trip specifics

price

2013

On this 10-day comprehensive Panama trip, discover the Panama Canal’s natural attributes and learn about the current expansion work, visit thriving indigenous villages and Spanish colonial forts, and explore tropical cloud forests rich in flora and fauna. Moderate hikes offer two to four hours of activity each day, with opportunities for adventures like zip lining and dugout canoe riding. From a Janson coffee tour to cloud forest canopy exploration to a partial Panama Canal transit, this is the best of Panama adventure travel!

Day 1 - Arrive Panama

On arrival to Tocumen International Airport in Panama City, you'll be greeted and transfered to your hote in Panama City.

Accommodations: Victoria Hotel & Suites
Included Meals: n/a

Day 2 - Panama Canal Jungle Boat Adventure, Miraflores Locks & Casco Viejo

Early in the morning you will be picked up at the lobby of the hotel by your Naturalist Guide for a 30-minute drive to the town of Gamboa, where the Chagres River meets the Panama Canal. Here board an expedition boat and depart on an adventure that will include a voyage across Gatun Lake in the Panama Canal passing by gigantic cargo ships transiting the waterway, making contrast with the natural surroundings. Along the way, you will have the opportunity to spot Green Iguana and Three-toed Sloth resting on tree branches, Crocodile, Osprey in the hunt for Peacock Bass, Snail Kite and Keel-billed Toucan among other wildlife. Gatun Lake was formed to give way to the Panama Canal in 1914. With a surface of 164 square miles, Gatun Lake at the time of its creation was the largest man-made lake in the world. The flow of all the rivers within the Panama Canal Watershed is contained in Gatun Lake to provide water for the operation of the locks system. Nearly 52 million gallons of fresh water are used for every ship that transits through the Panama Canal from one ocean to another. Your expedition boat will allow for close approximations to rainforest-covered islands (former hilltops) in Gatun Lake to search for White-faced Capuchin, Mantled Howler Monkey, Central American Spider Monkey and Geoffrey’s Tamarin. Enjoy a midday picnic lunch on a small island with extraordinary views of the canal and its natural surroundings. You will return to Gamboa in the early afternoon and head for the Panama Canal visitor center at Miraflores Locks at the Panama Canal where you will learn about the canal’s history, operation and expansion work currently underway. You will also enjoy a close-up view of the locks and ships in motion.

Return to your hotel to freshen up and relax before your guide takes you on a late afternoon walking tour through Casco Viejo, a UNESCO World Heritage site with its colonial landmarks and charming cobblestone streets. Here you enjoy your welcome dinner with your guide at a local restaurant.

Accommodations: Victoria Hotel & Suites
Included Meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner

Day 3 - Chiriqui, Sugar Cane Farm & Boquete

Today, check out from your hotel and ride with your guide to Albrook domestic airport in order to catch a midmorning flight to David, capital of the Chiriqui province, in western Panama. Chiriqui is the country's “breadbasket” and contains some of the most breathtaking highland scenery in Central America. You will have a unique opportunity to experience a century-old tradition at a local trapiche, a horse-powered sugar mill, where the delicious raspadura blocks are made. After lunch proceed to the quaint town of Boquete with its countryside dotted with flower, fruit and produce farms, coffee plantations and also lush tropical cloud forests. Before arriving to the town of Boquete, stop at a lookout point where you can enjoy the views over the valley. This afternoon is open to relax, stroll through town or enjoy optioanl spa services. Dinner tonight will be with your guide at the hotel.

Accommodations: Panamonte Inn & Spa
Included Meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner

Day 4 - Boquete Canopy Zipline & Cloud Forest Nature Walk

Start the day with a canopy tree trek on a zip line that that allows you to contemplate the rainforest from fourteen different canopy platforms while smoothly soaring in the heights of the cloud forest from one treetop to another. You will glide through the trees and encounter a world unknown. You will discover a fascinating perspective of wildlife that you had never appreciated. Native species of flora and fauna can be observed. You will marvel at the sight of a great variety of orchids, trees and wildflowers that are found throughout the area. Your lunch will be served at the mountain tree trek restaurant with amazing views over the valley and the surrounding cloud forest. In the afternoon you will go on a nature walk through the lush vegetation of the cloud forest of the Baru Volcano National Park on the Cascada trail. At an elevation of 2,286 meters (7,500 feet) you will have an opportunity to admire the beautiful waterfalls along the way, and to look for the elusive Resplendent Quetzal, Three-wattled Bellbird, Black-faced Solitaire, Volcano Hummingbird, Long-tailed Silky-Flycatcher and Prong-billed Barbet in their cool habitat of orchids, bromeliads and wild avocados. After the nature walk, freshen up at the hotel. Dinner tonight will be at an exquisite restaurant in town, together with your guide.

