Colombian Family Holiday
Get to know the beauty of Colombia through this 10 day holiday. Starting in the nation’s capital, you will find yourself taking part in a number of unique experiences and travel through the country to find yourself in the old city of Cartagena, with all its colonial beauty.
- Bogota
- Candellaria
- Medellin
- Guatape
- Cartagena
- Rosario Islands
Colombia is the only South American country with both Atlantic and Pacific coastlines. Its enterprising people are famed for their music, footballers, fruit and coffee. The legendary Magdalena river runs vertically from the south, between two Andes mountain ranges towards the Caribbean sea. Islands near and far are visited by those seeking tranquil white sands. Famous cities such as Bogotá, Medellín, and Cartagena are complemented by many smaller towns with charming colonial histories. Colombia has also developed its eco/agrotourism, where local guides share rural customs in its authentic context.
Bogota
Bogotá is situated high in the Andes, and as the capital of a diverse country, truly has something for everyone. A good starter is the Candelaria district, where interesting colonial architecture and narrow streets bustle with backpackers. A short walk away are the grand Catedral Primera and state buildings at the Bolívar square. Two must-visit museums are the Museo de Botero and Museo de Oro, which exhibit famous works from national artists, and an immense collection of pre-Colombian gold. Board a cable car to the cloudy summit of Mount Monserrate, lunch in one of Usaquén’s many trendy restaurants, and then decide on hikes to a nearby waterfall. The holy Guatavita Lake, Zipaquira’s mythical salt cathedral, or the delightful Chingaza National Park are more spots to experience near Bogota.
Coffee Triangle
The Coffee Triangle around Colombia’s temperate Andean slopes is famous for its superior quality coffee, being exported worldwide. Theme parks and museums exhibit the process and culture behind the industry, while the region as a whole has much more to offer: fruit plantations, butterfly farms, botanical gardens, hot springs, river rafting, and national parks such as Los Nevados, with multiple volcanoes. The icon of the Cocora Valley is the unique (and very tall) wax palm tree, and endless hummingbird species. Zip lining is the most precious way to get an overall look when whizzing over coffee fields, but horseback tours are unbeatable for appreciation of the landscape. Matecaña City Zoo is a highlight for animal lovers, while towns such as Salento boast charming architecture.
Medellin
Medellín, known as the “City of Eternal Spring,” has been transformed into one of the most liveable and innovative metropolises in Latin America. Colourful, friendly people and a highly pleasant climate entice visitors to cultural events around the city’s attractive streets and squares. Vibrant nightlife and nearby nature spots around the city’s seven hills make planning your stay an easy task. Day trips can include El Peñol, a unique 200m-high rock overlooking stunning mountainous landscapes, or Santa Fe de Antioquia, a city with a wealth of history and impressive colonial architecture lining narrow streets and courtyards. The Arví Ecotourism Park’s many trails, lakes, forests and streams are the perfect environment to go hiking, biking, camping, fishing, swimming or sailing.
Caribbean
Colombia’s Caribbean coast combines beautiful, romantic urban spaces with some of the most picturesque beaches in the world. Tayrona National Park is an incredible exposition of seaside nature, and a great place to camp. The best budget option is Taganga, a small fishing village with lively nightlife and good scuba diving opportunities. Adventurous travellers should head to the Rosario Islands, or the San Bernardo Archipelago, with their perfect white sands and clear water to enjoy tropical flora, fish and turtles. For the ultimate experience in regional hospitality, stop in Cartagena with its colonial walled city and fortress. Further up the coast, Santa Marta is less populated, while further inland, the town of Mompox boasts spectacular colonial character from as early as 1540.
Welcome to Bogota! After arriving in the hotel and being met within the airport, you will be provided with a welcome kit and receive a private transfer to your hotel. On day 2, if you select the 5* option, a car and driver will be available for your use for 12 hours.
Walking Tour Candelaria
This tour gives you an entire insight into Colombia’s capital. You will never get bored with you possibility to talk about different topics, interact with locals, visit the most important spots in the city and get the max of the artistic and historical value of all the streets and alleys you walk through.
