Colon (Panama)

If tourists or businessmen for some reason have to stay overnight in Colón and need a safe place to eat, use an ATM, stock up on supplies, etc., their best bet would be to go to the shopping plaza/cruise ship port Colón 2000. There are two restaurants there (Café Iguana and a Subway), a Super 99 grocery store, a Western Union branch, and an internet café. The main thing to emphasize is that it's 100% safe as long as you stay within the plaza area, there are both private guards and actual Panamanian police watching over it. Also in the back there are some halfway-decent souvenir shops and you can watch boats go by. How dangerous the city itself is so well-known there isn't much I could add to that, but Colón 2000 is at least one area you can breathe easy in and get some errands run if you need to.

Beautiful Catholic church that's worth a picture. Unfortunately the area isn't cared for. There is a lot of garbage in the streets.

From here you can see the ships enter and leave the canal on the Caribbean side. Also, in contrast to the Miraflores Visitor Center in Panama City, you can see the new, bigger locks from here and observe the bigger ships pass through them. The entry to the new view deck at the smaller Gatún locks on the other side of the canal is included in the ticket. Don't miss it as there is usually more ship traffic at the older locks.

Christopher Columbus statue, Christ statue and Virgin Mary statue (both near the Seawall), Shell Monument, Aspinwall Monument, and Monument of the Students' Revolution. Luckily pictures of these can be taken relatively easily, you can even leave your taxi briefly.

This fort on the coast of the Caribbean Sea was first built in the late 16th century by the Spanish to protect present-day Panama from pirates, and was rebuilt several times afterwards. To day it's in ruins and listed as a together with the fort in Portobelo. Since 2025 it's listed twice, as it's also the northernmost point of the world heritage The Colonial Transisthmian Route of Panamá, effectively the Camino de Cruces which connected the Atlantic and Pacific back in the day.

Park at the REY supermarket at Avenida Central/Calle 7. You can walk a little bit in the middle of the tree lined Avenida Central. The beautiful Cathedral is round the corner at Calle 9, but there is a lot of garbage on the streets. In order to visit the Washington Hotel you better go by car again. You can park at their parking lot. There is a nice old Presbyterian church next to it.