Itinerary · 12 days · 54 places
12 Days in Colombia
Twelve days through three very different Colombias: cool Bogotá at 2,600 metres, the green coffee hills around Salento and Filandia, and finally the warm Caribbean of Cartagena.
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Photo: K · Pexels
The route on the map
The plan, day by day
Day 1Arrival in Bogotá
Arrival in Bogotá
Hotel check-in
The hotel is in Chapinero Alto, a quiet residential district with brick houses, cafés and a short walk to the restaurant area.
Zona G
A short stroll through the streets of the Zona Gourmet, where Bogotá's best-known kitchens line up in converted houses.
Day 2La Candelaria and the city's mountain
Museo del Oro
Over 30,000 gold pieces of the Muisca, Quimbaya and Tairona, including the famous El Dorado raft.
Plaza de Bolívar
The great main square between the cathedral, the Capitol and the Palace of Justice, always full of pigeons and street vendors.
Museo Botero
Fernando Botero's donation in a colonial courtyard: his rotund figures alongside works by Picasso, Dalí and Monet, free entry.
Cerro de Monserrate
Take the cable car or funicular up to the pilgrimage church at 3,152 metres, from where the whole city spreads out to the horizon.
Chorro de Quevedo
The tiny square where Bogotá is said to have been founded in 1538, now a meeting place for chicha drinkers and street performers.
Evening: La Macarena
The artists' quarter on the slope below the mountains, with small galleries, wine bars and views of the illuminated city centre.
Day 3Market, museums and the north
Plaza de Mercado de Paloquemao
Bogotá's great wholesale market: a flower hall, fish counters and one fruit stall after another with lulo, soursop and granadilla.
Museo Nacional de Colombia
The country's oldest museum in a former cross-shaped prison, the Panóptico, covering everything from pre-Columbian ceramics to the history of the civil war.
Jardín Botánico José Celestino Mutis
A walk through páramo beds, the palm house and the orchid collection — Colombia's vegetation gathered on a single site.
Usaquén
The former village in the north, with cobblestones, a colonial church and the crafts market around the arcades of the main square.
Evening: Parque de la 93
A park framed by restaurants and bars, where Bogotá meets under fairy lights in the evening to eat and talk.
Day 4Into the coffee region to Salento
Onward to Salento
Hotel check-in
Calle Real
Salento's main street, lined on both sides with brightly painted balconied houses, craft shops and coffee roasters.
Mirador Alto de la Cruz
A good 250 steps up from the end of Calle Real to the cross, from where the view stretches over the Río Quindío valley to the wax palms.
Parque Principal Salento
The village square with its white church, the jeep stand and benches where coffee farmers sit together in the afternoon.
Evening: billiard bars on Calle 6
In the open halls people play billiards and rana until late, with beer from the fridge and plenty of chatter.
Day 5Wax palms in the Valle de Cocora
Mirador Cocora
From the upper section of the loop trail, the 60-metre Quindío wax palms stand like matchsticks above the pastures.
Cocora wax palm forest
A walk across grassy slopes between the solitary palms, Colombia's national tree, often amid drifting wisps of mist.
Reserva Natural Acaime
The hummingbird station in the cloud forest, where several species visit the feeders at once, plus a hot aguapanela with cheese.
Finca El Ocaso
A coffee farm below Salento: picking with a basket, hulling, drying and roasting are demonstrated step by step and tasted.
Evening: Café Jesús Martín
The roastery on Calle Real serves espresso and cascara drinks from its own Quindío harvests in the evening.
Day 6Filandia and the green hills
Mirador Colina Iluminada
A wooden lookout tower above Filandia, with views on clear days as far as the Río Cauca valley.
Parque Principal Filandia
The main square, with even more colourful balconies than Salento and far fewer coaches parked in front.
Filandia basket-weaving workshops
In the back yards, craftspeople weave bejuco fibres into the baskets still used for picking coffee in Quindío today.
Reserva Natural Bremen-La Popa
A cloud-forest reserve north of Filandia with quiet forest trails, bromeliads and a good chance of toucans and black-throated trogons.
Evening: tejo hall in Salento
In the national sport you throw metal discs at gunpowder caps set in clay — there's a bang, and the beer comes with the lane rental.
