Planning a trip to Colombia? Here’s why you should visit the coffee region

The vari­ous regions of Colom­bia are vastly dif­fer­ent from each other. 

Trav­el­lers look­ing to avoid ‘over­tour­ism’ and embrace ‘authen­ti­city’ should con­sider explor­ing the nation’s cof­fee-grow­ing region in the Andes Mountains. 

Dur­ing my two and a half weeks in Colom­bia, August 2022, I vis­ited that region, as well as the cit­ies of Medel­lin and Cartagena. 

Here are some reas­ons (aside from the cof­fee) for why I would advise trav­el­lers with lim­ited time to focus on the Colom­bi­an Andes and only one of those two cities:

The inside track

Annaleigh Bonds is “a B2C mar­ket­ing strategist, out­door enthu­si­ast, and advoc­ate for respons­ible travel”. She blogs at The Respons­ible Adven­turer. Also find her on Ins­tagram.

“GT” Part­ner CABI Tour­ism Cases invited Annaleigh to share a “GT” Travel Experience.

Medellin is a must-see

I star­ted my trip in the inland Andean city of Medel­lin and I am thank­ful that I did. 

The city is beau­ti­ful, inter­est­ing, and a lot of fun. 

It was a great place to get intro­duced to Colom­bi­an cul­ture and his­tory, and a won­der­ful place to meet oth­er trav­el­lers since it has a large expat community. 

Many people who have trav­elled the whole coun­try claimed it as their favour­ite city and I could see why. 

With an innov­at­ive trans­port­a­tion sys­tem, a wide vari­ety of res­taur­ants and bars, charm­ing neigh­bour­hoods, and a vibrant cre­at­ive scene, Medel­lin is hard not to enjoy. 

Cartagena is best avoided 

While the Carib­bean coastal city of Cart­agena boasts a charm­ing Span­ish-colo­ni­al old town, the beau­ti­ful Ros­ar­io islands, and an Afro-Carib­bean cul­ture, it is in no way a best-kept secret among tour­ists. And it shows. 

I enjoyed my time in Cart­agena, but I also felt a bit guilty being just anoth­er tour­ist in this already over-crowded city. 

Carte­gena is notori­ous for rob­ber­ies (mostly cell phones). Crime more gen­er­ally seems to be increas­ing in the city, accord­ing to Eddy, my walk­ing tour guide. 

Jardín is immersive

Jardín is a small yet mighty Andean town. 

Tucked away in the moun­tains, it is remote and unique. It’s the kind of place I ima­gine going to if I want to get ‘off-the-beaten path’. 

The town’s name means ‘garden’ in Span­ish, and that couldn’t be a bet­ter descriptor of the place. There were no tall build­ings, except for the Cath­ol­ic church at the centre of the town square.

The square is a large and lively com­munity and social hub, with many bars and res­taur­ants sur­round­ing it.

When I was in Jardín, the town was filled with loc­als and Colom­bi­an vis­it­ors, giv­ing it an authen­t­ic feel. It was fun to see loc­als and vis­it­ors alike gath­er for beers, dance in salons, and trot around on horses wear­ing their sombreros. 

The loc­al people seemed happy and healthy, and intent on pre­serving their cul­ture. I felt a strong sense of com­munity here. 

Des­pite an appar­ent obses­sion with pizzeri­as and European food, there were no west­ern-style res­taur­ants, cheap souven­ir shops, or tacky tour­ism agen­cies in Jardín. 

Busi­nesses seemed focused and thought­ful, pri­or­it­ising qual­ity over quantity. 

Jardín has a way of pre­serving its space and I hope it remains this way. Tour­ists can expect to immerse them­selves in an authen­t­ic Colom­bi­an cul­ture here. I would encour­age them to respect the town and envir­on­ment when vis­it­ing, just as the loc­als do. 

For nature lov­ers, Jardín serves as a base for nature-based activ­it­ies. There are many water­falls and hik­ing trails in the area. The best part; there were very few people. 

Cocora Valley is worth the trip

From Jardín, you can take two dif­fer­ent buses to the small town of Salento; anoth­er moun­tain town in the Colom­bi­an Andes. 

Salento is more touristy than Jardín, but beau­ti­ful on its outskirts. 

The town is fam­ous for Cocora Val­ley, land of the wax palms. It lived up to the hype; an incred­ibly unique land­scape and one I’m thank­ful to have seen. 

There are a vari­ety of ways to explore the val­ley includ­ing trekking, moun­tain bik­ing, and horse­back riding.

The town is also known for cof­fee tours, but, accord­ing to one of my guides, cof­fee isn’t even the area’s biggest export. It’s pota­toes. Who would’ve thought? 

The scenery does make for some idyll­ic cof­fee tours, though, so if you have your heart set on doing one, you won’t be disappointed. 

The Colom­bi­an Andes region is vibrant, diverse, and peaceful. 

I met won­der­ful people (both loc­als and trav­el­lers) and found the activ­it­ies to be a per­fect bal­ance of adven­ture and culture. 

If you’re want­ing to get off-the-beaten path for your Colom­bia trip, con­sider the cof­fee-grow­ing regions in the Andes. 

The moun­tains are calling. 

Fea­tured image (top of post): The wax palms of Cocora Val­ley in the Colom­bi­an Andes. Image by Makalu (CC0) via Pixabay.

Where is this?

The pin rep­res­ent­ing this “GT” Travel Exper­i­ence on the map below points to Cueva del Esplen­dor, which Annaleigh describes as “a water­fall out­side of the town of Jardin, Colom­bia that involves a decent trek to get to”. “Not only is the water­fall one of the most unique I’ve seen, but the hike to it is also really beau­ti­ful and lush.”

Where next?