Private Tour of the Miraflores Locks and the Panama Canal

Travel to the Pacific Coast of Panama and the Miraflores Locks to experience our private tour of the Panama Canal. Escorted by a trained Panama Canal tour guide, you'll see the operation of the locks, view a topographic map of the entire canal and visit the offices of the locks before watching a private presentation on the history and construction of the canal. You'll learn how the giant gates of the locks are controlled and get an "up close and personal" view of transiting ships from the observation platform overlooking the locks. This private Panama Travel Experts tour is certain to be a highlight of your visit to Panama. From here we will drive to historic Casco Antiguo --dating from the 1670's. Casco Antiguo became the new Panama City of the times and was never successfully attacked, being protected by a wall that surrounded the new settlement. Here we'll take a look at the Golden Altar, one of the few testaments to all the wealth that made its way through this city. Casco Antiguo is the home of the "Flat Arch", famous for being a strong argument in favor of the United States´s decision to build the canal in Panama. We'll walk along the French Plaza - a monument to the French canal effort and take a panoramic look of the modern city from this vantage point as well as the ships that are anchored in the bay awaiting transit of the canal. We conclude this part of the tour by visiting the InterOceanic Canal museum that is housed in the same building that was the original headquarters for the French canal building effort in the 1880´s. The museum is beautifully restored and presents a broad perspective of the historical development of Panama from its Spanish colonial days to the completion of the canal in 1913.

TOUR LENGTH: Approximately 7 hours from the port of Colon (Caribbean coast) and 5 hours from the port of Balboa (Pacific coast)