Colombia travel guide: when to go, budget and itineraries

The capital sprawls at 2,600 metres on a high Andean plateau. The historic core of La Candelaria, the Gold Museum and the Botero collection can be seen on foot in a day, with the cable-car ride up Monserrate for the view. Allow three nights to acclimatise to the altitude before hiking elsewhere. An hour to the north, the Zipaquira salt cathedral is carved into a former mine. On Sundays the ciclovia closes the main avenues to cars and the city is best explored by bike. From Bogota, Peru is a three-hour flight away to continue toward Cusco.

Long avoided, Medellin is now a common stop thanks to its metro and metrocables serving the hillside neighbourhoods. Comuna 13, with its outdoor escalators and murals, is best visited on a morning guided tour. El Poblado concentrates restaurants and nightlife. Two hours away by road, the town of Guatape and the El Penol rock, climbed via 740 steps, make the classic day trip. The climate stays mild year-round, around 22 degrees, hence the nickname city of eternal spring.

The Armenia, Pereira and Manizales triangle, a UNESCO coffee cultural landscape, is reached by domestic flight from Bogota then shuttle. Salento is the base for the five-hour hike in the Cocora Valley, among wax palms taller than 50 metres. A farm visit with picking and tasting takes half a day. Filandia, less busy than Salento, has the same colourful colonial streets. Plan three nights here to avoid rushing.

Cartagena de Indias lines up behind its 16th-century walls a colonial centre of balconied houses and the bohemian Getsemani district. Visit the Castillo San Felipe early before the heat. From the port, a day by boat reaches the Rosario Islands or the beaches of Baru. The city is the most expensive in the country for lodging, especially from December to March and during Holy Week. Barranquilla, two hours east, only really comes alive for its Carnival in February.

East of Santa Marta, the Sierra Nevada drops straight into the Caribbean. Tayrona National Park protects jungle-backed beaches such as Cabo San Juan, reached after a two-hour walk from the El Zaino entrance; the park closes several weeks a year for ecological recovery. The Lost City trek, a 9th-century Teyuna site, needs four to five days round trip with a compulsory guide. Minca, at 650 metres, has a cooler climate and good birdwatching.

Cali is the salsa capital: dance schools offer classes by the hour and the clubs of Juanchito stay open late. From Buenaventura or Nuqui, mostly reached by air, the Pacific coast of Choco offers humpback whale watching from July to October. To the south, Leticia is the gateway to the Colombian Amazon, on the river at the border with Brazil and Peru; it is only reachable by flight from Bogota.