Accommodations: Panamonte Inn & Spa
Included Meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner

Day 5 - Janson Coffee Tour & Volcan Lagoons

Check out from your hotel in Boquete and travel 60-90 minutes on a new scenic road to the western side of the Baru Volcano. At the Janson Coffee Farm learn about the planting, harvesting, processing, roasting and packaging of the world-class coffee Del Fino and Geisha. This coffee is grown at the perfect altitude in rich volcanic soil and processed by utilizing the best that tradition and technology have to offer. Janson Coffee has a unique aroma and brilliant flavors. Around noon, the farm owners invite you for lunch including a freshly brewed cup of Janson coffee overlooking the beautiful mountain range of Baru Volcano and surrounding valley. In the afternoon you will go on a nature hike with bird watching around the most beautiful areas of the highlands: the lakes on the family farm are the highest natural lakes and wetlands in Panama and the fifth highest aquatic ecosystem in Central America. Enjoy breathtaking vistas, the beautiful surrounding tropical forest, world-class birding and amazing wildlife. After a long day settle at your charming mountain resort and enjoy the indoor swimming pool and social area before a hearty dinner at the hotel's restaurant with your guide.

Accommodations: Hotel Bambito
Included Meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner

Day 6 - La Amistad International Park & Colon

Shared with neighboring Costa Rica and recognized in 1982 by UNESCO as a World Biosphere Reserve and a World Heritage Site, La Amistad International Park is located at a point on the Central American natural land bridge where flora and fauna from North and South America reach their maximum species mix. With great ranges in altitude, precipitation, soil and temperature, biodiversity here is at its best. After checking out from your hotel, spend the morning hiking and exploring La Amistad in the area of El Retoño in search of the Resplendent Quetzal, Silvery-fronted Tapaculo, Andean Pygmy-Owl, Barred Becard, Black and Yellow Silky Flycatcher among many other western highland birds and spectacular flora. After an early lunch, descend back to the lowlands and drive through some rice, corn and sugar cane fields to David domestic airport for the midafternoon flight back to Panama City. From here your transfer takes about 60-90 minutes to the Melía Panama Canal hotel in Colon, where the US armed forces School of the Americas was located. Dinner with your guide at the hotel is included tonight.

Accommodations: Melia Panama Canal
Included Meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner

Day 7 - Embera Indigenous People

This morning visit an Embera indigenous village on the shores of the Gatun River. Board a motorized piragua (dugout canoe) and travel up through lush forest to the community. Along the river you may be able to spot Little Blue and Green Heron, Great Egret, Anhingas, Neotropical Cormorant, Amazon, Ringed and Green Kingfishers, along with Keel-billed Toucans and Ospreys flying above. At the Embera village you will be greeted with dancing and music. Learn about Embera customs and their relationship with nature. There will be handcrafts available for sale, and you will have a chance to be painted with the traditional jagua, a natural dye the Embera use to adorn their bodies. After a traditional Embera lunch you will head back to your hotel where the afternoon is at leisure.

Accommodations: Melia Panama Canal
Included Meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner

Day 8 - Historical Forts & Trans-Isthmian Train

Depart mid morning for a visit at the Panama Canal Expansion works on the Atlantic - a once in a lifetime opportunity to experience history in the making. Panama embarked on a major project to expand the Panama Canal a decade ago. The $6.25 billion project, due to be completed in early 2015, will give the waterway the needed competitive advantage to operate successfully for at least another century. The Panama Canal will celebrate its 100th anniversary on August 15, 2014. At the Panama Canal visitor center in Gatun you will have the unique opportunity to see the construction area where they are pouring the concrete for the new sets of locks.

From here continue to the historic town of Portobelo for lunch. Famous for its trade fairs during the 17th century, Portobelo is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. During colonial times it was one of the most important strongholds of the Spanish Main in the Americas. Visit Forts San Geronimo and Santiago de la Gloria as well as the Church of San Felipe. The return to Panama City is on the Trans-Isthmian train. The railway follows a similar route as the original train built to transport 49ers coming from the east coast of the United States across the Isthmus to continue their journey by boat to California during the Gold Rush. The route was diverted when Gatun Lake was formed to give way to the Panama Canal. After an approximately one-hour train ride arrive at the Corozal Station in Panama City for your transfer to your hotel in the city center, where you will enjoy your dinner with your guide tonight.

