First trips pair Cartagena on the Caribbean with Medellín and the coffee towns behind it, then add Bogotá for the museums and the cooking. Repeat visitors head for Santa Marta and the Sierra Nevada, the Pacific coast at Nuquí, or the Amazon at Leticia. The dry windows are December to March and July to August.
6 Colombia city guides
Fun fact
Colombia is the only country in South America with coastlines on both the Caribbean and the Pacific, and the only one that borders both Panama and Brazil.
Stereotypes, sorted out
The realityThe country in the headlines is the one of the 1990s. The travelled circuit is busy with visitors now, and the local rule is the one to follow: no dar papaya, do not hand anyone an opening. Keep your phone out of sight on the street and book cars through an app after dark.
The realityMedellín has spent three decades rebuilding, and most people there find narco tourism tasteless. Comuna 13 is worth your time when the story is told by the people who lived it, which is what the neighbourhood guides do.
The realityAltitude sets the temperature here, not latitude. Bogotá at 2,640 metres needs a jacket every evening of the year, Medellín holds spring all twelve months, and Cartagena never cools down.
The realityThe best lots were exported for decades and the default cup was a thin, sweet tinto. That has changed. Specialty roasters in Bogotá, Medellín and the coffee towns now keep the good beans at home, but you have to ask for a filter. What arrives unasked is still tinto.
Cultural notes that actually help
- Greet before you ask. Buenos días comes first, then the question, and the reply is warmer for it.
- Usted is the safe default with strangers and anyone older. Tú and vos come once you know people.
- Restaurants ask whether to add the 10% propina before printing the bill. Yes and no are both normal answers.
- The menú del día is the best-value lunch in the country: soup, a main and a juice, served from around midday.
- Altitude is real in Bogotá. Give the first day a slow start and go easy on the aguardiente.
- Sunday in Bogotá belongs to the ciclovía, when main roads close to cars and fill with bicycles.
Famous Colombian faces
Gabriel García Márquez
Shakira
Fernando Botero
Egan Bernal
Sofía Vergara
Juan Manuel Santos
Karol G
Mariana Pajón
Álvaro Mutis
Laura Restrepo
Carlos Vives
Totó la Momposina
J Balvin
James Rodríguez
Nairo Quintana
Doris Salcedo
Débora Arango
Francisco de Paula Santander
Catalina Sandino Moreno
Ciro Guerra
Rodolfo Llinás
Manuel Elkin Patarroyo
Radamel Falcao
Policarpa Salavarrieta
Leonor Espinosa
Must-try Colombian food
Arepa
Grilled corn cake. Plain on the coast, split and buttered inland, stuffed everywhere.
Empanada
Fried corn pastry of potato and beef, dipped in ají.
Sancocho
The weekend soup: chicken, beef or fish simmered with yuca, plantain and corn.
Ajiaco
Bogotá’s soup of chicken and three potatoes, finished with capers and cream.
Changua
Milk and egg broth, the highland breakfast around Boyacá.
Bandeja paisa
The Antioquian platter: beans, rice, chicharrón, chorizo, egg, avocado and plantain.
Pandebono
Cheese and cassava bread, best eaten within ten minutes of the oven.
Almojábana
Soft cheese roll from the Andean bakeries, sold beside the pandebono.
Buñuelo
Fried ball of cheese dough, round and light, and everywhere at Christmas.
Obleas
Two thin wafers glued with arequipe, built to order at a street cart.
Aguapanela con limón
Melted cane sugar and lime, drunk hot for a cold and cold for the heat.
Patacón
Green plantain smashed and fried twice, a side or a plate in its own right.
Tamal tolimense
Rice, pork and chicken steamed in a banana leaf and opened at Sunday breakfast.
Hormigas culonas
Toasted leafcutter ants from Santander, eaten by the handful in season.
Chocolate santafereño
Hot chocolate with a wedge of fresh cheese dropped in to melt.
Mondongo
Slow-cooked tripe soup, the Medellín answer to a long night.
Arepa de huevo
Corn arepa fried with a whole egg inside, sold from carts before dawn.
Arroz con coco
Rice cooked in coconut milk until it caramelises, the coast’s default side.
Mote de queso
Yam and salted cheese soup from Sucre and Córdoba.
Posta cartagenera
Beef braised dark and sweet in panela, Cartagena’s Sunday roast.
Encocado de pescado
Chocó fish stewed in coconut milk with the herbs of the Pacific coast.
Arequipe
The local caramel, spooned onto everything from wafers to bread.
Tinto
Small black coffee, offered constantly and rarely refused.
Lulada
Crushed lulo, sharp and iced, the Cali answer to an afternoon.
Refajo
Beer cut with Colombiana soda, the standard party pour.
Aguardiente
Anise spirit, sold by the bottle and drunk in small shots.
