Panama canal tour in Colon

Great place. Ive been a 7 times over the last 6 months and this was by far the best. Normally the service is shocking and thats putting it lightly. We go back so much as the area is amazing and we love the hikes. This time it was great. We got a free upgrade and had a lovely stay.

Excelent place to be near to the nature, great customer attention and good food

We went to the Gamboa Rainforest Reserve for a 3 hour fishing trip, booked through the hotel tour desk, and it was fantastic! The scenery alone is worth the trip as you cruise down the Panama Canal, past the large ships, and then back into the lake system. We saw snail kites galore so it’s a great spot if you enjoy birds. The guide was terrific and the fishing fantastic! I was hauling in peacock bass like crazy as was my friend, many of which were large enough to keep. The highlight of the day was trolling for snook! My friend hooked one first and it was huge and a fighter! Then it was my turn and I got a good one as well. When we returned, the guide cleaned and filleted all of our fish (much to the joy of the waiting crocodileand then took us up to the hotel where they cooked them for us. Lunch on the veranda overlooking the lagoon with our own fresh caught fish was the perfect end to a perfect day!

Lost in the middle of Panama, this place is a mix of ancient 40s luxury and modern nature entertainment. The swimming pool is great, the food as well.

Excellent but if you stay bring your own food

Gamboa was by far the best part of our trip to Panama. The staff was very friendly and accommodating. There is wildlife all around the Reserve. there are a lot of activities to do during the day or you just relax in the beautiful pool. I will absolutely be staying here again next time I come to Panama.

Beautiful rainforest, but the hotel is Expensive for what is offered.

Great location, surrounded by nature, lovely views. The room was spacious, decent aircon and wifi, room safe, coffee maker, fridge. Balcony with hammock and lake views. I did a very good pipeline walk then Lake Gatun boat trip. Saw lots of wildlife, monkeys, agouti, sloth, turtles, caiman, birds. The included 20 minute "nocturnal safari" is worth doing. The breakfast buffet and food at the Monkey Bar are fine. The area surrounding the hotel is full of birds and animals, you can wander around, down to the marina or around the grounds and you will spot lots of things. At the moment the ground is very soggy underfoot. Away from the main hotel area the grounds look rather neglected and in need of work. I dont know if that is seasonal or permanent. The surrounding houses, some occupied, some empty have a similar, going back to nature, feel to them. Staff were efficient enough but I would not describe them as friendly. The pool area was very noisy on one of the afternoons although the hotel seemed generally very quiet.

Worth the drive! This incredible reserve is committed to helping all animals in need whether it be permanent sanctuary or respite. The guides, both employed and volunteers, are knowledgeable and kind. Bring bug spray, sunscreen, and cash to support the beautiful indigenous women selling their handmade gifts. I promise youll love Gamboa Rainforest Reserve.

Extremely rude front office staff, arrogant (prepotentes). Would not recommend...

Absolutely NOT a 5 star hotel, if looking for 1 or 2 star it’s ok.Negatives- during rain (which is a daily event during rainy seasonthere is water leakage all over. This is dangerous as many places it’s easy to slip and fall as there’s pools of water on the ground.- the air conditioning was not working in our room but it was loud!- we were promised a connecting door between two room for our family with young children. They didn’t have this when we got to hotel. We were fine with one room so we ended up with that after 20 min of waiting for them to find us a two rooms. We have young kids under 10 and were not going to allow them to sleep in a room by themselves as they told us we needed to.- the balcony is NOT safe for children. They could easily get between to the bars and fall.- food is overpriced. $26 for an adult but down the road you can get a full meal for $6 that was really good.- most of the chairs by the pool were broken-pool area definitely needs a refresh.-chair in our room was broken.- the tv doesn’t work when it rains.Positives- room was clean- breakfast was amazing (except I’m pretty sure I got food poising from it, can’t be sure but highly suspect).- pool was large and hardly anyone there.-views were breathtakingWe decided not to do the activities after arriving here as they seemed really overpriced as the hotel is. It wasn’t awful, definitely not 5 stars and we are glad we only stayed a night.

Gamboa is an amazing place to relax and enjoy nature. This resort is comfy but the rooms are quite old. We enjoyed our stay as a family. The resort has different tours that you can book such as monkey island. In the evening there is a night safari which is free for hotel guests. There is a port next to the bike tantalum where you can hire a boot from local people who can bring you to the Embera puru village. They can bring you to monkey island as well.