The Candelaria district is the oldest and most important neighbourhood in Bogotá. You will have the possibility to talk about history, geography as well as the current social and political situation in Colombia. You will get involved with the culture by drinking chicha, a traditional fermented drink that is part of the indigenous heritage. Also, you will try some local snacks (arepas) made with corn, when finally ending up playing the gunpowder game, better known as Tejo, a funny drinking game played in the prehispanic times.
Colombia Regional Cuisine Tour
Colombia is the second most bio-diverse country in the world and this diversity is also expressed in our cuisine. Thousands of varieties of vegetables, fruits, tubers, meats, and flavors. In this tour, you will experience Colombia through your mouth by having 8 different foods from the 5 Colombian different regions: Amazon, Andes, Caribbean coast, Pacific coast, and Orinoquia.
Join us in this delicious and cultural experience learning about the gourmet background of each region by filling up your belly. All restaurants are located in Candelaria District (walking tour) one of the tour stations is a family house where you will learn how to cook tasty empanadas.
After a private transfer and flight to Medellin, you will arrive at your selected hotel for the next 3 nights.
Graffiti Tour Medellin
The City of Medellin offers a great variety of urban arts due to the city’s transformation of the last 20 years. Nowadays, the city is so full of countless artistic expressions of street art that the local authorities declared urban art a cultural landmark of Medellin.
Graffiti is not only about strong artistic and cultural elements, it is a way of political expression. See the graffiti of the Comuna 13 guided by some of the local artists themselves. This tour gives you an insight on history and daily life in this area and the importance of street art for social communication and identity.
This tour will give you an insight unlike any other into the culture and social movements that exist within Medellin.
Medellin – City of Eternal Spring
Medellín – the “City of Eternal Spring” – located in the Andean highlands of Antioquia, is nowadays the most innovative city of Latin America. Its recent past was strongly related to the life of Pablo Escobar and violent gang fights. During the last twenty years Medellín went through some drastic changes. An innovative program of urban development that combines modern means of public transport and the construction of public parks and areas of recreation for the local people turned Medellín from the most dangerous city in the world into a modern example of urban transformation.
Explore the Andean capital of Colombia on a full day tour. Get an insight of the history of city visiting the “Pueblito Paisa” and enjoy perfect views of the city. Explore the famous Botero Plaza downtown with an exhibition of the Colombian artist Fernando Botero, whose sculptures have become a landmark of the city. Take the Metro Cable up to Santo Domingo, which was once a notorious area of gang violence in Medellín. The cable car was constructed to make the inner city more accessible to people from the outskirts and allows visitors a glimpse into the lives of the marginalized population. At the Comuna 13 district with its unique escalators you observe another innovative project that improved the quality of life of the people of Medellín.
Guatape and Piedra del Penol
The Peñol Boulder is one of the most spectacular destinations in the surrounding area of Medellín. The 200-meter-high monolith can be climbed through a staircase of 740 steps. Enjoy breath-taking views over the stunning surroundings full of green mountains and blue lakes. The village of Guatapé is famous for its church and its beautiful, colourful paintings that decorate the houses of the village.
On this day trip you will be taken on a scenic drive through the Eastern Highlands of Antioquia. You can climb the Peñol Boulder, enjoy a delicious typical Colombian lunch on the waterfront of the Guatapé reservoir, explore the lake on a boat ride and take time to stroll and relax.
A transfer and flight will take you to your hotel within Cartagena.
The following day, you will explore Cartagena via a city tour.
City Tour Cartagena
Cartagena de Indias is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful cities in America. Its historical centre, walled by fortifications built in the colonial era, retains its original architecture and is shown today in a myriad of colors that fill it with Caribbean life and joy. Its fascinating history as one of the pearls of that era, a place of collection of great treasures and the largest slave port in the colonies, gives immense importance to this World Heritage City. The stories about those pirate attacks of great magnitude are present in each of the fortifications that remain intact to this day.
The City-Tour begins with a visit to the Fort of San Felipe de Barajas, the largest fortification built by the Spanish in their colonies. In a one-hour tour you will be able to appreciate this masterpiece of military architecture in coral stone and you will learn about the defence strategy of the city in relation to its topography. Then you will go to the historical centre to visit the San Pedro Clavér Convent Museum, former Jesuit Cloister (1605) and home of the so-called “Slave of the Slaves”. To finish, you take a tour of approximately 2 hours through the main squares, churches and streets of the city. You will also walk over the city walls to have the best views of the city and to know the most important bastions
For Day 8, you will enjoy some interesting interactive experiences of the region thanks to a Coconut Workshop and Chocolate Workshop.
