Advice on Colombia itinerary
 

We are a couple in our 60s and have just booked return flights to Bogota (from Curitiba, Brazil) between 25/12/2023 and 11/01/2024. We like unstructured travel and are happy to take our chances with accommodation rather than have to commit to be somewhere on X date. If we like a place, we stay, and if not we move on. We plan to spend 2-3 days in Bogota then hire a car and do a circuit including, amongst others, Villa de Leyva, PNN El Cocuy, Barichara, Medellin, PNN Los Nevados, Zona Cafetera and back to Bogotá. My principal question is, would this be too much time in the region? I'm thinking of 2-3 days in Medellin and 1-2 nights in various other places along the route. I'd especially welcome tips of dealing with holiday traffic flows. Thanks for any tips and suggestions.

My wife and I spent around three months in Colombia. Our initial plan was to travel around by bus as we had throughout the rest of South America. However after a week in the country, having witnessed countless RTAs (and later being involved in two!) we decided to fly wherever possible. Not sure I would be happy driving in Colombia. One of the key issues driving would eb finding somewhere to park your car securely each night ( assuming you want it to be there in the morning!)

As for time in each place . We preferred Bogota to Medellin and spend 4 nights in each which we feel was about right. Visit villa de Lleyva at a weekend or it will be dead quiet. 2 nights will give you one full day, just enough for the town (but we spend a week there anyway as we rented a house there),.

I am all for unstructured travel but you could struggle there over the holiday period . we were the July-Sept. All I can say about the traffic is to hope for the best but plan for the worst. Traffic disruption seem to be the norm rather than the exception.

Loved our time there and hard pushed to say what our favourite places were but here is a link to our blog covering most of the places we went https://accidentalnomads.com/category/colombia/ though I felt the smaller village like Barichara, Jardin, Mompox provide the best insight into the country.

I think it's not a bad time to travel as Christmas is well celebrated there (visit a mall in Medellin for example) and the weather is relatively good (should have stopped raining). I also would not drive myself.

I am not sure if Villa de Lleyva is dead if the holidays are on and school is out as it's primarily a Bogota vacation place.i went there from Bogota by bus/combi (small van).

I did like Medellin but choice of hotel location can influence that, while I liked Alejandra Poblado it's relatively pricey by Colombia standards and is up on a hill outside of the popular tourist areas yet not a long walk to the main drag (probably why I liked it). If you can stomach extremely hard beds the bh El Poblado is right across from the Santa Fe Mall which is a fun spot to visit if the holiday decor is up. I believe both crellston and I stayed at the Ibis which is relatively convenient to the Metro and Modern Art museum. Some of the better hotels do not have good pedestrian access to the closest Metro stop. In Medellin I recommend the Communa 13 tour, a guided visit around the downtown, as well as riding the gondola.

In Bogota of course the graffiti tour and the fabulous museums (Gold and Botero at a minimum). I think another day in Bogota could be well spent if you like architecture.


crellston had tipped me off on spending a Saturday night in Jardin to see the locals parading their horses around the town square. Very colorful. If you make it to Jardin there is a famous Cock-of-the Rock Lek within walking distance of the town center.

Thank you crellston and mlgb for these useful insights.

Hi donaldlindsay3175 Is not to much time on the region, especially if you want to travel to PNN that has a lot to see. for your profile and being on your 60s I can see you want to make hiking on some kind of natural tourism and see the beautiful views Colombia has to offer like "Zona Cafetera" that is a world heritage site. Maybe would be a short time to go deeper on the andeans. (Rugged terrain and deficient roads).

Hope you have a great trip.

I hope you're enjoying this trip. I can tell you from past experience that El Cocuy PNN is absolutely amazing. I've climbed there twice and it's an unbelievable park. I hope you've been able to get that far north.