Day Trips From Panama City With Kids

This post contains affiliate links. If you book or buy through them we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. See our Affiliate Disclosure.

Getting to the Caribbean Side of Panama

Of all the day trips from Panama City with kids, this is the one we’d do again tomorrow. We drove across to the Caribbean side for the day: the channels at Venas Azules, a few hours on the beach at Isla Mamey, then the ruins and the town at Portobelo on the way back. It’s a long day, about two hours in the car each way, and it was worth every minute.

I really wanted to make an effort to get to the Caribbean while we were in Panama because the girls had never been in the Caribbean Sea.  After looking around online at destinations attainable in a single day adventure, I settled on visiting Venas Azules and the UNESCO Ruins in Portobelo.  I hired a tour guide/driver to help me as there were not a lot of resources online to piece the adventure together on my own.  He recommended we also head to the Island of Mamey which ended up being the highlight of the day for the kids!  Our tour guide picked us up at 7am and we hit the road on our two hour drive to the Caribbean…

We headed straight to the water so the boat owner didn’t think we got cold feet and took another fair.  Our tour guide lined all of this up with the locals for us.  He told us to bring everything we would need for the day, water, snacks and lunch, in case nothing was available as it is a bit remote.   This was Kaida’s fist boat ride on the ocean and she was a bit nervous, but not as nervous as mom who gets super seasick!!  Fortunately the waters were fairly calm and I made it through the day without feeding any fish.

Venas Azules in Portobelo National Park

First stop was Venas Azules. Located in Portobelo National Park in Colón, Venas Azules is made up of channels of turquoise waters, surrounded by mangroves.  It is beautiful!!!

It also used to be home o a lot of starfish.  Unfortunately the tourists have mostly destroyed the starfish population by picking them up out of the water for photos and unintentionally causing their untimely demise.  Our boat captain was excited to see a starfish on our adventure that day. He was hopeful that they would soon return, and new rules among the locals are helping to curb tourists from handling and harming the wildlife.

We then headed through “lovers lane” or something like that is how the locals refer to it.  It was a narrow channel of mangroves that was spectacular to venture through.  Mangroves are such an important part of our ecosystem so it was great being able to share them with the kids and educate them a bit on their importance to our planet.

It was very peaceful and my personal favorite part of the day!

Isla Mamey, the Beach the Kids Never Wanted to Leave

Next we arrived at Isla Mamey!  The beautiful petit island with white sand beaches surrounded by crystal clear waters.  We went on a Friday so there weren’t any crowds.  It can be quite busy on Saturday and Sundays.

To say the kids were stoked is an understatement.  They were ready to abandon ship before we even hit the shore.  They couldn’t wait to dip their little toes (I mean throw their whole bodies) into the water!!

We rented a cabana for $20USD for the day.  It was totally worth it to have shade right on the beach where the girls wanted to play.  I am also not a lover of sand and happy to have a chair that keeps me off the ground!  Turns out the island now has a restaurant that operates on weekends but we had already packed a lunch.  The girls begrudgingly pulled themselves out of the water long enough to eat a sandwich.

Near the restaurant, the island also had dressing rooms and bathrooms.  It was a great little set up for the day.

We didn’t have snorkeling gear, but we sill saw lots of fish swimming around us in the clear waters.  The girls had fun checking out algae and anything else worth inspecting.  They would have been happy at that beach for the rest of the week had I let them stay.  It really was a spectacular spot, with incredible views and not too many people around.

Our boat captain hung around until we were ready to depart, and we invited him and our driver hang out in our cabana in chairs in the shade. We decided to pack up around 3pm, tears were shed.  We hopped in our boat and headed back to Portobelo.  Pictured below, Portobelo is a very small town, but charming and colorful nonetheless.

Portobelo Town, the Congo Museum and Local Crafts

Casa Cultura Congo, Picture below, is a small museum about the area.  If you are interested to learn a little history about the area and its people.

A couple doors down from the museum was the store Bohemia.  The owner was selling locally made crafts so I picked up a few gifts for friends back home.  Prices here were very fair and I liked knowing that I was supporting locals who made the goods.  They definitely didn’t appear to be mass produced or imported.

The Bateria Santiago Castle Ruins

The Bateria Santiago Castle ruins are an UNESCO Heritage site in Portobelo.  Built in the 17th/18th century by the Spanish crown, this fortress protected the transatlantic trade.

The ruins are not very well protected or regulated.  People were climbing all over everything and you can wander about as you pleased.  The kids though it was fun to explore the canons and a few dark tunnels beneath.

The surrounding setting was beautiful making this a very photogenic site.  There was very little information at the site, so best to read about it before your visit if you are interested in the history.

I wanted to throw in a picture of the local buses that drive this route out of Colón.  They are hysterically obnoxious.  They are all completely different but equally as radically vibrant in appearance.  They drive like a bat outta hell so watch your kids next to the road!  Overall they are quite entertaining.

Dinner at Cocoplum and the Sunset Dock

We stopped for dinner at the restaurant pictured below, called Cocoplum.  It was recommended by our tour guide and located right on the main road not far from the ruins as we headed back towards Colón.

We ordered fish, and everything, I mean everything is made to order.  This means it takes a little long to get your food but everything was really good.  They had multiple sauces to choose from when ordering.  We opted for the garlic.  It was delicious but kind of wishing Dawson and I ordered different sauces so we could have tried more than one.

This fresh pineapple juice was the best I have ever had and I still think about it.  I ended up ordering another one to go for the ride home and regret not ordering a third!

Below the restaurant there was a dock and I asked the owner if we could wander out there for the sunset.  They said it was no problem. When we went down there we saw it was home to a scuba diving company who was packing in their gear for the day but they didn’t seem to mind us being there.

We enjoyed a beautiful sunset and it completed our very full day adventure.  Our tummies, minds and hearts were full so we hit the road to head back to the capital.

As you can imagine after such a full day, the two hour drive home was a quiet one for mom and dad. Hooray!

In our opinion, a visit to Mamey island and Portobelo is one of the best day trips from Panama City Panama.

If you are looking for a smaller adventure outside of the capital, check out our page on visiting the Panama Canal and Monkey Island!

Planning a Caribbean Day Trip From Panama City With Kids

A few things that made this day work. It’s roughly two hours in the car each way, so it’s a full day and not a half one, and the drive home is quiet because everybody is wrecked.

Hire a driver or a guide. I couldn’t piece this together online on my own, and our guide is the reason we ended up at Venas Azules and Isla Mamey rather than somewhere generic.

On Isla Mamey, pay the twenty dollars for a cabana. Shade right on the beach where the girls wanted to play is worth it, and it keeps you off the sand. There’s a restaurant that runs at weekends now, but we packed a lunch and were glad we did. There are dressing rooms and bathrooms too, which matters more than you’d think with kids.

We had no snorkeling gear and still saw plenty of fish, so don’t let that stop you. At the ruins, know that nothing is roped off. People climb on everything, so keep an eye on small children. And at dinner, everything at Cocoplum is made to order, which means it’s worth the wait but it is a wait.

More From Our Panama City Trip

Our Panama City with kids guide pulls the whole trip together in one place. Things to do in Panama City with kids covers what we did in the city itself, our Panama City family itinerary shows how the days fitted together, and the Panama City travel tips page has the practical things we wish we’d known.