Panama Canal Jan 2011 Questions

Hi,

Have booked this transit. :p Does anyone know where the ship docks in Panama City at the end of the voyage? Haven't been there since the early 90's, anyone have any neat info on what to do for 2 days in the city after the trip? Not sure if we want to stay in the city due to the heat, maybe on the outskirts. Any suggestions from people who have done the Barbados to Panama, or similar would be appreciated. The travel books I have found so far seem alittle dated!

Thank you!

Hi Kim, I was on the Tahiti to Panama repostioning this spring and we anchored off of Balboa and were landed in Balboa, which is a small (tiny) dock, mostly for private yachts it looked like, close to Panama City. Not sure if they will do the same this time or not. Seems there was some word that there was not room to dock, but don't recall any details.

I stayed in Radisson downtown, it was fine, and took a city tour one day which I booked at the hotel (included Casca Viejo <old town>, Miraflores Locks, downtown, Balboa <oddly enough> and all the areas in between. The best thing we did, arranged by Walt of the blog fame, was to take an Embara Indian village tour, down river in dugout canoe, etc, great fun and very interesting. You can find links and reviews on various sites, we used Garceth of Natura Tours?? and he was great.

There are small hotels in Balboa, or at least one, right by the dock and several restaurants, and there is an area close by that has guest houses and B&Bs which many passengers used, or you can be in the middle of crazy noisy Panama City, which is maybe 20-30 min from Balboa, and very visable from Balboa as well. I was aiming for the hotel spa and pool, hence the downtown location, but the closer guesthouses were highly spoken of.

I found the downtown Panama hotels to be fairly much the same, look out for construction notes, etc. when checking the sites,, it is a city that seems to be building like crazy. Even on the 3rd floor pool level the freeway noise was very loud (lots of raised freeways through the city). Eveyone was nice, I enjoyed my stay, and barely touched the surface! Enjoy, Gail

Thank you Gail!

Not sure if we want to stay in the city due to the heat, maybe on the outskirts. Any suggestions from people who have done the Barbados to Panama, or similar would be appreciated. The travel books I have found so far seem alittle dated!

Thank you!

Not sure you want to wait this long to book, but in mid-November, I can let you know about the Country Inn and Suites which is the hotel that overlooks the mouth of the canal. We paid extra for a canal view in the hopes of watching ships when we aren't out sightseeing, visiting the Embera Indians or the rainforest, etc.

If anyone has negative feedback about the Country Inn and Suites, break it to me gently! :rolleyes: