San Lorenzo & Agua Clara Locks. Canal & Colonial History

I’m sorry to tell the tour was a total disaster. -The guide was 30 minutes late because he had gone to a wrong hotel. -The vehicle didn’t have wifi as promised. -The guide had no idea what the tour was supposed to include. We got to Colón city, and I had to read aloud to him from the Viator website what’s included in the tour. The guide was friendly, polite and nice, but did not know the places or how to get to them. We wasted a lot of time just trying to find our way. We stopped to ask people directions and things like “excuse me, is this the Catedral Inmaculada Concepcion”? (It wasn’t, it was some church.) -On the way to the Fort San Lorenzo we also missed a turn and ended up on some beach. It was pretty but not where we wanted to go. Eventually we ended up in the fort. -2 hour stop at Agua Clara Locks was the thing we looked forward the most. When we got there at 3.15 pm they were already closed. We could not enter and didn’t see anything. The guide told he was sorry he hadn’t checked the opening times. As this was our last day in Panama, we missed our only chance to see the Agua Clara Locks. The guide took us to another place with no viewing facilities, but we could at least see something from behind the fence. He also took us to one interesting place that wasn’t on the plan. This is the only reason I didn’t immediately ask my money back, but I’m still considering doing it.

It's a great tour combining old and new history of Panama. Rafael is a very knowledgable guide and I learned a lot. Service was exellent, I was provided with drinks and snacks and a lot of useful information. We were also lucky to see some monkeys and coatis on the way. Highly recommended.

One of the best aspects of this tour company was the effort they made to make accommodations in the midst of the pandemic. They informed us early on that the Panama Railway was not operational for passenger traffic and gave us a reduction in costs. I expressed my concerns about social distancing in the travel arrangements across the island and they assured me that they limited the tour to 4-6 people and used a 15 passenger van. We had the good fortune to be the only people scheduled that day. Possibly somewhat belatedly, they informed us the Panama Canal Carribean side was closed to visitors on Monday, our scheduled day of departure, and offered us an alternative tour or refund. Fortunately, I was able to change our schedule to a Tuesday tour with them. Our tour guide, Juan, was exceptional. He generally leads a busload of tourists from cruise ships but we were fortunate to have him alone. We quickly understood why he was so desired by the cruise boat companies. His fund of knowledge in every aspect of Panama - history, flora and fauna, and the Canal was truly extensive. He was extremely engaging and personable. The other benefit to this tour was that they included a tour of Colon, a feature not offered by other companies offering a similar tour. Colon has a lot of rough edges but we were glad to see it.