The Best Places To Visit In Colombia For The Perfect 2 Week Itinerary!
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The best 2 Week Colombia Itinerary
We absolutely loved Colombia and are sure you will too! From the colourful towns to the beautiful scenery, friendliest of people, most delicious food, the sound of salsa in the streets and overall great vibes- Colombia has it all, in fact, it’s one of our favourite countries in South America! We flew in to Bogota from our 2-month stay in Brazil, and found the two countries quite similar at times.
In total we spent just under 3 weeks here and almost didn't want to leave. In that time we saw most of the highlights the country has to offer from mid-way up (although of course you could spend much much longer!) and felt it covered a pretty good base without rushing, but you can definitely get most of it done in 2 weeks if you’re short for time. In the south there is coffee country to visit, but unless you have a long time you kind of need to choose whether to go to the top or bottom of the country. We went around everywhere by plane because it works out the same/cheaper than buses most of the time!
Read on to find out where we went and our top tips for the ultimate 2 week Colombia itinerary so you can have an epic time too!
Why Visit Bogota
We were originally planning to simply use this as a stop over since we had just flown in from Brazil, and normally we don't like big cities that much, but we definitely could've spent a couple of days more in this cool city! We're not sure if it's because we weren't expecting much but Bogota really impressed us. It has such a cool, unique vibe, we feel like you could spend a good amount of time here getting lost and finding loads of great hidden gems. It’s a great place to get your first taste of Colombia in!
A super cool place to stay in that we recommend is Selina Hostel. It has an adorable internal courtyard, laid back hipster vibes and is right in the centre.
Our favourite area was definitely La Candelaria. The colourful winding roads are full of character and it's got lots of cool shops, restaurants and bars. There's loads of awesome street art all over the city too so keep your eyes peeled! If you're in the mood for a bit of culture we recommend the Botero Museum.
Like all parts of Colombia, make sure to look out for menus del dias in local eateries for delicious, great value set menus. Overall, we think 3 days minimum is a good amount of time to sped here to get a feel for the place. If you have more time, you could also visit the pretty coffee town Salento.
going to super cool Medellin
Medellin is another super cool city, brimming with interesting history. It's also a lot fancier/hipster than we were expecting! It felt like being in parts of London at times.
One thing that we don't usually like doing because we prefer to go by our own times etc. is tours but we HIGHLY recommend the Real City walking tour because of the city's rich history. It's well worth it to know a bit more in detail about what it was actually like living there during its infamous past and also to learn more about the culture of Colombia from a local's perspective. It was especially interesting to learn how they used architecture to integrate the community and create a sense of inclusivity and pride between the city and the locals that helped, in part, turn it around to the safe, friendly and vibey city that it is today!
Our favourite area was El Poblado and we ended up spending 5 days here because we got a bit sick but recommend at least 3-4 days to wander around and fully immerse yourself in all the cool restaurants and bars it has to offer.
visiting Cartagena
Cartagena is super cute and colourful and definitely well worth the visit but we wouldn't recommend staying in the old town because it's quite touristy. Instead, we stayed in Getsemani, less than 5 minutes walk away, which is Cartagena's grittier younger sister and we loved it! It's a small, buzzing area that has a really cool famous salsa bar with live music and dancing. There's also a popular hotel there, Republica, that organises loads of events (and it has an awesome inner-courtyard pool). You can get multiple tours from around there too, such as the AWESOME Totumo Mud Volcano. If you have to pick anywhere in Colombia, definitely don’t miss this lovely town.
Cartagena is quite small so you can definitely check out all the pretty streets in a day but we recommend at least another couple of days to check out the surrounding beaches (such as baby-blue Playa Blanca), Getsemani and anything else you want to do. Prepare yourself to spend at least 2 days here. If you have more time, you can also visit the stunning Rosario Islands.
We highly recommend going to the Totumo mud volcano because it's such a unique and hilarious experience. There's only three in the world and you literally climb in and bathe in the mud. It's a really strange experience because you float on top and it’s also pretty cold which I wasn't expecting for some reason. For a couple of dollars you can have someone give you a massage in there too. When you get out, old ladies will hose and scrub you down (and get right up in your bikini)- you'll feel like you're being reborn haha! It’s about an hour’s ride from Cartagena and well worth it for the photos alone!
From Cartagena you can also take a trip to the beautiful Playa Blanca. This is the best beach around there (the ones by the town aren't that nice) but it is about an hour away. Also definitely ask what time the last taxi/combi leaves back from there because it's pretty secluded otherwise and you don't want to get stranded because it could get a bit dodgy at night. It was one of the nicest beaches we saw in Colombia though so definitely worth it!
staying at taganga + tayrona national park
We'd heard about camping in the National Park of Colombia, Tayrona, from other travellers and couldn't wait to try it! It's about a 4-hour hike through beautifully diverse scenery and beaches along the Caribbean coast (although we wouldn't recommend swimming in all of them due to the swell, some have earned the infamous nickname "Gringo Death Beach", it’s best to wait until you arrive at the campsite in Cabo San Juan).
When you arrive you can simply hire a tent that's already set up for you. There's a decently priced restaurant on site as well. You can also stay in hammocks on top of a small hill right on the water but we personally wouldn't recommend that because once you're up there at night you're pretty much stranded because it's pitch black and the tide cuts you off! Also, on the second day we were there a storm came in so everyone up there got totally soaked. Needless to say, they had a terrible night, but it was only like the third time it had rained there in about 10 years so it's also super unlikely this will happen to you!
We decided to stay in Taganga to use as a base for Tayrona Park because it's closer and we liked how small it was compared to the other option, Santa Marta. It's a tiny village with some cute restaurants and accommodation all no more than 15-minutes walk from each other and to the beach. It's not the best beach Colombia has to offer though so we wouldn't recommend staying here too long. Overall a night in Taganga and one night in Tayrona National Park should be enough.
Visiting santa marta + minca
We decided to end our trip in Colombia with Minca because we wanted to see some waterfalls. This area is really lusciously green and has loads of great hikes you can do. It's pretty hard to get to from Santa Marta though so we would recommend organising a taxi/combi with your accommodation to take you all the way if possible. We got a local bus which dropped us off on a major roadway and it took us ages to figure out how to get a taxi with our bags (that wasn't a motorbike).
Minca is a really tiny village with super cute restaurants and bars surrounded by hills, there's not much to it so expect a super chilled, nature-filled time. Ask your host or locals where the walks are to the waterfalls, there's one main road to get to them from the bridge and then there are several different options of varying lengths to reach different waterfalls. Some of them can get pretty crowded though so bare that in mind when choosing which one to go to and at what time of day. One tip is to not bother waiting to see the toucans on your way back because they're so far away they look like any other bird unfortunately haha.
We stayed in a relaxed, family-run hostel at the top of the hill which was super peaceful, called Colibri. If you prefer, if you organized it well, you could also probably see Minca in a day trip. Or, if you have more time, you could do the awesome Lost City trek!
We didn't see much of Santa Marta because we mainly used it as a stop over point for Minca but from what we did see, it didn't seem like anything special and there are more interesting places in Colombia to see. Overall we recommend at least 2 days in Minca to explore.
So there you have it! Our perfect 2 week Colombia travel itinerary with all the best places to visit. We loved all our experiences in this beautiful country and we hope this guide serves you well with your trip planning. We would love to hear how your journey goes, let us know in the comments section below! If you’ve been to Colombia before, what else would you add? We’d love to go back one day :)
