I spent 2 weeks in Colombia with my boyfriend back in January. We went to multiple cities and saw quite a lot, so today I’m sharing my experience of Colombia along with some things you should know before going if it’s on your list!
Colombia has been on my list for quite some time now.
I’ve seen a lot of my travel friends visit the South American country over the past couple of years and it just really called to me, so when the time came to book the next trip, it was at the top of my list.
Unfortunately not every country that’s high on your “want to go” list is going to live up to your expectations… So here’s my honest review of Colombia.
Before I say anything else I will also say this…
It’s important to have your own experiences of a place. You could have a totally different experience in the same place as someone else.
You could totally hate a place that I say I loved, and you could totally love a place I say that I hated. Don’t cross a place off your list just because one girl on the internet said she didn’t love it. If you feel drawn to a place, you should go. Period.
That being said, I didn’t love Colombia.
Maybe I’ve just been to enough places now that I have so much to compare to? Maybe I’m becoming more critical? Maybe it just takes more to impress me now? I don’t know. But I’m going to share my honest opinion even if it’s not the popular one.
Overall as a country I would give the experience a 6/10.
My boyfriend and I still had a great time together cause we will no matter where we are. We had some really amazing food. We did see some amazing art. We saw some cool places.
But overall it was underwhelming.
The people weren’t very helpful, welcoming or friendly.
I felt like I had to be on guard in some places which I knew it was like that but it’s just not relaxing and not a good feeling. I don’t like the feeling that I’m in danger or could get robbed at any point.
Some of the cities we went to that people rave about I found myself like ??? I don’t get the hype.
We had a lot of odd experiences with people, service at hotels and restaurants was bad, it was overall a very meh experience compared to some other places I have been.
I know it’s important to try to not have expectations for trips, but when you hear people say such good things over and over about a country, it’s kind of impossible to not have some expectations.
Let’s recap the cities/areas I visited:
Bogota:
Do not go to this city. We felt unsafe AF, even in the middle of the day. It’s just a big city, not a lot to see anyway that you can’t get in other cities. It was an absolute no for me. Skip.
Cartagena:
The walled city and Getsemani was cool, you can walk it all in one day. Other than that, not much going on. Pretty underwhelming considering the hype this city has. You only need one or two full days here.
Rosario Islands:
Super beautiful. Not much going on out there though, great for having a chill time. There’s an island close by that has beach clubs and stuff. I think it’s Isla Grande. The island we stayed on didn’t even have a town on it so just at the resort the whole time which was great for the 2 nights we stayed but I wouldn’t stay longer. Our spot is pictured below. Great spot to lay around in the sun and in the ocean. These islands are also a lot more expensive than the mainland, and the boat ride out there/back can be really rough. I was definitely edging sea sickness on the ride back.
Santa Marta:
Pretty mid. It was fine. Don’t really have much to say about it other than that. It’s a beach town. I thought it was gonna be little beach town vibes, but it was not small enough to have that vibe. Close to other good day trip spots though like Tayrona park and Minca. The beach right at the town isn’t very nice but there’s some really nice beaches close by.
Minca:
We did a day trip here but I wish we stayed for a night or two, really cool little mountain town, lots of waterfalls around. Definitely a vibe. LOTS of bugs tho. We went to the Marinka Waterfall, it was beautiful!
Medellin:
Cool city if you’re in Poblado which is where we stayed, amazing food, Comuna 13 was really cool. It’s another big city though so not a whole lot to do other than eat and drink. Medellin is an inland mountain city. Not humid like Cartagena and Santa Marta, it cools down at night which is nice! Outside of Poblado it’s just another big city. Make sure you’re staying in a good area. Would be a cool place to post up for a while, lots of coworking cafes.
Guatape:
Really cool little town amongst a bunch of interconnected freshwater lakes. Pictured below. Also home of the famous El Peñon de Guatape monolith which was very cool to see. It’s 740 steps up to the top and the view is amazing. It’s one of the biggest monoliths in the world. I wish we stayed here too, we just did a day trip from Medellin. The town was adorable too. Highly recommend checking it out if you’re going to Colombia. Info about how to get there below!
Important to note:
We did not go out to bars/clubs/drinking at night our whole trip so I cannot say what the nightlife is like. But some guys we were chatting with at our hostel said they got drugged and robbed by 2 girls in the club which is really common there..
So beware of that if you’re planning to try to pick up girls at the club lol. Maybe don’t.
