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Colombia Travel Guide
Curated by Our Guild Explorers · Updated August 2026
Two oceans, three ranges of the Andes and a country that has spent twenty years quietly becoming one of the most rewarding trips in the Americas. Cartagena inside its Spanish walls, still the loveliest colonial city on the Caribbean; Bogotá on its cold green plateau at 8,660 feet; Medellín in a valley of eternal spring, with the coffee country an hour beyond it; Santa Marta beside the jungle beaches of Tayrona; and, five hundred miles out in the Caribbean, the little Colombian island of San Andrés. This is the Guild’s chapter on Colombia — written plainly, including the parts about safety.
The walled city, Cartagena de Indias. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
Where to stay & when to go
Guild guides to Colombia’s headline destinations — and the best time to plan your trip. More chapters are being written this week.
Where to Stay in Cartagena ›
The walled Centro, Getsemaní, Bocagrande and Barú — which district suits which traveller, and why the city beach is not the one in the photographs.
Where to Stay in Bogotá ›
Zona G, Zona Rosa, Usaquén and La Candelaria — which district to sleep in at 8,660 feet, and which one to visit only by day.
Where to Stay in Medellín ›
El Poblado, Laureles and Envigado in the city of eternal spring — where the ground is flat, and the one safety warning to read twice.
Where to Stay in Santa Marta ›
The Centro, El Rodadero and the resort strip — and how to plan Tayrona around the park’s closures and the yellow-fever rule at the gate.
Best Time to Visit Colombia ›
Month by month, region by region — the December dry season, the coast’s second dry window in June, and why the equator means no winter at all.
Why visit Colombia
The most varied country in South America, and the easiest one to reach from the United States.
Cartagena inside the walls
Seven miles of seventeenth-century Spanish rampart around a grid of ochre and lime-washed houses, balconies dripping bougainvillea, and squares that fill with music after dark. Flat, compact and walkable in a way almost no other colonial city in the Americas manages — which is exactly why it suits travellers who would rather stroll than climb.
Three hours from Miami
Colombia is closer to the American South than California is. Non-stop flights run to Bogotá, Medellín and Cartagena from Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Atlanta, Houston, New York and half a dozen other cities, and the country is in the Eastern time zone all year. No jet lag, no overnight flight, no lost first day.
Coffee, properly
The Zona Cafetera west of Bogotá is a UNESCO cultural landscape of green ridges, wax palms two hundred feet tall in the Cocora valley, and working fincas where the coffee in your cup was picked on the hillside outside the window. Warm days, cool nights, and no altitude worth worrying about.
Caribbean beaches without the resort belt
Tayrona’s coves where the Sierra Nevada comes down to the sea, the Rosario Islands an hour by boat from Cartagena, and San Andrés with the shallow turquoise water the islanders call the sea of seven colours. Cheaper than the Antilles, and a great deal less crowded.
Before anything else: safety, told straight
Colombia is not one place, and the safety picture is not one answer. As of its March 2026 revision the U.S. State Department rates Colombia as a whole Level 3, “Reconsider Travel”, and names five areas at Level 4, “Do Not Travel”: Arauca; Cauca outside Popayán; Valle del Cauca outside Cali; Norte de Santander; and the strip within about six miles of the Venezuelan border. Those are places of armed groups and coca economics, and no ordinary holiday goes near them.
None of the five destinations in this guide lies in one of those areas. In Cartagena, Bogotá, Medellín, Santa Marta and San Andrés the risk that actually reaches a visitor is street robbery and drink-spiking — the sedative locally called burundanga — rather than anything to do with the conflict. The precautions are unglamorous and they work: use a hotel taxi or a ride app rather than hailing on the street, keep the phone in a pocket rather than a hand, stay in the districts we name, do not walk out of them after dark, never leave a drink unattended, and treat an invitation from someone met on an app or in a bar with the same suspicion you would at home. Colombians have a phrase for it — no dar papaya, don’t hand anyone the opportunity.
Read the advisory yourself before you book; it is revised several times a year, and it is written for the whole country rather than for the six square miles you will actually be in.
Two health points worth settling at home
Yellow fever. Colombia does not require the vaccine to enter the country unless you are arriving from a country with yellow fever risk. But since 28 April 2025 the national parks authority asks every visitor to show proof of vaccination to enter a national park — Tayrona included — and travellers moving between departments by road or river may be asked for the same. A waiver to sign is usually offered instead, but it is not something to rely on at a park gate. The vaccine takes about ten days to work, so this belongs on the list three or four weeks before you fly. It is a live vaccine, it is not suitable for everyone, and that conversation belongs with your own doctor rather than with us.
