Backpacking Colombia – Complete Travel Guide for 2025

🇨🇴 Colombia is a FANTASTIC country to backpack for four main reasons.

1. It’s Cheap 💰 (top priority)
2. Great Weather ☀️ (sunny and warm all year-round)
3. Good, Cheap Public Transport 🚌 (talking buses here, not trains)
4. Vibrant Culture (everyone loves Colombians)

Of all the countries I’ve backpacked in Central and South America (most of them), I would say Colombia is the best value country to backpack.

Colombia has a ton to offer for an affordable price with great weather and tons of culture. In this guide, we’ll share with you where to go when you come to Colombia, and everything else that you’ll need to know. We spent over a month in this amazing country and absolutely loved it!

Backpacking Colombia – Complete Travel Guide

In this post, we will share with you the BEST route to backpack Colombia, along with some travel tips for Colombia. Let’s start with the best itinerary.

The Best Spots for Backpackers in Colombia

There are two “zones” in this itinerary. Central-ish Colombia and Northern Colombia. I recommend you fly between the two as the plane and bus are similar costs. But we’ll get to that.

Zone: Central-ish Colombia

Bogota

• Most European flights go to Bogota (Madrid/Amsterdam to Bogota), and most backpackers are European, so you’ll probably start here.
• Climb Monserrate, visit the Historic Center, then get the hell out of Bogota
• Bogota can be dangerous at night so be careful.

Salento

• Welcome to the beautiful coffee-growing region of Colombia
• Here you are going to want to hike the Cocora Valley (tallest palm trees in the world!) and take a coffee tour

➡️ Read: Top 8 Things to Do in Salento 🇨🇴

Jardin

• Our favorite place in Colombia.
• Small, authentic, Colombia town without too many tourists. Hikes to waterfalls and tons of local experiences to be had here. (trout-fishing, horseback riding, bird-watching, etc…)
• Don’t skip Jardin!

➡️ Read: 11 Best Things to Do in Jardin 🇨🇴

Medellin

• By far the best big city in Colombia. Be prepared to party and get a taste of big-city Colombia.
• Comuna 13 tour (Colombian slum), Guatape (huge rock), Parque Arvi, Nightlife, Salsa, Coffee, Hikes
• The best part of Medellin is the weather. It’s really the perfect climate. Not as hot as the North, and not as cold as Bogota.

➡️ Read: Top 9 Things to Do in Medellin ✨

Zone: Caribbean Coast

This part of Colombia is very different from Central Colombia. A LOT hotter. More bugs. More dangerous. (Thinking of Santa Marta here)

Cartagena

• Best big city on the Caribbean Coast. Very historic and cool to see. 
• Fly here from Medellin. It’s the same price and will save you A TON of time.
• Spend some time exploring the city, then bus to Santa Marta.
• Only problem with Cartagena is that it’s not close to Minca/Tayrona/Palomino. Santa Marta needs to be your jumping off place for these!

Santa Marta

• This place is a shithole. Unless you plan on doing the Lost City Trek, spend as little amount of time as possible here.
• This place is dirty and dangerous, and should only be used as a gateway to Minca and Tayrona.

Minca

• The land of mosquitos and Colombian jungle. Spend your time finding amazing waterfalls and beautiful sunsets. (and getting TORN UP by mosquitoes)
• This place is an experience. Make sure you stay somewhere with a pool and a view as it is HOT here. (We recommend Masaya Casas Viejas, but book ahead because it’s almost always full)
• When you go to Minca, make sure to checkout Pozo Azul. We have a whole guide on The Secret Waterfalls of Pozo Azul.

➡️ Read: Complete Guide to Tubing in Palomino 🦦

Tayrona National Park

• This place is overrated … but you should still go if you’re in Colombia. This is the main attraction for most tourists. Beautiful beaches (by Colombian standards, which are much lower than other countries’) and cool wildlife (monkeys!)
• It’s an easy 2 hour bus ride from Santa Marta, so not that bad. If you want to avoid the hassle, you could also take a boat trip directly from Santa Marta to the beaches of Tayrona. We go over this in our guide, but Tayrona involves a lot of walking and hassle. Taking the boat trip would eliminate all of this, which we highly recommend.
• If you want to stay right outside Tayrona, we highly recommend Cacao Lodge. Very nice rooms for a good price, and very helpful owners. Plus, the Cotton-Top Tamarin monkeys migrate through here every morning! Cacao Lodge is right outside the entrance to Tayrona.

