The Panama Survival Expedition

By Tom Williams, winner of Channel 4’s Alone

A private 560-acre island, 60 miles from Panama City. Learn, survive, celebrate.

From:

£3,600

Duration:

11 days

Date:

2026 & 2027

Max People:

122

Min Age:

18+

★★★★★ 4.9 on Google · 1,000+ adventurers

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Only £490 deposit

the Adventure

11 days. 8 of them living wild on a private 560-acre island: 5 days of hands-on training, then 3 days of true survival.

Our adventures follow a simple arc: Learn → Survive → Celebrate.

Learn · Days 1-6

Day one is a poolside briefing and a proper dinner with the people you’ll spend the next ten days with. The next morning, a boat to your own castaway island, where jungle meets white sand. Five days training in survival bushcraft with world-class instructors: fire by friction, fishing, shelter-building, navigation and cooking with your tribe. Nights are for hammocks strung between palms, and marshmallows over the fire.

Survive · Days 7-9

Then comes the challenge: three raw days with only a handful of tools and your new tribe. Build shelter, purify water, catch food, and face the wild together. It’s tough. But when you grill your own fish as the Pacific sun dips below the horizon, you’ll know you’ve never felt more alive.

Celebrate · Days 10-11

Return to civilisation with resilience, stories and friends for life. A survival feast, a last night of hotel comfort and one of the best showers of your life, and a farewell celebration.

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Key Facts

Location

Private 560-acre island in Panama’s Pearl Islands. Only 60 miles from Panama City, no domestic transfers.

Length

11 days / 10 nights. Hands-on but manageable.

Group Size

8-12 people. Small enough to connect, big enough for team energy.

Difficulty

Tough but achievable. If you can swim and walk, you’re ready. No experience needed.

What You’ll Actually Do

Swim through glowing plankton after dark.

Watch turtles nesting on untouched beaches.

Cook dinner over a fire you made yourself.

Sleep in hammocks under the stars.

Explore a rainforest alive with exotic birdlife.

…and you’ll do all of it with world-class instructors, several of them Alone veterans. Meet the team →

The Day-by-Day

Day 1: Panama City. We meet at the hotel for your expedition briefing and a relaxed dinner with your new tribe. An early night before the wild.
Day 2: Speedboat to the Pearl Islands. A 90-minute run from the harbour to your private 560-acre island. Orientate, set hammocks, build your shelter, cook over the fire as the Pacific sun drops.
Day 3: Friction fire and first catch. The oldest skill there is, learned the hard way in the morning; fishing the shoreline for supper in the afternoon.
Day 4: Foraging the ocean’s larder. Open a coconut, twist up a handline, catch, prepare and cook your own fish, and try a hand spear. We crack fresh green coconuts straight from the palms.
Day 5: Slowing to island time. Off the grid, the outside world goes quiet. Tonight the tribe cooks together and marshmallows go on the fire.
Day 6: Readying for the 72-hour phase. Gathering resources and a straight talk about the mindset survival really takes. Tomorrow you’re on your own.
Day 7: The survival phase begins. Instructors to the far side of the island, a handful of tools, and a tribe that has to make it work. Shelter, water, fire, food, in that order.
Days 8-9: Three raw days. The Pacific provides if you’ve learned to read it, and after dark the bioluminescent plankton lights the water.
Day 10: Rescue. Nothing looks better than the boats. Breakfast and a long shower at the hotel, then a celebration that night.
Day 11: Departure. Back at the Panama City harbour around noon, 60 miles and a world away from where you started.

This is the shape of the expedition, not a fixed timetable. The exact training days flex with the weather and conditions, that’s part of the adventure.

Is This For You? Is It Safe?

NO EXPERIENCE NEEDED.
The first five days are survival-light, building your skills and confidence before the real test. It is a genuine challenge, and that is exactly the point: most people call it a reset like nothing else.

YOUR SAFETY COMES FIRST.
Sites are handpicked to avoid real hazards, every instructor is wilderness-first-aid certified, we run on a system of informed consent, and you stay in contact with the team throughout.

