Shore Excursions--Panama Canal sailing on 2/26

[palex]

Hello,

Im searching for shore excursions in Panama canal/city and Costa Rica.

We are sailing on 2/26 for 10 days down to Panama Canal with sop in Costa Rica.

Thanks in advance.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Have you ever seen how the locks work?

If not, you might interested in taking the boat ride from Gatun Lake to the Pacific side. There is also the train ride to the other side, get on a bus, short ride on the outskirts of Panama, a stop at the Miraflores Locks and then a bus ride back to Colon to meet up with the ship.

Puerto Limon, Costa Rica -- Tortuguero Canal -- nice boat ride -- saw lots of birds and animals. Also another good one is the Caribbean train, eco cruise and countryside -- saw lots of farms, animals, etc. This includes a short version of the Tortuguero Canal.

We are not into zip lining and things of that nature.

[palex]

Have you ever seen how the locks work?

 

If not, you might interested in taking the boat ride from Gatun Lake to the Pacific side. There is also the train ride to the other side, get on a bus, short ride on the outskirts of Panama, a stop at the Miraflores Locks and then a bus ride back to Colon to meet up with the ship.

 

Puerto Limon, Costa Rica -- Tortuguero Canal -- nice boat ride -- saw lots of birds and animals. Also another good one is the Caribbean train, eco cruise and countryside -- saw lots of farms, animals, etc. This includes a short version of the Tortuguero Canal.

 

We are not into zip lining and things of that nature.

 

Thanks!! Definitely need to see locks. However, I read some comments and its very long and with high temp. not very pleasant trip.I assume all above offered by cruise line or we can do on our own?

[BillB48]

Looks like you are on a partial transit cruise, if that is the case you will only be able to take a ship's excursion at the Gatun Lake stop for the Canal. You can see the locks in your passage through Gatun Locks, you can visit them as well and you can visit the Miraflores Locks on the Pacific side... all depends which tour you select. There is also an excursion that is a partial transit of the Pacific Locks and Gaillard Cut that when combined with your morning passage through Gatun Locks affords you the opportunity to see a great deal of the Canal.

[HELENPSL]

Just did this cruise in January. In Panama we took the ships tour to the Embera Native village. It was fabulous. A few points - if you are traveling with children this is not the right excursion. The women in the native village are all topless so this may not be appropriate for a young child. The other item is this is not the tour if you have any mobility issues. You have to balance getting into a dug out canoe but if you can do it then the excursion is fascinating.

 

In Costa Rica we also did an excursion thru the ship to the Tayutic Hacienda. It was very interesting and the area where we went was just stunning. It's a long day but well worth it.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Helen

[pbnjrockette]

We were on the Partial transit and took the HAL excursion to Panama City (Old & New). It could have been a good tour if we'd had a better guide---he basically rushed us through things. The bus ride is long to get to Panama City and there was no break for bathrooms until we were well into the walking tour. I wrote it up to HAL in hopes that they will accommodate future travelers.

 

In Costa Rica we took a fabulous tour with YourLuckyTours (they have several options, including one with zip lining if interested).

[Susie51]

Thank you for your info. From your responses, I think I will choose full transit.

[palex]

Thanks everyone for valuable feedback.

After reading review about Panama canal shore excursions, we decided not purchse any and see if we can find tour there. None of offered by HAL trips have positive reviews. Most of folks complained about how long trip was, how unorganized or waste of time or not worst it at all.

We only purchase trip for Costa Rica.

[RAYSAN11]

The Ship goes to Gatun Lake where it anchors for a while. the only passengers that can get off the ship there are the persons booked with HAL excursions. The only thing there is a dock where the tenders go for passengers to get on their excursion buses. So it is a HAL excursion or nothing. The ship normally gets back to Colon about 3:00 pm

[palex]

Thanks for heads up. However, we cant seems like pick one that short enough and not spending whole day and same time give us valuable experience about PC.

Edited February 23, 2016 by palex