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Extend your stay before or after your Panama Canal cruise at one of these luxurious hotels, carefully selected for their superb location, ambiance, world-class standards of service, cuisine and amenities. Our hotel packages include free air date changes up to 3 days before or after your cruise and free transfers between the airport, hotel and ship as well as porterage. You’ll also enjoy the services of our exclusive Oceania Cruises hospitality desk at each hotel. And even though the crossing is fascinating, let's be honest — it can also be tedious.
Windstar Cruises' 7-night Costa Rica & Panama Canal cruise
These include islands in the Southern and Western Caribbean, and occasionally Cartagena, Colombia. If you are lucky, you may be able to find some longer sailings departing from Seattle, Washington or Vancouver, Canada. However, if you prefer to plan a back to back cruise, I highly suggest heading out of and to one of the most popular ports, as these will typically have more options to extend your cruising vacation. With drier weather and high temperatures hovering around 88 degrees, it's less humid in the region in December. However, it's the holiday season, so cruise fares and other costs, like hotels for pre- and post-cruise stays, will be more expensive if you travel this month.
Related Cruises
See the intricate workings of the locks and the graceful Bridge of the Americas as you cross the narrow Panama isthmus. Discover the lush scenery around manmade Lake Gatun, listen to tales of pirates and conquistadors, and buy exquisite handicrafts made by Panama’s indigenous Emberá tribe. Other highlights include vibrant Cartagena, glamorous Puerto Vallarta, and thrilling Costa Rica. A cruise to the Panama Canal is a chance to land on amazing destinations during the same trip. Stopping at different cruise ports during a Panama Canal crossing makes it easy to savor the varied flavors of these countries, each with its own signature spice and tang.
Travel, Airfare, & Hotels: Let Princess Get You There
The bigger vessels don't stop at places like Panama City like small ships do. Although these cruises don't actually cross the entire Panama Canal, they do provide a taste of its spectacular rainforest scenery and offer a glimpse into Panama, itself, via a stopover at Colon as well. Even partial transits allow passengers to learn about the fascinating operation of the canal firsthand. These cruises usually travel between Florida and California, stopping in the Caribbean, Central America, and Mexico along the way. This round-the-world cruise will visit 37 countries as guests enjoy Viking Sky's modern Scandinavian interior decor, soothing LivNordic Spa, two pools (including one with a retractable roof) and six onboard restaurants. Pricing includes airfare, gratuities and complimentary wine and beer with lunch and dinner.
Night Panama Canal Inca & South America DiscoveryDetails
Holland America offers a variety of Panama Canal cruises, but the most popular itineraries span 14 to 16 days. They offer a full transit between Fort Lauderdale and San Diego, or vice versa, and are offered on multiple ships, including Zaandam, Eurodam, Nieuw Amsterdam and Volendam. These sailings call on Cartagena, Colombia; Puntarenas, Costa Rica; Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala; Huatulco and Puerto Vallarta or Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Zoom your map way out and Panama looks like a small sliver of land, so a trip through its famous canal is a quickie, right? Cruise the Panama Canal and enjoy a zoomed-in real-life look at perhaps last century’s greatest engineering achievement… along with its surrounding lush, verdant lands. This testament to human audacity joins the Pacific and Caribbean in the most direct way possible, and is worth making a leisurely part of your vacation.
What are the Different Panama Canal Itineraries?
There are so many fabulous encounters with nature available from this port, you'll have a hard time deciding on a shore excursion. A visit to the Tabacon Resort Hot Springs takes you to the slopes of the active Arenal volcano. The Poas volcano features the amazing sight of a huge crater filled with iridescent blue water.
Exotic Views
If you're in Panama City, visit the vibrant neighborhood of Casco Antiguo in the city's historic district. Should Semana Santa (Holy Week, from Palm Sunday through Holy Saturday) fall in March, there will be more crowds nationwide in Panama with religious processions and reenactments, parades and other special events. Many venues and attractions may be closed on some days during the festivities. For a rainy-day excursion, ride the Panama Canal Railway, one of the world's great train rides. If you're in Panama City, plan an indoor excursion with a visit to the world's first museum dedicated to biodiversity, the Frank Gehry-designed Biomuseo. Passenger ships carrying anywhere between 20 and 2,800 guests pass through the Panama Canal regularly.
The Panama Canal Cruise Experience
During the ride to the top, keep an eye out for local wildlife, including white-faced capuchin and howler monkeys, sloths, butterflies, iguanas, toucans and frogs. November can be rainy — and even the rainiest month of the wet season — with temperatures starting to warm closer to December. The month brings a mix of low-priced early-season fares but also several public holidays that bring crowds of both tourists and residents to attractions in places like Panama City and Boquete.
