Once avoided, now admired — Colombia is emerging from the shadows as one of South America’s most rewarding destinations.

Getsemaní, Cartagena — vibrant streets, colonial colour, and Caribbean sun

Many frequent travellers to South America will say that Colombia is their favourite destination. While lacking some of the bucket list destinations like Machu Picchu and Rio de Janeiro, Colombia has many destinations just waiting to be discovered. Colombia captivates travellers with its vibrant cities, rich history, and stunning landscapes.  Bogotá, the country’s bustling capital, offers a blend of modern urban culture and historical intrigue. Its La Candelaria neighbourhood is a charming mix of colonial architecture, street art, and museums, such as the renowned Museo del Oro. Beyond the capital, Cartagena, with its well-preserved colonial walls and Caribbean charm, transports visitors back in time, while Medellín, once infamous, but now a symbol of transformation with innovative urban spaces amidst the mountains.

Bogotá and Medellín offer fascinating insights into Colombia’s artistic renaissance. Both cities are hubs of street art, where vibrant murals line the streets, transforming urban spaces into open-air galleries. Bogotá’s La Candelaria district, with its political graffiti and detailed indigenous motifs, and Medellín’s Comuna 13, where murals represent stories of resilience and hope, are must-see street art destinations. Beyond the walls, the artwork of Fernando Botero, with his distinctive style of exaggerated, voluminous figures, is central to both cities’ cultural identity. In Plaza Botero in Medellín and the Botero Museum in Bogotá, his sculptures and paintings are displayed, offering insight into the way he portrayed both humour and social commentary through his art.

Colombia’s landscapes are as diverse as they are beautiful. The country’s natural wonders range from the serene beaches of the Caribbean coast to the misty peaks of the Andes. In the north, Tayrona National Park allows travellers to explore pristine beaches, hike through lush jungles, and encounter wildlife like capuchin monkeys and vibrant birds. Inland, the Coffee Triangle (Eje Cafetero) presents rolling hills filled with coffee plantations, perfect for a tour to learn about the country’s world-renowned coffee production.  

In the less travelled south, the archaeological sites of San Agustín and Tierradentro invite travellers to delve into ancient mysteries, with their stone statues and tombs offering a glimpse into pre-Colombian civilisations. In contrast, Leticia in the Amazon region offers a completely different natural spectacle, where the sheer force of nature dominates from the sprawling rainforest to encounters with unique wildlife

Then there is Mompós, a riverside gem that appears to have stood still for the past 100 years offers a look into Colombia’s colonial past, often evoking the magical realism of Gabriel García Márquez’s novels. Further afield, Popayán offers a quieter, off-the-beaten-track experience, where whitewashed colonial buildings and the surrounding volcanic landscapes offer a serene retreat from the country’s more tourist-heavy regions.

Culturally, Colombia is a vibrant melting pot, deeply influenced by music. Cities like Cali, the salsa capital of the world, and Barranquilla, with its vibrant Carnival, are alive with the rhythms of salsa, cumbia, and vallenato. While traditional music genres continue to thrive in cities like Barranquilla and Cali, modern Colombian music has also made its mark globally, reggaeton has taken the world by storm, showcasing the country’s ability to fuse its musical heritage with contemporary beats.  Everywhere you go in Colombia, whether in the bars or on public buses you will hear the rhythms of Colombian music.

When it comes to food and drink, Colombia is a paradise for fruit lovers, offering a staggering variety of exotic tropical fruits like lulo, guava, and pitaya. The pineapples, bananas, passion fruits and more mainstream fruits familiar to all taste much better too, as they have not been picked to early for transportation to Europe and North America. Coffee culture is also deeply ingrained in daily life, with the Eje Cafetero and Huila Province offering some of the best coffee experiences in the world, where visitors can tour plantations and sample fresh brews while learning about the production process.  Colombia never fails to surprise and delight.

