Cartagena sits at sea level. Bogotá sits at 2,640 metres.
What the boat out to the Rosario Islands costs. Whether the Comuna 13 walk is better before the heat. Which coffee farm lets you pick, dry and drink the same morning. Reviews of every tour you can book in Colombia.
A mural, a walled city, an island boat and a coffee farm.
The four bookings a first trip to Colombia gets built around. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The Medellín morningComuna 13 Graffiti Tour, Cable Car & Street FoodPainted stairs, the cable car above them and food eaten standing up. Take the early slot, before the alley fills.
02The first afternoonHistoric Center and Getsemaní Shared Walking TourThe walls and Getsemaní on foot, with the story of who built what and why. Two hours, and the old town stops being confusing.
03The island dayRosario Islands Catamaran with Lunch and SnorkelA catamaran out to the Rosario Islands with lunch and a snorkel stop. The day the rest of the week gets arranged around.
04The coffee dayCoffee Tour with Transport, Snacks and TastingsA working finca above the city: the picking, the drying patio, then a cup poured by the person who grew it.
Colombia keeps its best hours offshore.
The coast is where the country goes to stop working. Four kinds of day on the water, what it costs to get on each one, and which quay it leaves from.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · Rosario Islands Catamaran with Lunch and Snorkel
The island runCatamaran out past the fort, lunch and a snorkel stop.
The beach dayBarú sand, a hammock and somebody selling you a coconut.
Jungle into seaGranite boulders, palms and a swimmable cove at the end of the walk.
Sunset on the bayTwo hours out past the walls with the skyline going gold.
All 68 days on the water →
The days out most travellers in Colombia end up booking.
Every Colombian tour we have reviewed →The country’s most popular experiences, with what each one costs and how long it takes.
1
Comuna 13 Graffiti Tour, Cable Car & Street Food
Join a small group of up to 10 with guides such as Natalia, Santiago, Martin, or Melina. Travel by metro, cable car, and bus to Comuna 13 for coffee, street art, a dance show, an arepa, local stories, and a drink with city views.
From · $18
Read our review →
2
The Real Pablo Escobar Tour
from $42
3
Historic Center and Getsemaní Shared Walking Tour
from $12
4
Rosario Islands Catamaran with Lunch and Snorkel
from $107
5
Bicycle City Tour
from $19
6
Comuna 13 True Story and Street Food Tour
from $14
7
Full-Day Rosario Islands Including Barú, Bocachica & Playa Blanca
from $88
8
Salt Cathedral Group Tour with Pickup
from $46
Medellín built a cable car into the hillside and changed its own story.
The metrocable lifts commuters up slopes that were cut off for decades, outdoor escalators climb into Comuna 13, and the murals along the way were painted by people who lived through what they describe. It is the most talked-about half day in the country.
The drying patios and the tallest palms on earth sit three hours apart.
Between Salento and Pereira the hills are planted to the ridge line, and the Cocora valley next door holds wax palms sixty metres tall. A farm in the morning and the valley in the afternoon is the standard day here, and it is worth the internal flight.
- 1Coffee Tour with Transport, Snacks and Tastingsfrom $80
- 2Medellín Coffee Farm Tour with Trolley and Cable Car Ridefrom $56
- 3Coffee Tour at the Finca del Caféfrom $40
Six places worth unpacking in, and the best day out from each.
A walled city on the Caribbean, a valley city that rebuilt itself, a capital in the clouds, a coast where the jungle runs into the sea, the salsa capital, and the coffee hills. Pick two, maybe three.
What a day out in Colombia actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. A good number of the best Colombian days come in under the price of the taxi from the airport.
Old-town walks, the Comuna 13 climb, street-food runs and the cable cars.
Full days: the Rosario boat, the rock at Guatapé, Tayrona, a coffee farm with transport.
Private guides, chartered boats and the one splurge a trip is allowed.
Cartagena is best walked at six and left by boat at nine.
The walls take an hour and the heat takes the rest, which is why the old town empties onto the water every morning. Getsemaní does the evening instead: the square fills, the speakers come out, and nobody goes to bed early.
