Had been planning on a Panama Canal Cruise year after year and never had to change to go. Now, I am seriously thinking of taking a flight to Panama City and spending a week there. I've never been to Panama and I am interested in the Canal (transit the locks and the Visitor's Centre), an Embera Village, and the Old City. Maybe, a visit to Gatun Lake if possible.
As a solo traveler I am finding private day tours too expensive. I don't speak Spanish. Are above sights be visited indepently? My other thought is to take a 8 day tour with Caravan, but I'd like to avoid a big group tour if possible.
If I travel independently I would like to minimize schlepping my luggage and plan on staying in Panama City for 7 nights, can the above sights be visited from Panama city independently?
Currently my schedule allow me to visit Panama in mid November, which is the rainy season and hurricane season - is this a no no?
Any suggestions fodorites?
Thanks in advance.
Stupid Panama Questions.
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Forgot to mention the beach is of no interest - so I do not plan on spending time in any of the beach destiantions in Panama.
Caravan does a great job with their tours and the price certainly is right. But you would be in a large group.
Skip the tour. There will be rain from time to time in November, but it certainly won't rain all day. It is probably similar to what you see in Florida in the rainy season. And Panama is too far south to be impacted by hurricanes.
You can take a cab to the canal and the driver will wait for you. It came to $20 in total (albeit that was five years ago). You can also arrange a day cruise across the canal and then come back by bus. I am not familiar with the Embera tours but it looks like they can easily be done in a day from the city.
My honest feeling is that 7 days in Panama City will be too much. You can spend a day seeing the old city, a day at the canal, a day for the Embera tour, maybe a half day on the trails of the Parque Metropolitana and take a walk along the bay to see the skyline. But after that, I'm not sure what else there would be to do in the city.
You can actually board a cruise ship in Panama City which might help. Royal Caribbean is one of the ships. It would be Panama round trip but you could also use several of the companies I use for shore excursions. You don't have to be on a ship in order to sign up for shore excursions. I don't know how much time you want to spend in Panama itself but like everyone said once you see the canal you've pretty much seen the city. There is more to see and do in other areas of the country. You said November? That is the month of their Independence Parades. I can hear the bands practicing every Friday here in the outskirts of Boquete. We are at 4000 ft elevation and if you wanted a tour of this area we might be able to help you out. This is also the coffee plantation region of the country, but you didn't say if you liked coffee so I don't know if that matters or not. We also have hot springs, rodeo's and more in this area. Let me know if you want more information.
Boquete mentioned above is an easy flight from Panama City - cooler and with great hiking and nature. . .
But you may not want to spend what it would take to get to a second city. Agree with Trebex that you could do PC in 3 or 4 days. But if you had 7 - well you could just be more relaxed about it. We did a partial (half day) transit on the canal. We were really interested in the Canal also - but only after we'd read David McCullough's Pathway Between the Seas. A fat but enthralling (and I'm no engineer I assure you) account of the building of the canal. Look into staying at La Estancia B&B - believe owners also have a travel biz.
A great place to stay-lots of friendly travels. Casual.
We've done two longish trips to Panama and really enjoyed them both - and have spent a fair amount of time in PC, in and around Boquete, El Valle, etc. ask away. . . .