We spent 9 days in December of 2023 in this country visiting the cities of Bogota, Medellin, and Cartagena. Since 2005, there has been significant improvement in security and stability, as well as unprecedented economic growth and development in this country.
Since the 3 cities were spread out across the country, we took flights between the cities. We were lucky in finding great hotels in all 3 cities. We planned the itinerary for the 9 days 1-2 months in advance :
- Bogota
- Day 1 – Day trip to Zippaquira – Viator
- Day 2 – Tour of Bogota – Viator
- Medellin
- Day 3 – Self guided tour of El Poblado neighborhood
- Day 4 – Guatape and Coffee Farm – Viator
- Day 5 – Tour of Comuna 13 and city – Local guide
- Day 6 – Self guided tour of Park Arvi
- Cartagena
- Day 7 – Self guided tour of Spanish fort
- Day 8 – Self guided tour of old city
- Day 9 – Rosario Island
Although we would have loved to visit Caño Cristales, we found that we needed at least 2-3 extra days to accommodate this visit, as this place was out of the way.
Do you need to know Spanish to travel in Colombia ? – This would depend on which places or cities you will be visiting and your activities. Between me and my husband, we hardly knew any Spanish, just a few words that would be useful when ordering food in restaurants and we used google translate with uber drivers. We also visited only the major cities of Bogota, Medellin, and Cartagena where at least one person in the hotel or a restaurant could speak some English.
It would help if you knew some basic Spanish if you are planning to travel to smaller towns or doing mostly self guided tours. One of the best part of travelling anywhere in the world is interacting with locals to see if your vibe matches theirs.