Panama Canal/Costa Rica cruise: getting there & away, and where to stay Panama City?

Hi

Can someone who has done this sailing please tell me the best way to get from Panama City to Colon, and at the other end from Puerto Caldera to San Jose airport.

(Including how long it takes, and cost).

Is this something I can organise via Windstar or do I have to do it independently?

On the way back, I see it says the ship gets in at 6am...would I be safe catching a flight from San Jose at approx 11.30am, or the next one after that which is approx 1.30pm?

We would have one night on arrival in Panama City - any recommendation of a hotel to stay at? We'd only arrive in to the airport about 10pm so would it make sense just to stay right there and go on from there in the morning? I don't think we'll have any time to actually see the city itself?

Many thanks in advance for your help

We've done this cruise twice. You can arrange the transportation from Panama City to Colon and Puerto Caldera to San Jose via Windstar or independently. Both times we used Windstar. If you elect to use Windstar then it is easiest to book into the hotel that Windstar uses in Panama City as that is where the bus to Colon will leave from. Not sue about what the earliest is you can book a flight from San Jose. The bus ride from Puerto Caldera to San Jose isn't that long - 1 1/2 hours if I remember correctly. It is only about 45 to 50 miles. Probably best to check with Windstar on that.

We used private cars for both when we did the trip in February - was not very expensive and easy to arrange. By doing it ourselves, we got to the ship earlier than the Windstar arranged transfer and boarding was less crowded (not that it was very crowded for the Windstar transfer bus either).

We sailed on Wind Star through the Panama Canal a few years back. It was a glorious sailing!! Being on WS going through the canal was so amazing; we constantly went from one end of the ship to the other throughout the crossing. You will love it!

We flew in several days early to Panama City and stayed at Las Clementinas prior to our cruise. We loved exploring the old part of Panama City. When it was time to travel to Colon we asked the folks there to help us arrange a car and driver to take the four of us to Colon. They found us the most wonderful guide who had worked for the US government and the canal and provided insight and history throughout our drive. Unfortunately I can't locate his information but I would ask where you are staying if they have someone to recommend. If not, call Las Clementinas and ask them.

When we were done with the cruise, there were taxi cabs waiting as we disembarked and we just grabbed one of those to take us to the airport. I want to say it took about 2 hours. There was a lot of traffic going the other direction and we were glad we weren't going that way!

The Panama Canal was on my bucket list and traveling on Wind Star made it extra special!! Enjoy!

Try Marcbossa@hotmail.com. We arranged for home to,pick us up at our hotel and drive us around for a few hour tour. He took us to a great place to buy wine showed us the city and drove us to the port for a ridiculously low price. Much better than Windstar. Try emailing him. At the other end we rented a car to be delivered to us from the Vamos 4x4 / Poas car rental. The fee was very inexpensive to have it delivered. We have used them many times they are great. We have used them twice to deliver a car to us at the port after getting off a Windstar ship. Good luck have fun it's great