Things you should know before you go:
The entry fee for Canadian’s is pretty steep at $92 CAD (this is what mine worked out to be with the conversion).. I didn’t know about this before we left. If you’re a budget traveller this is definitely info to take into account! *This is as of January 2025 when we entered the country.*
Getting around:
Take a white taxi to and from the airport (not yellow, apparently the yellow one’s aren’t as safe)
And take Ubers around once you’re in town.
Ubers are illegal although they are everywhere, they’re more likely to get stopped around the airport so I would just take a cab instead. Uber’s totally fine to use in the cities.
Agree on a price with Taxis before getting in. They do not have meters. If you don’t have cash, make sure they take card before getting in too. Learned that one the hard way!
From what we experienced, about 97% of people do NOT speak any English. Get your google translate ready, try your best and have patience. Most people are really not helpful with trying to understand you in a lot of places in Colombia. I recommend downloading Spanish onto your google translate app so it can be used offline too, and favourite some common phrases to make it easier on yourself.
Some common words you should know:
tarjeta = card
cuanto cuesta = how much $?
gracias = thank you (duh)
todo bien = all good (can be a statement or question)
quiero = I want
por favor = please
agua con gas = sparkling water (with gas=with bubbles)
agua sin gas = still water (without bubbles. This was so funny to hear for the first time we were so confused.)
Rappi – like DoorDash but better. So fast. Super convenient.
Guatape:
You can easily bus there and back from Medellin, see this incredibly helpful blog from halfhalftravel.com to help ya out! The price has gone up since they wrote this blog and it’s now 22k pesos each way, still super affordable and easy. You do not need to prebook a ticket, you can just show up and get on the next bus, they leave every 30-60 mins.
Shuttle: we took a shuttle bus from Cartagena to Santa Marta.
Company we used: Marsol
It was pretty chaotic. I did a little research beforehand and everything I read said to just arrive 15 mins before the bus leaves to buy your ticket.
I messaged the company on WhatsApp to register our spots and get the bus times which was easy enough. When we got to the office 25 mins early they were already loading the first bus and our bus took off early too so definitely don’t be late!
The lady at the ticket office at first said cash only.. but I didn’t read that anywhere so I didn’t have enough pesos. I asked for an ATM and there was not one around. Cool.
I had American cash on me too so I tried to offer her that and then she proceeded to tell me that the lady right beside her would take my card… ??
Rude.. but ok. We got on the bus and we made it to Santa Marta.
We had a lot of weird, annoying experiences like that throughout our whole trip. Either people being unhelpful, rude, or not giving a flying fuck.
The last thing you should know about Colombia and my biggest bone to pick about the country and how people portray it…
IT IS NOT CHEAP.
Everyone always says Colombia is soooo cheap. It’s not.
I’m sure if you were trying to do it really cheap you probably could, and you’d have a cheap experience too.
We chose the cheaper side of hotels/hostels, not terrible places but not really nice stays either.
We didn’t go to the cheapest or the most expensive restaurants.
We didn’t even do any activities that cost a lot of money.
We barely even drank, and when we did we got local beer or 2 for 1 margaritas.
And we still averaged $75-$90 CAD each per day NOT including our stays/flights.
That’s fucking insane for a country that’s supposed to be super cheap… I’m sorry, WHERE?
You can pay $15 CAD for a cocktail.
You can also pay only a few dollars for street chorizo or fruit.
Some things can be really expensive, other things are really cheap. Overall it was way more expensive than I was anticipating and I think it’s important to note that.
Do not believe people when they tell you a country is cheap. Do the research for yourself.
Is it cheaper than home? Yeah of course.
But is it cheap for travel compared to other places I’ve been to like Nicaragua and Thailand? Absolutely not.
I was shocked at the money we were spending. Honestly, I did not expect to spend that much without any expensive activities.
Overall I was underwhelmed by Colombia. It did not live up to the hype.
We saw some cool places, cool art, scenic spots, but overall I was just not really impressed with the cost of travelling, the people, and the vibe and atmosphere.
I’m grateful to be able to see countries like this, don’t get me wrong. It’s always a blessing to be able to travel..
But those are my honest thoughts about Colombia, and I will most likely not be back.
Sounds kind of savage but there’s so many places on my list, it takes a lot for me to want to go back to somewhere I’ve already been, and Colombia definitely did NOT make that list.
Sorry if you love it there and I hurt your feelings, we can’t all like the same things and have the same experiences. <3
Love ya!
Bailey xo
