COLOMBIA · SOUTH AMERICA
Caribbean walls, coffee hills, cities in the clouds.
From Cartagena's ramparts to the coffee fincas, Medellin's hillsides and the islands off the coast. The tours, day trips and experiences worth booking, all in one place.
Only in Colombia
Three things you’ll only find here.
City walks, beach days and boat trips turn up in every country. These three don’t. A barrio that rebuilt itself, the farms behind the world’s coffee, and a rock you climb for the view over the lakes. Build the rest of the trip around them.
Medellin
Comuna 13
Twenty years ago this hillside barrio was one of the most dangerous corners of the city. A run of outdoor escalators and a wave of street art turned it around. Guides who grew up here walk you through the murals, the hip-hop and the story of how the neighbourhood rewrote itself. Few places anywhere have made the turn this one has.
- 1 Medellin: Comuna 13 Graffiti Tour, Cable Car & Street Food
- 2 Medellín: Comuna 13 Tour with Snacks And Your Own Graffiti
- 3 Bogotá: La Candelaria Graffiti & Urban Art Guided Tour
The Coffee Triangle
A working coffee finca
Colombia grows the coffee the rest of the world orders by name, and the Coffee Triangle is where it happens. Pick the ripe cherries on a family farm, run them through the mill, then drink the result on the same green hillside. Up the valley at Cocora stand the wax palms, the tallest palms on earth and native to nowhere else.
- 1 Medellin: Coffee Tour with Transport, Snacks and Tastings
- 2 Medellín Coffee Farm Tour with Trolley and Cable Car Ride
- 3 From Salento: Cocora Valley Shared Tour
Antioquia
El Penol and Guatape
A lone granite monolith rises straight out of a maze of flooded green fingers, with a staircase zig-zagged up its flank to a view over the whole reservoir. At its foot sits Guatape, where every house wears hand-moulded painted panels in colours brighter than anywhere else in the country.
- 1 Tour Guatapé
- 2 Medellin: Guatapé Day Trip & Boat to Pablo Escobar’s Estate
- 3 Medellín: Private Guatapé with Peñol Tickets and Boat Ride
Start here
New to Colombia? Begin with this one.
If you only book one thing before you land, make it this. The most-booked experience in the country, and an easy way to find your feet.
The big hitters
Colombia's Most Popular Tours
Comuna 13, the walled city, the coffee fincas and the islands off Cartagena. The days travellers come to Colombia for.
First decision
Where to go in Colombia.
It is a big country and the good stuff is spread out. Most trips pick two or three of these and string them together with a short domestic flight.
By region
Start with a region.
Cartagena for the Caribbean and the old city. Medellin for the hills and Comuna 13. Bogota for the museums and the cold-air Andes. The Coffee Region for green farms and slow mornings.
By experience
Or choose what kind of day.
A walking tour to read a city. A boat out to the islands. A finca for the coffee. Street art, salt mines, horses on a hillside, paragliding over the valley, and the rest.
The Caribbean coast
Sundown on the old city walls.
Cartagena keeps a whole walled city of balconied lanes and shaded plazas behind its 16th-century ramparts, with the Rosario Islands a short boat ride offshore. Spend the day under the cathedrals and the evening up on the stone walls, watching the sun drop into the sea.
Cartagena tours →The Coffee Triangle
Where your morning coffee comes from.
The green hills around Salento, Pereira and Manizales grow Colombia's most famous export on small family farms. Tour a working finca from cherry to cup, ride a Willys jeep up into the Cocora Valley, and stand under the tallest palms on earth.
Coffee region tours →Out on the water
Boat days off the coast.
The Rosario Islands, Baru and Playa Blanca, plus the catamaran runs that time it for sunset. Three we’d climb aboard first.
Eat your way around
Street food and market mornings.
Arepas off the griddle, fruit you can’t name yet, ceviche carts and rooftop dinners. Our three favourite ways to eat the country.
The high Andes
Bogota and the salt cathedral.
La Candelaria’s painted lanes, the Gold Museum, and a cathedral carved deep inside a working salt mine an hour north. Three picks for the capital and its day trips.
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