ONE TRIP, MANY ADVENTURES
I hope you are able to plan and fulfill all of your fantastical travel dreams! Feel free to click around my site to discover more exciting destinations and itineraries. While Cabo San Lucas is most popular as a college Spring Break destination, there are also plenty of enjoyable attractions for cruisers of all ages during your Panama Canal cruise. Alternatively, for those who were hoping to see the full canal, you can book a shore excursion on a smaller boat to the Centennial Bridge, Gaillard Cut, and the Bridge of the Americas. Dating back to 1673, the UNESCO World Heritage Site features landmarks like the Panama National Theater and the Cathedral Basilica of St. Mary. You'll also find some of the city's best restaurants, beautiful squares and plazas and top-rated museums.
Spend the day crossing Panama from the Caribbean side to the Pacific side with stops at Panama’s two Smithsonian Research Institutes on each end to learn about these unique environments. If you like the natural beauty, the music, and the rich culture of the Panama Canal region, you may enjoy visiting these similar destinations. Puerto Vallarta maintains a small-town atmosphere, while still boasting one of the most unique and sophisticated ocean fronts in Mexico.
These include Puerto Limon and Puntarenas in Costa Rica, and Cartagena, Colombia. Other Panama Canal itineraries include stops along Mexico’s west coast and in Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala. I highly recommend booking a balcony or higher stateroom on your cruise ship as you will not regret waking up to the breathtaking Panama Canal from your own private balcony. Just imagine waking up, stepping outside, and seeing all the fascinating locks and landscape surrounding the transit.
There are plenty of outdoor and historic activities to enjoy during your Panama Canal cruise stopping in Costa Rica. Puntarenas is most popular as the biggest beach town near Costa Rica’s capital city. As a simple and laidback town, Puntarenas used to be to the largest fishing port in the country. This is the best way to see the Old City area on your Panama Canal cruise as you can easily spend hours meandering the streets boasting loads of fascinating Colombian history.
THE BEST Cruises from San Francisco to the Panama Canal & Central America (with Prices) on Cruise Critic - Cruise Critic
THE BEST Cruises from San Francisco to the Panama Canal & Central America (with Prices) on Cruise Critic.
Posted: Fri, 19 Apr 2024 00:15:10 GMT [source]
Experience one of the wonders of the modern world on Holland America Line’s Panama Canal cruises. Our Panama cruise itineraries depart from both east and west coasts for loads of convenient options. A cruise to the Panama Canal is an incredible experience, worthy of any bucket list as you travel between oceans. The shipping channel—which took 33 years to complete and cost more than 25,000 workers their lives—is arguably the greatest engineering achievement of all time. As you cruise the canal, you will pass through the two-chambered Miraflores Locks, the one-chambered Pedro Miguel Lock, and three-chambered Gatun Locks. Along the way you’ll find Gatun Lake, once the largest manmade lake in the world, which has proved a boon for the species that thrive here, undisturbed by the passing ships.
Take some photos and video as you go underneath it; if it's too crowded with passengers jockeying for position, head aft on the ship and snap some after you pass under it. Partial transits often originate in Florida or the Caribbean, enter the canal at Limon Bay and travel 7 miles to the Gatun Locks. They then turn around at Gatun Lake, heading back to Colon and continuing on the itinerary. But since a Panama Canal cruise is unique, you'll encounter some logistical considerations that you won't on other itineraries — including the fact that your debarkation and embarkation ports might be different. While the temperature in Panama is reliably warm, averaging between around 77°F and 87°F all year, rainfall can vary quite significantly.
Excursions from here include eco-adventures on Gatun Lake, where you can see capuchin and howler monkeys, caimans, and three-toed sloths. You could visit the locks along the canal and tour the visitor centers, stopping to watch ships pass through the narrow channels. The ultimate journey between two continents and two mighty oceans, a Panama Canal cruise encompasses Spanish colonial architecture, verdant rainforest and an engineering marvel. And be sure to explore the complex and fascinating history of the Panama Canal. Many Panama Canal and Central America ports are relatively industrial, and some -- particularly Colon and Puerto Limon -- have a reputation for petty crime within the main city. You will likely be safer on a shore excursion, booked through the ship or independently, than if you decide to head on your own into town.
The latter will wave and cheer you on since the more infrequent sight of a passenger ship with lots of people onboard is infinitely more exciting than the many cargo ships that sail through each day. Keep in mind that die-hard canal lovers will stand on deck the entire time, blocking the view from inside, so be prepared to move around. After that, you'll traverse the Chagres River, then sail 8 miles through the Culebra Cut. The initial descent starts at the single-stage Pedro Miguel Lock, which lowers the ship 31 feet. After passing a mile through Miraflores Lake, you'll reach the two-stage Miraflores Locks, which will descend the ship the last 54 feet back to sea level. The final step is sailing 8 miles to go under the Bridge of the Americas and finally reach the Pacific Ocean.
