A friend and I are going to Colombia for two weeks in mid October. We will be flying into Cartagena and flying home from Bogata. Only our flights are booked. Besides these 2 cities, we will also be going to Medellin. For these destinations, we will be taking internal flights. Below are some thoughts:

Flight is due to land in Cartegena 12 noon on Friday, Octoer 14. By the time we land, go through customs and get to hotel, it will be late afternoon.

Cartegena thinking 4 nights

Medelline thinking 4 nights.

Bogota thinking 3 nights. Flight home leaves Bogota 3:20 pm. Have to be at the airport 3 hours before plus travel time so that day doesn't give much time for anything.

We have 15 nights. So far I have approximately 11 nights planned. Should I add more/less?

Thinking of additional areas to explore:

Villa de Leyva
Pereira
Santa Marta/Barranquilla/Tayrona Nat Park

I was thinking one of these areas would fill out our itinerary.

Any suggestions would be very much appreciated. No hotels are booked so number of nights is totally flexible.

Going South of Bogota seems to take longer and requires more time so I thought north made more sense. We will take internal flights or hire a driver.

Seeing a beach is great and maybe a day relaxing is ok, but since I don't swim snorkeling and water sports aren't on my list. Hiking is fine but not rock scrambling or 13 hours of trekking.

I think your plan sounds good. I think staying North is a wise plan.

In terms of what to add VdL is a nice town for a couple days. Pereira appeared to be just a big town and didn't appeal to us. Haven't been to Santa Marta etc. Check out Salento for a nice contrast to what you already have. I liked the small town a lot and you can do a hike in the Valley de Cocora. You can fly there from Medellin.
There are a couple TR's on this site that could give you some ideas. You can find mine here
http://www.fodors.com/community/sout...o-colombia.cfm

Also you might want to be careful with spellings of towns in order to do searches on them--Medellin and Cartagena. Have a great trip--Colombia is a wonderful country.

I enjoyed Bogota so I would maybe add another night there. Another vote for Villa de Leyva...two nights minimum.

I don't have much time right now, but I'm sure you will love Colombia. The south was our favorite place in Colombia but I understand your thinking.

I've posted quite a lot about our trip to Colombia on my blog, the first post includes general travel tips for Colombia which you may find useful. One immediate tip is make sure you don't plan the Gold Museum in Bogota for a Monday, it's closed!

http://www.somuchmoretosee.com/search/label/Colombia

Thank you all so much for your wonderful suggestions including restaurants and places to stay. Thank you yestravel for your great TR as well as for the spelling comment �� Mlgb thank you for your vote for Villa de Leyva. Thank you welltraveledbrit for your very helpful tips as well as interesting blog. Took a while to decide where in South America to travel this year and from all your comments I know we picked a fabulous destination.

Reading great info - I know north and south both have fabulous sites to explore. As mentioned, I was planning on going north. I realize with 2 weeks I can't do everything and don't want to be spending most of my time traveling, especially hearing about the delays with Avianca. Do you think I should spend 1 days less in each of my listed destinations and spend some time in the south? As much as I want to "see it all" I don't want to just be rushing through a city without having time to really explore the culture and have some relaxing time.

No, we were in Colombia and didnt get to the South. We thought about it as we planned our trip, but decided as you said, you can't do it all. 3 days is minimum for staying in the places you listed. If your flights are all on time and you get your full time in each city, that will be grat. If you get delayed at all, you could end up with substantially less time.

Life moves a bit slower in SA and its hot, really hot & humid in Cartagena for example.