Traveling with the Jones

We enjoy food tours when we travel to a new destination.  Last weekend, we met our friend James in Panama City, Panama, and looked forward to getting to know the local food culture.

The Taste of Panama City Tour offered by Barefoot Panama and Panama Urban Adventures is normally offered every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday in the Casco Viejo neighborhood.

We were only in Panama from Saturday night until Tuesday morning, so tour company owner Kevin agreed (for an extra charge) to take the three of us on a private tour on Sunday night.

Our Taste of Panama City tour started at the Cafe Unido Coffee Roasters inside the American Trade Hotel. Guide Kevin is procuring our Geisha Coffee, a Panamanian-grown coffee said to be the world’s finest and most expensive coffee.

 

After our coffees, we walked through the Kevin has lived in Panama City for years, so he is very knowledgeable about the city’s history, culture, politics, food and beverages.

Next we headed to the La Rana Dorada cerveceria, a local brewery that makes craft beers in the pub. First we tasted four different kinds of beer, served on a charming “beer boat.”

Then we had a glass of our favorite.

We headed to the fish market, enjoying some terrific views of downtown Panama City during the walk.

Outside of the fish market is Panama’s famous Cevicheria– lots of vendors selling fresh ceviche, and lots of folks eating.

We love fresh ceviche (basically raw fish and/or seafood “cooked” with lemon juice and spices.) Kevin got us two different kinds of ceviche to try, and another sample that was more like a seafood salad with mayonnaise.  We spooned bites of each on a saltine cracker. Seriously delicious.

We ate our ceviche while overlooking some fishing boats. Casco Viejo is in the distance.

Lastly, we walked back to Casco Viejo as the sun was setting, getting a good view of  Ancon Hill, a famous viewpoint in Panama City, Panama.

In Casco Viejo, our last stop was the rooftop bar at Tantalo, an interesting establishment with a restaurant on the first floor, a hotel on the middle floors, and a bar on the roof.

Here we sipped local favorite Ron Abuelo 7 Year Old Panama Rum on the rocks, while taking in the views of the city and of its ‘beautiful’ people.

After our tour ended, we headed down to the first floor dining establishment, where we had a great waiter and a fun tapas dinner.

Our bottom line on The Taste of Panama City Tour offered by Barefoot Panama:

• Kevin was knowledgeable about the food, culture and politics of Panama City. It was interesting to learn about the city from him.
• The beer was fun and the ceviche was delicious,while the rooftop bar provided interesting people watching.
• We found Geisha coffee highly over-rated. We’ll take Malaysia coffee any day.
• The tour was really light on food; it was supposed to include a chocolate stop. We did not ask but perhaps that had to be skipped since it was Sunday.
• Kevin’s passion seems to be adventure tours – taking guests hiking, caving and such.  He is a fun and interesting guy, just not a passionate foodie like most food tour guides that we’ve enjoyed in other countries.
• We found this tour over-priced for the amount of included food and drinks, compared to other food walking tours around the world.
• Still, it was a fun evening, and the tour gave us a much better sense of Panama City.

Have you visited Panama City, Panama? What was your favorite eating or drinking experience? Please share in comments below. 

If we sound a little tough in our review, check out these other food tour posts:

Eating Our Way Through San Telmo With Buenos Aires Food Tours

Eating and Drinking Our Way Through San Juan, Puerto Rico with Spoon Food Tours – Part 1

Walking and Eating With Chicago Food Planet Tours

Experiencing the Best Food of Penang, Malaysia with Heritage on a Plate

Eating Italy’s Best During Our Milan Food Tour

In Search of Milwaukee’s Best Pizza on Milwaukee’s Pizza Bus Tour

Eating Our Way Through Chinatown with Food Tour Singapore

Eating Our Way Through Budapest With Taste Hungary

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Between our travels for business and travel for fun, we stay in a lot of hotels. Mr. Jones frequently stays in one of the 19 different Marriott hotel brands when traveling on business, and we’ve had some fabulous hotel stays via the Marriott Rewards program.

Here is a look inside different Marriott hotels around the world.

United States

A Look Inside the Albuquerque Marriott Hotel

A Look Inside the Hotel Chicago Downtown, Autograph Collection

A View From the Balcony of Room 1213 in the Cincinnati Marriott at RiverCenter

A Peek Inside the Renaissance Fort Lauderdale Cruise Port Hotel – From room 1001, you can see the cruise ships when they are in port.

A Peek Inside the Renaissance Las Vegas Hotel – Here’s a full panoramic view of the dramatic sitting room in Suite 838. There’s a guest bathroom just as you enter the room.

