Colombia places to travel to and cheap hostels

An overview of places to go in Colombia, with links to lists of cheap hostels.

Bogota en surrounding area

Bogotá: Bogota is one of South America's most happening cities. It has culture, bohemia, cafes, parties, art, dance and business. Bogota is booming, and now is a great time to go.

Bucaramanga: Bucaramanga is Colombia's fifth-largest metropolitan area , and has rapidly grown much since the 1960s, mostly in the neighboring suburbs.

Medellin and the Zona Cafetera

Medellín: Medellin is a modern city with incredibly beautiful spring weather all year long, and very friendly people. The city isn't pretty like Cartagena, but the surrounding area is quite beautiful. In the 80s, when Pablo Escobar was running the town, Medellin was rather dangerous, but things have changed and now it's one of the safest cities in South America.

Santa Elena: As the saying goes: "Tiene mas curvas que la carretera a Santa Elena". (She has more curves than the road to Santa Elena.) Santa Elena is an area in the mountains 45 minutes from Medellin with beautiful nature and great hiking and views of the valley. Flowers are grown here for export and for sale in Medellin. It's very safe to visit. Santa Elena is also amous with students as a place to go eat mushrooms (hongos).

Santa Fe De Antioquia: Santa Fe de Antioquia is a beautiful colonial town next to the Cauca river, at less than 2 hours from Medellin on the road to Turbo. In 2006 a tunnel was opened on this road, increasing the amount of weekend tourists. The region around it is very pretty too, and the climate is warmer than Medellin itself. In the historic center, streets are cobblestoned, the colonial houses are painted in pretty colors.

Jardin: Jardin is a typical tiny pueblo paisa surrounded by hills and coffee fincas. It's pleasant with a great central square, has a big cathedral and a few places to stay. You can walk (3 hours) to the Salto Del Angel waterfall.

Jerico: Jerico lies in the south-east of Antioquia and is a beautiful coffee-region town. Photographers will love it. The houses in Jerico are large with patios and often beautiful decorations. You can see the priest walking around in the typical streets. There's a pretty park with beautiful views on the 90 meter hill - El Morro del Salvador - the climb takes half an hour.

Rio Sucio: Rio Sucio ("dirty river") is a small town in the Caldas department. It's most famous for it's carnaval del diablo, held two years (on un-even years, like 2007, 2009 and so on) in January, where a week-long carnaval is held focused on images of the devil. the church gates are closed, a big statue of the devil is put in front of it. Locals put gold powder on the devil for luck, and there is some magic involved.

Rio Claro: The Rio Claro is a small river in Antioquia. There is some great nature around and a nature reserve has been created, and it's a spot for local tourism. The river is very clear and has a marble riverbed. Entrance to the nature reserve is 2 US$/day. It's a great place to spend a day or two playing in a beautiful nature spot.

Cañon del Rio Alicante: A great nature hangout spot, if you like long hiking through a natural area, see lots of birds and trees without bumping into lots of other campers. A bit hard to get to.

Salento: Salento is a cute tiny typical village in La Zona Cafetera. In the weekends, local tourists come and visit, during the week it's pretty quiet. There is great hiking around this area.

Manizales: Manizales is a small city (380,000 people) in the middle of the Zona Cafetera. It's also a starting place for hiking in Parque Nacional De Los Nevados. There have been many earthquakes in the past, so there aren't many old colonial buildings, it's a rather modern town. It tends to be cool and can often be rainy.

The Cali region

Cali: Cali is one of the three big cities in Colombia (Bogota and Medellin are the other two). It's most famous for it's love of salsa music: it's one of the best places in South America (and the world) to dance Salsa. It's at a lower altitude (1000 m) and therefore warmer than Medellin or Bogota. Luckily, evening breezes will cool you off in time for the parties.

San Cipriano: On the way from Cali to the Buenaventura, San Cipriano is a tiny town that's famous because the locals have created a special transportation system: they have a bunch of train cars that they move themselves with their own strength and small motorcycles. The town is very small and friendly, and you can swim in the river. It's a great place to hang out for a few days.

The islands

Providencia and San Andres: San Andres and Providencia are 2 Caribbean islands that are part of Colombia. Especially Providencia is still incredibly unspoiled by tourism - a real tropical paradise. The islands are somewhat expensive (everything has to be imported), but still affordable and worth it. Providencia is very family-friendly and has great atmosphere. The culture is a mix of Caribbean (the islanders speak Creole English natively, and some Spanish with an English accent) and Colombian (Colombians came here to do business, and as tourists).

