Travel Plan For Colombia

Very tasteful and wide range of tropical fruits, famous Colombian coffee, great beaches on the Caribbean coast, gold and emerald reserves and delicious steaks are the first things I remember about my visit in Colombia. Despite many security warnings from some of our friends, we never faced any kind of security problem or saw any type of crimes. We expected worse but after all, Colombia has a very positive image in our minds within its nature, cuisine, friendly people and modern part of Bogota. I hope we can go there again sometime and visit more ads stay longer in this beautiful country.

Anyway, this post in another one of my Travel Route series and it’s about Colombia. Travel Route articles are detailed descriptions of what to see, what to eat, where to go and how to go there and you can use them as travel plans, probably with just a little bit of change to suit your tastes.

Airport (El Dorado) – Bogota

The airport is almost inside the city limits. It is just 15 km away from the city center. My sister and I preferred to take a taxi because we did not want to carry our backpacks and the taxi fare was reasonable. But you can take public bus and reach the city center and many other locations in the city very fast and easily.

Route	Distance (Km)	Duration (Taxi)	Price	Duration (Bus)	Price	Places to See
El Dorado Airport-Bogota	15	15 Min.	20.000 COP/ 8 USD	40 Min.	1800 COP / 0.8 USD	Old Town-Emerald Museum-Gold Museum-Teleferico Monsarete- Zipaquira Salt Cathedral

For visiting Bogota and its surroundings, you may need 2 to 3 days. You need at least one day to visit Zipaquira Cathedral. I highly recommend you to visit Gold Museum in Bogota.

Bogota- Villa De Leyva

Villa de Leyva  is one of the oldest and beautiful colonial towns in South America and still keeps its beauty. It is like it got frozen in time. You can go to the Norte station of Bogota and find buses to go to Leyva. You can not find direct buses at every hour but some buses go directly. But I suggest you take a bus from a bus company office and go directly and not waste your time by waiting for a bus in Norte station

Route	Distance (Km)	Duration (Bus)	Price
Bogota-Villa de Leyva	170	3 Hours 30 Min.	22.000 COP /9 USD

Bogota- Cartagena

We really loved Cartagena. The old colonial house in the city walls, the old cobblestone roads, the boutique hotels, nice shops, different restaurants and the beautiful beaches on Caribbean sea charmed us. It is a really nice holiday city. Around Cartagena, there are many nice five stars holiday resorts and hotels. We preferred to  stay in old town and go to beaches by ourselves.

Route	Distance (Km)	Duration (Plane)	Price	Duration (Bus)	Price	Places to See
Bogota-Cartagena	1050	1 Hour 30 Min.	50-150 USD	18 Hours	200.000 COP/ 75 USD	Playa Blanca-Isla Rosario-Aquarium-Parque Tayrona

 You can take a tour to the beaches and island around Cartagena and spend one day on beaches. My favorite beach was Playa Blanca. The speed boats leave in the city center pier, just across the Clock tower. I suggest you take a tour only for Playa Blanca. Aquarium is not much marvelous, you can skip it and spend more time on Playa Blanca. Don’t forget to bargain about the fare of a tour and it also  includes lunch.

Here are some pictures from my Colombia trip.

For more Colombia photos, please visit My Flickr Album.