Once a byword for danger and social collapse, Colombia has made incredible strides in recent years to regenerate itself. Travelling through Bogotá, the Amazon rainforest, Medellin and Cartagena, you’ll visit inspiring organisations that are reshaping Colombia’s future and giving communities and ecosystems new hope.
Colombia has two dry seasons, the main being December to March with a shorter period coinciding with the northern hemisphere summer. Temperature is more a matter of altitude than latitude, with year-round springlike temperatures in the Andes and sweltering heat in the lowlands.
Price depends on the experiences and accommodation included, and your time of travel. It is based on two adults travelling for 12 nights and does not include international flights.
2 nights Bogotá, 4 nights Amazon Rainforest, 3 nights Medellin, 3 nights Cartagena
What makes this Colombia journey special?
- Explore Bogotá’s markets, museums and historic streets with private guides before sharing regional dishes and conversation in a local home.
- Stay beside the Amazon River at Calanoa Jungle Lodge and help support the biological and cultural diversity of the Colombian Amazon.
- Discover Medellin through its Afro-Colombian musicians and community initiatives, exploring how creativity and shared spaces are helping reshape the city.
- Meet the artists of El Colegio del Cuerpo in Cartagena and experience contemporary dance as a means of expression, inclusion and opportunity.
- Snorkel with community eco-guides in the Rosario Islands, learning about coral restoration through an excursion that includes conservation and community contributions.
Your Colombia impact itinerary:
Arrival in the Andes
Day 1: Bogotá
Colombia’s bustling, cosmopolitan capital sits nearly 9,000 feet above sea level in the Andes and makes a fabulous introduction to Colombia. With Bogotá’s smartest address, the Four Seasons Casa Medina, as your base, we’ll furnish you with top private guides and vehicles to make the most of your time in the city.
A capital looking forward
Day 2: Bogotá
Start with an early morning visit to Paloquemao Market, where the air is thick with the scent of fresh-cut blossoms and tables groan under the weight of exotic fruits. Then embark on a guided walking tour of historic La Candelaria, whose cobblestone streets and plazas are rich in politics, history and street art. Explore the dazzling Gold Museum and the delightfully oversized sculptures of the Botero Museum before concluding your stay with a dinner hosted in the home of a Bogotá local, sharing stories, authentic regional dishes and laughter as you learn about modern Colombian life.
For a closer understanding of the capital’s social challenges, we can also arrange time with the Bogotá Food Bank or the Catalina Muñoz Foundation. Conversations with their teams explore how surplus food can reach people who need it and how access to dignified housing can change a family’s future. These visits can be woven into a tailored stay, allowing time for meaningful discussion alongside the city’s cultural highlights.
Welcome to the jungle
Days 3-4: Amazon Rainforest
Flying to Leticia near the border with Peru and Brazil you’ll enter the Amazon, where thick rainforest meets the glass-like waters of the Amazon River. Your stay here is at Calanoa Jungle Lodge, an architectural masterpiece of sustainable local wood offering panoramic river views, where days are spent reconnecting with nature and sharing in the wisdom of indigenous communities.
Begin your adventure the moment the sun dips, venturing into the rainforest with torches on a night walk, listening to the intense, symphonic chorus of nocturnal insects and looking for hidden tree frogs. Begin the following day spending time with the indigenous Tikuna community, gaining insight into a way of life that’s been in balance with the Amazon for several millennia. Follow this with a hike through the Calanoa Reserve, keeping your eyes peeled for monkeys in the trees overhead, before returning to the lodge by way of wooden canoe (water levels permitting).
Supporting life along the river
Days 5-6: Amazon Rainforest
The next two days offer wonderful opportunities not simply for wildlife viewing, but also to support the Calanoa Foundation, which aids indigenous communities in protecting their cultural heritage and rainforest home through conservation, education, art and sustainable tourism.
