How to Get to the Miraflores Visitor Center from Panama City

You can’t leave Panama without seeing the Panama Canal. The most common way to visit it is by going to the Miraflores Locks Visitor Centre since it is the closest Panama Canal Visitor Centre to Panama City, about 20 minutes away by car. It is very popular to visit the centre on a guided tour since most of the tours include roundtrip from your hotel or residence in Panama City. Here you can find all the tours that visit the Miraflores Locks. The center is open every day from 8am to 6pm (the ticket office closes at 5:45 pm). There are several ways to visit the Miraflores Visitor Centre: on a tour, by car, bus, private transfer, taxi or Uber. They are all described in more detail below.

On a Tour from Panama City

The easiest way to visit the Miraflores Visitor Centre is on a tour. You can choose between different tours; some include taking you to a mall to go shopping and others a walk in Casco Viejo. Most of the Panama City Tours will take you to visit the Miraflores visitor Centre and include pickup and drop-off at your hotel or residence in Panama City, which means you won't have to worry about how to get to the Miraflores Visitor Centre or how to get back to your hotel or residence.

Even though going on a tour to the Miraflores Visitor Centre is one of the most popular ways to visit the Panama Canal, here you can find other ways to see the Panama Canal.

Generally, the tours that take you to visit the Miraflores Locks Visitors Center do not include entrance to the center. If you are a foreigner, the entrance will cost you $ 20 and if you are a resident, the entrance will cost you $ 5.

By Car from Panama City

It will take you approximately 20 minutes by car to get from the center of Panama City to the Miraflores Visitor Center. The best and fastest way is through the highway. Drive on the highway and exit the elevated road onto the path on the right that will take you to the Omar Torrijos Avenue, then follow the signs and drive until you see Albrook airport on the right. On the left, you will see the Miraflores Locks of the Panama Canal. You can easily find the address in applications such as Google Maps and Waze if you search for “Miraflores Visitor Center”. I advise you not to take the Bridge of the Americas route since there is almost always traffic there.

There is a large parking lot outside the Visitor Center, these parking lots are free and safe, you can leave your car there.

By Taxi, Uber or Private Transport from Panama City

It will take you about 20 minutes to get from the center of Panama City to the Miraflores visitor center. The trip will cost you between $ 5 and $ 7. Your taxi or Uber driver will make sure to pick you up at the place you specify and take you directly to the Miraflores Visitor Center. To call an Uber, you will need the Uber app and internet access. For a taxi, you will need cash and it is recommended to set a price before getting into the taxi.

If you prefer to get to the Miraflores Visitor Center using the service of a private transfer, you only have to reserve the service and indicate where you want to be picked up and dropped off.

At Tiqy.com we have a Private Transfer from Panama City to Albrook. After booking, you would only have to indicate your pick-up location and indicate that you are going to the Miraflores Locks Visitor Center that is in the Albrook area. We also have other Private Transfers to and from Panama City, just in case you are in the city making your own way to visit different sites.

By MetroBus from Panama City

To take a bus (metrobus) that takes you directly to the Miraflores Visitor Center, you will have to go to the Albrook Terminal, the only bad thing is that this bus is infrequent. Another alternative is to take a bus that goes in the direction of Paraíso or Gamboa, these buses will drop you off at the Miraflores Locks sign on the road. From the sign, you will walk about 15 minutes along the main road to reach the Miraflores Locks Visitor Center. Remember that you must have a Metrobus card with credit to travel by bus.

Best Way to get to the Miraflores Visitor Center from Panama City

As you can see, there are different ways to get to the Miraflores Visitor Center. The cheapest, but also the most complicated, is to go by bus. If you want to be a little safer, you can go by car, private transfer, taxi or Uber. If you are a foreigner and you don't know much about how to get around Panama City, I recommend using a taxi or Uber. In my opinion, the best way to get to the Miraflores Visitor Center is on one of the many Panama Canal Tours, since your tour operator will take care of picking you up, tell you about the operation of the Canal and other sites you will visit (if the tour takes you to other places) and at the end of the tour, your tour operator would take you back to your hotel or residence in Panama City.

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