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When you check out the Panama Canal on your cruise, watch giant cargo ships rise and fall as the Canal opens and closes from the observation deck. You can book a boat tour to experience the canal up close and personal, and many tours include multiple stops in Colón beyond the Panama Canal to deepen your knowledge of the area. Colón is home to one of the largest duty-free shopping areas in the world called Zona Libre, so shoppers might need a second suitcase to take home all their local goods. Colón is a resilient city, building and rebuilding after fires, occupations, and economic recessions.
Embera tribe villagePrice: $
Beyond the Transit: Top 10 Experiences During a Panama Canal - Cruise Critic
Beyond the Transit: Top 10 Experiences During a Panama Canal.
Posted: Thu, 10 Oct 2019 07:00:00 GMT [source]
The two locations are about three miles apart and take 10 minutes to reach by regulated taxis. Colón is the provincial capital, and the province has Central America’s largest port system.
Best Time to Visit
They invested USD 15 million to develop the project for modern Colon cruise port piers and terminals. It has the greatest efficiency among all Central America’s seaports. Cruise visitors to Colon also can go to Panama City on a much quicker shore excursion than early settlers.
Shore Excursions
It is one of the few Caribbean ports without any guided city shore excursions at this time. Most cruise visitors opt for the shore excursions that take them outside of the city. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Portobelo boasts sea views and ruins from its former life as a Spanish colonial town.
Colon 2000 Cruise Terminal
There are also plenty of opportunities for bird watching, fishing, and other outdoor activities. The nearby Gatun Lake is a great spot for swimming and kayaking. Colon, Panama is home to a number of historical sites, including the ruins of the old Spanish fort, the San Lorenzo National Park, and the Gatun Locks. Cruise passengers can also visit the nearby town of Portobelo, which was once a major trading port for the Spanish Empire. There are also plenty of museums and other attractions that offer insight into the history and culture of the region. Once at the village, the chief welcomes your group, and the Embera people perform a series of traditional dances.
Cruise passengers will board for shore excursions right outside the terminal. If you take an organized tour, your bus will be in the parking area just a few yards from the gangway. The Cristobal Pier is located in Colon, Panama, on the eastern side of the canal. The lake and the locks are only about a 25 minute drive from Colón via taxi or excursion bus.
Another interesting option is for passengers to hop on a train and go to Panama City. Passengers can board the train at the Atlantic Passenger Station in Mount Hope near the Port of Cristobal. Anyone on a tight schedule can visit the locks and return to Colón within a few hours. Other visitors usually combine the locks with other activities including a kayak or canoe tour around Lake Gatún to view the numerous species of wildlife that live there. Colon 2000 is a growing tourism district with restaurants, shops, casinos and duty free shopping mall.
The mall calls itself, “The only tourism and tax-free mall in the Caribbean”, although some other ports with malls beg to differ. The mall has dozens of shops representing some major international brands. The first stop is a bay on the back side of the island, where you can swim or lounge on the boat's nets.
The Colon Free Zone is primarily a commercial park where companies import and export products free of duty. If you are able to make a purchase, your item will be sent to Tocumen International Airport in Panama City to be retrieved when you depart. If you are part of a cruise, this procedure will probably not work well for you. The currency is named after Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa, who discovered the Pacific Ocean in 1513.
A six-hour catamaran tour lets you experience some of what Taboga Island has to offer. The tour departs from the Panama City cruise terminal, where you'll board a large catamaran equipped with everything you'll need for the day. On a 90-minute aerial tram tour, visitors can get a peek at the local wildlife from a unique perspective. Board a gondola for the 2,000-foot-long, 400-foot-high ride above the rainforest canopy, during which you'll feel like you can almost touch the trees. Just eight miles from the center of Colón are the ruins of the Fort of San Lorenzo, where you can look out at an abandoned, rustic village along the Chagres River. Book a tour of the ruins with a local guide, where they often delve into the history of the area, including the fort’s primary goal of protecting trade routes from greedy pirates.
The Colón cruise port is the gateway to the Panama Canal on the Caribbean side and one of the more popular stops on “exotic” western Caribbean cruises. Currently, the four exhibition halls that portray the canal's history, construction, biodiversity and importance are temporarily closed for renovations. The Colón Free Zone is one of the biggest duty-free markets in the world. Head here to find wholesale stores selling everything from clothes to shoes and jewelry during your Colón cruise. If you're heading to Panama City, don't miss out on the shopping there. Shops like Karavan, Beermarkt and Papiro y Yo selling indigenous art, local beer and the ever-popular Panama hats.
It is worth noting that Colón has a reputation for street crime, but government authorities have made a strong effort to make tourists feel secure within the duty-free zone. Make sure to use a registered taxi when traveling outside of the zone and don’t display wallets or jewelry. Colón Panama is a little more than 200 miles east to southeast of Puerto Limon in Costa Rica.
A tour of an Embera tribe village is immersive but also long (generally six to seven hours). About 45 minutes from Panama City lies the lush tropical paradise of the Gamboa Rainforest Reserve, where visitors can book various eco-focused experiences. The reserve is part of Soberania National Park, which encompasses 55,000 acres on the shores of the Panama Canal.
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