Tour Panama: Canal, Coffee & Quetzals

Itinerary at a glance

We meet at our luxury rainforest resort at Gamboa (3 nights) on the banks of the canal. At the nearby Miraflores Locks, we’ll see mammoth ships and visit the museum. Then you can relax by the pool, or join your guide on a walking visit to colonial Panama City.

Aboard a traditional dugout canoe, we’ll navigate the Chagres River to a settlement of one of Panama’s indigenous tribes. Back ashore, we may spot monkeys, coatimundis and more than 500 species of birds as we follow the Los Cruces Trail that pre-canal Gold Rush miners used to cross the isthmus. At the Caribbean fortifications of Portobelo—now a UNESCO World Heritage Site—we step back into Spanish history.

By air, we make a one-hour hop to David City. A nature walk on the Los Quetzales Trail includes the lower slopes of Baru Volcano, waterfalls, bamboo forests—with a high likelihood of seeing the legendary resplendent quetzal. Once in Boquete (3 nights), we settle into a gracious country inn. It’s our base for a wonderful array of activities: zipline rides through the forest canopy…a walk and tasting at a coffee plantation…and scenic river rafting on the Chiriqui Viejo River. On our final day, we part company after breakfast.