Colombia in Coffee Colours: Colonial Villages, Coffee Region & Cartagena

Your journey begins in Bogotá, the Colombian capital perched at 2,640 m. You are welcomed at the airport by your guide and accompanied to your hotel in the heart of the historic La Candelaria district. Twice named Capital of Culture, Bogotá is a city both steeped in history and resolutely modern, and over the days that follow you will discover the many riches it offers the curious traveller.

After a first night in the capital you wake in the picturesque La Candelaria, whose cobbled lanes, lively squares and markets and colourful colonial architecture offer a step back in time. With your guide you discover the city like a ‘rolo’, taking in Plaza Bolívar at its heart, the Gold Museum and the Botero Museum. Breakfast is included; lunch and dinner are free.

You leave the capital and head north with your driver, stopping en route at the Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá, a religious sanctuary carved 180 m below ground in the heart of the salt mines. You continue to Villa de Leyva, a small Andean town in Boyacá known for its unspoiled architecture and immense cobbled Plaza Mayor. With your local guide you walk its lanes and absorb an atmosphere in which time seems suspended, settling into a charming posada for two nights.

A day among the sights surrounding Villa de Leyva. You begin at the Moniquirá archaeological park, once the astronomical observatory of the indigenous Muisca, whose scattered stones represent different constellations. Nearby, the El Fósil site shelters prehistoric fossils, the oldest a Kronosaurus dating back 120 million years, before a final stop at the 17th-century Dominican monastery of Santo Ecce Homo. In the afternoon you discover Ráquira, the ‘town of potters’, and its workshops, whose methods are inherited from ancestral civilisations.

You take the road north into the department of Santander and the colonial village of Barichara, whose calm streets and quiet atmosphere have earned it a reputation as one of the prettiest villages in Colombia. With your guide you follow its churches and cobbled lanes and meet local artisans, who open the doors of their workshops for a moment of exchange.

Early in the morning you set off on foot for the small village of Guane, where houses of tile and mud keep an ancestral rhythm and time seems to have stopped. You visit its archaeological museum, then return to Barichara for lunch and the gentle pace of life of these Andean mountains.

Your journey changes course. Your driver takes you from Barichara to Bucaramanga airport, crossing the majestic landscapes of the Chicamocha canyon, for a domestic flight to Armenia, capital of Quindío and gateway to the legendary coffee region. On arrival you are accompanied to a charming hacienda set in the heart of a coffee plantation, your base for the next three days. Breakfast and dinner are included; lunch is free.

With your guide you follow the extraordinary road to Salento, gateway to the mythical Cocora Valley, passing coffee, banana and pineapple plantations. Immense wax palms rise from the green, flourishing valley, one of the most surreal landscapes in Colombia. In the afternoon you walk the charming village of Salento and visit a traditional coffee finca. Breakfast and dinner are included; lunch is free.

A full day exploring the coffee region in depth. Aboard a comfortable 4×4 you travel the Central Cordillera of the Andes in search of its typical villages — Montenegro, Circasia, Cordoba, Pijao or Bellavista — learning about local culture and ways of life and tasting the region’s fruits along the way. Breakfast and dinner are included; lunch is free.

After a last breakfast you are transferred to Armenia airport for a flight north to Cartagena de Indias. Nicknamed the Pearl of the Caribbean, the city is a jewel of the colonial era, its colourful architecture, fortress and monuments recalling its history as a bastion of the Spanish empire. Your hotel in the old town is the ideal starting point for a first discovery on foot of the colonial quarters of San Diego and Santo Domingo.

Cartagena is discovered the way one reads an adventure novel: a story on every street corner. On foot with your guide you take in façades of yellow, pink and ochre, cobbled lanes winding between flowering bougainvillea and lively squares where local life is in full swing, absorbing the blend of Spanish, African and Caribbean influences. Late in the afternoon a canoe trip through the mangroves of La Boquilla reveals another face of the coast as the sun sets and the birds come out of hiding.

Late in the morning you are accompanied to the port of Cartagena and board a boat for Isla Múcura, 75 km away. You are welcomed at your seaside hotel with a cocktail and spend the afternoon between the island’s paradise beaches and its translucent water. All meals are included.

A day entirely at your own pace: a long swim in the warm Caribbean, a quiet walk on the fine sand, a path into the tropical vegetation or a grilled fish in the small fishing village. The hotel also offers snorkelling, massages, paddleboarding, diving, boat trips and catamaran outings. All meals are included.

Your stay on Isla Múcura comes to an end. You meet at the pier in the early afternoon for the crossing back to Cartagena and rediscover the gentle atmosphere of the Pearl of the Caribbean, with the rest of the day free before the sun sets on this colonial jewel.

After a last breakfast you transfer to Cartagena airport for your flight to Bogotá, where you connect with your international flight home.