Safe Family Travel in Colombia
Travelling alone or in a family with kids can be daunting - Colombia doesn’t have the best reputation! So here are my tips to keep you safe while you travel in this beautiful place, and hopefully to reassure you that Colombia is very much a changed country - your usual level of vigilance in busy unknown cities should hopefully see you through!
El Eje Cafetero in Colombia
Airport Transfers
It’s helpful to prebook an airport taxi or transfer which we did through Viator. The immediate culture shock upon arrival into Colombia is the harassment from the local taxi drivers! It’s not safe to get into a cab unless it’s from the taxi line outside the airport, an Uber/Didi ride or a pre-booked transfer. We did a mix of each of these on our trip and found the pre-booked transfers to be the best option!
Uber: great for inner-city small trips, but chaos trying to find them at the airport! Uber however is ‘illegal’ in Colombia, so it’s not clear how you would be protected if something goes wrong, but for this reason the Uber drivers want you to ride up front with them so that it doesn’t look suspicious…
Taxi: a really cheap option, and again, good for short trips, but unfortunately the ‘taxi drivers’ are harassing you as soon as you enter the luggage claim hall. This put us off for the remainder of the trip.
Transfers: personalised pick up, slightly more expensive, but worth it for the safety of a professional driver (driving in Colombia is another culture shock!)
Domestic Travel
By far the easiest way to get around is by aeroplane. Colombia is serviced by a number of Airlines, however be aware of budget airlines like Wingo. 0/10 DO NOT RECOMMEND!! Unfortunately we were completely scammed by Wingo - we were charged for a check-in service at the desk, as no online check-in option was provided beforehand, and were charged additional money for hand baggage which was included in our reservation. The airline claimed that there was a difference between ‘hand baggage’ and ‘cabin baggage’. You are far better off using a reputable airline like Avianca or Iberia, which both service domestic flights in Colombia.
Street Vendors
Particularly in Cartagena, the street vendors in Colombia are pretty persistent! Never purchase an island trip from the vendors - you want to make sure you pre-book as many things as possible and simply say ‘no gracias’ over and over to the many, many people offering you something to buy on the roadside. Quite often the deals are simply too good to be true.
Whilst there’s no issue buying a piece of jewellery or a sombrero on the roadside, you don’t want to be purchasing an island boat tour without checking out the credentials of the people running the tour. We pre-booked our tour with Viator again because you can look at the reviews and have all of the information in advance in case of any issues!
I’ll post a separate blog about our Cartagena trip, but the island tour plus plankton swim that we booked here through Viator was incredible! You have to do this experience if you’re travelling to Colombia.
I hope you’ve found these tips helpful! What do you want to hear about from our Colombia trip next?
