Panama City and Panama Canal Half-Day Highlights Tour

The Panama Canal at the Miraflores Locks

The Miraflores Locks, on the Pacific side of the Panama Canal, are the best place to see the canal in action. From the terraces of the visitor centre you watch container ships, tankers and cruise liners squeeze into the lock chambers with just centimetres to spare, guided by electric locomotives on rails, while the water lifts or lowers them about 16 metres in two steps. The visitor centre also has a museum on the history, engineering and ecology of the canal and a short documentary screening.

Miraflores Locks tickets are not included in the tour and are bought at the entrance; the visitor centre opens daily from morning to late afternoon. Is the Panama Canal worth seeing up close? Absolutely, it is one of the great engineering works of the world. Ship schedules vary through the day, and your guide times the visit to give you the best chance of watching a transit, which can take a vessel 8 to 10 hours from ocean to ocean.

How the Panama Canal changed the world

A first French attempt to dig a sea-level canal in the 1880s failed because of landslides, floods and tropical diseases. Construction restarted in 1904 with a new plan based on locks and a huge artificial lake, and the Panama Canal opened on 15 August 1914, cutting the sea route between New York and San Francisco by around 13,000 kilometres. Panama took full control of the canal on 31 December 1999.

Today the waterway is about 80 kilometres long and handles a significant share of world maritime trade. In 2016 a new set of larger locks opened to allow the giant Neopanamax ships, and the original locks at Miraflores still work alongside them. Your guide explains how fresh water from Gatun Lake fills each chamber by gravity, with no pumps at all, and why water management is so important for Panama.

Casco Viejo: Panama City's colonial old quarter

Casco Viejo, also called Casco Antiguo, was founded in 1673 on a rocky peninsula after the original city of Panama was destroyed by a pirate attack two years earlier. Protected by sea walls, it grew into a district of churches, convents and elegant houses with wooden balconies, and together with the ruins of Panama Viejo it is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

Is Casco Viejo worth visiting? It is the most charming part of the city, with restored pastel facades, flowering balconies, quiet plazas and views of the modern skyline across the bay. On this Panama City half-day tour you walk with your guide around Plaza de la Independencia and the twin-towered Metropolitan Cathedral, where Panama declared its separation from Colombia in 1903, and along the lanes leading to the waterfront.

Landmarks of Casco Viejo: Golden Altar and Plaza Francia

Among the treasures of the old quarter is the Church of San Jose and its baroque Golden Altar, carved from mahogany and covered with gold leaf. Legend says it was saved from the pirates who sacked the first city by being painted over so it would not look valuable. Nearby, the Arco Chato, a flat brick arch in the ruins of the Santo Domingo convent, stood unsupported for centuries.

At the tip of the peninsula, Plaza Francia honours the French canal builders and the thousands of workers who died during the first attempt, with an obelisk and plaques telling their story. From the Paseo de las Bovedas promenade above the old sea wall you can see the Bridge of the Americas, the skyline and the ships waiting offshore, a perfect photo spot before continuing to Amador.

The Amador Causeway

The Amador Causeway was built with millions of tonnes of rock excavated from the Culebra Cut during the construction of the canal. It stretches about six kilometres into the Pacific, linking the mainland to the islands of Naos, Perico and Flamenco, and also served as a breakwater protecting the canal entrance from currents and silt.

Today it is lined with palm trees, cycle paths, restaurants and marinas, and the drive offers some of the best views of Panama City: the skyline curving along the bay on one side, and on the other the Bridge of the Americas and the line of ships waiting to enter the canal. You also pass the colourful Biomuseo, a museum of biodiversity telling how the Isthmus of Panama joined two continents and changed the planet's oceans and wildlife.