Reserve in the middle of the rainforest was awsome.Took a boat tour to see three types of monkies.Saw ships crossing the canal as we traveled.Food was delicious reasonable prices.A lot to do if you like the outdoors.

One of the worst travel experiences of my life. Our room reeked of mildew and the air conditioner was loud and rumbly. There was mold on the bathroom sink. The lobby was dirty, the lobby bathroom smelled like a homeless person and was full of bugs, and the food was borderline inedible at both the Monkey Bar for lunch and the buffet for dinner. Some of the staff was friendly but most were indifferent if not rude. The aerial tram was rickety and none of the tour guides provided any information on what we were seeing. We’d initially planned to stay for a couple of days but couldn’t wait to get out of there.

Most beautiful place I have been in a long time and not just because I got engaged there. Will be back in the future.

The website is a scam. I made a reservation and put in my credit card information, and received no confirmation about my dates or payment. Three months later they charged me for not showing up, and refused to give me a refund. They said their system isnt responsible for sending confirmations.

Beautiful! We stumbled upon the hotel and the Monkey bar on our way to the Sloth Sanctuary. The Sloth Sanctuary was nice. Saw 5 orphaned Sloths that are being taken care of by the staff. The boat cruise to Monkey Island was amazing. Lunch at Monkey bar was nice. The menu is limited but good. The view makes it all worthwhile. Definitely worth the stop to the Rainforest Hotel.

Worst hotel in Panama City. If you are thinking about staying here, think twice. Their costumer service is the WORST Ive experienced (and Ive visited many hotels in the country). They are rude and would do NOTHING to help you if you need something. I had an issue due to covid and they said they would help me with the reservation and they never did. They tell you something first and then completely change it. BEWARE of their manager "Aurelio", he is a complete liar and would say things without proof.Their "5 star" hotel should be lower than 2 stars. They only care about the money and forget they have to improve their attention towards guests. If they stay like this their reputation will continue to go down. Me and my family will make sure no never go there again :)

(Would like to start by saying I only went here to for one of the hotels day tours, but I did not stay at the hotel overnight.The Gamboa resort does not seem to provide a true feel for the country. The restaurant at the hotel does not offer any local food, only poor adaptations of Western cuisine (had to wait half an hour, they brought me the wrong food and made me pay extra for it). The actual town of Gamboa, a ~20 minute walk away, has great local food. The view from the hotel is nice, but I would feel very bored staying here. Ubers/Cabs to Panama City are hard to come by. Their tours are definitely worth doing, but youll find yourself with little to do after they are over.

The boat tour was excellentThe hotel needs better options for drinks and foodSome areas are unkept

The food here is really good and the drinks are excellent. They have a roof to bar with spectacular views. The place does start hopping off till around 11 or 12. Then its on.

Good view and location but needs tender loving care

Beautiful hotel with an amazing view! You can also here the howler monkeys and ever night is a small Jungle Night Tour in a car. The pool is good, the library is amazing, the hotel even has a cinema and a pool room! Only thing which wasn’t great, were the mosquitos…

great ecotourism resort right on the Panama Canal. lots of fun activities

The Gamboa is one of my favorite places in the world. You are surrounded by nature on every side. The birds and other animals you see every day are just incredible! They also offer a wide variety of tours and experiences. My wife and I have been there twice and even though we were just there, we cant wait to go back!

Nice place but definitely needs maintenance, the bathrooms have a bad smell and there’s funguses all over the roof and in some areas around the pool, this last one needs maintenance as well and the personnel is nice but they need to work on their communication

Beautiful! Make sure you visit the sloths!

We did not stay. We merely went into to see what it would be like for future visit. Staff was very friendly. Gorgeous surroundings. Offers many tours.

THE WORST HORROR HOTEL!We have been to the resort 4 times in one year... All the way from Germany....Very unattentive, rude and arrogant staff, the souvenir store is always closed... The toilets are dirty, the paint is cracking off the walls at the whole hotel, the couches and love chairs in the Lobby are filthy and the worst is the food.... A Burger is a small piece of meat on an over-sized bun with no taste cheese sauce on top. No lettuce... No nothing...... I met the food and beverage manager, a very rude man from Costa Rica named Giovanni Calvo. If he is responsible for food and beverage, please replace him! The worst part of the staff is the arrogant guy on the desk reception counter , Viktor, who works at the resort since November 2021, with round big circled tatoos on his arm. He even told me, he doesnt have a boss and I cant talk to the boss, when I pointed out the shortcomings. I have been in this resort 4 times and twice with a day pass.... Never again.... Its getting worse and worse

Nice enough place, needs tome TLC as it is showing alot of wear and tear and lack of maintenance. Staff is relatively friendly, great buffet breakfast, huge pool, all rooms have a hammock and a view, 20 minute evening wildlife tour included. Paid meals are a bit pricey for what they are (food felt like it was frozen vs. cooked fresh). Great place for a single night stay to check it out but not much going on in the area and onsite activities are all on premises and priced a bit high for what they are.

