Panama Rainforest Discovery Center — Attraction in Cristóbal

This Nature Center is an excellent introduction to the tropical forest of Soberania National Park - the nonprofit organization that runs it actually has a concession for this forest which is adjoining the park itself. Open 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and will open for groups at 6:00 a.m. if arranged in advance. Clean bathrooms, well maintained trails through the forest, pleasant facilities to wait out any rain, sit and eat any snacks or food you have brought - with a view of the forest. There is lake side viewing platform that is a little bit out of the way but worth the walk. The highlight is the canopy tower with its deck above the tree crowns, that enables an eye level view of the birds and other animals, it has a much larger space up there than similar things I have visited in Peru and there is even wraparound sitting. Many animals like howler monkeys and toucans are seen very frequently, and the main visitor center has several hummingbird feeders and hordes of hummingbirds constantly. Bring mosquito repellent. It can be visited with almost any vehicle but the last few minutes require careful driving if your vehicle sits close to the ground because the last 2 km are gravel road. I saw visitors arrive by taxi from Panama City (45 minutes) and apparently they obtained the taxis phone number from the Panama Rainforest...

Useless staff, one could just come in without paying and visit the whole place. They have 0 interaction with you meaning no help either... The road is really in the jungle for 2km and is one way so it's really fun when another vehicle is approaching...I've also heard that if you come via taxi/Uber, they'll drop you at the entrance which means it's an extra 4km you have to walk (return). $30 is more expensive that visiting the Louvres or the Statue of Liberty...so in comparison it's clearly very expensive, and without comparing having a tower and a 1,5km trail it's overly expensive... Nevertheless, you're going to see a lot of hummingbirds as they have feeders, tons of various birds, you will hear monkeys but it's unlikely you'll see any. Finally, the guy at the entrance when asked whether we could see any sloths said it's extremely rare and so they don't even talk about it - we were actually super lucky as we saw one from afar on our way back, but we went very slowly and carefully the whole trail looking everywhere to find one, there's no way to spot one if you just casually walk/look around. So, overall keep your expectations low if you hope to see animals, but have them high if you only care for hummingbirds, you won't be...

My wife and I visited this place because we love wildlife. Its takes about 30min to get there from where you would leave the car. On this way alone we already saw monkeys, toucans, manakins and many other species. Arriving at the center ( 10$ for locals / 30$ for tourists) they explain the trail to you and you get a little map, containing all the species you can find here. We spend 4 hours here in total, its an immersive experience walking through the rainforest and have a group of howler monkeys carrying their young right on top of you, a Coati sleeping on a brench right next to a trail and a sloth just relaxing in a tree, a capuchin monkey jumping in the canopy. The absolute highlight though was having a King Vulture fly over us when we were on the tower. If you love wildlife and have the patience to spend some hours here than this will be an...