How [not] to do a Gatun Locks day trip from Panama City

A day trip to the Panama Canal Gatun Locks and Portobelo sounds simple enough on paper. Both are relatively close to Panama City, and the famous Panama Canal Railway even connects the capital with Colón on the other side of the canal.

Because of that, me and a few fellow travelers decided to skip an organized tour and try to do the Gatun Locks day trip from Panama City by ourselves.

That turned out to be a much more complicated (and frustrating) experience than expected.

Recommended way to visit Gatun Locks & Portobelo

While it is technically possible to visit the Gatun Locks and Portobelo independently, most travelers will have a much smoother experience by joining an organized tour or hiring a pre-arranged driver from Panama City or Colón.

This avoids the hassle of negotiating taxis in Colón, navigating limited transport options, and trying to time everything between the Gatun Locks and Portobelo in one day.

You can book a guided day trip here (transport included).

If you prefer more flexibility, private drivers from Panama City are also available and can often be arranged for a full-day itinerary covering both stops.

Is a Gatun Locks and Portobelo day trip worth it?

In theory, this is a great combination: you get to see part of the Panama Canal system and one of the oldest colonial towns on the Caribbean coast.

In practice, doing both in one day without a fixed tour is where things can get complicated, mainly because of transport logistics and timing between locations.

Our experience visiting the Panama Canal and Portobello

Me and some fellow travelers I met decided to go on a Gatun Locks day trip from Panama City and do everything ourselves.

As none of us were big fans of organized tours, we figured it should be easy enough to figure out on the go.

The Panama Canal Railway takes you from Panama City all along the canal to Colón, a notorious city located on the other side of the canal. Tourists are not recommended to walk around in Colón. Apparently even walking 10 minutes from the train station to the bus station can be risky.

Either way, how bad could it be? If the famous Panama Canal Railway, which is quite a touristy ride, goes there, surely there must be a safe way to continue to the Gatun Locks from Colón.

So we got on the 7:15 AM train from Panama City to Colón.

A beautiful old train with panoramic windows all the way up to the roof. The $25 train ride included coffee, water, and some basic snacks. The ride itself was actually one of the highlights of the day, with great views over the canal.

After about an hour we arrived in Colón, and things went downhill from there.and excited to tell you everything about the canal.

Arriving in Colón

The Panama Canal Railway station in Colón is basically just a platform and parking lot, surrounded by a high fence and security guards.

All tourists were quickly guided towards tour buses, while we were immediately surrounded by taxi drivers.

The only company allowed inside the station is SET Taxi, and they all operate like unofficial tour guides.

After more than 30 minutes of bargaining, we agreed on $100 for four people, which included:

Transport to Gatun Locks (including waiting time)
Transfer to Portobelo and waiting there for about 2 hours
Drop-off in Sabanitas for the bus back to Panama City

It still felt expensive (this was back in 2016), but after a long negotiation we just accepted it.

Looking back, arranging a private driver from Panama City would have been a much better option.

Gatun Locks (Panama Canal)

Once we arrived at the Gatun Locks, we spent about an hour watching a ship passing through, listening to the staff explaining the canal, and visiting the information center.

The Gatun Locks are part of the expanded Panama Canal system (opened in 2016) and are even larger than the Miraflores Locks in Panama City.

The visitor center itself is actually very well done, with professional staff and great explanations of how the canal operates.

Things start going wrong

Our driver, or “guide” as he preferred to call himself, kept following us around and constantly telling us to hurry.

“Traffic!” “Rain!” “This is a tour, you must follow me!”

At this point it already felt clear that having a fixed driver for the entire day wasn’t ideal.

The problem is: Gatun Locks is quite remote, and there are not many taxis available to simply replace your driver.

Portobelo

From Gatun Locks we continued to Portobelo, a historic coastal town with forts, ruins, and a small harbor.

On the way, our driver made an unnecessary stop at a supermarket and insisted we wait in the car. We went inside anyway to grab food, which somehow caused even more frustration on his side.

Once in Portobelo, we stopped for lunch at a small bakery in the village.

While we were eating, our driver sat at the table behind us and constantly interrupted conversations or tried to “guide” our choices.

After lunch we walked through town to see the church, ruins, and waterfront.

The reaction from our driver:

“No, you cannot walk there.”
“This is a tour.”
“I will drive you.”

He literally drove us about 100 meters.

Wrapping up the day

After about 1.5 hours in Portobelo, we decided to wrap things up and head back.