Altitude in Bogotá. The capital sits at 8,660 feet (2,640 m) — higher than Aspen. Most people notice it only as breathlessness on stairs and a broken first night’s sleep. Take the first day gently, drink more water than feels necessary, skip the second glass of wine on night one, and let someone else carry the case. Everywhere else in this guide is easy: Cartagena, Santa Marta and San Andrés are at sea level, and Medellín is a mild 4,900 feet.
The regions of Colombia
Five regions, five different trips. Guild city guides are marked; the other towns link straight to hotels through our Trip.com partner.
The walled city and the fortress, the Rosario Islands offshore, and the long hot coast running east past Barranquilla.
- Cartagena guide
- Barranquilla soon
The capital on its plateau, the great gold collection, and the whitewashed colonial towns of Boyacá a few hours north.
- Bogotá guide
- Villa de Leyva soon
The city of eternal spring, the reservoir village of Guatape under its great rock, and the wax palms of the Cocora valley beyond.
The oldest surviving city in Colombia, the jungle beaches of Tayrona next door, and snow peaks thirty miles from the sea.
- Santa Marta guide
Colombia’s Caribbean island out towards Nicaragua, and — a two-hour flight the other way — the river port where three countries meet.
- San Andrés soon
- Leticia soon
How the country divides up
The Caribbean coast
Most first trips begin in Cartagena, and rightly. The walled city and the neighbouring quarter of Getsemaní hold nearly all the hotels worth having, the ground is flat, and everything of interest is within a fifteen-minute walk. The high-rise beach strip of Bocagrande across the bay is a different proposition — grey sand, big towers, and a taxi ride from the charm. East along the coast, Santa Marta is scruffier and far less polished, but it is the door to Tayrona and to the cool mountain village of Minca above it.
Bogotá & the highlands
Bogotá is a serious capital of eight million people, cold and often wet, with the finest museums in the country — the Museo del Oro alone is worth a day. Stay in Zona G, Zona Rosa or Chapinero Alto, not in the colonial Candelaria, which is wonderful by day and best left by evening. North of the city the road climbs to Villa de Leyva, a seventeenth-century town round the largest cobbled square in South America.
Medellín & the coffee country
Medellín sits in a narrow green valley at 4,900 feet where the temperature barely moves off 72°F all year, which is why they call it the city of eternal spring. Stay in El Poblado or the quieter Laureles; the cable cars that climb to the hillside barrios are public transport, not a fairground ride, and the view is remarkable. An hour east, Guatapé spreads its painted houses along a reservoir under a seven-hundred-foot rock; three hours south, the Zona Cafetera begins.
The islands
San Andrés is Colombian by flag and Caribbean by every other measure — an island of raizal families who speak English and creole, ringed by shallow water in an improbable number of blues. It is a two-hour flight from Bogotá and a duty-free zone, which keeps prices down. Little Providencia, further out, was flattened by Hurricane Iota in 2020 and has been rebuilding since; check what is actually open before planning a stay.
Top things to do in Colombia
The experiences worth building a trip around.
The walls of Cartagena at sunset
Walk the rampart from the Baluarte de Santo Domingo round to the Café del Mar as the light goes. Level stone underfoot, the sea on one side and four centuries of rooftops on the other, and it costs nothing.
The Gold Museum, Bogotá
Fifty thousand pieces of pre-Hispanic goldwork, beautifully lit and unhurried, including the Muisca raft that started the El Dorado legend. Air-conditioned, level, and among the best museums anywhere in the Americas.
Comuna 13 by escalator
Medellín’s most-photographed hillside, reached by a set of outdoor public escalators built to replace three hundred steps. Go with a local guide in the morning, before the crowds and the heat.
A working coffee finca
Pick, pulp, dry and cup your own in a morning on a Quindío hillside, then eat lunch on the veranda. Most fincas will send a car for you, and the walking is as gentle as you want it to be.
Tayrona’s coves
Cabo San Juan and Playa Cristal, where the jungle of the Sierra Nevada runs straight into the Caribbean. Enter by boat from Taganga, or take the shorter Calabazo path rather than the long hot walk from the main gate.
The sea of seven colours
A slow lap of San Andrés by golf cart, stopping at Rocky Cay and West View, with the water changing colour every few hundred yards. The whole island is twenty-six miles round.
Best time to visit & getting there
When to go
December to March is the driest and most dependable stretch in nearly every part of the country, and it is also when Colombians travel, so book early and expect to pay more between mid-December and mid-January.
The Caribbean coast has a second dry window from June to August — hot, breezy and good value. Bogotá and the Andes are driest in January to March and again in July and August; April to June and September to November bring cloudy afternoons and short heavy showers rather than washed-out days.
Colombia sits on the equator, so there is no winter and no summer — the temperature is set by altitude, not by the month. See our month-by-month guide to the best time to visit Colombia.