The Amazon and Los Llanos

Leticia: Leticia, the capital of the Colombian state of Amazonas, is a small sleepy city of about 35,000 that lies on the south-east border of Colombia, about 3,000 kilometres upstream along the Amazon river. The city is located at the junction of the Colombian, Brazilian and Peruvian borders. The border between Colombia and Brazil is on land, and the Brazilian town of Tabatinga is immediately adjacent to Leticia.

Tierradentro and San Agustin region

Pasto: Pasto is a small city in the south of Colombia. It's not an especially beautiful city, but it's in a nice area to explore. On January 5 and 6 it hosts the infamous Carnaval de Blancos y Negros, when everyone goes crazy and throws flour and chalk and stuff around. Don't miss it if you're in the neighbourhood.

San Agustín: San Agustin, close to Popayan and Tierradentro, is a town that lies in a beautiful and mysterious area where a civilization that has long died has left lots of intruiging statues (over 500 of them), scattered over a large area. You can explore the area on a horse, on foot or by jeep.

Tierra Dentro: Tierra Dentro (close to San Agustin) is a popular and fascinating place to explore. It's an area with mysterious underground tombs, a few hundred of which have been discovered already. Not a lot is known about their history or origin, which adds to the mystique.

Popayan: Popayan is a very beautiful colonial town in the south of Colombia with white-washed houses and beautiful streets. As a university town, Popayan has a very youthful feel to it and it's classy coffee houses are famous in the southern region.

The caribbean coast

Cartagena: Cartagena de Indias is the number one tourist attraction of Colombia. The old town is perfectly preserved between the walls (to protect from pirates). Beautiful colored colonial houses and picture-perfect streets. Cartagena draws lots of tourists, including from huge cruise ships.

Parque Tayrona: Parque Tayrona is a beautiful national park next to the sea, with white sand beaches, where you can sleep in a hammock and relax. It's very popular with travelers. There's not much more to do in Tayrona than to relax, swim a bit, explore the park and the beaches and make friends :)

Santa Marta: Santa Marta is a small town along the Carribean coast, right next to Taganga. It's not as nice as Taganga though, which is only 15 minutes away.

Minca: Minca is a small town close to Santa Marta and Taganga, but more inland and up the mountain at 600m altitude. It's a great place to get a feeling for the countryside and get away from the beaches. Don't miss El sendero poso azul, a nice place to go and have a swim or jump in to the river from the rocks, about 20 minutes walk from the road.

Barranquilla: Barranquilla lies between Cartagena and SantaMarta. It does have the most famous party in Colombia once a year, the Carnaval de Barranquilla. If you come during the carnaval (February), make sure you have booked a room months in advance!

Mompos: Sleepy UNESCO world heritage site right along the banks of the Magdalena River. A little bit difficult to get to but worth it for the relaxing stay here. Mompos has a pretty amazing Semana Santa and is central to the stories penned by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

barranquilla:

All other regions

Boyaca and Santander (from Bogota to the coast)

Villa de Leyva: Villa de Leyva is a perfectly preserved colonial town north of Bogota, and the surrounding mountains are stunning too. It has decent tourist infrastructure but is not overrun by tourism yet. You easily can see the entire village in a few hours, but you'll want to hang out longer. Hiking in the surroundings is great, and you can go camping too. Villa de Leyva was declared a national monument in 1954, and has been preserved almost perfectly: houses are whitewashed, streets are cobblestoned.

Ráquira: Ráquira is a tiny town close to Villa De Leyva. The town is full of brightly colored shops that sell mainly pottery and handicrafts. It feels pretty touristy, almost all the shops sell the same stuff. There are some workshops around where you can see how the pottery is made.

Barichara: Close to San Gil (40 minutes in bus) on the road from Bogota to the coast, Baricharra is an incredibly beautiful tiny colonial town, with whitewashed houses and stone streets. There are a few local sights to see. The town has been preserved by city ordinance as it was 200 years ago.

San Gil: San Gil is one of the new hot destinations in Colombia, especially because of all the activities you can do in the area around it. It's Colombia's new capital of adventure tourism. It's on the road between Bogota and the coast, and together with Villa De Leyva makes for a great stopover.

Somondoco: This is a quaint old town nestled on the slopes of the mountain of the same name, where for millenia the residents have mined emeralds. The little church has graced the Central Park for 260 years and the site has held a church for well over 500 years.

Valle de Tenza: This area does not follow the river Tenza, there isn't one. It is the valley past Tenza. This area is close to Bogota and is medium climate. There towns in the Valley are of course Tenza, Guateque, Garagoa, Guyata, Almeda, Sutatenza, Machanal, and SomondocoThe hydroelectric complex at Chivor and the represa behind the Chivor dam can be impressive.

More detail can be found here: http://poorbuthappy.com/colombia/travel/