A Look Inside the JW Marriott Marquis Miami Hotel

A Peek Inside the Portland Marriott City Center Hotel

A Peek Inside the San Juan Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino – Room 1810 is considered a King, Oceanfront, with Balcony, and the view is superb.

A Peek Inside the San Francisco Marriott Union Square Hotel – Located at the corner of Sutter and Powell, this Marriott is just one block from San Francisco’s Union Square.

A Peek inside the Stanford Court Renaissance Hotel – San Francisco

Europe

A Peek Inside the Budapest Marriott – Even on a rainy day, the view of the Danube from room #939 is spectacular.

A Peek Inside the Renaissance London Heathrow Hotel

A Peek Inside the Prague Marriott Hotel – We appreciated the large two-room suite here since it was a working vacation. You can see a view of the outside of this Old Town hotel at the top of this post.

Canada

A Peek Inside the Renaissance Toronto Downtown Hotel – This Renaissance hotel has a unique claim to fame: it’s the world’s only hotel located in a major league sports and entertainment venue. The hotel is built into the Rogers Centre, home to the Toronto Blue Jays. Some rooms look into the stadium, but if you do not have one of those you can still get the stadium view from the bar.

Asia / India

A Look Inside the JW Marriott Hotel Mumbai, India – Located on Juhu beach overlooking the Arabian Sea, we’ve stay at this luxurious property favored by business people and Bollywood celebrities during both business and pleasure trips to Mumbai.

 

What’s your favorite Marriott-brand hotel around the world? Please share in comments below. 

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Last weekend we met our friend James in Panama City, Panama. Seeing the Panama Canal was a top priority during our brief visit.

The best place to view the Panama Canal from Panama City is at the Miraflores Locks Visitor Center.

We considered taking a Panama Canal tour, but found the tours to be expensive at $85 to $150 per person, and a long at six to eight hours.

We also considered taking the Hop On Hop Off sightseeing bus to the Miraflores Locks Visitor Center, but that cost $29 per person for a 24 hour pass and was a two-hour loop, with buses only stopping once every hour.

This option would have given us a better overview of the city, however, our group did not want to commit to the timetable.

We decided to try Uber, and scheduled a car from our downtown hotel to the Miraflores Locks Visitor Center. Normally, cab fare is about $15 each way. With Uber, we had a terrific driver and a nice car for about a fare under $11 dollars, and a drive time of just over 15 minutes during a light late Sunday morning traffic.

If you take Uber in Panama City, there are two things to be aware of:

• the driver may have very limited English
• you need Wi-Fi and/or a data plan to order the ride and communicate.

Neither of these issues posed a real challenge for us, as we had free Wi-Fi at our hotel lobby, and there is also free Wi-Fi at the Miraflores Locks Visitor Center.

Admission to Miraflores Locks Visitor Center costs $15 per person. Children 12 and under can visit for $10 each. If you are a resident of Panama, the rates are significantly lower.

Admission includes entrance to the museum and a viewing of  3-D movie about the Panama Canal. The movie is shown in English about one time per hour. 3-D glasses are handed out as you enter the theater.

After the movie, we headed to the fourth floor viewing area to watch ships transiting the canal.

The viewing deck can be very crowded, and the location needs to ban selfie sticks. Regardless, watching ships move through the canal is fascinating.

One tip if the viewing deck is crowded: grab a rail spot on the side where the ship will pass after it goes through the lock.

We loved this “side” view.

Another place to cool off is at the outdoor tables for the bar and restaurant on level two. We headed to the side area and enjoyed local Balboa beers for about $5 each.

Our last stop (determined purely by the timing of the 3-D movie and ships transiting the canal) was the museum. It covers four floors and has lots of interactive and information exhibits about the canal — from its beginnings more than 100 years ago to today.

The Miraflores Locks Visitor Center is open Monday – Sunday (holidays included) from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

We spent about 2 and a half hours at the museum before ordering a ride through Uber back to our hotel downtown. The traffic was a little heavier on Sunday afternoon, but the return trip cost $11.51 through Uber and took about 18 minutes.

Our bottom line on visiting the Panama Canal from Panama City, Panama:

• You don’t need a tour. Just get transportation to and from the Miraflores Locks Visitor Center, and enjoy your visit.

Have you visited the Panama Canal? Or transited it via a cruise ship? What is your recommendation? Please share in comments below. 

To learn more about Panama City, Panama, check out 20 Fun Facts About Panama City, Panama.

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