At Tocumen Airport, a guide will meet you and accompany you to your hotel. After a long flight, it's a relief to have someone right there to help with your first questions in an unfamiliar country. That's how a private Panama tour works: the meet-and-greet and transfer are arranged in advance, and all you have to do is settle into the car and take your first look at the capital through the window.

If you've chosen a tour with an English-speaking guide, you can ask about the city on the way and find out where to head in the evening. The first evening is left free: whether to start exploring the capital today or save the walk for tomorrow is up to you.

A Panama City tour surprises you from the very first encounter: glass towers rise above tropical greenery, and palms flash between the high-rises. The capital greets you with humid warmth and the energy of a big city. You'll want to study the upper floors, catch reflections of the sky in the facades, and guess where the ocean begins beyond the dense development.

After that, Casco Antiguo Panama: Plaza Bolivar, the Church of San Jose with its unique Golden Altar, the National Theatre, and the Cathedral Square with the Museum of the Panama Canal.

Then on to the Amador Causeway, the most striking neighborhood in the vibrant capital of Panama City. It was once three separate small islands in the ocean: Naos, Perico, and Flamenco. 
Lunch not included. Your guide recommends a restaurant on site.

After breakfast, your Panama City sightseeing tour begins with a drive toward the water. At the Panama Canal, the tour takes you to the visitor center, where you can watch ships pass through. Standing at the Miraflores Locks, you watch with a thrill at the closeness of a massive vessel: you can see the water level change and the hull gradually rise or descend. Once you understand how the locks work, you look at a ship's movement between the oceans quite differently.

At the Museum of Biodiversity in Panama, designed by Frank Gehry, your attention shifts from engineering to nature. The exhibits help you picture how the landscapes formed and why so many animals and plants are found here.

In Casco Viejo, Panama reveals itself in stone, stucco and church facades. After lunch, you'll walk the streets and plazas of the historic center, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Among the colonial buildings with French influence, you'll want to linger over the details: study the balconies, look up at the cornices.

In the afternoon, return to your hotel.

After breakfast, your Chagres River tour begins with a journey by traditional canoe through the tropical forest: from the water, you'll take in the dense canopy and listen as the splash against the hull mingles with birdsong.

In the Emberá village, Panama opens up to you through an encounter with people whose daily lives are closely tied to the forest. The Emberá people will introduce you to their music and dances. Following the performers' movements, you'll feel the mood of celebration, and at the local artisans' stalls, you can study their crafts up close and learn how they're made.

It's especially fascinating to hear the stories about medicinal plants: greenery that looks familiar takes on names and uses you'd never have guessed. Traditional Emberá cuisine adds new flavors to the encounter over lunch. Here you'll want to ask questions, listen closely to the answers and remember the faces.

After the cultural program, you'll continue your trip to Gamboa, where you'll check into your hotel.

If you are fascinated by indigenous cultures and river journeys through pristine jungle, our Amazon VIP Experience offers a similarly immersive encounter with remote communities and the rich biodiversity of the rainforest.

After breakfast, you'll head to Soberanía National Park. A boat tour on Lake Gatun turns you into a tracker: your eyes search for movement among the branches, pick out an iguana on the shore, linger on a turtle by the water. Monkey watching in Panama will stay with you through the rustle of leaves and sudden leaps between the canopy. You may even spot a caiman. All the more surprising, then, to see a vessel nearby: this man-made lake is part of the Panama Canal.

At the nurseries, you'll study orchids, butterflies and frogs, and at the Panama sloth rescue center, you'll meet animals that specialists are helping. After searching among the greenery, such a close encounter lets you notice details that previously escaped your gaze.

In the afternoon, you'll be driven to Albrook Airport for a flight to David, the capital of Chiriquí Province. From there, a private transfer takes you to your hotel. Your Boquete tour continues your encounter with the country's nature among the mountains, where a volcano and a coffee farm await you the next day.

In Boquete, Panama, the tour begins with a 4x4 drive. The road carries you through mountain scenery to Barú Volcano, the country's highest point. As the vehicle gains altitude, you'll want to watch out the window, noticing the outlines of the valley falling away below. At the summit, you'll step out of the car: on a clear day, both the Caribbean and Pacific coasts are visible from here. Try to take in both directions at once and picture the country between two oceans.

After returning to Boquete, there's time to rest. Then, at the Lamastus Elida Estate coffee farm, you'll learn about life on the plantation. This is where Panama coffee grows: you'll study the plantings and trace the journey the beans make from cultivation to processing.

This is also where the famous Geisha coffee of Panama is grown, and you'll hear why connoisseurs prize this variety so highly.

Return to your hotel.

For travelers who appreciate rare high-altitude coffees and colonial-era plantations, our Brazil Coffee and Magic Gardens tour takes you through baroque botanical gardens and historic coffee estates in the heart of Brazil's mountain region.

After breakfast, you'll head to Panama's Pacific coast. Your Chiriquí boat tour begins as you head out into the gulf: the wind brushes your face, the boat rocks gently, and green strips of land appear ahead. The islands of the Gulf of Chiriquí are best studied on the approach, picking out with your eyes the spot where the trees part before a beach.

