Locks tour from Colon Panama pier

[jake97]

Have been to Panama a few times but this time  have a few with us that haven’t seen locks. Has anyone taken tour from pier just to see locks and come back, ? seems like all published tours are combo . wouldn’t mind the combo but on private tours don’t want to be too far from ship or late in day. Any and all comments welcome, thank you 

[Essiesmom]

Is this a partial transit which calls in Colon for a few hours, or a cruise with an all day stop in Colon but no transit?  There are no tours of the old locks on the Gatun side.  You would have to go all the way to the Miraflores Locks. The best you could do might be a taxi to the visitors center above the Agua Clara Locks (new locks on Gatun side) but you would not be able to see the old locks from there.  When we did a full transit eastbound in 2013, we had a full day in Colon and took a tour (ship's) which went to the Gatun Locks visitors center and then to the new locks visitors center.  But the Gatun Locks center has been dismantled.  EM

[jake97]

Thank you, it is a day in Colon not transit. so we would likely just go to new locks. Do you have advice on taxis or buses, we may have 8 or 10 people - are there any dos or don’ts in which ones to take and approx how far?  Thanks again 

[BillB48]

You will be able to arrange for transportation to take you to the new locks of Agua Clara at the pier.  For 8-10 people you may have to look for a van or split up in to smaller groups.  Distance wise it is around 12 miles or so to Agua Clara locks and depending on traffic about  minutes.  With some of the construction and torn up streets getting in and out of Colon can be a minor challenge and the road to the locks is not all that great either. So time estimates are just ballpark.

 

About the only don't is don't leave the shopping area where the ship docks, that area is fine to browse and shop.  The rest of Colon as you will see is not any place for touring on your own.  As long as you are on a tour or in a cab there is no problem.

[BillB48]

After reading is see I left out the 20 in the minutes... so travel time is about 20 minutes.

[jake97]

Thank you for info , I appreciate it.

[new_cruiser]

The Mira Flores Visitor Center has a museum about the locks (both old and new). The Agua Clara Visitor Center doesn't have a museum. It does have a short movie and there is a restaurant. 

 

If you want to see a ship go through a lock, you may need to spend quite a while there. Since the ship will be huge, it moves very very slowly into the lock. There may or may not be a ship going through while you are at the lock. (Does anyone know of a place on-line to check for what's scheduled to go through?) We were there long enough to see a ship move into the lock, but had to leave before it really started to empty.

[BillB48]

There is no online source that I know of that will tell you the ship traffic for the day.  In general the southbound lockages (up} will start fairly early in the morning before dawn, as of now about 4 ships.  The up lockages will usually finish before noon, maybe even between 10 and 11.    The northbound lockages (down) can start immediately or perhaps some time shortly after the noon hour.  In short about 8 ships per day are using the new locks and there is no sure way to give a precise schedule.