Spend a morning exploring Mocagua Village and its colourful murals, painted directly onto the houses of the Tikuna community. Learn how the foundation supported the painting of the murals – which depict Amazonian wildlife and indigenous traditions – as a way of strengthening cultural identity, raising awareness of conservation and drawing visitors to the community.
Take to the water in search of the Amazon’s famous pink-river dolphins. Enjoy an early morning boat ride to watch hundreds of vibrant macaws take flight against a waking Amazonian sky. Go in search of sloths on Cacoa Island, passing lakes dotted with giant water lilies. And learn about the foundation’s wider priorities, from research, conservation and reforestation to the preservation of ancestral wisdom and funding higher education for indigenous students.
Colombian blend
Days 7-8: Medellin
Return by boat to Leticia and fly to Medellin via Bogotá, settling into Elcielo Hotel in the El Poblado neighbourhood.
Medellin radiates an irresistible, resilient energy. Known as the City of Eternal Spring, it is blessed with a perfect, breezy climate and lush green mountain walls that seem to spill right into the urban valley below. More than this, however, Medellin stands as Colombia’s leading example of urban regeneration and transformation, having thrown off its association with Pablo Escobar and reshaped its identity through bold investment in public spaces, connectivity, culture and community.
It’s also the gateway to the coffee-growing heartland of Antioquia, where the mountain town of Fredonia has been at the centre of Colombia’s coffee culture for more than a century. Begin your stay with a visit to a coffee farm, breathing in the rich, earthy aromas of roasting beans before sipping a flawlessly brewed cup right at the source. A traditional lunch completes the experience, with the opportunity to learn how the farm composts coffee pulp and protects the water sources that sustain its crops.
A city transformed
Day 9: Medellin
Today you’ll get real insight into the social transformation the city has been through. Start by visiting a group of young and energetic Afro Flow musicians whose distinctive beats and rhythms are reaching global audiences. It’s a great example of how music and dance have become powerful tools for building community, developing talent and creating alternatives to violence for a new generation.
Then continue your enquiry into Medellin’s transformation on a social innovation tour, visiting some of the comunas (districts) that have witnessed the most dramatic change – meeting the locals, riding the escalators and cable cars and taking in the music and vibrant street art. We can also tailor visits to your particular interests, arranging for you to meet the people behind specific grassroots projects, such as a rooftop hydroponic garden that benefits single mothers, or Mi Barrio Mi Sueño, a community project empowering women and girls through a range of fascinating initiatives, including boxing, jewellery making and art classes. We can even arrange for you to join a local club for a game of football in Comuna 13, once one of Medellín’s most violent areas but now the standard bearer for its remarkable renaissance.
Colour, culture and contemporary dance
Days 10-11: Cartagena
Fly from Medellin to Cartagena and transfer to Casa San Agustin, an award-winning boutique hotel in the heart of the walled city, featuring authentic Colombian décor, a refreshing pool courtyard and live music from Wednesday to Sunday.
Exploring Cartagena is like stepping into a sun-drenched, magical-realist painting. This tropical Caribbean jewel is wrapped in massive stone fortifications, protecting a maze of colonial mansions painted in bright pinks, yellows and blues, all draped in cascading bougainvillea.
Building on the social transformation you witnessed in Medellin, we’ve included a stirring, private dance performance by El Colegio del Cuerpo, a pioneering organisation that uses contemporary dance and the arts to empower young people, nurture talent and promote inclusivity. A contribution to the project is included in your visit.
Making waves
Days 12-13: Rosario Islands
End your positive-impact journey by private speedboat, zipping across turquoise waters to the Rosario Islands. Guided by local eco-guardians, you’ll snorkel over protected coral nurseries, seeing firsthand how tiny fragments of coral are being replanted to revive the marine ecosystem. The day closes with a fresh, catch-of-the-day lunch at a lively beach club on Baru Island before cruising back to the city. Transfer to the airport the following morning in time to catch your flight home.
Where you'll stay
Great journeys need great places to lay your head. These are our tried and tested suggestions.