Day 7To the Caribbean in Cartagena
Onward to Cartagena
Hotel check-in
Torre del Reloj
The yellow clock tower above the main gate in the city wall, with the vaults in front where the slave market was once held.
Plaza Santo Domingo
The square in front of the city's oldest church, with Botero's reclining bronze "La Gorda" and tables beneath the balconies.
City wall at Baluarte de Santo Domingo
Along the top of the murallas you walk beside the sea to the bastion, where the sun sets right behind the breakwaters.
Evening: Plaza de la Trinidad
In Getsemaní the church square fills after dark with street food stalls, drummers and dance groups.
Day 8Fortresses and Getsemaní
Castillo San Felipe de Barajas
The largest Spanish fortress in the Americas, with tunnels you can walk through inside the hill and views over the whole bay.
Convento de la Popa
A monastery on the city's highest hill, with a flowering courtyard and the widest panoramic view over Cartagena and the lagoon.
Getsemaní murals
In the lanes around Calle de la Sierpe, large murals tell the story of the neighbourhood itself, with colourful bunting strung across the street.
Museo del Oro Zenú
A small, well-made museum on Parque Bolívar about the goldsmithing and canal-building of the Zenú people in the Sinú Valley.
Las Bóvedas
Twenty-three vaults in the city wall, once a munitions store and dungeons, now shops selling hammocks and handicrafts.
Evening: Café del Mar on the city wall
Once it's dark, the bar on the Baluarte de Santo Domingo serves drinks on top of the wall to the sound of the sea and the breeze.
Day 9Islas del Rosario and Barú
Playa Blanca on Barú
A pale strip of sand with turquoise, gently shelving water; early in the morning it's still almost empty.
Cholón mangrove channel
Narrow waterways through the mangroves of Cholón Bay, with herons and small fishing boats about.
Oceanario Islas del Rosario
A marine station on Isla San Martín with pools for rays, sharks and hawksbill turtles and explanations about the coral reef.
Laguna Encantada on Isla Grande
A lagoon enclosed by mangroves where bioluminescent plankton sparkles in the evening; a quiet swimming spot by day.
Evening: Bar Alquímico
A three-storey colonial house in the old town, with a cocktail bar of dried herbs downstairs and a rooftop terrace with music above.
Day 10Market, Manga and Bocagrande
Mercado de Bazurto
The city's noisy wholesale market: a fish hall, coconut rice straight from the pot and fruit varieties you won't see in the centre.
Barrio Manga
A villa district on an island in the bay, with Republican-era mansions such as Casa Román and shady avenues.
Playa de Bocagrande
The city beach in front of the row of high-rises, good for a dip in the warm water and a coconut from a passing vendor.
Museo Naval del Caribe
Ship models, maps and cannons tell of pirate raids and the 1741 siege by Admiral Vernon.
Parque Bolívar Cartagena
A shady square with tall trees, where palenqueras with fruit bowls and dance groups appear in the late afternoon.
Evening: Café Havana
A salsa bar in Getsemaní with a live band, ceiling fans and a bar in the middle of the room — bring cash.
Day 11Tierrabomba and Bocachica
Fuerte de San Fernando de Bocachica
A horseshoe-shaped fortress at the harbour entrance, whose chain was once stretched across the strait to the fort opposite.
Batería de San José
The smaller counter-battery on the other side of the channel, with cannons still pointing out to the open sea.
Playa de Punta Arena
A quiet beach on Tierrabomba with calm water and the Bocagrande skyline on the horizon opposite.
Tierrabomba village
A car-free fishing village where the boats lie on the beach and the paths between the houses are made of sand.
Evening: Plaza San Diego
A small square in the quietest part of the old town, lined in the evening by candlelit tables of the surrounding restaurants.
Day 12Last morning and departure
Iglesia de San Pedro Claver
Church and monastery of the Jesuit who cared for the enslaved Africans in the 17th century; his tomb lies beneath the altar.
Palacio de la Inquisición
A colonial palace with the narrow denunciation window in its side wall, behind which is the city museum on the history of Cartagena.
Departure from Cartagena
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