Getting there & getting around
Bogotá (BOG) is the main gateway, but you do not have to use it: Cartagena (CTG) and Medellín (MDE) both take non-stops from Florida and several other US cities, which can save a domestic connection at the start of a tiring day. Flying time from Miami is around three hours, and Colombia keeps US Eastern time all year with no daylight saving — so no jet lag at all.
Inside the country, fly rather than drive. Domestic fares are low, the mountain roads are slow and winding, and almost no visitor to Colombia should be behind a wheel. In the cities use a hotel taxi or a ride app rather than hailing on the street, and agree the fare or use the meter before you set off.
The currency is the peso. Tap water is safe to drink in Bogotá, Medellín and Cartagena; bottled is the sensible habit elsewhere. Private clinics in the three big cities are genuinely good.
Colombia travel FAQ
Is Colombia safe for American travellers?
The honest answer is that it depends entirely on where you go. As of the March 2026 advisory the U.S. State Department places Colombia as a whole at Level 3, Reconsider Travel, and names five areas at Level 4, Do Not Travel: Arauca, Cauca outside Popayán, Valle del Cauca outside Cali, Norte de Santander, and the strip within about six miles of the Venezuelan border. None of the five destinations in this guide is in one of those areas. In Cartagena, Bogotá, Medellín, Santa Marta and San Andrés the risk that actually touches visitors is ordinary robbery and drink-spiking rather than anything political. Use hotel taxis or a ride app instead of hailing on the street, do not walk out of the tourist districts after dark, never leave a drink unattended, and be wary of invitations from people met online. Check the advisory yourself before you book, because it is revised regularly.
When is the best time to visit Colombia?
December to March is the driest and most reliable stretch almost everywhere, and it is also the busiest and dearest. On the Caribbean coast at Cartagena and Santa Marta there is a second dry window from June to August. Bogotá and the Andes are driest from January to March and again in July and August, with cloudy afternoons and short heavy showers in April to June and September to November. Nowhere in Colombia has a true winter: the country sits on the equator, so the climate changes with altitude rather than with the calendar. Colombia lies south of the main Atlantic hurricane track, though San Andrés sits closer to it than the mainland does.
Do I need a visa to visit Colombia?
US, Canadian, UK and EU citizens do not need a tourist visa. Visitors are generally admitted for up to 90 days, extendable once for a further 90, with a maximum of 180 days in any calendar year. Your passport should be valid for at least six months beyond arrival. Complete the free online Check-Mig form with Migración Colombia within 72 hours before each flight in and each flight out; it is not strictly a legal requirement, but airlines routinely ask for it at check-in. Immigration officers frequently ask to see a return or onward ticket. Confirm the current rules with the official Colombian authority before you travel.
Do I need a yellow fever vaccination for Colombia?
Not to enter the country, unless you are arriving from a country with yellow fever risk. But since 28 April 2025 the national parks authority asks every visitor to show proof of vaccination to enter a national park, Tayrona included, and travellers moving between departments by road or river may be asked for the same. Unvaccinated visitors are generally offered a liability waiver to sign instead, but do not count on it. The vaccine needs about ten days to take effect, so this is a decision to make three or four weeks before you fly, with your own doctor. It is a live vaccine and is not suitable for everyone, which matters more for older travellers and for anyone whose immune system is suppressed. We are travel writers, not physicians.
How high is Bogotá, and will the altitude affect me?
Bogotá sits at about 8,660 feet (2,640 m), which is higher than Aspen and roughly the height of the top of the Sandia Peak tramway. Most visitors feel it as breathlessness on stairs, a light headache and a poor first night’s sleep rather than anything worse. Take the first day slowly, drink more water than you think you need, go easy on alcohol for the first evening, and let the porter carry the bag. If you have heart or lung disease, or are on medication for blood pressure, raise it with your own doctor before you book. The rest of this guide is nearly all at low altitude: Cartagena, Santa Marta and San Andrés are at sea level, and Medellín is a comfortable 4,900 feet.
What currency does Colombia use, and should I carry cash?
The Colombian peso (COP). Prices run into the thousands, so a hotel bill of 800,000 pesos is ordinary and not a misprint. Cards are widely accepted in hotels, restaurants and larger shops in all five destinations in this guide, but you will want cash for taxis, tips, market stalls, beach vendors and small towns. Draw pesos from a bank ATM inside a bank or a shopping centre rather than a street machine, take the smaller withdrawal limits in stride, and always decline the terminal’s offer to charge you in dollars. US dollars are not generally accepted as payment.
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Search Colombia hotels Find flightsDestinations Guild © 2026 · A Division of Guild Companies USA Destinations Guild may earn a commission when you book through our partner links, at no extra cost to you. Always confirm visa, entry, vaccination and passport requirements with the relevant official authority before you travel, and read the current government travel advisory for Colombia. Nothing here is medical advice.