Four Seasons Hotel Casa Medina, Bogotá
Located in Bogotá’s upscale Zona G district within easy reach of the city’s cultural attractions, the Four Seasons Casa Medina Bogotá offers luxury and timeless charm in a beautifully restored 1940s building. Combining classic Colombian architecture with modern elegance, Casa Medina features rich wood accents, exposed brick and contemporary art. Rooms are designed for comfort, with plush furnishings and top-tier amenities. Savour gourmet dining with a blend of local and international flavours, and enjoy stunning wellness facilities.
Calanoa Jungle Lodge, Amazon
Surrounded by towering trees and a symphony of exotic birds, Calanoa Jungle Lodge is a masterclass in understated Amazonian luxury. Its minimalist, stilt-mounted cabins are beautifully crafted palm-thatched wall-less structures wrapped in fine mosquito netting that perfectly frame panoramic views of the Colombian Amazon. Spend your time getting to know the rainforest’s cultural and natural diversity, visiting community art projects and local schools, before coming back to enjoy candlelit dinners featuring locally sourced, creative fusion cuisine on hand-painted ceramics.
Elcielo Hotel, Medellin
Occupying an arresting modern structure topped by a roof garden overlooking the regeneration marvel that is Medellin, Elcielo Hotel is the city’s top address. Its interiors are equally dramatic, oriented around a verdant atrium garden, while the 28 ultra-contemporary and tasteful suites are havens of calm. As befits a hotel owned by a Michelin-starred restaurateur, Elcielo’s eponymous in-house restaurant serves everything from a very fine hotel breakfast to an extravagant 17-course tasting menu. The atmosphere is calm and refined while the staff are friendly and always ready to go the extra mile to ensure your comfort.
Casa San Agustin, Cartagena
Spread across three houses in Cartagena’s walled Old Town, all centred round a peaceful palm-fringed courtyard and swimming pool, Casa San Agustin is a boutique urban retreat that lovingly pays tribute to the city’s colonial past. Renaissance-era oil paintings, stone floors and four-poster beds are as intrinsic to your stay as the Frette linens and artisanal Italian bath products. Some of the loveliest spots to relax are in the breezy indoor-outdoor public spaces, fitted out with divans where you can while away the hottest hours. At night, the hotel’s chic bar and eatery, Alma, serves craft cocktails as mouthwatering as its ceviches.
Learn about the impact of your luxury Colombia adventure
Our impact journeys are designed expressly for conservation- and community-minded clients who want their travels to have a positive impact on the people and places they visit.
Calanoa Foundation: By staying at Calanoa Jungle Lodge, you’re contributing to the work of the Calanoa Foundation, which uses tourism, art and education as tools for protecting both the Amazon rainforest and the cultures of the people who live within it. Your hosts can explain the full range of initiatives the foundation supports. Visits to individual projects may also be possible upon request.
Medellin: Visiting grassroots projects in Medellin helps perpetuate the cycle of social transformation that the city has been through. We offer the chance to meet the people behind a wide array of projects, from leaders in the Afro-Flow movement and initiatives championing single mothers to a Colombian-Dutch social worker helping women and children facing violence and discrimination.
Cartagena: Your visit to El Colegio del Cuerpo will help them continue to use dance as a force for social change, giving young people from vulnerable communities a creative outlet, professional opportunities and a renewed sense of identity and possibility.
Rosario Islands: Your trip to the Rosario Islands will support work being done by community eco-guides, the national park and partner organisations to help protect and restore coral reefs.
Further impact: For those wishing to explore further, the Bogotá Food Bank introduces the daily work of rescuing market produce and redirecting it to vulnerable city residents. While time with the Catalina Muñoz Foundation sheds light on the Bogotá NGO’s efforts to tackle housing inequality.
Looking for more inspiration?
We have a huge range of inspiring private experiences and accommodation options available. Get in touch with our Colombia specialists.
ENQUIRELearn more about our luxury holidays, or call our expert Latin America team on +44 1367 850566 / 1-855-216-5040 (toll free) to discuss how we can turn your dreams into something truly magical.