CHANGED YOUR MIND?
A 7-day cool-off with a full refund, flexible rescheduling up to 90 days before departure, and our safety promise.

What’s Included

1 uninhabited private island
5 days of survival training by a world-class bushcraft guide
General kit (hammocks, camping gear, machetes, etc.)
3-day survival challenge
1 night in Panama City (twin, shared)
1 night in a boutique island hotel (twin, shared)
All food and drinks (limited alcohol)
All transfers

What’s Not Included

International flights
Airport transfers
Visas, if required
Personal travel insurance
Personal kit. You can check out the general kit list here, however, we will be sending you a more detailed version after booking.
Personal expenses

More Info

Genuine adventure that disconnects you from the world and combines bushcraft, fun and a survival challenge. You arrive in Panama City, meet your tribe over dinner in the old town and cover the briefing. The next day, a 90-minute speedboat to an uninhabited island, your home. Five nights of survival-light training, then the 72-hour survival phase with the instructors on the other side of the island. After 3 days you’re rescued to what now feels like a 10★ hotel for the best shower of your life and a survival feast.

Join us where unbroken jungle meets untouched white sand beaches. This wild expansive 560-acre island in the Pacific Ocean, forming part of the Pearl Island archipelago, boasts 23 beaches and home to nesting turtles, phosphorescent plankton and 44 different bird species.

The Pearl Islands is the perfect location for castaway holiday destination, characterised by untouched white sand bays and beaches fringed with coconut trees and dense primary jungle. Yet this true isolated wilderness sits an astonishing 60 miles from the international hub of Panama City making connections a breeze.

At any time of year, you might witness turtles nesting on our beach. These include olive ridley, green, and occasionally leatherback turtles, adding to the unique Panama survival experience. We also see the bright purple and orange Halloween moon crabs.

SHELTER

Hammock and tarp setup and care
Shelter building
Palm thatching
Machete and knife safety, sharpening and skills

Fire

Fire theory
Friction fire skills (bow drill and hand drill)

Water

Transpiration bags
Solar still
Evaporation techniques
Boiling water in bottles over fire

FOOD

Fishing with hand line
Coconut opening & cream extraction
Tree climbing
Hawaiian sling (hand spear)
Primitive cooking and fish preparation
Trap building
Wild edible identification

OTHER

Psychology discussion and case studies
Astro-navigation

You will need to travel to Panama City, Panama, Tocumen PTY (not to be confused with Panama city in Florida). You should arrive latest the same day your expedition starts. We will meet on the expedition start date at 5pm (if your arrive very late this day that is ok just let us know). For your return flight please make sure you are looking at flights on the last expedition day after 3pm.

We recommend you download Hopper’ for your phone and enter your dates. They will tell you when the best time to book your flights is before the price creeps up, typically 90 days prior is optimum.

We also love using flight connection maps for finding your best route from where you live.

Google flights is our favourite flight search engines, however, we always recommend booking directly with the airline once you have found your flights as you will have a preferential cancellation policy and better upgrade potential.

Check out our Panama Travel Guide for more information about the destination or check out our blog for Panama related articles.

Panama Travel Guide

Panama Blog Posts

Read our Reviews

“I’m not sure where to start, this was one of the best trips I’ve ever done. I learnt invaluable skills, reconnected to nature, reassessed whats really important to me, and made some new friends along the way…”
Thomas Nicholls
“There are experiences that are memorable and there are experiences that are life altering, Desert Island Survival was certainly the latter for me and it happened in the exact right moment in life when I desperately needed to reset, heal and regroup….”
Oleg Ravnushkin
“Amazing! ☀️ This trip was incredible, and I am so glad I did it! I would 100% recommended this company, they are great. They offer consistent communication and support from booking to preparing for your trip, and look after you well during it…”
Ciara Rooney

All upcoming departures

7-Day Cool Off

Flexibility

Safety

FAQs

It starts and ends in Panama City, Panama. We meet at the hotel no later than 5pm; book your return flight for the final day after 3pm.

