Colombia Travel Costs

Is Colombia expensive to travel? We backpacked Colombia for under $40 a day.

Colombia isn’t the cheapest country to travel in South America, but it’s very reasonable for a backpacker. We consider ourselves mid-range backpackers these days — you’ll still see us on public buses with our backpacks strapped to us, but we don’t stay in dorm rooms anymore. We’ll opt for the best reviewed Airbnbs, hostels, but that doesn’t always mean spending a fortune. You won’t see us in the Hilton or any restaurant marked ‘$$$’ but we’re not queuing up at the street food carts either.

In this Colombia travel costs post, we share our travel budget for our 2-month trip around Colombia and how you can travel well on a budget.

Daily Travel Costs in Colombia

Daily Travel Budget in Colombia: $37.73

Monthly Travel Budget in Colombia: $1131

We spent $1131 per month each when travelling in Colombia. That works out at around $37.73 per day. Our travel figures don’t include flights, and we travelled independently and not with a tour company.

Our travel style is mid-range backpacker, so won’t scrimp and scrape over an extra few dollars at dinner and we’ll stay in the ’boutique’ hostel rather than the most basic accommodation. Can it be done cheaper? If you’re on a tight budget, it would be possible to backpack Colombia on $30 per day and have an enjoyable trip.

Is Colombia Expensive to Travel?

Overall, we found Colombia to be a reasonably priced destination. It’s not as cheap as Guatemala or Nicaragua, but it is cheaper than travelling in neighbouring Ecuador and some other South American countries. If you’re travelling from the USA or Europe, then the cost of living in Colombia is low enough that you’ll be able to backpack comfortably on your budget.

We travelled all around Colombia, starting in Medellin. We made our way up to Cartagena, Santa Marta and Tayrona National Park before flying down to Bogota. From Bogota, we took a round-trip up to Villa de Leyva and El Cocuy. We crossed through Colombia’s middle to Salento and the Cocora Valley then made our way south to Cali and Popayan. Finally we stopped over in Pasto before crossing the Colombia/Ecuador border.

It’s certainly the case that some areas of Colombia are more expensive than others. Cartagena and Villa de Leyva in particular were more expensive, which is unsurprising as Cartagena is a popular holiday destination for American tourists and Villa de Leyva is a well-known weekend getaway for Colombians living in Bogota. In contrast, Popayan and Pasto were much cheaper.

Colombia’s Currency

Colombia’s currency is the Colombia peso (COP). When we travelled to Colombia in October-December 2019, the exchange rate was COP $3243.71 to $1 USD.

Average Costs in Colombia

Here’s a breakdown of the average cost of items in Colombia:

Accommodation Costs in Colombia

The cost of accommodation in Colombia varies quite significantly by location and accommodation type. Your Colombia trip cost will vary greatly depending on the type of accommodation you choose.

Our average accommodation cost per night was COP 131,370 / $40.50. We mostly stayed in private Airbnb apartments and looked for the nicer apartments in safer neighbourhoods at the best value. We generally found any apartments marked as ‘luxury’ were not-so-good and we fared much better when looking for more mid-range options.

Budget backpackers can find a private double room for as little as COP 44,460 / $13.71 (what we paid to stay at Coffee Break Hostel in Popayan) and dorm rooms for even cheaper. Our most expensive stay was COP 230,000 / $70 per night at the very nice Coffee Tree Boutique Hostel in Salento (I swear, picking hostels with ‘coffee’ in the name isn’t intentional!)

Our best accommodation in Colombia was a beautiful 2-bed Airbnb apartment in the historic centre of Cartagena for COP 215,051 / $66 per night. This Airbnb was firmly in the mid-range category and included a swimming pool and an optional housekeeper. It was absolutely wonderful.

Not used Airbnb before? Get $48 off your first stay.

How To Find the Best Accommodation Deals in Colombia

We used both Booking.com and Airbnb to find accommodation in Colombia. Personally we feel that Booking.com is the better option for travel accommodation in Colombia.

This is because in Colombia it’s illegal to rent out your apartment or house for less than 30 days. Airbnbs are much more restricted as it’s necessary for anyone wanting to rent to get a permit for short term renting. This means many Airbnbs are actually run by rental companies or illegally listed by their owners. It also means there’s just much less choice than in other countries.

We did use Airbnb successfully a few times in Colombia, particularly for the apartment we rented in the historic centre of Cartagena and a lovely apartment in Villa de Leyva just a few blocks from the main square. However, you may need to spend more time searching to find the best accommodation on Airbnb. If you do book one of these, don’t forget to use our link for $48 off your first stay.

Activities Costs in Colombia

There’s a lot of fun to be had in Colombia! But of course activities can drastically affect your total costs of travelling in Colombia.

Most cities in Colombia offer free walking tours where you can learn about the city’s history from a local guide. Though the tours are free, it’s recommended that you tip the guide at the end. We particularly enjoyed the free walking tour in Medellin.

Paragliding in Colombia is a top activity for many travellers and is an absolute steal at only COP 130,000 / $40 per person for a 15-minute flight. Compare that to other countries like New Zealand and you’re paying a third of the price for the experience.

National Parks are another big draw of Colombia and the cost to enter and hike in the National Parks does vary. Hiking in Cocora Valley, Salento was the cheapest of our hikes as there’s public transport available and only a token fee. In comparison, hiking in Tayrona National Park has a higher entrance fee of $17 because of its national park status. El Cocuy National Park was the most expensive place to hike at $60 per person because it’s much more difficult to reach (you need to take private transport) and you are required to have a guide due to the delicacy of the national park’s ecosystem.

