The Perfect Colombia Trip (2-5 Weeks)
Cartels, cocaine, crime - Forget the old prejudices; Colombia is an incredibly beautiful country full of diversity and adventure.
Green jungle paradise, vibrant cities, and dreamy white Caribbean beaches - a country that offers so much variety. This is the impression we formed after 5 weeks in Colombia. This blog focuses on our highlights and includes a flexible itinerary that can be adapted to your travel time.
Are you just starting to brainstorm whether Colombia is the perfect destination for you? Check out our quick Pros and Cons of traveling to Colombia.
Our recommended itinerary for 2-5 Weeks:
Cartagena - Rincon del Mar - Tayrona National Park - Palomino - (Minca only partly recommended, see below) - Medellín - Salento
Cartagena
Our journey through Colombia begins in Cartagena, a city in the north of the country, known for its colorful colonial-style old town and Caribbean atmosphere. Since we took a Spanish course here, we spent over a week in this city.
Tips for Cartagena:
Take a Free Walking Tour to get an overview of the city. This way, we like to learn about the most important places and remember those that we particularly like.
Explore the many narrow streets and squares of the old town and the Getsemaní neighbourhood on your own and try the street food offerings.
Take salsa classes at Crazy Salsa or improve your Spanish skills, which will be very helpful during your trip to Colombia (salsa classes are included in the language course at Babel School).
Spend an afternoon at the city beach, learn to surf at Playa Laguito in Boca Grande, or go windsurfing. Cartagena offers many options for adventure seekers.
Rincon del Mar
This small fishing village about 110 km west of Cartagena offers beautiful beaches and the typical Caribbean atmosphere. Here we spent several days and besides relaxed beach days, we also went on some boat trips.
Tips for Rincon del Mar:
Since there is no direct connection from Cartagena, take a bus to San Onofre and from there very easily take a tuk-tuk or moto-taxi to Rincon (they are waiting for tourists at the bus stop).
The beach to the left of Rincon is a paradise. A long, white beach where, the further you go, you might find a secluded section just for yourself.
We can recommend the Bird Island and Bioluminescence tours to everyone who has never done such a thing, just ask at your hotel/hostel. It's spectacular!
Tayrona National Park
From Cartagena, we took a bus to Santa Marta, the city closest to the most popular national park in the north. Especially during the high season (December-January), it gets crowded here. Nevertheless, this beautiful national park should be on every itinerary through northern Colombia. Despite the influx of tourists, the many paths through the jungle, Caribbean beaches, and the diversity of animals completely convinced us.
Tips for Tayrona:
Enter through the Zaino entrance, stay in Cabo San Juan in a hammock or a tent, and the next day continue hiking through the jungle and take the other entrance/exit at Palangana. This way you cover all the highlights of the park.
An advantage is that in the afternoon, after the day visitors have left, the park and beaches significantly empty out.
Palomino
An hour's bus ride east of Tayrona is the small beach village of Palomino. Popular with tourists due to its proximity to many hotspots, yet the atmosphere is very relaxed and alternative - a perfect place to spend a few days at the beach and eat a lot (also many good options for vegetarians).
Tips for Palomino:
Due to the strong waves, the sea is not necessarily suitable for swimming. Instead, the Rio Palomino is an ideal alternative. Especially the magnificent sunsets against the backdrop of the mountains and the relaxed atmosphere in the evening totally amazed us.
If a quiet night is important to you, it's best to find accommodation on one of the streets parallel to the main street (affordable option: Kallpa B&B).
Between Palomino and Tayrona Nationalpark there is the beautiful area around Rio Guachaca near the town of Guachaca with the best accommodation we had so far in Colombia. For more information checkout our guide about places we loved and places we would skip.
Minca (partly recommended)
This small village in the mountains of the Sierra Nevada is only half an hour away from Santa Marta. As the highest coastal mountain range in the world, it offers a perfect contrast to the Caribbean atmosphere and is known for its impressive landscape with many coffee farms, waterfalls, and bird watching. As we found Minca not ideal for hiking and a bit touristy, we wouldn't 100% recommend it. For more information checkout our guide about places we loved and places we would skip.
Tips for Minca:
We did the hike to Los Pinos and saw the Marinka and Pozo Azul waterfalls, which served as a welcome refreshment in the heat.
Watch the sunset at Casa Loma, also with live music in the evening.
We met some tourists who explored the area with a rented motorcycle. Next time, we would do that too, as you can discover much more of the beautiful landscape this way.
Medellín
Since we had time, we decided to take a night bus from Santa Marta to Medellín (the 17 hours were not as bad as expected). Alternatively, there are also cheap flight connections. In the 90s, still the most dangerous city in the world, Medellín is now full of life and even more popular with tourists than the capital Bogotá.
Tips for Medellín:
With the provider Real City Tours, we had the best Free Walking Tour ever, where we learned a lot about the city, the culture, and life in Medellín. Absolutely recommended if you want to learn more about the history of this special city.
The tourist district El Poblado, popular especially among party tourists, didn't quite suit our taste, but you feel very safe at night if you want to eat or drink something.
Definitely check out the Comuna 13 neighborhood, the area around Botero Square, and take the nearby cable car for a great view over the city. (The cable car is part of the public transport, so it is very cheap)
Salento & Cocora Valley
A contrast to the big city metropolis is the small coffee village of Salento. Surrounded by green hills, it serves as a starting point for the famous Cocora Valley hike.
Tips for Salento:
In addition to the beautiful Cocora Valley trek, you can visit a coffee farm in Salento and stroll along the beautiful streets in Salento. We particularly liked the proximity to nature and the relaxed atmosphere here.
The village is small and all accommodations can be easily reached on foot from downtown.
Definitely watch the sunset at the Mirador de Salento.
Cali
The end of our trip was the big city of Cali, where we only spent one day before taking a flight further south. Apart from bachata or salsa classes, the city doesn't really have much to offer and is not the safest in Colombia.
Conclusion
After 5 weeks, our time in Colombia was over.
Our conclusion: Colombia has it all and combines everything a traveler's heart desires. Due to the diverse landscapes and moods, it sometimes felt like we were traveling to different countries. This route can be traveled very well in 2-3 weeks, the more time, the better.