Today Colombia has become a key destination especially amongst more independent travellers, and apart from Cartagena, which is well and truly on the Caribbean cruise circuit, much of the country is unspoilt by mass tourism.

🍓 Colombia’s Fruit Bowl: From Familiar Favourites to Exotic Delights
Colombia may offer the world bananas and pineapples, but travellers soon discover a dizzying array of exotic fruits rarely seen abroad. Lulo (tart and green), guava, pitahaya (yellow dragon fruit), and uchuva (cape gooseberry) are mainstays of every market. Even everyday fruits like mango, papaya, and maracuyá (passion fruit) seem sweeter and fuller here. In cafés and roadside stalls, freshly blended jugos naturales are served with water or milk, a delicious, daily ritual. The best part? The juice menu changes with the altitude and the region.

1. Travel

Travelling through Colombia is relatively easy, with a modern and extensive bus network that covers almost every corner of the country. For longer distances or when time is tight, reasonably priced domestic flights are available, and often essential. Avianca, the national carrier, is one of South America’s most reliable airlines, offering wide internal coverage and smooth links to neighbouring countries. Bogotá’s El Dorado International Airport is almost impossible to avoid, but has been consistently efficient in my experience, whether in 1989 or 2022.

Buses and colectivos (shared minibuses) make even the most remote destinations accessible. Reaching places like San Agustín, Tierradentro, or Mompós usually involves multiple changes, often with a final leg in a collectivo that only departs once full. But this form of travel offers far more than just transport, it’s a window into Colombian life, and a way to share space, time, and stories with locals.

City travel is best tackled by taxi or app-based rides. Bogotá, Medellín, and other major cities can be chaotic in traffic, but Uber and local apps like InDriver work well. Many drivers no longer take cash, so be prepared to pay by card or app.

🧭 My Journeys vs Standard Itineraries

Many travellers follow a well-trodden three-week route offered by travel companies like Intrepid or G Adventures. These typically include:

• ✈️ Bogotá
• 🚗 Zipaquirá or Lake Guatavita (day trip)
• ✈️ Coffee Zone (Armenia, Salento, Cocora Valley)
• 🚌 Medellín and surrounds
• ✈️ Cartagena, Tayrona National Park and perhaps the Lost City Trek

It’s a well-balanced introduction to Colombia, but it often skips some of the country’s most atmospheric and historic corners. Missing entirely are:

• 🌳 The far southern Amazon gateway of Leticia
• 🏛️ The salsa capital of Cali and the whitewashed colonial charm of Popayán
• ☕ The Huila coffee towns surrounding San Agustín, increasingly prized for their single-origin beans and “terroir” character, now featured in specialist coffee roasters
• 🧱 The haunting tombs of Tierradentro and vast landscapes of San Agustín
• 🏞️ The tranquil highland towns of Villa de Leyva and Barichara
• 🚐 The long road to Mompós, a sleepy riverside city steeped in magical realism
• 🌋 The surreal Tatacoa Desert near Neiva

From my own journeys, starting in 1989, and deepening through 2016, 2018, and 2022, I’ve explored regions rarely visited on standard tours:

1989 – First visit to Colombia
✈️ Bogotá 🚌 San Agustín 🚌 Popayán 🚌 Pasto 🚌 Ipiales 🚌 Las Lajas 🥾 Rumichaca International Bridge
🥾 Rumichaca International Bridge 🚌 Pasto 🚌 Popayán 🚌 Cali ✈️ (via Pereira & Medellín) Cartagena ✈️ Bogotá ✈️ London

2016 – First return visit
✈️ Bogotá 🚕 Zipaquirá 🚕 Lake Guatavita ✈️ Santa Marta 🚗 Tayrona National Park 🚗 Cartagena ✈️ Bogotá ✈️ London

