Colourful colonial lanes on the Caribbean Sea, coffee at the source and the city that reinvented itself – Colombia is the insider tip that isn't one any more.
Photo: Jimmy Hu (Unsplash)
Full disclosure: I only know Colombia from other people's stories, but those are getting more and more frequent – in twenty years the country has gone from no-go zone to favourite destination. Cartagena is the reason most people go: the walled old town with balconies overflowing with bougainvillea, the sea, the music.
Medellín, once notorious, is now the city of eternal spring, with cable cars over the hillsides and an energy that's infectious. The coffee region around Salento with the wax palms of the Cocora Valley is green and peaceful; Bogotá has the Gold Museum and the La Candelaria old town.
The country is cheap, the food good, the people open. You get around by domestic flights (short, cheap) and within the regions by bus or with a driver. For a first trip: Bogotá, the coffee region, Medellín, Cartagena – two weeks, also available as an organised tour.
Cartagena: old town or Getsemaní. Medellín: El Poblado or Laureles. Salento: the village or a finca in the coffee hills.
I almost always compare hotels, apartments and guesthouses on Booking.com – with genuine reviews and usually free cancellation.
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