Colombia 2 week trip advice

Having spent a lot of time in Bogota this year unless you’ve got some specific interests there a day will be plenty in my opinion so depending on arrival / departure times you could cut that to one night

Personally this is too much travelling for a holiday for me and I’d drop a stop and extend Santa Marta. Potentially Cartagena

Agree with SamG that is too much travelling. Bear in mind the time you’d take from the airport (eg from Bogota to central hotels can take upwards of an hour, more if raining…).

You don’t say what you like in a holiday (beach, museums, architecture, food…) but Dec and Jan are the best times to visit weather-wise. Not too hot on the coast as there is a nice breeze.

If in Bogota the Gold Museum is worth visiting, and the presidential palace is nice architecturally. Go up the mountain (Monserrate) by cablecar for great views of the sprawling city. Foodwise try tamales for breakfast and ‘mango biche’ for snack. If you like ale, go to the Bogota Beer Company (BBC).
Sunday is bicycle day where Bogota’s main roads close to traffic and open for bikes and runners (if you like cycling), this makes getting around very difficult by taxi (compared to being stuck in jams on the other days of the week).

Medellin is my favourite city, and spending some time here at the Museum de Antioquia to see Botero sculptures and paintings is well worth it. You should take the tour bus that shows you a lot of the city and takes you up to the Pueblo Paisa.
Eat: Bandeja Paisa (make sure you didn’t have any breakfast), arepas, sancocho. I would take time to visit some of the villages outside of the city too, they are a completely different experience (as is the road trip to them) and well worth a couple of days.

Cartagena has the castle and the old town to see. Lovely fish restaurants, and try the patacones and coconut rice. Also the ice cold fruit juices (mango, papaya, guava…) and the

Santa Marta is mainly the beach, but if you prefer, go further along to the nature reserve (parque tayrona), or up into the mountains around Minca for hiking experiences.

Barranquilla if interested in the carnival (great museum) and the old port. Also visit the Hotel el Prado.
Along the coast you should try the hot dogs (perritos) – they have whole menus to the different types available (favourite italo-hawaiano). Also try the ‘chuzo de pollo desgranizado’ and wash it all down with an aguila (or Club Rojo if not a lager person).

Any other questions, happy to help, have been visiting Colombia for over a decade.

It’s quite a personal decision as to what to skip depending on what you enjoy doing but personally I didn’t find Cartagena offered much that I’d really go out of my way for on 2 week trip if it meant skipping the other places on your list. But equally it’s a great city too. The reality is Colombia offers plenty enough to fill multiple holidays and you have to accept you can’t do it all in one trip!

KLM actually offers a good flight option as their flight stops there on the way home so you can plan an itinerary that doesn’t require you to go back to Bogota to leave

We’ve just come back from a month long trip, Bogota, Inirida, Otun, Montezuma, Manizales, Jardin, Medellin, Santa Marta, El Dorado, Minca and Cartagena – mostly birdwatching with a bit of culture. In hindsight 6 weeks would have been better with longer breaks in Jardin and Medellin and I would only have spent a couple of days in Cartagena (rather than 4) but stayed inside the walled city. I’ll like to go back to Colombia; we barely scratched the surface.

As for coffee culture, we liked Jardin. We stayed at the Divina Providencia (utterly delightful) which was a short ride or a 20 minute walk from the centre of the town. Had a nice morning at a local coffee plantation. Apia was less touristy but more authentic.

Domestic flights with Avianca and Viva were good, Satena had a rather flexible outlook on flight schedules…

Just did a very similar trip this summer: Medellin-coffee triangle-santa marta-Cartagena-Bogota.

Having done hat I would maybe remove Santa Marta. While it is more authentic than Cartagena (less touristy) unless you are going to spend proper time in the Tirona (natural park) you get a good feeling of the Caribe in Cartagena.

I did enjoy Bogota but was there with a local. The centre is well worth a couple of days (museo del oro, museo botero, etc.) You have excellent restaurants at very reasonable prices for our GBP/EUR based economies.

We did a mix of driving around and flying with Avianca (their “expensive” tariff includes luggage and the option to rebook flights so it is quite good if your plans change). Driving is challenging, 200km from Medellin to the coffee area took us 8hrs. You do not need cars in most cities as Uber is everywhere and great to move around.

The 3 sims have become rather poor I have found- USA and Colombia I’ve tried recently and had trouble with speeds and connections

Airalo is good or you can get one locally. I have used Colombian Buddy for airport transfers & trips ( recommended !) And they can bring you a local sim to the airport if they do your transfers which is handy

What a great thread – inspiring me to do another trip!!

One thing I wanted to add as well if you’re considering business class flights then avoid Avianca, their onboard service out of LHR is comically bad !

Since somebody mentioned avoiding Avianca I must give a thumbs up for Iberia Business as a way to get there. You can do London-Madrid (stays one night) then Madrid-Bogota and return Bogota-Madrid-London for very good rates plus if you time it well manage to be on the 330/350 from and into London.

IB crew was awful even to me as a Spaniard. I think this is what gets them the bad rep. However food was amazing (served by course), wine is excellent and the Barajas Lounges are ok too. Bad aspects would be the lack of snacks (so don’t be hungry mid flight) and again the crew attitude who sometimes feel like they are annoyed of being there.

Return flights LON-MAD-BOG-LON (via MAD) were GBP 1,400 for J this summer which is excellent value since taxes on BA would be GBP 1,000 on an Avios redemption. (I wonder if spending a few days in Madrid reduced the UK levy)