Any suggestions? I am leaning towards the kayaking.

Im curious as well!

My family is leaning toward going on the Ferry through the locks.  It has gotten really good reviews.

I did the Panama Canal Tour last time I was there. Exepensive, but well worth it if you've never done it.  Absolutely amazing, but be aware that this tour will use ALL the time you're in port.  You may have a half hour to shop in the port shops if you're lucky. 

Jeff

I am glad to hear another good review about the Canal Ferry. I read the other one on CruiseCritic. I will be traveling on the Freedon to Panama and am continually looking for reviews on line at CruiseCritic and Cruisemates

We jsut got back from there on Miracle. We did the Panama Canal Ferry. It was a long but very interesting day. In the Atlantic in the morning, Pacific in the afternoon and back. Definitely book through Carnval on this one as we arrived back very late. We had friends who did the kayaking and others that did panama city. both enjoyed there excursions as well. I would not worry about too much shopping Panama. Look for some local coffee and you will be set.

We are looking into excursions there too.  Has anyone ever taken the train to the old canal zone?  It is the one we are looking into.  We lived in Panama in the 90's and want our 2 kids to see the areas we lived when they were born there.  I kinda want to know how much of the old canal zone this trip visits.

If you like to see animals in the wild any of the ecological trips like kyaking would be amazing.  The jungle is full of animals most people have never seen in the wild.  learning more about the canal would be nice too.

P.S.  has anyone found a cruise that goes through the canal and stops at Colon?

Hi we just got back from the Miracle & went to Colon. We had an amazaing excursion with Myfriendmario.com. Our guide was Laurie and she knew everything about the area. We went to the locks & got to see a ship go through & then we left to go to an Indian Village where they cooked us lunch and danced & sang for us & showed us how they live. It was amazing how they opened up their village to us. Laurie answered any questions we had, she stopped & bought us empanadas & fruit and had snacks & water,beer & soft drinks whenever you wanted. The advantage was there were  only 14 people on our excursion. we will never go on one of the cruise line excursion again as long as we can help it. You get to experience so much more when you book off the boat. They are also licensed with the tourism board in Panama & they make sure you are on time back to the boat. I highly recommend them to anyone going to panama!

 Thanks for the info, our group is going next year and I was wondering about tours.  Do you remember seeing any ATV tours?