2018 – Multi-month journeys
✈️ Bogota ✈️ Lima
🥾 Rumichaca International Bridge 🚕 Las Lajas 🚕 Ipiales 🚌 Pasto 🚌 Popayán 🚌 San Agustín 🚌 Pitalito 🚌 La Plata 🚌 San Andres de Pisimbala (Tierradentro) 🚌 Inza 🚌 Popayán 🚌 Cali 🚌 Armenia 🚌 Salento 🚌 Medellín 🚕 Guatapé 🚌 Cartagena ✈️ Bogotá ✈️ Leticia 🚕 Tabatinga (Brazil)
✈️ Bogotá 🚌 Villa de Leyva 🚌 Tunja 🚌 Bucaramanga 🚌 Mompós 🚌 Santa Marta 🚕 Taganga 🛥️ Tayrona National Park 🚌 Cartagena ✈️ Bogota

2022 – Return post COVID
✈️ Bogota 🚌 Villa de Leyva 🚌 Tunja 🚌 San Gil 🚌 Barichara 🚌 Bucaramanga 🚌 Mompós 🚌 La Loma de Calenturas 🚌 Barranquilla 🚌 Cartagena ✈️ Medellín 🚌 Jardin de Antioquia 🚌 Manizales 🚌 Pereira 🚌 Salento 🚌 Armenia 🚌 Cali 🚌 Popayán 🚌 San Agustín 🚌 Pitalito 🚌 Garzón 🚌 La Plata 🚌 San Andres de Pisimbala (Tierradentro) 🚌 Neiva 🚌 Villavieja (Desierto Tatacoa) 🚌 Bogotá ✈️ London

2. Destinations

2.1. Bogotá: Capital at Altitude

Bogotá, Colombia’s vast, high-altitude capital, has transformed dramatically since my first visit in 1989. Now a thriving metropolis of over seven million people, it offers a compelling mix of culture, history, and contemporary urban life. The historic district of La Candelaria is full of colonial churches, Andean murals, museums, and bohemian cafés. It’s here that the Museo del Oro dazzles with its pre-Hispanic gold collection, and the Museo Botero delights with its voluminous art. Take the funicular to Cerro de Monserrate for sweeping views of the city nestled in the Andes.

Bogotá is also at the centre of Colombia’s political, generational, and artistic evolution. Street art is everywhere, especially on one of the Graffiti Tours, where guides weave personal stories into the city’s social struggles. It’s a place where history and protest still speak from the walls.

Beyond the historic centre of La Candelaria, Bogotá reveals a radically different personality. In neighbourhoods like Chapinero Alto, Zona G, and Quinta Camacho, the city buzzes with rooftop bars, stylish cocktail lounges, boutique microbreweries, and a flourishing scene of design-conscious cafés and restaurants. A younger, highly educated professional class shapes this part of the city, many of them internationally connected, politically engaged, and part of Bogotá’s creative economy. While Bogotá’s year-round cool climate (it’s often jokingly referred to as “la nevera”) doesn’t lend itself to leafy squares or open-air terraces, the indoor social life here is rich, surprising, and unmistakably contemporary. This isn’t quite the Roma or Condesa of Mexico City, but it’s closer than most travellers expect.

Popular Day Trips from Bogotá:

• Zipaquirá – home to the Salt Cathedral, an underground marvel carved into a salt mine
• Lake Guatavita – the source of the El Dorado legend, surrounded by Andean mist and mythology
• Chingaza National Park – a high-altitude páramo ecosystem with spectacled bears and ancient trails

🎨 Street Art: The Walls Speak
Nowhere is Colombia’s voice more visible than on its walls. In Bogotá’s La Candelaria, sprawling murals tell stories of resistance, memory, and identity, with works honouring indigenous cultures, environmental struggles, and victims of violence. The city’s legalisation of graffiti in 2011 sparked a creative renaissance, drawing global artists and spotlighting local talent. In Medellín, street art helped transform Comuna 13 from a no-go zone into a vibrant canvas of colour and hope. These painted walls aren’t just decoration, they’re dialogue.
Other cities like Cartagena’s Getsemaní, Cali, and Pasto also offer striking local murals, reminders that in Colombia, art is part of everyday life.