Chiriquí National Marine Park invites you to spend the day by the water: step ashore, feel the warm sand underfoot and tune in to the surf. On a secluded beach, you notice the small things: a translucent wave at your feet, the gleam of wet sand, the shadow of coastal greenery.

If the weather and sea conditions allow, snorkeling in Panama will introduce you to underwater life. With a mask on, you'll dip your face into the water and see how life continues beneath the surface, invisible from the boat. You'll want to remember the Gulf of Chiriquí exactly like this: sun on your shoulders, salty droplets on your skin. After the excursion, return to Boquete, with free time left for relaxation.

If you are captivated by dramatic high-altitude views and cloud forest ecosystems, our Great South America tour connects you to the continent's most spectacular mountain scenery, from the Uyuni Salt Flats to the Andes.

After breakfast, you'll leave Boquete: a private transfer takes you to Panama's Caribbean archipelago. The drive takes about four hours, and there's plenty to see out the window. You'll watch how the mountain outlines of Chiriquí gradually give way to coastal scenery. You won't want to miss the first glimpses between the trees: ahead lies the sea and the islands of Bocas del Toro.

A Bocas del Toro tour appeals to those who love alternating beach time with discoveries. People come here for snorkeling, surfing and tropical shores where the forest meets the sand. The beaches vary: some are perfect for watching the surf and surfers, others for finding sheltered spots to swim away from the waves.

Once you see the turquoise waters of Panama's Caribbean, you'll surely want to linger on the shore: watching sunlight glide across the surface, picking out the shades near the coast and farther out. In the days ahead, your encounter with the archipelago continues.

In Bocas del Toro, the tour leaves you three days to get to know island life. Here tropical forest sits beside beaches, mangroves reach the water, and water taxis run between the islands. You can choose an optional excursion or head wherever you'd like to spend the day, checking the route and cost of the trip.

A Caribbean coast vacation in Panama is especially appealing for the chance to mix things up: study the surroundings in the morning, swim during the day, then settle in the shade and listen to the surf. After mountain roads, it feels good to stretch out on the sand and watch the waves erase footprints at the water's edge.

If you've chosen a Caribbean tour for two, there's plenty of room to find privacy: to stroll together, sit by the water, swim without watching the clock. Or explore the archipelago by boat, picking new islands and beaches to relax on.

If you are drawn to pristine Caribbean beaches and world-class marine life, our Beaches of Brazil tour offers equally unforgettable coastal experiences, including diving at Fernando de Noronha and exploring the coral reefs of Recife.

From the boat, the archipelago promises a whole series of discoveries: a dolphin's fin may flash above the water, a sloth may appear among the branches, and a beach may open up beyond the green shore.

Dolphin watching in Bocas awaits: minutes of waiting as you scan the surface, then suddenly a snout and back break the water. The dolphins swim off into the distance, and you'll want to remember how their backs gleamed in the sun.

At Cayo Coral, snorkeling lets you watch marine life up close. Bocas sea stars delight with bright orange and reddish hues: against the pale sandy bottom, their five-pointed silhouettes are visible through the clear water.

We may stop at Zapatilla Island, where you can swim and relax on the beach: after the boat, it feels good to have sand underfoot. Along the way, try to spot the sloths of Bocas del Toro among the branches. Their silhouettes are easily mistaken for part of the canopy.

After returning, you'll have free time for walks or rest.

Before your evening flight, you'll have your last hours in Bocas del Toro. You can step out to the water one more time, linger on the shore and remember how the island greenery reflects in the sea. Then you'll head to the airport and return to the capital, where you'll be met and taken to your hotel.

A combined Panama tour leaves you with a variety of images: a ship between the walls of a lock, mountain slopes, coffee plantings and Caribbean beaches. The Panama City - Boquete - Bocas tour lets you experience city life, highlands and islands in one trip. Now, behind each name stands a distinct impression for you.

You'll recall the historic center of Panama City: a walk through the plazas, old churches, looking up at the balconies. The colonial architecture of Panama City will stay in your memory alongside the glass high-rises you saw on your first day.

By now the capital feels familiar: after the transfer, you'll check into your hotel for the final night. Tomorrow, the journey home begins.

At breakfast, you'll want to go over your impressions one more time. A Panama tour stays with you for the way its colors sit side by side: the glassy sheen of the capital, the dense greenery along the Chagres, the mountain distances of Boquete and the Caribbean turquoise. The scent of humid forest, the salty coastal air, the coffee plants on the slopes - all come flooding back. You marveled at the size of ships in the locks, tuned in to Emberá music, searched for animals among the branches.

Your guided Panama tour introduced you to how the canal works, the life of indigenous peoples and how coffee is grown. A Central America vacation left you with other pleasures too: warm sand, swimming, a long gaze out to sea.

If your schedule allows, you can take a walk around the capital before your flight. At the appointed time, a private transfer takes you to Tocumen Airport. It's time to head home, but your mind will linger by the sea a while longer.

The best journeys stay with us even after we return - in photographs, in memories, and in the feeling that the world has renewed itself and become a little wider.