Colombia in-depth holiday, 24 days

Planet

CARBON REDUCTION

Using a slow travel approach, this itinerary encourages guests to spend longer discovering each destination rather than moving rapidly between locations. Over the course of more than three weeks, guests spend at least 2–3 nights in almost every destination, helping to reduce transport frequency, minimise repeated check-in logistics, and encourage deeper engagement with local communities and culture.

The route has been carefully designed to move logically northward through Colombia, avoiding unnecessary backtracking and reducing domestic flights wherever possible. Several journeys are completed overland, allowing for a more gradual and lower-impact way of experiencing the country.

To fully experience each destination, the itinerary prioritises low-impact activities such as walking tours, food experiences, cultural encounters, coffee farm visits, and Indigenous cultural exchanges, all of which are inherently lower-carbon forms of tourism compared with heavily motorised or infrastructure-intensive activities.

Most of the hotels included are small-scale, locally integrated properties that typically operate with lower energy demands than large-scale resorts, while also ensuring tourism spending remains more closely connected to local economies and communities.


ENVIRONMENT AND WILDLIFE

Our partners in Colombia prioritise environmental protection and biodiversity conservation through a range of responsible tourism practices, including reducing resource consumption, improving waste management, and supporting low-impact travel experiences. Guests are provided with a refillable water bottle on arrival to help minimise single-use plastic waste throughout the journey, and the hotels included in this itinerary are all taking positive steps to reduce ecological pressures within their local environments.

Prior to departure, guests receive detailed pre-departure information specific to Colombia, offering practical guidance on how small individual actions can positively contribute to environmental protection. This includes recommendations such as staying on marked trails to prevent erosion and habitat damage, using reef-safe sunscreen to reduce chemical pollution in marine ecosystems, respecting wildlife by maintaining a safe distance and never feeding animals, and conserving water and energy wherever possible.

These responsible travel principles are reinforced throughout the trip by our local partners and guides, helping guests engage more thoughtfully with Colombia’s diverse natural environments while supporting the long-term protection of its ecosystems and wildlife.

People

LOCAL ECONOMY
Most of the hotels included in this itinerary are independently or locally owned boutique properties, helping ensure that tourism revenue remains within Colombia and more directly supports local employment, regional suppliers, and surrounding communities.

Several of the properties operate on a small-scale hospitality model that prioritises local identity and community integration over large international chain structures. For example, Hotel Casa Terra in Villa de Leyva is a family-run and operated hotel, while Terrazul Barichara is an independent eco-boutique property rooted in the local culture and landscape of Barichara.

In Medellín, Patio del Mundo is independently owned and built around restored residential homes, supporting a more locally integrated style of urban tourism. Terasú Hotel Salento is a locally operated boutique hotel closely connected to the Coffee Region’s rural tourism economy rather than a major international brand.

Villa María Tayrona, a Kali Hotel also operates within a smaller Colombian boutique-hospitality model, helping support regional employment and lower-density tourism near Tayrona National Park. Meanwhile, Hotel San Pedro de Majagua is Colombian-owned and locally operated within the Rosario Islands tourism economy, contributing to local jobs and island-based services.

By choosing smaller-scale accommodation providers throughout the journey, this itinerary helps distribute tourism benefits more widely across Colombia’s regional economies while encouraging more meaningful connections between visitors and local communities.

Throughout the itinerary, we prioritise working with local guides and community-based experiences that allow guests to gain a deeper understanding of the destinations they visit through the people who know them best. Experiences are designed to create authentic cultural exchange while supporting local livelihoods and small businesses.

From visiting Paloquemao Market in Bogotá and taking part in an immersive Chicha and Beer tasting experience that supports local agricultural producers, to exploring artisan workshops in Barichara and visiting coffee farms in the Coffee Region, the itinerary actively seeks to maximise local economic opportunities across Colombia’s diverse regions. By encouraging immersive, locally led experiences, guests contribute directly to the preservation of traditional knowledge, crafts, food culture, and regional identity.


EMPLOYMENT, INCLUSIVITY AND DIVERSITY

With the help of our partners in Colombia, every itinerary showcases Colombian Heritage. People are at the heart of all of our itineraries. In each location, city and region, you will have the chance to interact with locals. Colombia is one of the most prevalent examples of this in all of Latin America. For example, until as recently as 2002, areas of Medellin were no-go zones. They had civil war with paramilitaries, prolific crime rates, some of the highest in the world, and there were little opportunities for locals. When visiting Comuna 13 on our transformational tour, you’ll meet guides as young as 30 who remember those times and can talk about their experience, whether they knew people, or are related to those involved. Now their stories are of hope, change, prosperity and a future.

Similarly in the coffee region, jobs have been created for farmers who can now harvest coffee, bananas, beans and cacao, where 25 years ago, the drug trade was the only reliable source of income. Colombia is a country of transformation and growth, and we want to share this with our guests.