Accommodations: Victoria Hotel & Suites
Included Meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner

Day 9 - Partial Panama Canal Transit

Today you will enjoy a partial Panama Canal transit. Drive to Gamboa and embark the ship that will be sailing at 85 feet above sea level. Shortly after departure, the ship enters Gaillard Cut, the narrowest section of the Panama Canal. The 8.5-mile-long portion of the Continental Divide was carved through rock and shale at beginning of last century when the canal began operating (1914). Panama is currently undertaking the monumental task of expanding the Panama Canal. The grand-scale project contemplates the building of even larger locks and deepening the channel to accommodate post-Panamax ships, the largest of all cargo ships that now have to bypass this waterway. The ship will reach Pedro Miguel locks, where the vessel will be lowered 30.8 feet into Miraflores Lake. After traveling nearly 2 kilometers you arrive to Miraflores locks, where the transition from fresh water to salt water takes place in the locks chambers. Due to the Pacific Ocean’s extreme tidal variations, Miraflores locks miter gates are the tallest of the locks system. In two steps, the vessel will be lowered 54.5 feet onto the Pacific Ocean. You will then sail under the bridge of the Americas, which reunites the land divided by the Panama Canal as part of the Pan-American Highway. After disembarking at Flamenco Island, enjoy a brief sightseeing tour on the Amador Causeway. Your farewell dinner will be at a local restaurant where you experience a traditional folkloric presentation with polleras and musicians with your guide.

Accommodations: Victoria Hotel & Suites
Included Meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner

Day 10 - Depart Panama

Today you are picked up at the lobby of the hotel 2.5 hours prior to your scheduled departure flight and transferred to Tocumen International Airport. Optional pre- and post-tour extensions are available to the Darien province and Bocas del Toro.

Accommodations: n/a
Included Meals: breakfast



Extend Your Trip: Call AdventureSmith Explorations about the possibilities of combining trips on one of our Panama or Costa Rica expedition cruises.

Itinerary Notes: Use the itinerary as a guide only. Itineraries may be altered due to weather, wildlife or National Park regulation. The ability to be flexible makes this type of adventure travel unique.

Included: All lodging, land, air and water transportation within Panama, all airport/hotel transfers when arriving and departing on the stated arrival and departure dates of the group, meals as specified in the itinerary, entrance fees to National Parks, museums and places of interest in effect at the time of booking are included unless otherwise specified, guide services as specified in the itinerary.

Exclusions: 7% tax not included in trip price. Airfare to Panama, excess baggage charges, taxes and port fees, tourist card ($5), gratuities to transfer and naturalist guides, items of a personal nature such as alcoholic beverages, and insurance of any kind.

Weight restrictions apply to luggage in commercial and chartered flights within Panama. A maximum of 30 lbs (11 kg) of checked luggage and 5 lbs (2.5 kg) of carry-on per person is allowed. Arrangements can be made with your hotel or Ancon Expeditions to store luggage that will not be needed while away from the city. Excess baggage charges assessed by commercial carriers are the responsibility of the passenger.

Room Configurations: Single supplement $680.

Arrival & Departure: The Best of Panama Adventure begins and ends in Panama City. Please plan flights to arrive any time on day 1 and depart anytime on day 10 of the outlined itinerary from the Tocumen International Airport.

Payment & Cancellation: In order to confirm this trip, a deposit of $500 is required at the time of booking. A Reservation Form, which includes a release of liability, must be completed and signed by all travelers. The balance of the trip price is due 90 days before the departure date. Guests who must cancel their trip for any reason must do so in writing. Cancellations are subject to the following fees, based on number of days prior to departure:
Up to 91 days - 50% of deposit
90 to 31 days - 50% of total trip cost
30 to 0 days - 100% of total trip cost

Terms & Conditions: This trip is subject to AdventureSmith Explorations Terms and Conditions. Please read this information carefully and call us if you have any questions. A packing list and extensive pre-departure and travel insurance information is sent upon confirmation.

Travel Insurance: We highly recommend our travelers protect their investment with travel insurance. Please note that you must purchase your travel insurance policy within 14 days of booking your trip for it to cover pre-existing medical conditions. Click the link below for a selection of policies from our partners at Travelex.



Qualifications: The Best of Panama trip is available to any individuals or families with a love of nature and sense of adventure.


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