Thread: Excursions on the Panama Canal Trip

Hi Everyone: We will be leaving on the Summit Feb 26. We will be going
to Aruba, Fuerte Amador, Puntarenas, Huatulco, Acapulco, Cabo San Lucas, and Los Angeles. We are not water sports people. Would like to hear of the tours that would be worth while doing. We were on the Summit last year and loved it. Beautiful ship.

Of all the stops you're making, I have only been through Puntarenas! AllieMan (my DH) and I ttok the Poas volcano excursion - I can only say it was utterly amazing! We adored Costa Rica and look forward to when we can travel back there for a longer period of time!

Our cruise only hit a few ports as well.

In Acapulco, I recommend going out to dinner to Su Casa restaurant. A gorgeous view of the bay and fantastic fish. I think they do lunch as well.
http://www.sucasa-acapulco.com/
Visiting the Acapulco Princess hotel is also fun.
Many people go see the divers at La Quebrada. While the divers are very good, their part of the show is not very long, and you have to put up with a lot of stuff just to see them. It's not a long taxi ride out there, but you get swarmed by street children trying to sell you things. Once you are inside, you pay for a seat that includes 2 drinks, which you will need if you have to sit through the dance show we saw when we went in October. If we weren't with a group, I would have left.

Most of the excursions through the cruise ship were not well received. People I met who just grabbed a cab driver and asked for a tour of the city did much better.

At Puntarenas, we went to Tabacon Springs, which was WONDERFUL! It was near the Arenal volcano instead of Poas, so we got to see two natural wonders. It's a 2 hour ride on bumpy roads each way, but I would go again right now if I could.
www.tabacon.com
There is not much to do in Puntarenas, so do consider an excursion. Many people go ziplining here, and love it. I was more interested in seeing the scenery in slow motion.

I have not done much in Aruba besides shop or go out to eat, but Frommers guide book has some driving tours that I would like to try some day. Oh, we did do a submarine trip as well. The reef is still being built up, but we did see a lot of neat sea life, and the guide was very good about explaining what we saw above and below sea level.

Thanks very much for the info. This helps. Do you know taxi prices in Acapulco?
RHorwood

We rented a jeep in Aruba....we had 2 friends with us and it was fun! We got guidebooks, followed their recommendations, and had a great day, without being part of a "long line" of jeeps eating each others dust!

Originally Posted by rhorwood

Do you know taxi prices in Acapulco?
RHorwood

No, but if you go to the Mexico portion of the Cruise Destinations forum on this site, there is an Acapulco information thread where you can ask this question. Roberto of the Acapulco Port Authority checks in from time to time, and is very happy to help people learn as much as possible about his city.

DONOT-I REPEAT-DONOT Take the San Jose Tour-It's 2 1/2 hrs on a bus , and 1 1/2 hrs there, and back again. To top it off we went on a Sunday (who keeps track on a cruise?) Any of the eco-tours are much better!

OK...Sorry this took so long. I actually had to buy a new scanner!!!

These are a couple of pix of the POAS volcano! #1 I AllieMan and the volcano for some perspective - the caldera is 1 1/2 miles across!

And #2, just of the volcano. The blue color of the water is cuased by sulphur and the steam can be toxic. There's alarms around the viewing centers that would go off if the wind turns!

Hi rhorwood - We were there last Nov and grabbed a cab right at the dock - there are vendors just as you leave the Port bldg with the shops that you have to go through and you can dicker with them to a degree - we got a cab for $30 apiece (if we had wanted to wait for a van to fill up we could have gone for about $15 if I remember right) and had a 3 hr guided tour of all the sites in the city. It was really nice.