Our top #1 package. This tour package is designed for those who have a busy schedule and want to have an experience well worth great Panama Canal cruise during the weekend! And tell your friends of this unique short vacation.
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Day 1 – Visit Panama City
On your visit to The Panama City, you will be met by an Inside Panama Tours representative and transferred to your hotel in Panama City.
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Day 2 – Panama Canal Excursions (B, L)
Today our adventure will start at 09:00 AM
With a Full Day Tour. We’ll start our tour visiting the ruins of “Panama La Vieja” as the natives call it, it was the first city built on the shore of Panama in 1519 by Pedro Arias Davila, a Spanish Governor, and then destroyed in 1671 by the greed of pirate Henry Morgan who set it on fire. Then we’ll head about 8 kilometers and reach the Casco Antiguo and enjoy walking along alleys and colonial buildings, ruins, and streets of stone, and museums and antique churches, where three styles of construction are combined: Spanish, French, and Italian.
A stop at the folk art market at the old YMCA building will be our following stop, just before having lunch at a Panamanian restaurant. After lunch, we’ll reach our final destination of the day, The Miraflores Visitor Center, where visitors have the opportunity to observe transiting vessels from a distance of only a few meters and learn firsthand about the various operations of the Panama Canal cruise the history of its construction, its participation in the world markets, and the importance of its watershed.
Back to our Hotel.
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Day 3 – Panama Canal Cruise (B, L)
Tour description (4 –5 hrs):
Our tour starts at the Flamenco Resort and Marina at 9:30 a.m. Passengers board motor coaches for a 45-minute ride to the town of Gamboa where the Panama Canal Dredging Division is located. Once in Gamboa, passengers board the Pacific Queen to start the water portion of the tour. We enter the canal excursion at the north end of the Gaillard Cut, where the Chagres River flows into the canal. The Gaillard Cut (also known as Culebra Cut because its curves resemble a snake) is one of the main points of interest for visitors because it was carved through the Continental Divide and this section of the Canal is full of history and geological value. The Pacific Queen will travel the Cut & 13.7 kilometers on the way to Pedro Miguel Locks. As you transit the Cut you will be able to appreciate the continuous maintenance that this area requires, because it is very susceptible to landslides.
Before reaching the Pedro Miguel Locks at the southern end of the Cut, you will be able to view the new Centennial Bridge, which crosses over the Canal. Next, the Pacific Queen will enter Pedro Miguel Locks, which is one of the two sets of locks on the Pacific side, and here the vessel is lowered 9 meters in one step. You will then enter Miraflores Lake, which is a small artificial body of fresh water that separates Pedro Miguel from Miraflores Locks, the latter being the final set of locks before reaching the Pacific Ocean. At Miraflores Locks Panama Canal, the vessel is lowered 18 meters in two distinct steps.
Once in the Pacific Ocean, the vessel will sail to the beautiful Flamenco Marina where passengers disembark. On the way to Flamenco, you will pass under The Bridge of the Americas, and later, you will be able to admire the Bay of Panama and Panama City’s splendorous skyline.
Back to our Hotel.
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Day 4 – Departure (B)
Transfer to Tocumen International Airport
Included: all lodging, meals as specified on the itinerary (B= breakfast, L= lunch), private transportation on a/c minivan, tour guides; entrance fees where needed & taxes.
Not included: International airfare, departure taxes ($40 per person), meals not specified in the itinerary, alcoholic beverages, tips, extras in hotels (laundry, telephone calls, room service, etc.)
