Sample trip · 10 days
This is what a real trip page looks like. A sample 10-day plan shaped around someone who wanted city, countryside, and coast on a first Colombia trip. Yours would be different, built around your dates, your people, and what you actually want to do. This is just the texture.
The route
I keep it to three places on a 10-day trip. Two is better. Four is a highlight reel. On this one we split it into city, countryside, coast. The flights inside Colombia are short and cheap, and they get booked so nothing feels rushed.
Medellín (4 nights), Salento in the Coffee Region (3 nights), Cartagena to close (3 nights). Two internal flights, both under an hour. Airport transfers handled.
Day by day
Built around mornings (when Colombia is at its best), with room in the afternoons. Most days have one anchor activity and the rest is yours. You'll never feel booked.
Arrive. Settle in. Eat well.
Arrive MDE/Rionegro in the evening. Pre-booked private transfer, driver meets you at the gate, one-hour drive into the city. Check in to the apartment in Laureles. Shower, change, walk five minutes to a neighborhood spot for bandeja paisa that's actually good.
First night is always light. No plans after dinner. Sleep.
Stay
Apartment in Laureles · walkable, residential, better than Poblado for first-timers
Tip
Pull pesos from a Colombian bank ATM at the airport (inside, not the yellow ones)
Metro + Comuna 13 with a local guide.
Breakfast near your place in Laureles. Metro to San Javier, then the escalators up into Comuna 13. You're going with a guide who grew up in the neighborhood. Not a tour company, someone I trust personally. You'll get the real version of the history, not the sanitized one.
Back down by mid-afternoon. Walk Laureles, grab a coffee, relax. Dinner somewhere local if you want to wander.
Guide
Local Comuna 13 guide · ~3.5 hours · private · paid in cash on the day
Tip
Wear sneakers. The stairs are no joke. Bring small bills for the arepa stands on the way up.
Guatapé day trip (private).
Up early. Your driver for the day picks you up at 7am. Drive to Guatapé is 2 hours, with a stop halfway at a roadside finca for breakfast (huevos, arepas, coffee). Climb El Peñol (675 steps) before it gets crowded. Walk the plaza in Guatapé town. Lunch lakeside, trout grilled on the lake.
Back in Medellín by early evening. Easy night. Pool at the building, delivery if you're tired, or walk to an Italian spot nearby.
Transport
Private driver · full day · fuel and tolls included
Tip
Skip the boat tour at the lake. It's aggressive and touristy. Walking the town is better.
Slow day. You earned it.
Sleep in. Breakfast nearby. Walk to Parque Arví via the Metrocable from Acevedo, the view on the way up is free and spectacular. Pack a light lunch or eat at the market at the top.
Evening: dinner at a spot in Provenza, reservation held. Walk it off after, El Poblado at night is worth seeing even if you're not staying there.
Transit
Metro + Metrocable, round trip a few thousand pesos. Do not take a taxi to Arví.
Tip
Small restaurants get booked. Reservation is held in your name. Arrive on time.
Fly to the Coffee Region.
Late morning flight MDE to Pereira, about an hour. Pre-arranged driver meets you at PEI, drives you up to Salento (90 minutes, beautiful scenery through coffee country).
Check into the finca just outside town. Nap if you need to. Early dinner at a local spot, no tourist markup. Walk the plaza at sunset, everyone's out.
Stay
Finca just outside town · wood cabin, views over coffee fields, wifi
Transit
Flight booked, airport driver confirmed, transfer to Salento covered
The wax palms. On foot.
Jeep from Salento plaza at 7am (the Willy's jeeps, small fare each way). Valle de Cocora hike: 5 hours, the full loop, including the hummingbird house halfway. Pack water and a snack. The wax palms at the top are the tallest palms in the world. You stand in a field of them. It's quiet and strange and worth it.
Back in town by early afternoon. Lunch at a spot in Salento that's gringo-friendly and genuinely good. Afternoon on the finca porch.
