After arriving at Panama City City Airport, you'll be met by your English-speaking driver/guide who will transfer you to your hotel of choice. The remainder of the day is free for relaxing or exploring on your own.

(Accommodations, Panama City)

After breakfast, meet your guide for an informative Private City Tour. Visit the ruins of Old Panama, climb up the Cathedral tower, visit the Old Panama Museum and then continue to Casco Viejo (the old city compound), which dates back to the late 1600's. A bilingual guide will describe the events in history leading up to the eventual movement of the capital city to its present location. Casco Viejo is home of monuments of Ferdinand de Lesseps and other Frenchmen instrumental in the ill-fated attempt of the French to construct a canal through Panama. Visit the Panama Canal Museum and the Miraflores Locks at the Panama Canal where large ships can be seen transiting the canal. Enjoy a presentation by the Panama Canal Authority about the history of the Panama Canal and marvel at the workings of this feat of human engineering. Afterwards lunch will be served at a local restaurant. The tour then continues to the Panama Canal area, including the town of Balboa, a former part of the Panama Canal Zone. In the late afternoon you will return to your hotel in Panama City.

(Breakfast, Lunch & Accommodations, Panama City)

Now you've explored the city, head out to the jungle. Early in the morning you will be picked up at the hotel lobby by our Naturalist Guide for a 45-minute drive to the town of Gamboa, where the Chagres River meets the Panama Canal. Here you will board a boat starting a jungle-adventure expedition across the Gatun Lake in the Panama Canal, passing by monumental cargo ships transiting the waterway. Along the way, watch out for Green iguanas and three toed sloths resting on tree branches, Crocodiles, Ospreys on the hunt for Peacock basses, Snail kites and Keel-billed toucans, amongst many other wildlife species. The boat tour will circle rainforest-covered islands (former hill tops) in the Gatun Lake to search for the White-faced Capuchin, Mantled Howler Monkey, Central American Spider Monkey, and Geoffrey's Tamarin. After the boat tour we will head towards the Soberania National Park for a hiking tour around the trails of the lush forest.

Or, if your dates coincide with a canal transit, you can take to the famous canal by boat. Admire the Bay of Panama and Panama City's splendorous skyline during your partial transit of the Panama Canal Partial. You will pass by the impressive Las Americas Bridge and transit the Miraflores Locks, where your vessel will ascend 54 feet in two distinct steps. Afterwards, you enter the Miraflores Lake, a small artificial body of fresh water that separates the locks of Pedro Miguel from the Miraflores Locks. As a next step, the vessel will enter the Pedro Miguel Locks, which is one of the two sets of locks on the Pacific side. Here the vessel will be raised the last 27 feet to get into the Gatun Lake. From here you will go under the Centennial Bridge, making your way to the Gatun Lake, which was formed by erecting the Gatun Dam across the Chagres River.

(Breakfast & Accommodations, Panama City)

After a leisurely breakfast, you'll have a private transfer to Panama City Airport and on to your next Avanti Destination!

(Breakfast, Panama City)