How to build your
Colombia Vacation
in 8 steps

3. Get Inspired

If you are reading this post, chances are you have already decided to visit Colombia. But are you already aware of all the amazing places you can visit here?

As mentioned before, Colombia is a very big country. But besides being big, this country’s attractions for tourists are endless.

From jungles to deserts. From Caribbean beaches to the rough pacific coast. From high-altitude glaciers to vast green flatland. From cute and charming colonial villages to huge cosmopolitan cities. You get my point, Colombia has it all.

Unless you are planning on staying 6 months, you will have to choose just a few destinations for your Colombia Vacation.

However, before you start choosing (which is the next step), start by letting yourself be inspired by everything Colombia has to offer.

I know this is a time-consuming task and there is way too much information online, but don’t let yourself get overwhelmed.

A great way to start is to go through all the destinations we recommend visiting in Colombia. You can check them here.

Every destination comes with a short summary of why that place is special, some general information about its location, altitude, population, climate, etc. Additionally, it comes with a selection of amazing pictures and videos of that places to help you decide if that place is for you or not.

Lastly, every destination includes a carefully curated selection of the best tours you can do there. This will also help you understand what kind of place it is and decide if you want to include in your trip.

While you are browsing through this list of destinations, make sure to make a Wishlist. My advice is to write down the name of each destination you like and mark it as either:

– a must

– very interesting option

– would be nice only if time allows

Once you have checked all destinations and have finished your Wishlist, then you are ready to move to step 4.

However, I am pretty sure that you will end up with the opposite situation: (a) is greater than (b). In this case, you need to start prioritizing and believe me, this a tough task.

Start by removing from your list destinations marked as “would be nice only if time allows” until (a) equals (b).

If you don’t reach this point by eliminating all the destinations with this mark, then continue the same process with the destinations marked as “very interesting option”.

If you have not reached the equality point and you only have destinations marked as “a must”, then you have a problem.

There is no standard solution to this problem, but  what can help you is to talk to somebody who has already travelled to Colombia.

Even better, you can talk to us. We know this country like the back of our hand and have organized hundreds of trips to Colombia for foreigners. We can help you prioritize and decide which destinations need to stay and which ones will have to be left out.

– Not all destinations have daily flight frequencies. Some places like Cerros de Mavecure have just a few flights a week.

– There are not that many direct flights between secondary cities (e.i. there is no direct flight from Popayan to the Coffee Zone or from Santa Marta to Cartagena). This implies that you either take some sort of land transportation or have to make an annoying stop-over in Bogota.

– There are some small airports that suffer a lot from bad weather and get many flights cancelled and delayed.

– Some destinations are only served by charted flights.

In this step is when the help from a travel agent can really come in hand. Of course, you can figure out the perfect route on your own, but the odds are that it is going to take you a long time and you will have to do quite some research. It is a frustrating task to do if you do not have the experience for it.

If you are in for trying to figure the ideal route by yourself, then my advice is to make an excel file with all the destinations and start playing with their order. Have Google Maps and a flight checker such as SkyScanner opened in your computer and try finding the best transportation mode for each connection between destinations.

Be patient and keep trying different combinations until you find that ideal route for your trip.

6. Choose The Activities You Would Like To Do In Each Destination

With the ideal route already designed, the next step is to start deciding on what activities you want to do in each location.

I am sure you that by now you already have a good idea of this, but it is important to choose them and write them down.

Make sure to check the duration of each activity to ensure you will have enough time to do them.

Don’t forget to keep some free time in some destinations for you to rest, relax and be able to take some last-minute tour or activity.

7. Find Ideal Providers For All The Services

By step 7, your travel itinerary for your Colombia Vacation is ready. Now, it is time to start deciding on your providers.

You will need to do quite some research to find the best hotels and tour operator in each location.

Tools like Booking.com or TripAdvisor can be quite helpful at first. However, be aware that there are quite a lot of fake reviews on those platforms. We have even heard of hotels hiring people to write excellent comments about their hotel and terrible ones about their competitors.

Famous travel guides such as Lonely Planet, the Rough Guide or Le Routard might be more trustworthy. Nevertheless, don’t forget that these books are printed every 5 years or so. This means that by the time you read the guide, the information is already outdated. Hence, always check the publishing date of the guide before taking a decision.

The ideal way to find the best providers for all the services you are going to need, is to ask recommendations from friends who have already come to Colombia or even better, contact a local travel agent.