Colorful Colombia

Experience Colombia's kaleidoscope of colors, dance to champeta and salsa, and soak up the beauty of its beaches.

A Beautiful Drama of Color

One of the world’s most unique destinations and one of El Camino’s personal favorites, breath-taking Colombia is dramatic in everything from its geographical diversity to its notorious reputation and subsequent radical renaissance. The beaches are just about as dreamy as you might expect from this region, and it is one of the most biodiverse countries on the planet. But the true beauty of Colombia lies in its people, remarkably resilient and unerringly creative, emerging from their difficult past with an infectious level of optimism and passion.

About your trip

We made a bold decision to slow things down, sticking to only two main destinations (with day trips to nearby points of interest) keeping travel times to a minimum. Medellín and Cartagena are both forces to be reckoned with and we wanted to honor that. Take a deep dive into the many aspects of the culture and indulge in the beauty of slow travel.

What’s included

  • Domestic flight between Cartagena and Medellín

  • All activities mentioned on the itinerary

  • Boutique hotel accommodations

  • Transportation to and from the airport

  • 8 breakfasts, 4 lunches, 2 dinners and more

  • El Camino’s exclusive Eat, Play, Shop Guide

  • Experienced local host with you throughout the trip

Not included

  • Airfare in and out of the country

Travelers must provide evidence that they have purchased travel insurance for the duration of their journey. If you’d like to upgrade to a single room, you can add this during the booking process. If you need assistance please contact our Customer Success team.

Itinerary

Flight

☞Please remember to book separately

Day 1

☞Arrival in Cartagena (CTG) | Welcome dinner

Day 2

☞Lunch run by a local family | Traditional Colombian styles of champeta and salsa dancing class

Day 3

☞Zenú Weaving Workshop | Cartagena street-food experience

Day 4

☞Island Day Trip | Beach-front lunch

Day 5

☞Journey to Medellín

Day 6

☞Comuna 13 visit | Champeta/salsa choke workshop

Day 7

☞Water-based activities at a private lake
house | Colombian asado (BBQ) for lunch

Day 8

☞Coffee farm experience | Farewell cocktail with artisanal liquor

Day 9

☞Depart from Medellín (MDE)

Your Itinerary

  • Welcome to Colombia

    Touch down in beautiful Cartagena, Colombia’s historic coastal city located along the Caribbean Sea. Get to know your fellow travelers over fun cocktails before heading to a celebratory meal at one of our favorite restaurants in the city. You’ll be introduced to traditional Colombian cuisine and cooking techniques with a mouth-watering meal made from locally-sourced foods and ingredients.

  • Coastal Cuisine and Champeta

    Take your time this morning to do whatever you please. Catch up on your sleep or spend the morning exploring the streets of Cartagena. Your Eat, Play, Shop guide will tell you the best spots in town. After a rejuvenating morning, we’ll have a group lunch at a local favorite spot. Run by a wonderful local family, you’ll get to taste the best of this coastal region’s distinct style of cuisine. Later on in the afternoon, you have the chance to really get off the salsa beaten path, watching and learning from some incredible salsa dancers at some of our favorite hidden gems.

  • Zenú Weaving Workshop and Street Food Snacks

    This morning, we’ll meet the Zenú community to learn directly from them about their indigenous culture, heritage, and history. The Zenú are talented artisans who are known for producing handicrafts using traditional weaving techniques that we’ll be learning in our workshop. Later, we’ll visit a fishing town with a strong Afro-Colombian influence to discover an initiative to teach younger residents to play traditional musical rhythms. The fun doesn’t end there— this evening, you’ll partake in a guided, street-food experience, sampling various Colombian mecatos (snacks) as you wander Cartagena’s cobblestone streets.

  • Island Day Trip

    After breakfast, you’ll leave the city hustle behind as you board a speed boat and embark upon one of our favorite islands just outside of Cartagena. Bask in the warm waters, drink in hand, and embrace this carefree day in the sun, which includes a beach-front lunch of tasty regional favorites. Once we’ve returned, the rest of the evening is yours to explore as you please. You might want to reserve a spot at one of Cartagena's premier dining experiences named one of Latin America's 50 best restaurants of 2020 and 2021.