Gear
Hiking shoes · rain jacket · 2L water · small bills for the hummingbird house entry
Tip
Go early. By 10am it's busloads of day-trippers. At 7am it's you and the mist.
Coffee farm, the real one.
Morning at a small family-run farm off the usual tourist circuit. Your coffee farm host walks you through the whole process: picking, washing, drying, roasting. You drink coffee at three different points of readiness. It's 3 hours and you leave understanding what you've been drinking your whole life.
Afternoon: tejo (Colombian gunpowder bowling) at a local spot, with locals. Takes a beer and five minutes to get it. Dinner wherever.
Guide
Coffee farm host · ~3 hours · paid at the farm
Tip
Bring cash for coffee beans to take home. They'll vacuum-seal it for you.
Travel day. Arrive to heat.
Driver back to PEI in the morning. Flight to Cartagena (a couple of hours, connects through another city, booked together). Land CTG mid-afternoon. Taxi pre-arranged from the airport (official taxi only, never a street taxi in Cartagena).
Check into the hotel in Getsemaní. Slow dinner at a quiet spot. Ease into the coast rhythm, everything moves slower here, and so should you.
Stay
Small boutique in Getsemaní · courtyard, quiet · better than the tourist bubble in the Walled City
Heads up
Cartagena is very hot and humid. Light cotton only. Your Medellín clothes will not work.
Walled City, the right way.
Breakfast in Getsemaní. Walking tour of the Walled City with a local historian at 9am (before the cruise ships arrive at 11). History that isn't Pirates of the Caribbean. You'll see parts of the wall most tours skip.
Lunch at a standout Cartagena restaurant, reservation held. Afternoon at the pool, the midday sun is not negotiable. Evening: walk the walls at sunset, dinner wherever you end up.
Guide
Cartagena historian · ~2.5 hours · private
Tip
Standout restaurants book weeks ahead. Reservation held in your name. Don't skip it.
Islands or slow. Your call.
Two paths. If you want beach: Isla Barú day trip (private boat, not the group tour). Playa Blanca area, swim, fish lunch, back by late afternoon. If you want slow: Sunday in Getsemaní, street art walking, brunch, afternoon at the hotel pool, last dinner anywhere you loved.
Fly home the next morning. Pre-booked taxi to CTG airport, 45 minutes. Home.
Option
Both options planned, you decide in the morning. The boat captain is booked either way and flexible.
Tip
If beach: strongest sunscreen you own. The equator does not care.
Your people in Colombia
Every guide I connect you with is someone I know personally. You get their WhatsApp. If anything goes sideways, you can reach them directly. That's the difference between a booking platform and someone who actually lives here. Names are kept off this page out of respect for my guides. Real trips include their real contacts.
Grew up in the neighborhood. Great English. Gives the honest version of the history, not the sanitized one. Private only, never groups.
Licensed, experienced, unflappable. Speaks enough English. Handles day trips and flexible for other days if you need him.
Family-run farm off the tourist circuit. Knows coffee like a chef knows food. This is the real tour, not the performance version.
Local, historian, fluent English. Walking tours of the Walled City that don't feel like walking tours. Will answer your weird history questions.
Essentials
Money
A low-FX travel card as your primary. Pull pesos from Colombian bank ATMs inside malls. Never the yellow airport machines.
Phone & data
eSIM set up before you fly. Activates when you land. WhatsApp is how everyone in Colombia texts.
Flights
International arrival and return booked. Two internal flights booked, all under an hour each, spaced to avoid rushed travel days.
Insurance
Travel insurance active for the trip duration. Policy saved to your trip folder, accessible offline.
Transit
Ride-share apps for Medellín. Never street taxis in Cartagena (pre-booked only). Metro is safe and clean.
Weather
Medellín: spring jacket mornings. Salento: cool, bring layers. Cartagena: cotton and swimsuit, that's it.
Before you fly
This is what you get
A free 20-minute call. You tell me what you're looking for. If I can help, I'll build you your own trip page, just like this one, around how you actually want to travel. If I can't, I'll say so.