Colombia Complete Travel Guide

Cartagena Tayrona NP Palomino Minca Medellin Guatapé Salento Bogotá

Are you planning a trip to Colombia? Here is a complete Colombia travel guide with all the information you need.

For a 2-3 week trip to Colombia, this itinerary is perfect to give you a full insight of the country.

Cartagena: spend 2 days wandering around the walled city and Getsemani. Take in all the colors, the food and murals. Maybe do a boat trip towards Rosario islands. Avoid the beach in Cartagena as it’s full of pushy sales people.

Tayrona National Park: take the bus from Cartagena to Santa Martha and hop on another bus to Tayrona NP. Stay the night just outside the park entrance of El Zaino. Start the next day at 8 AM to explore the park for a full day. Walk the 2 hour hike towards Cabo beach.

Palomino: for a moment of just beach and chill you can spend some time in Palomino. A relaxed backpacker vibe is what makes people come here.

Minca: ready for nature and jungle, spend 2-3 days in Minca. Hop on a moto-taxi to explore the waterfalls and take a cacao tour at the local finca.

Medellin: a lively and fun city that deserves a 4 day visit. Go on a graffiti walk in Comuna 13, explore the city by bike with Medellin green bike tours, awe at the unique statues at Botero plaza and definitely take a day trip to Guatapé.

Salento: be immersed in “aje cafetero” the coffee district of Colombia. Visit a local finca and learn all about coffee production. Walk the 12 km hike (or the shorter one) through Cocora Valley and be astonished by the giant palm trees.

Bogotá: end (or start) your trip in the capital. Because of the higher altitude be sure to pack warm clothing too. The city is good for maximum 2 days, walk around La Candelaria and take the funicular to Monserrate for a panorama view.

When traveling in Colombia I took the bus for short range distances with a maximum of 8 hours travel. The longer distances I covered by airplane. Some routes like Medellin – Salento sound like they could easily be done by bus, but with potential roadblocks I chose to fly.

Bus
Cartagena – Santa Martha: Berlinastur minivan.
Santa Martha – Tayrona/Palomino: local bus from Mercado Público.
Santa Martha – Minca: local minivan from Mercado Público.
All these buses depart every hour or less.

Airplane
Santa Martha – Medellin
Medellin – Salento (Pereira or Armenia airport)
Salento – Bogotá

Airplane tickets are very affordable and definitely worth to compare. My personal reasoning for flying is that I wouldn’t take a 14 hour bus ride from Amsterdam to Barcelona, so why should I do it here? Reliable airlines are LATAM and Avianca. I also had flights with low cost airlines such as Clic and Jetsmart, but these airlines didn’t accept my payment directly and had to be booked through a broker.

Taxi
The taxis on the street in Colombia are known for their unreliability. It is advised to always take an official taxi from the airport or to arrange a taxi through your hotel. Uber works in some but not all cities.

When traveling I prefer a mix of comfortable and affordable accommodation. I don’t stay in dorms and always opt for a private room. Although I’m not staying in high-end hotels, the list of hotels below isn’t for the traveler on a tight budget either.

Cartagena: Mood Matuna Hotel. A new modern hotel at a perfect location between the walled city and Getsemani.

Tayrona National Park: Arca Tayrona. This hotel and restaurant is situated right in front of the entrance of the park, perfect for staying the night before visiting. The hotel has private rooms and dorms. No hot water from the shower, only lukewarm but in the heat I didn’t mind. The restaurant had excellent food.

Palomino: Mapuwi. My favorite and most luxurious stay in Colombia, at a bit higher price point, but for this I got to stay in a gorgeous almost private villa with modern spacious rooms.

Minca: La Veranda Hotel. Outside of town, but only a short moto-taxi ride away is this gorgeous hotel with pool and mountain views.

Santa Martha: Comunidad Calle 13 Hotel Boutique. In the city center and close to the central market where the buses to Tayrona NP and Minca are. The hotel is minimalistic, clean, no outside noise and affordable.

Medellin: Airbnb El Poblado. El Poblado is the most popular and safe area to stay in Medellin. As I was staying for 5 nights, I opted for an Airbnb which is much more spacious for around the same price. The apartment is close to the metro in a quiet part of El Poblado, which was perfect to explore the city and come “home” to space and peace.

Salento: La Posada de la Plaza. This hotel is on the main square of Salento, although the town is so small that any location in the town is closeby.

Bogotá: Granada Hostel. A hostel with private rooms and dorms, plenty of common areas to meet fellow travelers and in the heart of La Candeleria.

All ATMs in Colombia have a withdrawal fee. To avoid this as much as possible I withdraw a higher amount, meaning less visits to the ATM. My favorite ATMs were Servibanca (maximum amount 2.000.000 COP + withdrawal fee of 22.500 COP) and Bank of Bogota (maximum amount 1.500.000 COP + withdrawal fee 25.800 COP). When taking out money, always decline the currency conversion, as your local bank will have a better exchange rate, this can easily save you 20-30 euros per transaction.

The provider with the best service in Colombia is Claro. You can buy the sim cards at the airport, or really in one of the many phone shops. I got my sim at a random shop and not the official store, here they don’t ask for your passport either. As I like a bit of overkill when it comes to data, I had a 30 day prepaid sim with 60GB of data for 60.000 COP.

Another option is an e-sim with Airalo. Although the e-sim is very convenient to have data upon arrival, the price is $30 for only 5GB, making the local sim card a much better deal and gives you the possibility to go with the best provider.

Dar no papaya is a Colombian saying, literally saying Give no papaya. What it means is not to be in a situation that gives you any safety risk. Don’t wear jewelry or anything flashy, don’t display your phone or electronics, keep your bag secure. Be extra aware and you will be fine!

The spoken language in Colombia is Spanish? Is it necessary to speak Spanish when traveling to Colombia? Short answer: No, it’s not. But a basic understanding does make it a bit easier. Even though I had Spanish in school, this was 20 years ago and I barely passed. My Spanish is quite rubbish, but I tried to throw some words together for the basic conversations. On other occasions, Google Translate is great, and definitely download the offline language packs too.

Although I’m a huge fan of Google Maps, when it comes to navigating on hiking trails such as Tayrona National Park or Cocora Valley, this is where maps.me really is needed. When on wifi I always download both offline Google Maps and maps.me before arriving on location.