  • Journey to Medellín

    Adios Cartagena, Hola Medellín! After breakfast, you’ll take a quick flight from Cartagena to Medellin to discover a different side of Colombia’s culture and landscape. You have the day to get familiar with your new stomping grounds. Refer to your Eat, Play, Shop guide for our highly curated selection of places to dine, shop, and drink that best represent the innovations in design, technology, and infrastructure that are happening throughout the city.

  • Creative Comuna 13 and champeta/salsa choke workshop

    Get ready for a full day celebrating this urban oasis and all it has overcome. You’ll take an immersive tour through Medellín, heading to the vibrant neighborhood of Comuna 13 to discover how this area has transformed into one of the most important tourist destinations in Colombia. We’ll be meeting with a guide from a local art collective that has played a part in transforming the area through Afro-Colombian music and dance. Pick up some of the moves yourself with a champeta/salsa choke workshop, two newer styles of dancing that have taken Colombia by storm and are bound to get your heart racing.

  • Colombian BBQ and Private Lake House

    Today, you’ll travel just outside of the city to a stunning private lake house where you'll get the best view of the famous El Peñol. Nestled within the mountains of the nearby lake district of Guatape, you’ll enjoy a full day of serious R+R alongside some jaw-dropping views. Sip on cocktails under the sun or choose from a myriad of different water-based activities such as swimming, paddle boarding, or kayaking. Later in the afternoon, you can indulge in a traditional Colombian asado (BBQ) for lunch before returning to Medellín.

  • Coffee Experience and Farewell Dinner

    For your last day, you’ll be visiting one of the last remaining coffee farms within Medellín city limits. Explore the lush grounds while learning about the entire journey of the coffee bean. You’ll be joined by an expert coffee roaster and barista who will teach you how to craft the perfect cup of coffee. Later on, you’ll celebrate your final night with your travel mates over a gastronomic experience called “journey of flavors and knowledge through Colombia”. Toast to a brilliant week with an artisanal cocktail and enjoy a guided 4-course dinner.

  • Farewell Colombia

    All good things must come to an end. It’s time to say goodbye and depart from Medellín International Airport. Return home inspired by the electric energy and passion of Colombian culture and a whole new crew of travel friends to meet up with for more adventures around the world!

Important Notes

  • We are the Colombian travel experts and make it easy to have a trip of a lifetime.

    Join El Camino Travel on an adventure that explores the Caribbean coastal town of Cartagena and the eternal spring of Medellin. This adventure includes salsa/champeta dancing, boat rides to picturesque beaches, volcano-soaked mud baths, and indulgent meals to help you discover the diverse cuisine of both regions.

    Early on in the planning process, we made a bold decision to slow things down, sticking to only two main destinations (with day trips to nearby points of interest) keeping travel times to a minimum.

    Medellín and Cartagena are both forces to be reckoned with and we wanted to honor that. Take a deep dive into the many aspects of the culture and indulge in the beauty of slow travel. Your time in the country is precious, and we designed this trip so that you can spend your time wisely rather than wasting most of it in a car or bus darting between five or six different places.

  • Fly into Rafael Núñez International Airport Cartagena (CTG)

  • This trip is for the traveler who has an adventurous spirit, is looking to squeeze the most out of their time in Colombia, and cares about making the world a better place through responsible tourism. The trip is filled with experiences that allow you to be immersed in the varied cultures of Colombia. This traveler is open minded, inherently curious, and enjoys indulging in the moment. This trip is for the traveler who finds joy in stepping outside of their comfort zone, loves trying new things, and is excited to explore a culture completely different from their own. This trip is available to travelers from all walks of life who are over the age of 18.

    While El Camino Travel provides a high level of customer service, our traveler is someone who is easy-going and amenable to change in the diverse and unpredictable landscape of travel in Latin America.

    This trip is also for a solo traveler who does not want to travel solo, but instead with an interesting group of people and for those who do not want to spend countless hours planning a trip of a lifetime.

    Our adventurous style of group travel is not for everyone. Please read carefully through the itinerary and the above description to ensure that you are booking a trip that fits your comfort level.

    Please review our Traveler’s Values here prior to booking.

