What a visitor's money does in Colombia: every guide rated from very cheap to very expensive, cheapest first, then the things that cost travellers money without buying anything — the ATM, the taxi, the SIM.
Colombian Peso (COP) · 1 EUR = 3,731 COP · 1 USD = 3,278 COP
Use a casa de cambio in Bocagrande rather than the street changers in the walled city, who short-count with practised skill. Dollars are accepted at bad rates. Prices have a lot of zeros — check the note count before you walk away.
Avoid: street-facing machines after dark, Servibanca standalone units
Use: Bancolombia, Davivienda, BBVA
Use machines inside a branch or a mall, in daylight. Forced-withdrawal robberies at night-time street ATMs are the specific risk here.
A short ride in Cartagena: COP 10,000–25,000 across town — cheap
Similar to a metered taxi, and the app records the journey, which is the actual reason people use it.
Caribbean Colombia, not Andean: coconut rice, fried fish, patacones and arepas de huevo. Eat at the seafront stalls in the evening and in the market at lunch, and drink limonada de coco with everything. The centre’s restaurants around Parque de los Novios are good and priced for visitors.
Street arepas de huevo and fresh fruit from the palenqueras are the real thing. Ceviche in the old city is priced for tourists; walk to Bazurto market if you want it at local prices and can handle the chaos.
The bandeja paisa is enormous and worth doing once. Better daily eating is a menú del día for a few euros, and the fruit is exceptional — try lulo, guanábana and granadilla.
Ajiaco, the chicken and potato soup, is the city dish and suits the climate. Fruit here is exceptional — try feijoa, lulo and curuba. The coffee scene in Chapinero is excellent and takes itself seriously.
The cost rating is this site's own, for a visitor, from the guides' authors and the corrections readers send in. The general rules — the conversion prompt, shoulder season, the airport taxi — are in budget travel tips.
CartagenaColombiaA walled Caribbean city in permanent colour
MedellínColombiaEternal spring, cable cars up the hillsides, and a city that reinvented itself
Santa MartaColombiaWhere the Sierra Nevada falls into the Caribbean, an hour from the jungle
BogotáColombiaA capital at 2,600 metres, with a mountain at the end of every street