pass
10am to 3pm. Includes the trails, the mangrove boardwalk, the tree net, Casa de Liana (our library and information centre), the Forest of Flavours, a guided introduction on arrival and coffee at the Seagrass Café. Minimum two people.
Full guided tour
About two hours with a guide, then the rest of the day to explore. The guided part takes in plankton under the microscope with Dr Howard Dryden, the mangrove and sloth walk with a local Ngäbe, Casa de Liana and the Forest of Flavours. Minimum two people.
Also on offer: a coral and clay workshop, a wine and chocolate pairing, an Outdoor Kitchen session on Sundays to make traditional Panamanian tamales, and kayaks and an electric boat tour.
Visiting on a panga boat tour or with a group? You can add a stop of about 30 minutes on our mangrove boardwalk. Tour companies book ahead on WhatsApp, and you can also book on the Visits page.
On the reserve
What you will see and do
Raccoons and iguanas are frequent company on the forest vines. A harmless nurse shark gently swims by our dock, and bottlenose dolphins and cow rays are also frequent visitors.
Sloths and the mangrove boardwalk
Included with the day pass and the full guided tour
Walk our 200 ft boardwalk through the mangrove and look for sloths from the inside, rather than from a boat. Our team checks on the resident sloths and their favourite trees each morning.
The tree net
Included with the day pass and the full guided tour
More than 60 feet up in the forest canopy, with two further levels. Up to six people at a time. There is no age limit, and children under 12 must be with an adult.
The Forest of Flavours
Included with the day pass and the full guided tour
Our botanic garden, with over 200 documented plants growing between rainforest and mangrove. Meet the shampoo ginger, which grows its own shampoo.
Plankton under the microscope
Included with the full guided tour
Collect plankton from the bay and look at it under the microscope with our marine biologist, Dr Howard Dryden.
Leafcutter clay coral workshop
Minimum four people
Work with clay made from soil dug out by leafcutter ants, and shape your own platform to leave behind for the ocean or take home as a keepsake. Two hours.
On the water
Kayak bookings include entry to the reserve. The electric boat is booked with a day pass.
Paddle the mangroves and the seagrass meadow of Bahía Honda in a kayak, or glide up a river under a mangrove canopy in our quiet electric boat.
Before you come
Plan your visit
- When
- Fridays and Saturdays for booked visitors. Thursdays and Sundays by appointment. Tours run from 10am to 3pm. The Seagrass Café closes at 4pm, unless there is a special event.
- Getting here
- The boat journey from Bocas Town takes 15 to 20 minutes, and boats land at our Panga Dock. You can arrange your own taxi boat, or book ours, which takes the scenic route inside Solarte, past the mangrove islands and through the cut. Please confirm your arrival time with us on WhatsApp before you travel.
- How to book
- Choose an experience, then the number of guests and a date, and pay by credit card. Some experiences only run when a minimum number of guests has booked. For those we hold your card and take payment only when the minimum is reached, and if it is not reached you pay nothing. Experiences with no minimum are charged straight away. On site we accept cash only. New dates open about a week ahead. Planning further ahead? Message us on WhatsApp.
Bocas Town and Seahorse Point. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Good to know
- Rain: most of what we offer runs in the rain, so we do not cancel for wet weather. Paths can be slippery, so wear shoes with good grip. Kayaking is not permitted if it is windy or visibility is poor, and boat trips also depend on the weather. We will tell you if the plan has to change.
- Children: the gentle paths suit all ages. There is no age limit on the tree net, and children under 12 must be with an adult.
- Bring: a refillable water bottle, sun protection, insect repellent and shoes you can walk in. We refill bottles with filtered water.
- Phone: there is no mobile phone reception at our location, but the main area by the café has wifi.
Who we are
A voyage that became a mission
Seahorse Point is the vision of Dr Howard Dryden and Diane Duncan. Howard is a marine biologist who built one of the world’s most effective water-filtration technologies. Diane is a scientist and specialist in economic development for remote islands and rural communities.
For more than six years they sailed the mid-Atlantic aboard their research vessel Copepod, gathering data on plankton, microplastics and black carbon, and taking what they learned as far as the COP26 climate summit.
After an Atlantic crossing with almost no marine life in sight, they ran aground on a sandbank in Bahía Honda, and a quick snorkel revealed healthy, beautiful coral reefs. That evening they walked the trails of a small boutique hotel that happened to be for sale. Seahorse Point Nature Reserve was born.
The name comes from the local long-snout seahorse, a poor swimmer that shelters in the mangroves and hunts in the seagrass. Where seahorses thrive, the ocean is well.
Stay with us
Stay a night or three
We host small stays of one to three nights for individuals, couples, families and groups. Stays run on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Hotel guests have a personal chef and a team that plans their visit around them. You can stay in one of our rooms, or take the whole reserve for your own party.
We have four queen bedrooms and one twin bedroom, all with ensuite and views over the bay towards Isla Colón. Rooms are all-inclusive and booked per person. Your stay includes all meals, full access to the property, organised events and all of our tours.
On the reserve:
- Swimming pool
- The tree net in the forest canopy
- Kayaks and a sailing dinghy
- Electric boat for river trips
- Ceramic and clay studio
- Forest walks and tropical garden
- Casa de Liana, our library
- The Seagrass Café and Heliconia Lounge
- North Dock Casita for sunset dining
- Guided nature and marine experiences
The swimming pool and the Heliconia Lounge are for staying guests only.
Beyond a visit
Groups, events and research
We can host small conferences and seminars of up to 50 people for business and government organisations. You can rent Seahorse Point for weddings and special events. Every group booking is fully hosted and private.
Seahorse Point is also a setting for:
- leadership retreats and board meetings away from the office
- research collaborations and field programmes with academic and conservation partners
- location work for film, media and photography
Our 10-acre site is next to the 33,000-acre Bastimentos Island National Marine Park, in the Bocas del Toro archipelago, a Mission Blue Hope Spot. From here, students and researchers can reach coral reefs, seagrass meadows and mangrove forests right away.
Ready to visit?
Book online, or message us on WhatsApp at +507 6741 7104.
You can also email us at nature@seahorsepoint.org.