SEE 👉 Ultimate Guide to Tayrona National Park 🙈

Palomino

• Laid-back hippie backpacker town that is probably like what Bali was 25 years ago, or Puerto Escondido 15 years ago
• Really cool and safe beach town with CHEAP prices and beautiful sunsets on the beach
• The thing to do here is tube down the Palomino River with a beer in your hand.
• Palomino is about an hour East of Tayrona. We wouldn’t say it’s worth it to come here from Santa Marta just for Palomino, but since you’ll probably already be in Tayrona, we think Palomino is worth the hour bus ride.
• If you want to read about us almost getting robbed in Santa Marta, checkout our guide of things to do (but mostly not to do) in Santa Marta … here.

➡️ Read: 3 Week Colombia Itinerary 🇨🇴

Leaving Colombia

There are a few options once you are done in Palomino.

• You could head back to Cartagena and do the San Blas sailing trip up to Panama City (highly recommend, tons of backpackers doing this)
• You could head back to Santa Marta and fly onwards to Ecuador/Peru/Argentina. (This is what we did, although we don’t recommend visiting Ecuador in 2024)
• You could head back to Santa Marta and fly to Bogota and then back to your home country

We recommend you fly on to Peru – a truly amazing country where Kelsey and I actually met!

Things to Know Before You Go

Colombia is quite a unique country. Here are some things we think would be helpful to know before you land.

Currency and Paying for Things

• The Colombian Peso (COP) is used here. In March of 2024 the exchange rate hovers around 3,900 COP per $1. To make it easy when converting prices, I just divide everything by 4. (aka 20,000 COP is a little more than 5 US Dollars)
• When you get outside the big cities, the hostels are going to want payment in CASH. Cash is king in Colombia. Most places won’t let you pay with a Credit Card. Be prepared.

READ 👉 ATM’s in Colombia – All You Need to Know 💰

Safety

• Most of these places are very safe, not to worry. The big cities are less so but as long as you stay in the touristy spots you’ll be fine. (The exception is Santa Marta. Be careful here and avoid if possible)

Cost

• Colombia is one of the most affordable places in Central/South America. (Not on the level of Thailand or Indonesia though, sorry guys)
• Lunch can be had for 15,000 – 20,000 COP ( about $5). This includes soup, main course, and fresh fruit juice.
• Breakfast can be included with your hostel, or will cost you $2-$4. 
• Dinner can run you anywhere from 20,000 – 30,000 COP depending on the quality and where you are
• Public transportation (buses and taxis) are very cheap. A 10-minute taxi ride could run you $2-$3. Buses are even cheaper.
• You should be able to get a hostel bed for about $10 per night

READ 👉 Ultimate 2 Week Colombia Itinerary 🇨🇴

Climate

• Colombia is hot year-round, thus you can travel here whenever, although the rainy season is April – May and October – November. These months will be less crowded. (and more rainy)
• The North of Colombia is MUCH HOTTER than Central Colombia. Think Miami in the summertime. And a lot of hostels won’t have A/C. If you know you can’t deal with this, then don’t come to the North.
• Central Colombia is paradise in terms of weather. Medellin/Jardin/Salento/Bogota are perfect weather by pretty much any human being’s standards.

➡️ Read: Colombian Slang to Know! 🇨🇴

Summary – Backpacking Colombia

Overall, we would say that Colombia is a very underrated country to backpack. Backpacking Colombia is cheap with TONS to do and its pretty safe. Plus, there’s SO much culture here to experience. It’s a great place to spend a few weeks/months and learn Spanish as well. (probably in Medellin)

Everyone who travels to Colombia tends to LOVE it, and many say it’s their favorite country to visit in the whole world – bar none.

We hope you enjoyed this guide to backpacking Colombia. If you’re interested in more detailed Colombia Itineraries, checkout our 2 and 3 week itineraries below.

• 🇨🇴 2 Week Colombia Itinerary
• ✈️ 3 Week Colombia Itinerary