In short
Bocas del Toro is an archipelago of nine main islands on the Caribbean coast, near the Costa Rican border. Bocas Town, on Isla Colón, is built on stilts over the water.
The culture is Afro-Caribbean and Creole English-speaking rather than Hispanic: this is a different Panama from the capital and the canal.
What it really costs
Housing costs less than on the Pacific coast of neighbouring Costa Rica, for comparable lagoons. That is what drew a community of long-term residents.
Boats are the only transport between islands and that budget line weighs: every trip is paid for, and water taxis are not cheap when repeated.
What nobody tells you
Power and water cuts are frequent and sometimes long. The internet is decent in Bocas Town and poor elsewhere: working remotely from another island is not reliable.
It rains a great deal, more than the Caribbean average. The driest months are February–March and September–October, not the whole European winter.
The currents and swell on the north coast of Isla Colón — Bluff, Paunch — are powerful and unpatrolled. The sheltered beaches are elsewhere.