Advice needed for Colombia
#1
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Join Date: Apr 2003
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Advice needed for Colombia
Hi. Planning to be in Colombia January 20th for 14 days. First visit. Bought the Moon River ebook guide. It suggested driving while visiting the coffee region, but no details provided. Is it safe and feasible to rent a car in Medellin and head towards the coffee area? Or should we fly to Manizales or Armenia and rent a car there. Any driving itinerary or links to them will be greatly appreciated. We like scenery bird watching interesting sights short hikes. And coffee. We also plan to fly into Cartegena for a few days. Thank you.
#2
Join Date: Feb 2014
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Driving in Colombia needs a lot of care, drivers can be a bit crazy here and sites and places not well signposted. You need some basic Spanish to ask directions etc.
Having said that there is a lot of beautiful places to explore by car, I just came back from The Cocora Valley (Salento) which was beautiful, and accessible by good roads from Armenia (less than an hours drive) or Manizales (further).
I have put some advice on driving etc on my blogsite http://travelswithmitzi.blogspot.com/
though more intended for people coming to live in Colombia, some posts might also be useful for a rental trip, check out the posts on driving and nearly all posts have some tips on road conditions etc. Unfortunately I have not put much on their about the coffee region, but actually the roads in this area are among the best in Colombia (the road tolls are expensive though!). Hope all goes well. ps you can buy road atlases at larger petrol stations if the hire company does not have one
Having said that there is a lot of beautiful places to explore by car, I just came back from The Cocora Valley (Salento) which was beautiful, and accessible by good roads from Armenia (less than an hours drive) or Manizales (further).
I have put some advice on driving etc on my blogsite http://travelswithmitzi.blogspot.com/
though more intended for people coming to live in Colombia, some posts might also be useful for a rental trip, check out the posts on driving and nearly all posts have some tips on road conditions etc. Unfortunately I have not put much on their about the coffee region, but actually the roads in this area are among the best in Colombia (the road tolls are expensive though!). Hope all goes well. ps you can buy road atlases at larger petrol stations if the hire company does not have one
#3
Join Date: Oct 2003
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We just got back from our 2 week holiday in Colombia. Get ready cuz you are going to love it! We toyed with renting a car and man am I glad we did not. We hired a driver and he was beyond amazing and very reasonable with respect to car rental prices. He was on time and I checked him out with the reference he gave me which was another american who raved about him. I'm going to put his info here at the end of my post.
We stayed in Medellin for 2 nights before heading out to the coffee region and stayed in El Poblado area of Medellin, loved the BH El Poblado hotel a lot. Then our driver picked us up early and took us to Jardin which is in the coffee region and we LOVED it. I'd recommend the Casa De Familia hotel which is on the square.
Here is Vincent's the drivers info. I would NOT drive in that country if I did not have to unless I'd lived there a little. Medellin is very busy.
Vincente Perez - [email protected]
Good luck
Private message me if you need more info
We stayed in Medellin for 2 nights before heading out to the coffee region and stayed in El Poblado area of Medellin, loved the BH El Poblado hotel a lot. Then our driver picked us up early and took us to Jardin which is in the coffee region and we LOVED it. I'd recommend the Casa De Familia hotel which is on the square.
Here is Vincent's the drivers info. I would NOT drive in that country if I did not have to unless I'd lived there a little. Medellin is very busy.
Vincente Perez - [email protected]
Good luck
Private message me if you need more info