Every Cartagena day out →
Three things that happen in Colombia and nowhere else.
Beaches and colonial old towns exist all round the Caribbean. A cathedral cut into a working salt mine, palms sixty metres tall, and a granite monolith with a staircase up its crack do not.
The Salt Cathedral at Zipaquirá
Miners at Zipaquirá cut a church into the galleries they were already working, and the current one has stood 180 metres under the hill since 1995. The stations of the cross are carved into side tunnels along the walk in, each lit on its own, and the nave at the end holds several thousand people. The mine still produces salt.
- 1Salt Cathedral Group Tour with Pickup★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,606 reviews
- 2Guatavita and Salt Cathedral Daily Group Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 615 reviews
- 3Zipaquirá Salt Cathedral and Lake Guatavita Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 551 reviews
The Cocora wax palms
The Quindío wax palm is the tallest palm in the world, and it grows in one cloud-forest valley above Salento, standing clear of the ridge line in ones and twos like something the forest forgot. It is Colombia’s national tree. The loop takes most of a day on foot and the mud is not a rumour.
- 1Cocora Valley Shared Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 246 reviews
- 2Salento, Cocora and Filandia Private Tour from Pereira or Armenia★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 90 reviews
- 3Salento/Pereira: Cocora Valley & Salento Hiking Private Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 78 reviews
El Peñol and Guatapé
A granite monolith stands alone above a flooded valley two hours east of Medellín, with more than 700 steps built into the crack running up its face. The town below is painted to the roofline in zócalos, panels along the base of every wall showing what the family inside does for a living.
- 1Tour Guatapé★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 865 reviews
- 2Guatapé Day Trip & Boat to Pablo Escobar’s Estate★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 365 reviews
- 3Private Guatapé with Peñol Tickets and Boat Ride★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 256 reviews
Four Colombian bookings that will not wait.
Most of this country can be arranged over breakfast. These four run on boat timetables, entry caps and a single road in.
- 01Comuna 13 Graffiti Tour, Cable Car & Street FoodThe alley is narrow and the morning walks go first. By midday the escalators are shoulder to shoulder.
- 02Rosario Islands Catamaran with Lunch and SnorkelOne sailing out, one sailing back. Miss the morning boat and the island day is gone with it.
- 03Salt Cathedral Group Tour with PickupEntry is timed, the mine is ninety minutes from Bogotá, and weekends fill with Bogotanos rather than tourists.
- 04Sailboat day tour to Tayrona ParkThe park caps how many people enter each day and closes for several weeks a year while the indigenous communities clean it.
Bogotá sits at 2,640 metres and it rains after lunch.
The capital is cold, thin-aired and reliably wet from about three, and the two wet seasons run April to May and October to November. The answer is the one Bogotanos already use. Do the outdoor thing early, then go under a roof: a salt mine, a gold collection, a covered market, a kitchen.
Arepas from a cart, ceviche in the shade, aguardiente after.
Colombian food is regional to the point of stubbornness. The coast eats coconut rice and fried fish, Medellín eats a bandeja the size of a tray, and Bogotá drinks hot chocolate with cheese melted into it. A walking tour is the fastest way through all of it.
By place — coast, valley and altiplano
By kind of day — boat, mural, finca or dance floor
Cartagena, the coast, Medellín, the coffee hills, Bogotá.
GuatapéThe newest Colombian tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Shared Old Cartagena & Getsemani Tour with Wireless System
Read our review →
SANTAMARTA: TOUR Remanso, Taganga, Playa Grande Lunch and Snorkeling Included
Read our review →
SANTAMARTA: White Night Tour in Katamaran with open bar
Read our review →
Scenic Horseback Ride in Tropical Mountain Reserve
Read our review →
Scuba Diving Day Trip at Playa Blanca with Lunch
Read our review →
SANTAMARTA: TOUR Combo boat taxi, aquarium, lunch, and white sand beach
Read our review →
Old Town and Quinta Pedro Alejandrino Santa Marta City Tour
Read our review →