2.2. The Heartland: Coffee Towns & Colonial Highlands

This central spine of the country is where colonial charm meets Colombia’s most iconic export: coffee. It’s a place of rolling hills, misty valleys, and heritage towns that feel far removed from the bustle of the cities.

Villa de Leyva

North of Bogotá, this cobbled town of white façades and clay rooftops is popular with weekenders from the capital. Despite its fame, its scale allows visitors to unwind in quiet courtyards or stroll through artisan markets in the expansive Plaza Mayor.

Barichara

Arguably Colombia’s prettiest town, Barichara is a sandstone dream set above a dramatic canyon. With stone paths, tiled roofs, and a languid pace, it’s often overlooked but rewards unhurried exploration. The Camino Real hike to Guane is a peaceful, scenic trail linking two timeless towns.

Bucaramanga

Often overlooked by international travellers, Bucaramanga is a large, green city nestled in the Andes, known for its strong education and healthcare sectors. It’s also the gateway to the Chicamocha Canyon, one of Colombia’s most dramatic natural wonders. The city’s many parks and mild climate give it a surprisingly liveable feel, and it serves as a practical base for excursions to Barichara and surrounding rural areas.

Zona Cafetera

Colombia’s coffee axis is centred on Salento, a colourful town surrounded by fincas and cloud forest. Here, coffee is treated like wine, rich in notes and provenance, and visitors can tour farms, sip freshly roasted brews, and hike the famous Cocora Valley, where wax palms (Colombia’s national tree) rise eerily through the mist.

Manizales

Often skipped in favour of its more photogenic neighbours, Manizales is a mountain university city with steep streets and a raw authenticity. From here you can access Los Nevados National Park, offering high-altitude trekking amid glaciers and volcanoes.

Armenia & Pereira

More functional than scenic, these cities act as transport hubs into the surrounding countryside and fincas. They’re often the entry point for those heading to Salento or other rural stays.

Plaza Mayor, Villa de Leyva; Cat Mural in September 2018, Bogota; Coffee Cherry, Salento; Street Musicians, Salento; Museo del Oro, Bogotá; Street View of Barichara

☕️ Coffee: Colombia’s National Treasure
Colombia’s world-renowned Arabica coffee isn’t just a drink, it’s a landscape, a livelihood, and a cultural identity. The Eje Cafetero (Coffee Triangle) of Manizales, Armenia, and Pereira is where the country’s rolling green fincas come to life. Small farms pick beans by hand and roast on-site, often welcoming visitors for immersive tasting experiences. Increasingly, specialist growers in Huila are gaining global attention for premium single-origin beans. In Bogotá and Medellín, sleek cafés and micro-roasters are redefining Colombia’s coffee image, one cup at a time.

2.3. Medellín and the Changing Paisa Region

Medellín has undergone one of the most extraordinary urban transformations in Latin America. Once known as the stronghold of Pablo Escobar, it is now a symbol of social innovation. The Comuna 13 escalators and cable car system opened up the hillsides, not just in a physical sense but in providing dignity and opportunity.

The Comuna 13 Graffiti Tour showcases some of the most powerful street art in Colombia, blending resilience, colour, and community pride. In the city centre, Plaza Botero and the Museo de Antioquia celebrate the city’s most famous artistic son, Fernando Botero.

Medellín’s mild climate, nicknamed the City of Eternal Spring, adds to its appeal. There’s a thriving café and digital nomad scene in El Poblado and Laureles, and excellent public transport for Latin America.