From Portobelo we were dropped off in Sabanitas and took a local bus back to Panama City.

At that point, even a packed public bus felt like an upgrade compared to the taxi situation earlier that day.

Portobelo to Portobelo Chicken Bus Local Chicken Bus — Local chicken bus bus from Portobelo to Sabanitas

Final thoughts: how to do this better

If you’re planning a Gatun Locks day trip from Panama City, I would strongly recommend either:

Booking an organized tour
Or arranging a private driver for the full day

Of course, not every driver will be like ours, but the logistics of this route make independent travel more complicated than expected.

If you’re only going to Portobelo, you can take a bus from Albrook to Colón and continue locally from there. But combining both Gatun Locks and Portobelo in one day is much easier with transport pre-arranged.

Visited: December 2016

6 comments

Miriam says:

July 24, 2018 at 5:07 pm

Thanks for sharing your experience. I visited the Gatun Locks during a 24 hour layover in Panama City in February 2016. I paid a taxi driver for the day to go to Miriaflores locks, the Gatun Locks, and over the bridge to Fort Lorenzo, we agreed on $100 – which I thought was a great deal, given the airport ride as a reference. Then after Miraflores he said he didn’t know where the Gatun Locks were when we agreed on the price. (Grrr.) So I gave him two options – charge me a fair fare for Miraflores or honor the original price (I was actually willing to renegotiate the fare since I thought it was so good initially.) He tried to charge me for wait time at Miraflores even though he was only waiting for the longer trip. Long story short, I paid for $150 but neither of us were happy with the arrangement.

The visitor center had a small cafeteria and movie room but not the personnel and information you describe. I didn’t see any action at the locks, though I could see ships waiting to enter. I thought the new locks were built alongside the old, but maybe I was mistaken. In any case, the driver claimed not to know of any bridge across the canal. So overall my trip to the Atlantic side was a disappointment.

I’ve got another 24 hour layover in Panama City next month, this time with a companion who has never been before and I’m debating whether to try again to visit the Atlantic side. (Our layover is Sunday and the train doesn’t run.) This is helpful information.

Did you see the Miraflores Locks? Would you recommend the Gatun Locks in addition? Thanks for the useful post.

1. michiel says:
  
  September 9, 2018 at 10:50 pm
  
  I’m really sorry to hear about this experience! This can really mess up your day and experience. I’d recommend going to the Gatun locks, as there was action non stop (ships going through the locks, really nice to see), and the train ride was nice too. However I’d definitely book a tour in this case, normally not a fan of these tours but if you want to avoid another bad taxi experience I’d really recommend it!
  
Maaike says:

December 22, 2018 at 2:09 pm

Very useful! Thanks a lot 🙂 i am consider to go to Colon and sail trough the total canal, but after reading this I’ll only do so if I have a travel mate and already found a boat.

Gregory Homatas says:

February 1, 2019 at 9:30 am

Miraflores locks is doable by Metro bus from Panama City. Get there in the AM to see ships go through. I didn’t go to Gatun locks but I did go to the Agua Clara new locks and visitor center including fort San lorenzo( with a lunch stop) with a tour guide who met me at my hotel at PC dropped me off at the train station in corozal and picked me up at the colon station.He also dropped me at my hotel at PC.That was a bit pricey about $300 if I recall but all worked out well. I was a single but you can get a better deal with a group. I read about problems in colon so I decided not to chance it.

1. michiel says:
  
  November 11, 2019 at 12:48 pm
  
  Thanks for the useful information Gregory!
  
Greg Homatas says:

January 21, 2022 at 1:49 am

i went in 2018 in somewhat the same trip as the author which was my second trip to Panama and just as enjoyable as my first trip. A taxi took me from my hotel to the railroad station and then I took the Panama Canal Railway from Corozal to Colon for $25.In Colon, even though I was sort of taking a chance I grabbed a taxi with two other folks and went to the Colon bus station which wasn’t too far away. I took the bus (diablo rojo or an old school bus that was painted multi colored) from Colon to Portobello. I walked around the town without an issue and took photos of the old fort and old buildings from the Spanish era. I went to a nice restaurant by the waterfront and had a coconut shrimp lunch and a coca cola and saw an African art museum. Then I hopped the bus back to Sabanitas for the bus back to PC. The bus back to PC was for some of the way, standing room only and was a long distance bus. I had an enjoyable day. Not for everyone.