Coconut Workshop
Craft your own souvenir and support a good purpose. Coconuts are not only used for drinks but also to create accessories or decoration. The project DAMARTES (Damas y Madres del Arte – ‘Women and Mothers of Art’) began with the name Madres – Cabeza de Familia y sus Cocos (‘Mothers – head of the family and their coconuts’) and is an association composed of seven women. In 2008, they took part in a craft class sponsored by the foundation ProBoquilla. Nowadays, they produce jewelry, containers, vases, belts and accessories and are the frst women of La Boquilla that purchase their own income. Producing an object out of a coconut, requires above all enthusiasm and patience.
The life of the DAMARTES is very impressive. All of them are mothers and most of them already grandmothers with interesting life stories that they like to share with us. The association is a working group of great women that are able to craft amazing things out of simple objects.
You will go to La Boquilla, where the ladies will invite you to a very special workshop. Every participant can make their own souvenir out of coconut. It is possible to craft bracelets, keychains, earrings or necklaces. The workshop will take place in a nice rustic restaurant right on the beach of La Boquilla. This workshop lasts around 3.5 hours.
You will have an English speaking guide included.
Chocolate Workshop
Chocolate is for many the greatest contribution of “the Indies” to the world’s gastronomy. The conqueror himself, Hernan Cortez, on his arrival in America, spoke of “the divine drink that increases resistance and fights fatigue, allows man to walk for a whole day without eating.” And no one can resist its enchantment; it’s synonymous with happiness and love. So what better way to get to know about the history and development of chocolate in our culture, than in these hours of fun and playful learning.
You start this shared tour with a pick up from your hotel and transfer to the Chocolate Museum. Here, you will learn all the steps of the chocolate process, from the cocoa tree in the Colombian countryside to the delicious cup of hot chocolate and you are ready to put all hands-on, you will give life to our own chocolate sweets and will taste three chocolate drinks such as cocoa tea, the Mayan drink, and a traditional hot chocolate. Perfect for recharging your levels of endorphins. At the end of the tour, you return you to your hotel.
For your penultimate day in Cartagena, you will visit the Rosario Islands.
Private Boat to Rosario Islands
The charm of the city of Cartagena is in its location in front of the Caribbean Sea. What better way to enjoy the city and its surroundings than in a luxurious sports boat or in a fully equipped yacht to live a nautical adventure without equal.
The tour begins with a pick up at your hotel and transportation to the pier where your captain and an assistant await you with the boat ready for a day of sunshine, crystal clear waters, white sand, and good music. Once the engines are turned on, you will leave the bay of Cartagena bordering the Fort of San Fernando de Bocachica, and then make a panoramic tour of the 27 islands that make up the Islas del Rosario Natural Park. Here, you can make stops for lunch or explore the coral reef with snorkels. It is suggested ending this tour with a stop at Agua Azul or at Cholón Cove, where you will have the opportunity to get off the boat and enjoy the crystal clear shallow water.
Please note that the equipment for snorkelling and fishing, as well as lunch, are optional and not included in the basic package and therefore have to be added in advance or paid on the boat.
This experience lasts approximately 8 hours and it is recommended to start at 8:00 am.
On your final day, when ready, you will be taken to the airport via a private transfer to await your departing flight.
Dates are flexible so please make an enquiry and tell us a range of dates you are considering so we can check availability.
Keep in mind that you are responsible for verifying the visa requirements of your destination country and then obtaining the visa accordingly.
In addition, most countries require that travellers hold a passport that is valid for at least six months from the day of entry into the country, so confirm that you meet the passport, visa and medical requirements (if applicable) of the country of entry in advance.
- Accommodation based on standard double room or similar including breakfast
- Transportation on the days mentioned
- English-speaking guide on the days mentioned
- Excursions and visits as mentioned in the program
- AIG Insurance (liability insurance)
- Excursions not mentioned in the program
- Meals not mentioned in the program
- Drinks, tips and personal expenses
- International flights
- Domestic flights