Popular Day Trips from Medellín:

• Jardín de Antioquía – a charming mountain town surrounded by waterfalls and coffee farms, with strong Paisa traditions and a relaxed vibe
• Guatapé & El Peñol – colourful lakeside town with the dramatic 740-step climb up El Peñol Rock for panoramic views

🖼 Botero: Colombia’s Big Bold Brushstrokes
No artist captures Colombia’s surreal edge quite like Fernando Botero. Famed for his voluminous, exaggerated forms, of people, animals, and politicians, Botero’s work is instantly recognisable and often darkly humorous. Plaza Botero in Medellín is home to many of his public sculptures, while the Museo Botero in Bogotá displays paintings and donated works by other global masters. Whether seen as satire, social commentary, or celebration, Botero’s art invites you to see the world through larger-than-life eyes.

2.4. The South & Andes 🇨🇴

This region is where Colombia’s highland traditions, deep colonial heritage, and archaeological secrets converge. Stretching from the salsa rhythms of Cali to the whitewashed elegance of Popayán, the mystical highlands of San Agustín, and the volcanic wilderness of Puracé, this part of the country rewards those who go beyond the standard itinerary. Expect soulful cities, ancient tombs, erupting geysers, and rural valleys where coffee and cattle still shape daily life.

Cali

Colombia’s third-largest city is famous for its music, a global epicentre of salsa and dance culture where even beginners are drawn into the rhythm. But Cali is more than a party town. The Granada neighbourhood offers a leafy and bohemian counterpoint, with independent cafés, art galleries, and stylish boutiques. Ringed by fertile farmland, Cali is also the commercial hub of the Cauca Valley and a logical gateway to the southern Andes and colonial highland cities.

Popayán

Often overlooked, Popayán is one of Colombia’s most graceful colonial cities. Known as “La Ciudad Blanca” for its uniform white façades, this university town has a youthful energy beneath its conservative exterior. Despite suffering a major earthquake in 1983, much of the historic core has been painstakingly rebuilt. Popayán is also a hub of religious tradition — its Holy Week processions are among the most important in Latin America — and a natural staging post for travellers heading south or east into less-visited regions.

Puracé National Park

An easy day trip from Popayán or a base for longer exploration, Puracé National Park is one of the most biodiverse and geologically active areas in southern Colombia. Towering above the landscape is the Puracé Volcano, often shrouded in mist. The park is also home to thermal springs, Andean condors, sulphur vents, and high-altitude páramo ecosystems. Just beyond its borders, rural communities tend coffee farms, waterfalls tumble through forested hills, and the land still feels like it’s shaped more by nature than infrastructure.

San Agustín & Tierradentro

South-east of Popayán lie Colombia’s premier archaeological sites. At San Agustín, giant stone statues, some over 3,000 years old, stare out from rolling green hills, guardians of a long-lost civilisation. Further north, Tierradentro reveals an underground world of elaborately painted tombs hidden among steep mountain ridges. What makes both places so special isn’t just the ruins, but the context: to reach them, you pass through tranquil, working highland communities — walking between scattered farms, alongside cattle, and through dense cloud forest. These are living landscapes, where history and everyday life are deeply intertwined.

Huila Province: Coffee & Terroir

Though best known for its archaeological legacy, Huila is also one of Colombia’s emerging stars in specialty coffee. Towns like Garzón, Gigante, and Pitalito sit in sun-drenched valleys that have become internationally recognised for single-origin beans. Increasingly featured in London’s coffee scene, these coffees are celebrated for their clarity, sweetness, and floral notes — the product of both elevation and human care. As Colombia promotes its coffee by region, Huila is fast becoming a name to watch for both connoisseurs and curious travellers.

Neiva & the Tatacoa Desert

Neiva, the departmental capital of Huila, is a warm and practical city on the Magdalena River, mostly used as a gateway to the Tatacoa Desert. Tatacoa, despite its name, is actually a dry tropical forest, a surreal landscape of eroded red and grey canyons, fossil beds, and dramatic night skies. It’s a favourite stop for stargazing and for those looking to experience Colombia’s more arid and offbeat side before heading into the green abundance of the south.

