Unique Cultural Tours
Unique Cultural Tours
Expert bilingual Colombian Guide
8 nights in comfortable, hand-picked hotels that reflect local culture
13 meals (8 Breakfasts, 3 Lunches, 2 Dinners)
2 in-country flights during the program
Private, air-conditioned ground transportation in each city
All activities mentioned in this itinerary, including:
Cartagena City + Fortress tour
Island day to enjoy the Caribbean
Guided visit to Cacao Farm by local guide and opportunity to make your own chocolate
Coffee finca tour and tasting
Salsa lesson
Night of playing Tejo, Colombia’s national sport
Locally guided hike at Cocora Valley
One morning of birdwatching with local expert
Guided Market Visit (includes variety of fruit, baked goods, and traditional dishes)
Tour of Medellín’s Comuna 13 muralist neighborhood
Day in Guatapé
Airfare to/from the US
Trip Insurance
9 meals, alcohol, tips
“Choose-your-own-excursion” in Cartagena
We take you to the best spots in Colombia for the ultimate cultural experience!
—>Experience charming Colombia as you get a taste of Cartagena, wander among the world’s tallest palm trees in Salento, sip the famous coffee and pick cocoa pods in Armenia, and witness Colombia’s art scene in Medellín.
The best of city life and quiet country walks await you in Colombia. Learn about how cocoa and coffee are grown in the country that is one of the top producers in the world for both. Experience Cartagena, listed by Travel & Leisure as one of the best places to visit in 2024! This is a once-in-a-lifetime trip that will surprise and delight you.
This incredible nine-day trip connects you with local culture, colonial architecture, gourmet cuisine, and stunning nature that has been designed with your safety in mind. The UNESCO World Heritage sites will inspire you and you’ll have personal experiences with Colombians that the big companies can’t offer. Come travel with us!
Activity Level - Walking up to three miles in a day, often on dirt paths, cobblestones, or other uneven terrain. Elevations up to 9,000 feet.
Yellow Fever vaccine NOT required with these destinations! Check with your doctor for your personal needs, but there are no vaccine requirements for this itinerary.
Experience Colombia:
Three different climates and a mix of city and rural adventures in this emerging tourist destination.
Day 1: Welcome to Colombia!
Arrive at the end of the day in Cartagena. Our driver will pick us up at the small airport and take us to our hotel in the Getsemaní neighborhood. If you arrive in Colombia before Day 1, we’ll give you the hotel info to book, or make the arrangements for you. Click here to check out our recommendations for free-time activities here.
Meals included: None
Day 2: Exploring Cartagena
This morning we’ll get a tour of the key places in the city, the San Felipe de Barajas fortress, the modern (Miami-like) neighborhoods, the historical center, and our neighborhood of Getsemaní.
Following lunch, you could retreat from the sun in your air-conditioned room, take a refreshing dip in the pool, or explore a nearby museum.
We’ll meet up together again at 4:30 to walk to the pier for a sunset boat ride in the bay. Afterward, we’ll have dinner at La Sierpe, a favorite for gourmet Colombian fare.
Meals included: Breakfast, Dinner
Day 3: Tierra Bomba Island
You’re in the Caribbean, so you’ll want a beach day! We will take a 15-minute ride on a speed boat to a beach club where we have the day to swim in the ocean, pool, or just enjoy the sand and shade.
In the afternoon, we’ll head back to shore, collect our luggage, and go to the nearby airport for our flight to Pereira.
Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch
Day 4: Cocora Valley
After breakfast, we’ll enjoy a morning hike through the valley of green pastures, cows, hummingbirds, and wax palm trees.
Here is a short video of the hike.
The wax palm trees are described as looking like, “lit sparklers on the Fourth of July with their long skinny trunks topped with an explosion of palm fronds.” These 200’ tall trees are home to unique birds and much of the Disney movie, Encanto, is based there.
After a day in Cocora Valley, we’ll return to Salento where we can rest and relax or go out and explore the charming town.
Tonight, we’ll play Tejo, an explosive Colombian game reminiscent of cornhole.
Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch
Day 5: Salento
Wake up with the sun for an optional birdwatching tour and maybe even see the pair of Southern Emerald Toucanets that live in the area. If you’re not a birdwatcher, you could sleep in and enjoy a leisurely breakfast. This colorful small town is a great place for shopping, and we have a secret coffeehouse we like to visit.
In the afternoon, we’ll explore this special UNESCO World Heritage region through taste at a coffee plantation.
The farm tour includes understanding the native trees that protect the coffee plants, bean picking (typically November-March), cherry pulping, washing and the post-harvest processes. The tour is an outdoor educational, interactive experience with a coffee-tasting component.
Meals included: Breakfast
Day 6: Armenia
After breakfast and fine locally grown Arabica coffee, we’ll learn about how Colombia produces some of the best cacao in the world at a working finca. You’ll get to see how a giant red cacao pod gets transformed into chocolate and taste the final product.
After this, it’s off to the airport for our evening flight into Medellín, the “City of Eternal Spring”.
Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch
Day 7: Medellín
Welcome to the big city! Medellín, Colombia’s second biggest city after Bogotá, has rebuilt itself from a hotbed of crime to become a hot spot for tourism in the past decade.
We’ll start with a tour of the infamous Comuna 13. Formerly one of the most dangerous slums in the city, it was revitalized and is now a place where you can find gorgeous murals and experience some of the urban culture of Colombia while learning about how this neighborhood transformed into what it is today.
Then, we’ll head into the central part of Medellín for our city tour. A local guide will explain how Medellín became one of South America’s most vibrant and sought-after destinations as you discover the local museums, churches, markets, and surrounding shops.
Meals included: Breakfast
Day 8: Guatape
After breakfast, we will drive two hours to visit the colorful, quaint, cobblestone street town of Guatapé. We will begin by taking a guided walking tour of one of Colombia’s best small towns, learning all about the painted zócalos (murals) and what they represent. Then, we’ll break for some shopping and lunch. You can pick up gorgeous handmade jewelry here or indulge your sweet tooth at one of the nearby bakeries as you trade in Medellín’s big-city bustle for the slower pace of life in this town.
In the afternoon we will explore the nearby man-made reservoir. This reservoir is part of Colombia’s largest power plant and was built by flooding the existing towns in the area. We’ll take a scenic boat ride and see a spire from one of the churches that predated the reservoir, poking above the waterline. We’ll also see one of Pablo Escobar’s old mansions on the shore and enjoy the surrounding rolling green hills.
Head back to Medellín to enjoy a final farewell dinner with your new friends before packing for the flight home.
Meals included: Breakfast, Dinner
Day 9: Fly Home
Arrive at the Medellín airport 2-3 hours before your flight. We hope you fully experienced the richness of Colombia through fun, hands-on exploration, city, and nature experiences with free time built in, all while enjoying the structure and security of traveling in a small group on our custom Viva Cartagena! tour.
Meals included: Breakfast