  • We are not luxury travel, but we're not budget either. So what exactly does that mean? At El Camino Travel, we're all about the high-low. We enjoy fine dining but we also love street food. We fly coach but you can find us in the airport lounge. We'll splurge on something special like handmade pottery or a one-of-a-kind hand-sewn dress, but we also love searching online for a good deal. We love great style and design, but we also get excited about off-the-beaten-path experiences that are a little rough around the edges. We pride ourselves on designing trips that are authentic and real, understanding that any country is comprised of many lenses and lived experiences and that we can't possibly showcase them all.

    This duality can be seen in our trips. Our trips represent boutique travel—not luxury, not budget. We won't be staying at hostels but we won't be at luxury hotels either. We choose boutique hotels where we can prioritize things like location, character, charm, safety, and customer service.

    Sometimes we do experiences that feel more high-end. Sometimes we're going *way* off the beaten path to do something entirely unique, and sometimes that means it's a little unpolished. Our traveler is someone who enjoys both ends of the spectrum and understands that one isn't more authentic than the other.

    Luxury travel usually means a lot more hand-holding. While we provide a high level of customer service, our traveler is a little more adventurous and self-sufficient. We provide blocks of free time so you have the flexibility to explore the destination your way because we understand that everyone is different. Don’t worry though, we will make sure you are equipped with a curated list of all our favorite places to eat, play, and shop for when you are out on your own with your new travel friends.

    For some additional context, a luxury-travel version of our trips would start anywhere from $7,000-12,000. We mix the high-low versions of a destination to keep our trips more accessible.

  • Please note that our standard pricing is based on shared double rooms. This allows us, among many things, to keep the cost of the trip accessible to as many travelers as possible. If you’re booking this trip with a friend, family member, or significant other, let us know and we’ll place you together.

    Traveling solo? No problem—the majority of our travelers choose to fly solo. We’ll be in touch before the trip to learn a bit about you and find the best fit for a roommate. We will make it a priority to best situate you and we’re happy to chat more in-depth if you have any questions or concerns about this.

    Single room upgrades are available! A limited number of single rooms have been reserved. Please select this option at checkout if you’d prefer your own space. If all the single rooms have already been filled, please email us at info@elcamino.travel and we'll let you know if we can secure additional rooms to accommodate a single.

    We'll have more details regarding hotels prior to your trip, but we promise we chose these locations because they pass the El Camino standard of customer service and are clean, safe, and well-maintained.

    It's important to note that our accommodations are not luxury or high-end. We seek more boutique accommodations that are well-situated and allow us to make the most of our itinerary.

  • We have a roster of well-qualified hosts that we work with. Prior to your trip, you will receive a welcome packet that will inform you of who will be guiding your adventure. We proudly work with local hosts because no one is better equipped to provide layer upon layer of context than someone who is actually from there.

  • For bookings made prior to November 20, 2022: A non-refundable 40% deposit is due at the time of booking. Final payment is due no later than 35 days prior to departure.

    For bookings made after November 20, 2022: A non-refundable $500 deposit is due at the time of booking. Final payment is due no later than 60 days prior to departure.

    Please read our Booking Terms and Conditions for more information about our cancellation policy.

    Payment plans are now available using Affirm. Apply now to make monthly payments.

  • We encourage travelers to aim for an arrival no later than 3pm. This should allow you time to settle in ahead of any welcome activities.

  • Our trips are very active, and involve a lot of walking, standing, and moving around—sometimes, in very high temperatures, with high humidity, on uneven roads and terrains, in busy cities. While we work to accommodate all travelers, other modes of transportation are not always available, due to infrastructure, making walking the only option. Travelers should be willing and able to walk anywhere up to 4 miles each day, up and down stairs and hills, and be able to stand for extended periods of time. If you have any concerns or questions about the activity level of this trip, have recently had surgery, or have any history of mobility issues, please reach out to us at info@elcamino.travel before booking—we want to ensure that everyone on our trips is safe, and will able to keep up with the active itinerary. By signing up for any of our trips, you agree to and understand that a certain level of physical fitness is required to safely participate in this itinerary.

What our travelers say

“Having just returned from my second El Camino trip,
I am already planning how I can book my next. I have visited Colombia and now Morocco with El Camino and both experiences have exceeded all expectations. Not only are these trips interesting and immersive, they are also ethical and unique! I feel good about booking with El Camino because I know their experiences are respectful of local communities and provide opportunities for connection with locals and the other travelers in the group alike. Don’t hesitate, book the trip!”

— Samantha Hagan