Pasto, Ipiales & Las Lajas

Right at the southern tip of Colombia, near the Ecuadorian border, sits the highland city of Pasto, framed by volcanoes and known for its artisan culture and colourful Carnaval de Negros y Blancos. A few hours south, the town of Ipiales serves as a base for visiting one of Colombia’s most dramatic pilgrimage sites: the Santuario de Las Lajas. This gothic-style basilica is improbably perched across a deep canyon above the Guáitara River and is revered as a site of miracles. While it sees a steady flow of pilgrims, it remains off the tourist radar and is well worth the detour for those continuing on to Ecuador.

2.5. The Caribbean Coast & Río Magdalena 🇨🇴

Colombia’s Caribbean is a heady mix of colonial elegance, tropical heat, coastal rhythm, and Afro-Colombian heritage. From the walled city of Cartagena to the jungles of Tayrona, this region blends beach and history, festival and nature. But beyond the coast lie river towns steeped in magical realism, and landscapes shaped by trade, migration, and the ebb and flow of the Río Magdalena, the great artery of the Colombian interior.

Cartagena de Indias

Colombia’s best-known tourist destination lives up to its reputation, a colourful walled city of cobbled streets, flower-draped balconies, and Caribbean sunsets. Once a Spanish stronghold against pirates, Cartagena is now a cultural hub with world-class dining, boutique hotels, and vibrant nightlife. The UNESCO-listed old town gets crowded, especially when cruise ships dock, but at night it regains its rhythm, pulsing with music, horse-drawn carriages, and open-air plazas. For many visitors, this is Colombia’s postcard moment.

Santa Marta & Taganga

A few hours along the coast, Santa Marta is a more grounded, working city, less polished than Cartagena but popular as a jumping-off point for Tayrona National Park and nearby beaches. The colonial centre is compact and atmospheric, while the small fishing village of Taganga draws backpackers with its cheap dives, sunset bars, and direct boat access to secluded beaches. While it’s a bit worn around the edges, it offers affordable charm for independent travellers.

Tayrona National Park

Where the Sierra Nevada mountains meet the sea, Tayrona is Colombia’s most iconic national park. Thick jungle trails lead to wild, palm-fringed beaches, and the chance to disconnect amid nature. The beaches are stunning, but many are unsafe for swimming due to strong currents, the real draw is the jungle-beach interplay and sense of remoteness. Rustic eco-lodges, tented camps, and hammocks under thatched roofs offer a unique stay, and the park is sacred territory for the Kogi and Arhuaco peoples, descendants of the ancient Tayrona civilisation.

Ciudad Perdida (Lost City) Trek

Deep in the jungle of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, the Lost City (Ciudad Perdida) lies hidden beneath thick vegetation, a sprawling archaeological site-built centuries before Machu Picchu. Reached only by a tough four- to five-day trek through humid rainforest and river crossings, this journey is as much about the hike as the ruins. Expect steep climbs, camp hammocks, and encounters with Indigenous guides. Less commercial than Peru’s Inca Trail, it’s a rite of passage for serious trekkers.

Barranquilla

The industrial port city of Barranquilla rarely features on travel itineraries — except during Carnaval, the second largest in Latin America after Rio. For four days in February or March, the city explodes with colour, dance, satire, and Afro-Caribbean energy. If you’re there at the right time, it’s unmissable. Outside carnival season, the city is sprawling and workaday but has some excellent music venues and growing cultural spaces.

Mompós (Santa Cruz de Mompox)

Set on a quiet branch of the Río Magdalena, Santa Cruz de Mompós is a hauntingly beautiful colonial town where time seems to stand still. Founded in 1537, it was once a vital river port and is now a place of sleepy charm, cobbled streets, and crumbling churches. Gabriel García Márquez spent time here and the town often feels pulled straight from the pages of One Hundred Years of Solitude. Unlike Cartagena, Mompós has barely changed, a dream for those seeking quietude, atmosphere, and authentic colonial architecture, far from the cruise ship crowds.

