Camino Real Trekking, Hikes and Excursions

Experience the Camino Real!

• Hike the Camino Real
• Excursions in small groups
• Support a sustainable tourism project
• Tours for hikers and families

Experience the highlights of Panama on a fascinating shore excursion!

Stroll through the alleys of Panama’s colonial old town, take a boat trip on Lake Gatún, visit an indigenous Embera village, or hike in the footsteps of the Caribbean pirates along the Camino Real. Every excursion is timed precisely around your cruise ship’s port call. Small groups. Guaranteed experienced, English-speaking guides!

The shore excursions from the port of Colón are designed especially for guests of the ships Aida, Mein Schiff and MS Divina. For other ships docking at Colón, please give the ship’s name and port call time in the inquiry form. For excursions from the port of Amador in Panama City, see the page on excursions from Panama City / Port of Amador.

Guide and tips for our shore excursions

Not sure yet which excursion is right for you? Here are a few short notes on the highlights of each one.

Panama City

The highlight of the Panama City excursion is a walk through the colonial old town. The bus also takes you to the Amador Causeway, a Pacific waterfront promenade at the entrance to the Panama Canal with a great view of the skyline.

Best for: Those interested in culture, city strollers and souvenir shoppers. Involves a longer walk; wheelchair- and stroller-friendly.

Monkey Island

On the Monkey Island excursion we take a roughly 2-hour boat trip on Lake Gatún, traveling along the Panama Canal right beside the ocean giants. Even though the route runs through the canal, the surroundings feel wonderfully wild: tropical rainforest blankets the banks and hills, and on some islands we spot Panama’s various monkeys, sloths, birds and reptiles.

Best for: Nature and animal lovers, and anyone who wants to experience the Panama Canal from a different angle. Children are thrilled by the monkeys.

Embera

To visit the Embera, we travel by dugout canoe to a village of this indigenous people of Panama, where you get to know their life and culture. The boat trip itself takes you deep into the rainforest.

Best for: Adventurers, those interested in culture, children, and anyone who has always wanted to visit an indigenous village in the rainforest.

Camino Real

By dugout canoe we head into Chagres National Park, where we take a roughly two-hour hike along the Camino Real and then visit a village of small-scale farmers in the rainforest for a delicious local lunch. On the boat trip we may, with a little luck, spot a few bird species.

Best for: Hikers, those interested in nature and history, children from about 6, and anyone who wants to escape the crowds.

Port info and general information

Port info Colón

Most ships in Colón dock at the Colón 2000 cruise port. It has two berths: the older Terminal 1, also called Colón 2000, opened in the year 2000 (what a surprise!). Terminal 2 was built only in recent years and often goes by Homeport. Your ship always docks at one of the two berths, and you’ll only find out which one once it arrives. To avoid any confusion, you’ll always find us at the same meeting point between the two terminals.

Adjoining the old part of the port is the colorful, Caribbean-style Colón 2000 Mall, a shopping center with souvenir shops, restaurants, a casino, a hotel and a supermarket (Super 99). The supermarket is handy for anyone who needs everyday items, easy to find here and at normal prices (batteries, toothbrush, toothpaste, and everything a supermarket usually has). It also has ATMs that dispense US dollars, Panama’s national currency.

At the port you can enjoy a beer after an excursion, shop at the supermarket or just browse what a Panamanian supermarket has on offer, withdraw US dollars, or grab a photo at the Colón sign!

The new Terminal 2 is adjoined by an area with duty-free shops.

Information about the city of Colón

The most important note first: the city of Colón is sadly run-down and a social hotspot with high poverty and crime, so exploring it on your own is not recommended. This doesn’t mean every visitor falls victim to a violent crime, but there are many places and times where it could happen. Safe and unsafe areas often sit right next to each other and are hard for visitors to tell apart.

Now for a general description of the city: Colón is the largest and economically most important city on Panama’s Caribbean coast and the capital of the province of the same name. It owes its standing to its position at the entrance to the Panama Canal. About 120,000 people live in the city’s catchment area, around 40,000 of them in the center. Its key economic sectors are the free trade zone, the ports, tourism and the Panama Canal, and many workers commute daily from Panama City to jobs there, especially in the free trade zone.

A bit of history: The California Gold Rush of 1848 sent hundreds of thousands of gold seekers through Panama on their way to San Francisco, at first via the Chagres River and the Camino de Cruces. This prompted New York investors to begin building the first transcontinental railway line from the Atlantic to the Pacific in 1850, and in the course of that work the city of Colón was founded on 27 February 1852. The completion of the Panama Railroad in 1855 did away with the arduous overland journey and, with it, the role of Portobelo and Chagres (near Fort San Lorenzo) as transport hubs.

The city was originally called Aspinwall, after one of the founders of the railroad company. The Colombian authorities, however, disliked this American name and renamed the city Colón in honor of Christopher Columbus (the Spanish spelling of Columbus, who had sailed along this coast on his fourth and final voyage). With construction of the Panama Canal from 1881, and again during the US construction phase from 1904 to 1914, the city boomed once more. Many of its now-dilapidated historic buildings date from this period, among them the Hotel Washington near the waterfront.

For decades, Colón’s wealth earned it the nickname Panama’s “Golden Cup” (La Tacita de Oro), but its decline set in during the second half of the 20th century. The city center in particular sank into a slum and has yet to recover. That’s why we recommend not spending the day on the ship or in the city, but joining a guided excursion with us instead!

All about Panama

Everything you need to know about Panama:

• General country info
• Currency
• Health
• Visas
• etc.

To the Panama country info

Reviews

Peter — 10.03.2025 — ★★★★★

We did a wonderfully exciting hike on the Camino Real with Christian; the story of the gold and silver carried by the mule caravans along this route is fascinating. The food in the village was excellent too. Highly recommended!

Why an excursion with Panamatura is something special

English-speaking guides

Every tour is led by experienced English-speaking guides; we’ve been guiding cruise ship groups since 2007.

Easy booking

Payment on site in US dollars, or by bank transfer on request.

Small groups

Small groups make for a personal experience of the country and its culture.

Careful planning, long experience

Smoothly run excursions and punctuality are our hallmarks.