The hotel/resort needs much TLC. Service is rather spotty at times. Great location to explore Gamboa but I wouldnt stay but a few days. Overall the resort gets a "meh". Some cool things to do in Gamboa though

There are a lot of positives about the hotel. It has a stunning lobby and overlook of the Chagres River. The rooms were clean and comfortable, and the hammock on the balcony was very nice for an afternoon rest. The Night Safari rides are wonderful for kids and adults alike, I saw capybaras and owls though it really depends on how lucky you get. The pool area is a little run down. The tennis courts are not usable. The food was okay-- The included breakfast was good and the Monkey Bar has some good items on the menu. Unlike others who mentioned long check in times, we were checked in within minutes. The tours (aerial tram and Gatun Lake boat touroffered by the hotel were great! You can also get Ubers at the hotel, but be prepared to wait about 30 minutes.

Great location, tours and pool. The cocktails included in the all inclusive deal are watered down and are too sweet. The food is disappointing.

I paid for the #MeetGamboa… smh, the Aerial Tram was broken and they insisted on charging me bc it was part of the “package” We went back and forth that how can they charge me for something THEY don’t have available😞 the supervisor tried everything she could. Fast forward to dinner, nothing made sense! Fish, fried meat, pasta, soup, it was like a bunch of things that did not belong together with an ok flavor. It was already a disaster, the place looks ran down, so there was not much to do, we went to our room to be received by ROACHES… we were covering ourselves up on this tiny and hard bed and the AC was a piece of… we were sweating and could not sleep at all!! If I wanted the ‘rough’ jungle experience I would have not paid almost 400$ for the night 🤦🏻‍♀️

This place is incredibly beautiful! I was on a tour and we stopped here, if I ever travel to Panama again, I will definitely stay here! The view is incredible and the property is just magnificent!

Even post pandemic and with many services still closed, the staff is super friendly and the views are spectacular.

This was a hotel of extremes. I got the impression that they had been decimated by covid and were just starting to recover. Some parts deserved 5 stars while other deserved 1. The public areas were incredible. Great views, very nicely done, clean, ect. I couldn’t say enough good things about the public areas.The restaurant and bar had great views and the staff were nice, but the food was mediocre for the price. Just one example was the chicken in almond sauce (picturedwhere the sauce had cooked dry. If this had been the only thing it wouldn’t have been a problem but this type of thing was typical of all the food.Unfortunately the room had limited positives and was in need of renovation. There was a little mold in the shower, one of the electrical outlets had melted, there was an electrical plate completely missing, the temperature setting on the air conditioner didn’t work so we came home from dinner to the room at 62 degrees. We ended up having to get up a few time during the night to manually turn it on or off.The tours again were a little overpriced and it was difficult to get information on them. We tried contacting the hotel before we got there about the tours and never could get a response. When we got there they informed us that none of the tours were running that day. The next morning we were able to get a nature walk and the sanctuary.Also the pool closes at 6pm.While this isnt the hotels fault at all, if you take an Uber to get here, be careful as it can be hard to get one back to Panama City. We managed to get one but another couple we met earlier that day hadn’t been able to so we ended up splitting it.Overall, I would definitely come back to see the place, maybe get a drink, or do a tour, but if I could stay somewhere else I probably would.

We went to the Sloth, butterfly and frog Sanctuary Tour. The only person attending was the lady who charged us. A friend recommended this tour said there were guides who presented information on the animals. There wasnt any guide in the whole sanctuary. I tried to send a complaint through the hotel but no solution yet...

Weve always loved this place. We have stayed several times and intend to return. However, the Monkey Bar food, where we dined for lunch during our day trip, needs much improvement. The soup served to one of our party of 4 was inedible. The beef was too tough to cut and the broth had a terrible flavor. No wait staff member came to check on the food after it was served, so that we could tell them about the soup. We did insist that the price of it be taken off the check, but there was no time to order anything different, so the person who ordered it left hungry..

