Cycling and taking the cable car in Bogota

Nature
The wow factor for nature - does it show nature at its best? Doesn't need to be the wildebeest migration or diving with hundreds of hammerheads. Rather make you pause as you realise just how awesome the natural world can be
2
Culture
How much does this experience showcase some of the better and finer things that us humans can offer? Sure, it can be ancient ruins and renaissance churches, but it can also be festivals or soaking up some of the great modern cities of the world
6
Fun factor/activity
Very simple - was it fun? This is usually linked in with doing some kind of activity - i mean, walking along some cliffs is nice, but paragliding from them, now that is fun. Its a vastly underrated factor in a truly great experience
7
Avoid the crowds
Big tour groups and being surrounded by loud fellow tourists can sap the life out of even the greatest of travel experiences. This score is to reflect just how much you can avoid this. But. . . The score also takes into account if the crowds actually add to the experience, such as with a party town or a bustling local market
5
World famous
How world famous is the experience?
4
unique
How hard is it to have a similar experience in other places round the world?
4
Overall TE Score
The overall travel experiences score:  fun factor + avoid the crowds + (best of nature or culture) + (best of world famous or unique). Then convert into a score out of 100
55 *What the scores mean and where do they come from
RANKING
How this travel experience ranks compared to all the other experiences on this site, based on the travel experience (te) score
347th/460
Top 80%
continent
South America
country
Colombia
Length of time
1 day or less
Typical daily price
This gives you a rough idea of the daily price based on 2 people travelling where they can split costs like accommodation. It excludes travel there and back, and factors in inflation the numbers in brackets show the price range for the full time of the experience (so not necessarily daily). It is a range to reflect different budget vs higher end
$80 (typically $40 - $120)
Time of year visited
March
Primary Tags
Click on any of the tags to see all travel experiences with the same tag
Big city Cable cars Cycling
All Tags
Altitude Cool neighbourhoods Market Museums Skyscrapers Street Art
Wow Factor
Two scores: first is the wow factor which ranges from ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ to ⭐️, and a separate category for the truly "gash". The second is the more analytical travel experience score, which considers 6 varied criteria to give an overall score out of 100.
⭐

Summary

I wasn’t the biggest fan of Bogota – there are better places to spend your time in Colombia and we never really felt 100% safe there – but if you are there for a couple of days I recommend the half day cycling tour and to head up on the cable car to Monserrate.

There’s also some decent restaurants worth checking out La Candelaria and the Museo del Oro (Gold Museum).

Highlights

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#1 Cycling around the city and checking out the graffiti covering wide areas of downtown Bogota

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#2 Playing Tejo with a few beers and that awesome sense of satisfaction when the gunpowder goes off

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#3 Riding the cable car up to Monserrate for great views across the city

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#4 Checking out the restaurants and bars in the cute and very studenty area of La Candelaria

Itinerary

  • Start the morning with the Bogota Bike Tours.  You’ll spend the next few 4 hours or so cycling around the city checking out the markets, the red light district, the coffee factories and the bizarre throwing game of Tejo
  • In the afternoon head up the cablecar to Monserrate for views all across the city
  • If still have the energy, head to the Museo del Oro (the Gold Museum) before heading back to La Candelaria for dinner

Travel Tips

Booking a bike tour – you can book Bogota Bikes at super last minute and from any of the hotels or hostels.  Its around USD20, lasts around 4 hours and is a great way to check out some key parts of the city.

The game of Tejo is good fun – you chuck metal discs at the board hoping to hit one the targets and get a rewarding gunpowder bang.  Best played with beers! and will be included as a stop on the bikes.

Safety – I don’t know what it was, but we never felt completely safe in Bogota, although La Candelaria district is packed with police and students from the university so felt safer there.  Standard tips apply – keep your wits about you and try not to draw unnecessary attention to yourself.   To be fair though we found the atmosphere changed when we checked out areas outside of the main tourists spots, such as Chapinero.

Accommodation – we stayed at the Fernweh Photography Hostel in the centre of La Candelaria and would very much recommend it, although try to avoid the rooms next to reception as they can get a little loud with people arriving late / leaving early.

Two restaurants were really worth checking out:

  • Capital Cocina y Cafe in La Candelaria
  • Cantina y Punto – Mexican food in the Chapinero, a more leafy suburb to see a different side of Bogota

Book recommendations for the Colombia context:

  • One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is the traditional must read literature.  At times it can be a little slow going, but it created its own genre (magic realism . . . obviously) and very much tells the story in a round about way of many of the difficulties faced by Colombia
  • To give a perspective of just what it must have been like for the American civilisations before the Spanish arrived, I highly recommend 1491 by Charles Mann.  It will change your view from what is likely to be that of basic jungle tribes / Indians hunting the buffalo on the plains to what they really were – in many ways equally sophisticated civilisations to those of Eurasia
  • For a broad, often quite opinionated, overview of modern South America, I also recommend Viva South America Oliver Balch

Broader Colombia – for how Bogota can fit into a bigger 3 week trip to see the highlights of Colombia, see 3 weeks in Colombia for itinerary and tips