Here are some of our favourite activities in Colombia and their associated costs per person:

A note on Pablo Escobar activities: Colombians consider tourism around Pablo Escobar to be very insensitive and our advice would be to avoid it. Whilst stories of the drug trade and Escobar may be glamourised on Netflix, the horrendous reality of the war in Colombia and the effects of Escobar’s reign are very real, horrifying experiences lived through by many Colombians.

Transport Costs in Colombia

Buses

Colombian cities and towns are all connected by a bus system. The buses are generally very frequent, but they rarely run on time or arrive on time and they’re not luxury standard. Regional buses tend to cost $5+ for short journeys of a few hours. Longer 8-12 hour journeys between major cities like Bogota, Cali, Medellin, and Cartagena can be $40+.

Taxis

For local transport around cities, it’s generally recommended that you take a taxi for safety reasons (especially in Bogota and Cali) with the exception of Medellin which has a great metro and cable car system ($1 per journey). City taxis in Colombia are cheap and we didn’t have any problems with taxi drivers trying to rip us off (unusual in Latin America!) Taxis are metered and you an expect an average journey to cost around $2-$6.

Domestic Flights

Internal flights in Colombia tend to be quite reasonable, but it’s not unusual for there to be additional hidden fees. We paid a shocking additional COP 60,000 ($18.50) per person in fees for a Viva Air flight to have our boarding pass printed and due to a bag that was 2cm oversized.

Avianca, Viva Air, and Copa Airlines are the airlines operating within Colombia and they also fly to other countries in South America and including the USA. Economy tickets for flights between major cities within Colombia can often be purchased at short notice for a reasonable price. We booked our internal flight from Santa Marta to Bogota just a few days before. However, it’s cheaper to book in advance.

We always use Skyscanner to find the cheapest flights and got a great deal when we did. Tip! Make sure to search by ‘full month’ to find the cheapest day to travel.

Here are some sample prices:

• Bogota (BOG) to Medellin (any): $16
• Bogota (BOG) to Cartagena (CTG): $28
• Cartagena (CTG) to Medellin (any): $31

International Flights

Avianca is the main international airline operating flights to and from Colombia. Viva Air, and Copa Airlines, other airlines fly international routes to and from Colombia, including JetBlue and Spirit Air. Again, we used Skyscanner to check prices and book our flights with Avianca from London to Bogota.

We also compared prices from Spanish airports, as another traveller tipped us off that sometimes flights are cheaper between the Spanish-speaking countries, although we didn’t find this on our flight search.

Here are some sample flight prices:

• London UK (any) to Bogota (BOG): £288
• New York (any) to Bogota (BOG): $72
• Miami (MIA) to Bogota (BOG): $126

Cost of Eating Out in Colombia

Eating out in Colombia can be extremely cheap if you’re eating local Colombian food. An empanada from a street seller or tienda is usually just COP 1600 / $0.50. They’re tasty and filling, but Colombian empandas are usually deep-fried so you can only eat so many! If you’re in Popayan, don’t forget to try their local speciality of empanadas de pipian (empanadas stuffed with potatoes and served with peanut sauce). Another typical Colombian street food that’s also cheap is arepas, corn pockets usually stuffed with cheese or meat.

Full meals for lunch and dinner tend to cost COP 10,000 – 30,000 for typical Colombian food in a lower to mid-range place. Typical lunch plates (menu del dia) are the best deal as you’ll get a full set meal consisting of soup, main plate and a juice for a fixed price.

For a nicer Colombian restaurant or foreign food, you can expect to pay closer to COP 24,000 – 36,000 per person for your meal. We paid this, for example, to eat ramen in Bogota and Korean food in Villa de Leyva.

There are some very high-end, luxury restaurants in Bogota as well but we didn’t go to one. I hear the prices can be very high but that the dishes unfortunately aren’t anything to write home about.

If you’re a bit of a foodie, check out this this social project cooking class in Medellin, this Bogota food tour or this Cartagena tapas tour.

Empanadas de pipian

Cost of Alcohol in Colombia

We’re not exactly party people, but we tried a few different beers and bars out in Colombia. Prices are generally reasonable if you’re drinking Colombian beer. Expect to pay a fair bit extra for craft beers and wine.

Local Colombian beers include Club Colombia, Poker and Aguila, and generally cost COP 3,000 – 5000 ($1-$1.50). They’re all fairly acceptable lagers. For a nicer Colombian beer, go for Bogota Beer Company (BBC) beers instead. They brew different types of beer including light, dark and a honey beer. Expect to pay a little more like COP 7000 ($2).

ATMs in Colombia

Most ATMs in Colombia accept international debit and credit cards. We used our Starling cards whilst travelling in Colombia as they don’t charge additional withdrawal fees at the bank’s end. The maximum withdrawal is generally between COP 300,000 – 720,000, depending on the ATM you use. It’s best to use Banco Popular and Banco de Bogota as they have lower fees of COP 10,500 and allow you to withdraw up to COP 600,000.

Important tip! Colombian ATMs offer you the choice to withdraw money in Colombian pesos or your home currency. Always opt to withdraw in Colombian pesos, as you will get a much better exchange rate.

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