COLOMBIA

Colombia is blessed with a coastline along the Atlantic as well as the Pacific Ocean. Although the country is characterized by natural and cultural diversity, Colombians however tend to stick together. They have strong family ties.

Speak of diverse terrain – you have the mountains, valleys, deserts, lowlands and jungles all rolled into one country!

Capital: Bogota

Best time to visit:

  1. The peak tourist time for Colombia is the dry season from December to February and June to August.
  2. The maximum influx of tourists to Colombia is typically between mid June to mid July, and also the Easter week.
  3. To avoid busy beaches and the heavy holiday crowd, plan your vacation during the wetter season of Colombia, which occur between the months of March to May and September to November. Although it rains heavily, you will have the advantage of relatively lower accommodation rates and fewer tourists during these months.
  4. With regard to Colombia’s general weather conditions, sporadic rainfall can be seen any time of the year and the weather is somewhat unpredictable at times. The coastal areas become very humid and hot while the higher regions have relatively cooler temperatures. Regions above 2000 meters are by and large warm during the day, with the nights tending to get chilly. Thus suitable warm attire is recommended if travelling to these regions of Colombia, at anytime of the year.

Minimum days required: 5 days

Places of Interest:

  1. Torre Colpatria
  2. Cali Zoo
  3. National Coffee Park
  4. Maloka Museum
  5. Tayrona National Natural Park
  6. Gold Museum
  7. Chicamocha National Park
  8. Nevado Del Ruiz
  9. Sierra Nevada De Santa Marta
  10. Calima Lake

Climate:

  1. Colombia experiences various climates across its different regions. Primarily, the country has tropical climate on its coast and a moderate climate towards its plateau regions. It can be divided into three climate zones according to its altitude.
  2. The first one is a hot zone, which is below 915 meters, and this comprises almost 90% of Colombia’s land regions. The maximum temperature of this zone is about 26.6 degrees Celsius.
  3. Almost 8% of the land comprises of the temperate zone which is between 915 to 1,980 meters. The temperature of this zone ranges 18 degrees Celsius to 23.9 degree Celsius.
  4. The third one is the relatively cooler zone, which encompasses the plateau and terraces of the Colombian Andes (the mountain region). The temperature ranges from 12.7 degree Celsius to 17 degree.
  5. Furthermore, Colombia has two main seasons in general, one is thewet season which lasts during the months of March to May and September to November, and the other is the dry season, which occur between December to February and June to August.

Currency:  Colombia Peso

Things to carry:

  1. Carry tropical clothing if you’re going to the coastal areas or to the eastern Ilanos where the climate is hot and humid.
  2. Evenings are cool in Bogota so you’ll need appropriate clothing. In Medellin, you need light clothes and in Cali they could be even lighter.
  3. If you go to the uplands carry your raincoat along. You’ll definitely need woolens in the mountains – it gets really cold up there.

How to get there:

Air

  1. You can fly into Colombia from major cities in Europe, Australia, the USA and the neighboring Latin American countries. Most visitors fly into Colombia’s main international airport in Bogota. The other international airports include Cartagena (12km from the city), Baranquilla (10km), Cali (19km) and Cartagena (12km).