The Panama Canal With Kids: Miraflores When a Ship Is in the Lock

The Panama Canal is the one piece of engineering that every child understands the moment they see it work. A ship the size of a building sails into a concrete box, the doors close, the water rises, and the ship floats up eight meters and sails out the other end. The trick is being on the deck when that happens.

Miraflores is the visitor center on the Pacific side, twenty minutes from the city. Four floors of viewing decks over the locks, a museum, a film in a theater that shakes, and a restaurant with a view. Ships transit in the morning heading north and in the afternoon heading south, and the visitor center posts the times. Arrive an hour before a transit, see the museum, and be on the top deck for the ship.

The lock takes about twenty minutes to fill and the mules, the little locomotives that guide the ship, run along the walls. Kids watch every second of it. Then the next ship, and then lunch.

Going through it

A partial transit on a tour boat goes through the Miraflores and Pedro Miguel locks from the Pacific side, half a day, and the boat rises in the lock with the water. It runs on set days and books ahead. Kids over five, and it is the version they will describe at school.

The Agua Clara visitor center at the Caribbean end shows the new, bigger locks from a hill, with the giant ships that were built for them. It is an hour and a half from the city, on the way to Portobelo.

The Biomuseo on the Amador causeway, the building of colored roofs by Frank Gehry, tells the story of how Panama rose from the sea and split the oceans, with a room of animals the kids walk through. Then the causeway by bike, with the ships lined up at anchor waiting for their turn.

Planning Panama with kids? Start with the full Panama family travel guide, or send me the ages and the dates and I will come back with what is really available.