Itineraries
 

Hi all,

I have 23 days in Colombia and I have worked out two itineraries. Once has Cali in it, the other does not.

Regardless, I would REALLY appreciate some feedback...


#1 (with Cali)

Tuesday 22 Bogota
Wednesday 23 Bogota
Thursday 24 Bogota
Friday 25 Bogota-Villa de Leyva (stay in VDL for the night)
Saturday 26 Villa de Leyva
Sunday 27 Villa de Leyva-Barichara (stay in Barichara for the night)
Monday 28 Barichara-Bucaramanga, Bucaramanga- Cali (stay in Cali for the night)
Tuesday 29 Cali
Wednesday 30 Cali
Thursday 31 Cali- Armenia- Salento (stay in Salento one night)
Friday 1 Efe Cafetero- stay at Hacienda. do coffee tour.
Saturday 2- Valle de Cocora. return to Hacienda.
Sunday 3 leave for Jardin. stay in Jardin one night.
Monday 4 Jardin all day. Leave for Medellin in the late PM, stay in Medellin.
Tuesday 5 Medellin
Wednesday 6 Medellin
Thursday 7 Medellin
Friday 8 Medellin- Cartagena
Saturday 9 Cartagena
Sunday 10 Cartagena- Riohacha
Monday 11 La Guajira
Tuesday 12 La Guajira
Wednesday 13 La Guajira
Thursday 14 fly from Riohacha to Bogota


#2 (no Cali)

Tuesday 22 Bogota
Wednesday 23 Bogota
Thursday 24 Bogota
Friday 25 Bogota
Saturday 26 Bogota-Medellin, spend night in Medellin
Sunday 27 Medellin
Monday 28 Medellin
Tuesday 29 Medellin
Wednesday 30 Medellin-Jardin, stay night in Jardin
Thursday 31 stay another night in Jardin
Friday 1 leave Jardin early and head down to Salento. check out the town, grab a bite, then check into the Hacienda. spend night in Hacienda
Saturday 2 Coffee tour, hang in Hacienda
Sunday 3 Valle de Cocora tour. sleep in Hacienda (or Salento)
Monday 4 Salento-Armenia , fly to Cartagena. spend night in Cartagena
Tuesday 5 Cartagena
Wednesday 6 Cartagena-Riohacha. sleep in Riohacha
Thursday 7 set out to La Guajira
Friday 8 La Guajira
Saturday 9 La Guajira
Sunday 10 La Guajira- Riocacha- Bogota. stay night in Bogota.
Monday 11 Bogota- Villa de Leyva. stay night in VdL
Tuesday 12 Villa de Leyva.
Wednesday 13 Villa de Leyva-Barichara
Thursday 14 Barichara- Bogota

I didn't visit several of the places you list so cant address your itn. We were in Colombia about 3 weeks and visited
Bogota
Salento
Medellin
Cartagena
Barichara
Villa de Leyva

I will say that I think you are moving around a bit more than I would like. Salento deserves a couple nights. It's a charming small town and has nice hiking nearby. I liked Barichara, but be aware that mid week its pretty empty and very quiet.

You can read my TR and see waht we did. I loved Colombia - beautiful country and wonderful people.
http://www.fodors.com/community/sout...o-colombia.cfm

It is difficult to provide feedback without knowing something of your interests. We spent two months in the country, that trip is detailed on our blog @ https://accidentalnomads.com/category/colombia/

We took an unusual route as we were coming overland from Ecuador through Pasto. We based our itinerary on The "see almost everything" itin in their guide book but excluded the Amazon section as we had been before.

I would definitely take a look at Yestravel' excellent TR linked above as that helped us a lot in fine tuning our route and with detail in the actual places.

With the exception of La Guajira, we have visited all the places you list. We loved Colombia buts some places more than others.

A few random thoughts:
1. For me the beauty of Colombia was to be found in the small villages and towns, not so much the big cities.
2 . I much preferred Bogotá to Medellin and would probably spend proportionately less in the latter. Free tours are availble in both cities and are excellent.
3. Barichara and VDL are very quiet during the week so try to visit on a Friday of Saturday night when most of the restaurants are open and the places are buzzing.
4. Salento and Jardin are lovely towns with a lot to do nearby as well as in town. Not sure what the Hacienda has to offer, but I was glad we stayed in town
5. After reading up on Cali, I was glad we only changed bus there. Didn't seem to offer a great deal apart from Salsa and clubbing.
6. I see Bucaramanga on your list. We had to stay there because of flight and bus connections but there didn't seem to be much to offer the visitor. I Chose a hotel in the wrong part of town somthat didn't help much and I later found we could have gotten a taxi to Barichara from the airport relatively easily - might save you a night to add elsewhere.

Happy to answer and specific questions re our Colombia experiences if I can. Happy planning!

Maybe we can help each other out with ideas. I'm planning a very similar trip to your here is what I learned what I can share from your itinerary;

Itinerary 1
Villa de Leyva is a very small town and I've heard it deserves at most 2 days and it is very similar to Barichara, so you can cut some days there if you need to. (I'm doing 1 night in Villa de Levya on my way to San Gil/Barichara 3 days)

I'm spending 1 night in Cali to take some Salsa dancing. From what I read 3 days is too much in Cali. I've heard Salento is amazing also and deserves more nights. Haven't heard of Jardin.

I'm going to Guajira too. Are you going by yourself? or with a tour. I'm planning on doing it myself. 3 days min.

Not much to say about itnerary 2.


Have you thought about doings. Bogota > Villa Levya > Barichara > plane to Santa Marta from Bucaramanga to do Guajira > Cartagena > plane to Cali > Salento > Medellin.

That way you don't have to go back to Bogota.