Barranquilla to Cartagena via bus
 

Can anyone comment or have experience with the bus from Barranquilla to Cartagena? We are looking into attending the Barranquilla Carnival in 2019. We spent 10 days in Cartagena a couple of years ago and LOVED it! We would fly from the US into Barranquilla, bus to Cartagena, and fly back to the US from Cartagena. As background, hubby and I are mid-60s, active, healthy, no walking issues, and have been fortunate to have traveled independently to over 30 countries (several third-world countries). We speak enough Spanish to get by. The 1 1/2 hour bus ride ($7.00/person) seems more efficient than1 hour of flying ($175/person). But if safety is an issue, we'd fly. Do you have experience with this bus trip? Thanks for any and all information!

I haven’t done that specific trip but we spent a couple of months travelling around Colombia. Our intention was to go everywhere by bus as we had through much of the rest of South America. However, after a week in the country, we saw so many serious accidents tha we reevaluated our plans and decided to fly the longer (>4 hours) sections where possible and definitely avoid all overnight buses. Even doing this we still got involved in a couple of minor accidents, one of which resulted in us being stuck in the middle of nowhere waiting for the police to come and sort it all out.

Having said that, the journey between Cartagena and Barranquilla is likely to take close to 3 hours so that would be within my comfort zone. $175 is an outrageous fare. Have you checked Viva Colombia? We used them a lot and their fares weren’t a lot more than te buses in a lot of cases and they were fine.

Thank you, crellston. Very valuable information about the busses. I will check Viva Colombia for their prices. Happy Travels!