Colombia Route Suggestions

[Scrabblebiker]

Hi all,

I'm off to Medellin, Colombia where I will be renting a Kawasaki Versys 300 for 6 days.

So far I know for sure that I'm picking it up in Medellin and dropping it off in Bogota near the airport.

I'm hoping someone could share their experiences and suggest some stellar routes, paved or not; things to see and do; places to stay, etc.

Any suggestions for the route between Bogota and Bucaramanga would also be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
...Michelle

[Trautfel]

If you go from Bogota to Bucaramanga I would suggest you plan your route so you can visit Raquira and Villa de Leyva. It's a bit of a detour but worth it if you have the time. And then closer to Bucaramanga you should visit Barichara.

I'm based in Bogota so will gladly help with any questions you might have.

Best regards

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

[Steve Travels]

Scrabblebiker,
If you send me a private message or email, I can offer some routes and destinations to make your trip far more interesting than the main routes.
I’m in Colombia now, and have previously logged a few months here.
Steve

[Scrabblebiker]

Just returned from my trip yesterday.

Colombia is mind blowing.

Quick impressions:

Drivers are definitely loco at times but much, much, much better than Mexico, Dominican Republic, and parts of Central America. Most car drivers are actually quite docile which makes the crazies seem even crazier. Moto drivers, well they're latin moto drivers. I felt right at home on the moto and quickly got used to being swarmed by motos when driving a car as well.

The people are by and large very friendly, polite and helpful. Police was very professional. English is rarely spoken outside of areas such as Cartagena (even there it's not common) and Colombian Spanish was hard to understand for me.

It's a latin country so there is a bit of a noise issue but again nothing compared to Mexico, Caribbean Islands and Central America.

Smoking was the greatest pleasant surprise of the entire trip. Colombia has a substantially lower smoking rate than Canada and is on par with British Columbia where we have the lowest rate in Canada. I was struck by how few Colombians I saw smoking. Smoking is basically banned anywhere indoors and it seems to be adhered to where I went. The worst instances of smoke infected areas I came across was were foreigners hung out and most of the smoking was perpetrated by said foreigners.

There is such variety of landscapes and weather in Colombia that it's hard to define. Everything from hot, humid and jungly to "let's put on a jacket" type of weather.

Estimated travel times on Google Maps are reasonably accurate (on a motorcycle) unless there are road work stoppages (quite frequent) or other events happening. Yes, when it says 2.5 hours to cover 109Km on a main highway, believe it. In a car, unless you drive like the faster type of Colombian, add about 50% to the estimated time.

There are tolls pretty much everywhere on main roads and they're not exactly cheap. But motos are exempt. Don't confuse these toll roads with the Mexican Cuotas. Mexican Cuotas are very fast and modern roads to bypass the slower "libres". Colombia toll roads are mostly just basic and bumpy two lane, truck infested roads where they decided to erect a bunch of toll booths for extra revenue.

Never once did anyone try to "rip me off" or short change me. If I gave them too much money in a tired stupor, they'd just hand me back the excess and then hand me the correct change. Gas station attendants generally made a point of asking me to look at the pump to make sure it was at zero before starting to pump.

Cost of good but basic hotel rooms in the smaller towns was around COP 50,000 for one person (CAD $20) with one "Convention Centre" room costing me COP 100,000. There are cheaper rooms available as well but I don't work my butt off at home so I can be in some dungeon when I travel :-)

Loved it and would love to some day return.

...Michelle

[South America Voyager]

@ Scrabblebiker in post #4 above. I live in Medellin Colombia and travel extensively throughout all of Colombia and Ecuador in my car, last month just returned from a one month road and boat trip of the complete Caribbean coast of Colombia with 3,260km put on the car.

Just want to thank you for your well written and detailed review of your trip through Colombia, every detail is spot on.

I am originally from Huntington Beach, California but love my life here in Colombia. I sold my bike 2 years ago and now travel exclusively in my personal car, some of my road trips have been epic and mind blowing, what I see and experience continues to inspire me to explore more, and more, and more.

Thanks!

[tohellnback]

+1 on Colombia 56000 km since 2018 and IT is WOW or WTF
I dont pay for tolls or get stuck behind trucks on mountain roads
Any where is 12hours away from Bucaramanga
I could never imagine myself in a car unless it was a Subaru WRX Turbo
Felix Viajes

[Mugsey]

Have a look at the zona cafetera:

Medellin - Jericho - Jardín - Salento - Los Navedos national park

I did this route as a loop starting & ending in Medellin & took 7 days…..but you could easily head across to Bogota for the last leg

Great pueblos, fantastic scenery & some epic roads

When route planning a good rule of thumb is that you will travel at an AVERAGE of 50 km/h…..sounds way slow but those mountain roads are curvy as hell

Also…check out this website for some interesting itineraries:

https://www.colombiamotoadventures.c...otorcycle-tour

Safe trip

[Alanymarce]

Key question - what are your interests? Suggestions will be very different depending on these - if it's colonial architecture then you'll different suggestions from those for nature reserves, and so on...

[markharf]

OP asked the question (#1) in January 2020, returned home and wrote a very fine trip report (#4) in February 2020.