Our expeditions in Panama are typically led by the insanely talented Tom McElroy. We feel very fortunate to have these immensely talented and special humans teaching. They aren’t just amongst the world’s most talented bushcraft instructors; they are also some of the coolest people you’ll ever meet. You can check out their bios on our about page here.

When it comes to bushcraft survival, less is more. It is all about learning to improvise using your surroundings from making rope from the bark of a hibiscus tree to a trap out of a water bottle. However, we do encourage you to bring a basic kit list of appropriate clothes, a knife, headtorch, and water bottle. We bring the rest of the kit from your hammock to your machete.

Our island expeditions are typically 11 days long. The first and last day are spent at a boutique hotel, and the 8 days sandwiched between on the desert island. The first 5 nights on the island are your bushcraft course. This is survival light, where you learn all the skills to equip you for the final 3-day survival phase. For these 5 nights, you are sleeping in a hammock, eating very well, playing all sorts of games, and passing around a bottle of rum around the fire. The final 3 days after this are your survival phase, the true test of your mettle before you are rescued and head to what now feels like a 10-star hotel.

When it comes to deserted islands, we don’t mess around with safety. We carefully handpick islands that won’t try to eat you or drag you away with strong ocean currents. Plus, we make sure to give you a full safety briefing so you know what to do if you accidentally step on a crab or get a sunburn. Our instructors are wilderness first aid certified, so you’re in good hands. And while we can’t promise to keep you completely out of harm’s way, we’ll make sure you’re aware of any risks with our system of informed consent. Check out this page for more info on the exciting dangers you might face on our expeditions.

You’ll learn the following bushcraft skills:

Fire making: Bow drill, hand drill, bamboo fire saw as well as fire steel.
Making Coconut bowls and utensils.
Traps and hunting.
Jungle sanitation and hygiene.
How to make cordage from natural fibres.
Coconuts: opening, making coconut cream and various uses.
Primitive spearfishing
Palm weaving.
Knot tying.
Shelter: building techniques.
Water: physiology, collection and purification.
Identification of flora and fauna for food, fire and other utilities.
Fishing techniques: Making and using traps, spears.
Fish identification, preparing and cooking fish.
Traditional cooking methods: Bamboo pot, leaf wraps, clay bakes and smoking racks.
Rescue: Techniques for gaining attention.

On the first night, we’ll venture out from the hotel for a tasty meal. The following morning, we’ll indulge in a cooked breakfast at the hotel before making our way to the island where we’ll set up camp and cook our meals over an open fire on the beach.

For the next five days, we’ll pamper you with breakfast, lunch, and dinner, ranging from flavorful Thai fish curries to pasta dishes infused with red wine and chorizo. We’ll also teach you how to wrap and prepare fish using natural leaves and cordage to cook directly on the coals.

After five days of indulging in scrumptious food while learning, it’s time for you to put your newly acquired skills to the test and survive on your own findings and catches. Upon rescue, we’ll kick off your return with a brunch that’s sure to satisfy any cravings. Later that evening, we’ll take you to a charming Italian restaurant on Contadora Island, known for its unbeatable pizzas that are out of this world. Trust us; you won’t be disappointed.

Vegetarian or other dietary requirements? Don’t worry we will adapt the menu for you.

All hotel accommodation is on shared basis. Single room supplement is available and can be requested on the booking form. However, this is subject to availability.

The first night we meet at the Hotel Riande Urban in Panama City. The hotel is located in the heart of Panama City and offers modern amenities, a stylish ambiance and a tropical garden pool, making it a perfect starting point for our adventure.

During the training phase you will sleep in an expedition Hennessy Hammock with built in mosquito nets. You will learn how to build your own sleeping space in the wild for your survival phase.

The last night we stay at the Mar y Oro, a luxurious hotel located on the beautiful island of Contadora in Panama. It offers stunning views of the Pacific Ocean and lush greenery surroundings.

Not ready to commit to 11 days? Start with the free 72hr Challenge, the smallest version of the idea.

Try the 72hr Challenge (free)

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