Had to wait two hours for them to find our reservation, bed was broken (I though the frame was going to fall on my head at night), coffee machine did not have capsules, breakfast line up for omlettes was 40 minutes long, pool was dirty with extremely loud and terrible racataca music that could be heard throughout the entire hotel and all rooms. Staff was incompetent, pool area was dirty, chairs were broken, glasses werent washed. Dinner was underwhelming, burgers were overcooked

Beautiful views of the river and rainforest. The rooms were less to be desired. The showers had no water pressure and the resort itself is in need of upkeep.

The Breakfast was good with a good variety. The room was fine but needs some repairs. The employees were extra friendly and the tours is what made the stay worth the price!.

I had a similar experience to the review posted a week ago. Tried to contact them directly to book and enquire for information. They were unreachable, I was referred to whatsapp, which had a wrong number and someone picked up that complained to stop contacting them. Disappointing experience as I would have liked to have booked a stay + tours with them. I cannot book with you if I am unable to receive information or contact you easily. Please improve.

We did not stay overnight, but tried to book a tour in advance, booking contact form was never answered. Phone wasnt picked up and we were referred to contact them on Whats app. Sent 3 messages without anyone getting in touch. We then decided to go to the hotel directly to get information about tours. The tour desk was not staffed and no information was available at all. It is quite frustrating if getting information is so hard, also very unprofessional if customers do not get any answer to their requests.

Amazing staff!! We did most of the offered activities -- the night safari is a must! The aerial tram is amazing and go see an Embera village, had an amazing time here! Francis and Ana in particular were phenomenal. Wonderful people here.

We didnt stay at the resort but visited the Tree Trek. We went for the zipline but it was closed on Wednesdays. Instead we didnt the gondola tour and hiked to the top of the observation deck to view the jungle the beginning of the Panama Canal. I would recommend if your into nature and hiking.

Absolutely gorgeous location, has potential to be a paradise but disappointed due to lack of upkeep. With a bit of TLC it could be wonderful. The staff is friendly, albeit not very well trained or organized. Many of them are multi tasking and simply do not have the answers you may seek, like for example, where do I get pool towels? We asked three different people (including front desk staffand were given three different answers. Breakfast and dinner included are very nice and the view from the restaurant is spectacular, especially in the morning. The room was clean and the bed and bedding comfortable. That being said, there was a lingering musty odor all over the hotel and damage from humidity was evident in the room, which came with its own dehumidifyer (which my husband emptied early in the morning). The pool was perhaps the biggest disappointment since the water was green and not clear, even though locals were swiming in it not seeming to notice. We were given a free tour of a butterfly and frog exhibit which could have been spectacular, but was in fact a little sad and empty, with just a few survivors lurching around. The sloth rescue was actually very nice and informative as well as the night time safari. Overall, it´s fine for a one night weekend getaway as long as you don´t have high expectations, just remember to bring your own hair dryer.

I had the pleasure to spend 10 days here. A really nice place, situated well, deep in the jungle, the scenery is breathtaking. The apartments are good and cozy. Although it advertise itself as a 5-star hotel, but if I looked at the service they gave I would consider it is really far away from even any star. The doorlock stopped working in the middle of my stay, and they couldn’t fix it, so I had to have my door open for the last 5 days what was kinda uncomfortable. The food was tasty, but they served really small portions, even the buffet was limited. If we had a question, we had to spend about 30-40 minutes at the reception for nothing, the receptionists were always on the phone all the time and had nice conversations in front of you without any disturbance. Probably this non-caring situation happened because of the lockdown, and it was obvious they didn’t have enough staff, the maid who cleaned your room cleaned the pool afterwards, served you the coffee an hour later in the cafe and you could even meet her at the reception desk as well. It was a bit weird, but this might be the reason they could not even complete anything what we asked for.

The resort is very good. Not 5star but very clean and everyone is friendly. Rooms are good size and well kept. Various tours available some free and some for a price. Food is very good mostly buffet style with minor variety changes each day. The location is quiet and piece full. Pool is large and swim up bar is nice. Recommend it to relax and probably about 3 to 4 day is enough to see and do everything they have to offer.

The service was great. It was a very beautiful experience. I really like the nature especially waking up to the different birds singing in the morning. The food was great. This is a great place to visit because you are close to the canal, the animals, and the zoo. The staff was very friendly, willing to take care of you in a minutes notice.