What to prioritise in Colombia

Colombia has some real wow experiences.  For a first time visitor it can be a little overwhelming as to what to prioritise and simply because the country takes such a long times to travel around. See the 3 week itinerary for Colombia for how to do this, but if time is restricted the below is how I would think about priorities and how Tayrona National Park fits in:

 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Hiking the Lost City Trek
A challenging multi-day trek through dense Colombian jungle, but rewarded by insane mountain views and majestic levels of remote ruins of Ciudad Perdida. Adventure and isolation and a mega wow. Hiking the Lost City Trek.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Salento and the Valley de Cocora 
Mountainous coffee country with picture-perfect colourful hilltop towns and a wonderful walk through a valley with the world’s tallest palm trees. Walking the Valley de Cocora, visiting the humming birds and soaking up Salento.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Cartegena
One of the best old towns in all of Latin America with incredible bar and restaurant scene.  Crowds take the shine off a little but still a country highlight. Soaking up the Cartagena Old Town.

 

⭐️⭐️ Medellin
The street art, the changing neighbourhoods, the museums, the great bar and restaurant scene – all worth seeing, but the highlight is the cable cars.  Not just over the differing neighbourhoods clinging precariously to the steep sides, but also up over the city valley sides and into the lush green forests where the city is completely forgotten.  Couple of days in Medellin riding the cable cars.

⭐️⭐️ Tayrona National Park 
Small flat walks through jungle and boulders to find stunning beaches.  We found the the chilled out beach hotels just the the east end of the park so nice we extended by 4 nights. Tayrona National Park and staying in a bit of paradise nearby

 

⭐️ The Guatape Lakes 
Nice day trip to take from Medellin – views from the top of the 220m (720 feet) tall La Piedra are amazing and the walk around the colourful town of Guatape is nice.  But I’d challenge a lot I’ve read about this being a “must see”.  Guatape Lakes outside of Medellin.

⭐️ Bogota 
I wasn’t the biggest fan of Bogota – there are better places to spend your time and we never really felt 100% safe. High chance though you’ll fly in and so do a half day cycling tour, play Tejo and to head up on the cable car to Monserrate.

Which travel experiences to prioritise in Colombia

Colombia has some real wow experiences.  For a first time visitor this is how I would look at them as options:

 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Hiking the Lost City Trek 
xx See 3 days relaxing and diving by the beautiful Lake Atitlan for tips.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Helicopter trip to El Mirador
Tikal is wow, but El Mirador takes it to a different level. Pre-classical Mayan so far older than Tikal or Chichen Itza.  The most massive pyramid complex in the world. Still being excavated.  There is a multi-day trek to get there, or you could take the helicopter. Mega wow.  Helicopter trip to El Mirador in the heart of the Guatemalan jungle.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Semuc Champney
The Cahabon River bumps its way along a series of limestone mini bridges and caves to produce a little bit of jungle paradise.  Bright greens of the jungle mixed in with the whites of the mountain clouds and the turquoise blues of the water make Semuc Champey one of the most beautiful spots in the country. Semuc Champey all to yourself.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Tikal
The traditionally premier Mayan site in Central America.  Giant monuments spread amongst a vast complex cleared in the middle of the jungle make this a must if you have any interest in Mayan or pre-Colombian civilizations.  Being in the jungle also offers an array of wildlife where you can often see monkeys, agoutis and a variety of tropical birds. Mayan ruins of Tikal.

 

⭐️⭐️ Antigua  
The former Spanish colonial capital of Guatemala from 1543 to 1776, so  steeped in tradition – traditions they work hard to maintain through, for example, not allowing modern day commercial branding to deface the facades of the beautiful. Great history, great vibe and volcano to explore nearby.  Soaking up Antigua.

 

⭐️ Flores
Flores is on an island on Lake Petén Itzá, linked by a causeway to the town of Santa Elena. Nice setting and pretty old but this is really the entry point for the Mayan ruins and hub for in / out of Guatemala.

GASH – Guatemala City
Busy, commercialised, slightly dangerous at night.  Fly in and out, don’t spend time there.

 

For context, this site is designed to show the most wow experiences around the world.  There are only 6 countries in the world with more 4 / 5 star wow factor experiences than Guatemala (Italy, USA, China, France, Australia, Argentina).  To do so as such a small country is staggering.

Experiences nearby

Wow Factor Score Two scores: first is the wow factor which ranges from ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ to ⭐️, and a separate category for the truly "gash". The second is the more analytical travel experience score, which considers 6 varied criteria to give an overall score out of 100. LowHigh
  • Elite, unmissable
  • World-class, downsides
  • Meets the Wow Factor
  • Worth it
  • Meh
  • Gash

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Score Detail

The scores above are the real point of this site.

Over 20+ years and 100+ countries, I’ve tried to rank the world’s best travel experiences - from genuinely mind-blowing ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to the properly gash.

Every one of the 500+ places on this site has both a Wow Factor rating and a more analytical Travel Experience (TE) score based on the things that actually make travel memorable.

If you're curious about the thinking behind it, head to the About page.

Otherwise, explore the map above or on the Home page and see which places truly deliver maximum wow.

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