River Life on the Magdalena

The Magdalena River was once Colombia’s main transport artery, and remains its cultural lifeline. River towns such as El Banco, Magangué, and Honda (further upriver) shaped Colombian literature, folklore, and politics. While travel by riverboat is no longer the norm, the Magdalena’s historical and symbolic significance remains strong. For travellers, the river’s best entry point is Mompós, where you can feel both the isolation and the poetic pull of the riverine landscape, especially at sunset, when the town’s façades glow amber and cattle egrets wheel overhead.

Capurganá & the Darién Edge

Tucked into the jungle near the Panamanian border, Capurganá and nearby Sapzurro are barefoot Caribbean villages accessible only by boat or small plane. With no roads in or out, these communities are where Colombia ends, literally, at the edge of the Darién Gap. It’s a place of crystal-clear waters, rainforest hikes, and slow rhythms, ideal for off-grid travel. Though increasingly on the backpacker circuit, the area retains a remote, frontier feel. From Sapzurro, it’s even possible to walk over the border into Panama.

📚 Gabo & the Magic of Macondo
The river town of Mompós is often said to have inspired the fictional Macondo in Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. But Gabo’s Colombia stretches far beyond — from the Caribbean coast’s sultry heat to Bogotá’s book fairs. His blend of magical realism blurred myth and memory, capturing Colombia’s contradictions with lyrical force. Today, readers still flock to the places he wrote about, and those he merely hinted at, seeking the line between the real and the imagined.

2.6. The Amazon & the South-East

This vast and remote part of Colombia offers a totally different experience, tropical, frontier, and immersed in the biodiversity of the Amazon Basin.

Leticia & the Three Borders Region

Leticia is a riverine frontier town only reachable by air from the rest of Colombia. It forms part of a tri-border zone with Brazil (Tabatinga) and Peru and acts as a launch point for Amazon eco-tourism. From here, visitors can take riverboats into the rainforest, spotting pink river dolphins, monkeys, and vibrant birdlife, or visit local communities. The town itself is functional but welcoming, with good infrastructure for nature-based travel.

Fruit Ladies, Cartagena; Isla de los Micos, Leticia; River Scene, Leticia; Iglesia de Santa Bárbara, Mompós; Catedral Basílica Metropolitana de Santa Catalina de Alejandría, Cartagena; Playa Crystal, Tayrona National Park

3. Costs

Colombia is generally a good value destination and cheaper than other countries in South America, especially next door Ecuador.  The Colombian Peso or COP, while we were travelling was slowly depreciating in value against the USD.  The Colombian Banks are well supported by ATMs, though it is always advisable to use them during daylight hours or where there are visible security guards.  Generally the banks will charge a small fee for foreign ATM withdrawals, but these fees are much lower than some of the other countries we visited like Argentina and Chile.

If you want to change cash notes, it is best to go to a Bureau de Change rather than a bank.  There are many of these all over the country, and often they are grouped together in shopping malls.

4. Accommodation

There is a full range of accommodation  options all Colombia, from the standard international hotels common place in all major cities to a whole variety of smaller hostels and boutique hotels.  For the most part we used web based sites like booking.com to source our accommodation.  The advantage of booking.com in Colombia, is that often you do not have to pay for accommodation in advance, unlike other sites like expedia.com, etc.  However in some places we had to book our accommodation directly, in particular there are no internet website options in Tierradentro, where we booked our accommodation directly by e-mail with the owner.

Accommodation costs do vary across the country, with hotels in Leticia and the Amazon generally being significantly more expensive than elsewhere. Cartagena, with it being a well known tourist destination is also more expensive than the rest of the country. Bogotá and the large metropolitan cities have a full range of accommodation options, from international business hotels which cost similar amounts to other equivalent hotels across the continent, but there is a large quantity of different types of accommodation and we found a very reasonably priced small hotel in Bogotá. Also accommodation prices can rise significantly during festivals and national holidays.

5. Interactive Map

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