santa marta colombia
This tourist destination city on the Northern Coast of Colombia is a great starting point for a number of great tourist attractions. It is home to a half million people and is the fourth largest city in the Caribbean aspect of Colombia. It is a great base for the trek to the Lost City, Parque Tayrona, Minca and to beautiful beaches. You may find yourself passing through this city on your way to these amazing sites or making it your base for exploration.
getting to santa marta
To Santa Marta via plane from Bogota time which is about a 90 minutes flight. You will fly intoYou will fly into Simón Bolívar International Airport (SMR) which is about 14 km south of Santa Marta. You can get to town via taxi or shuttle. Another option is to take an overnight bus that takes about 15 hours from Bogota. From Santa Marta to Cartagena a bus takes about 5-6 hours. Once in town getting around on foot is easy.
our santa marta story
Of all the things to do in Colombia, a thing I was most excited to do was to visit Tayrona National Park. The best way to get to this park is from the town of Santa Marta. The thing that I did not anticipate for was that the park was closed with very short notice for cleaning. We found this out only after we had arrived in Santa Marta. We had already booked a non-refundable flight and hotel and had planned to allow us a full day to explore the park. We knew that a majority of people go to the park and stay over but we were sure on time, so we anticipated taking full advantage of 1 day of hiking in the park. Let us just say I was beyond disappointed but as any seasoned traveler knows sometimes you have the make the best out of any situation. So, we set off to find out what else there was to do in this small coastal town in Colombia.
We learned that Santa Marta is a great base for many other tourist attractions and not only Tayrona. You can go on a multi-day (4-5 day) guided tract to the lost City of Teyuna which seems amazing; however, we just did not have the time to do this. The other option was to visit Minca which is about 1-hour drive away so we elected to do this. Minca is part of the Sierra Nevada mountain range and has jungle hikes and waterfalls.
Exploring minca
To get to Minca, you go to the Mercado Publico in the center of Santa Marta around Carrera 9 and Calle 12 and find a collectivo (aka a pick-up truck) that is heading to Minca. We paid and hopped in the back and in about one hour we were dropped off in the center of Minca.
We decided to do the hike to Pozo Azul where you can cliff jump off the waterfall. The hike is about 1 hour from town. After we did that we continued on and up to see if could get a nice viewpoint. We soon realized why the area is called a jungle and got stuck in a massive rainstorm. It was so heavy we put our cameras in a dry bag and were shin deep in muddy water as we descended back to the town.
So even though Minca was not on our initial itinerary and ended up being a wonderful place to visit. After looking into it more we realized there was hostel at the top of the mountain top with giant hammock that you could spend the night. If we had more time we would have definitely gone there.
Exploring santa marta
In town, we explored El Mercado, Parque de los Novios, Parque Simón Bolívar and the marina. The beaches are nothing to write home about and mostly covered with garbage. We heard that you could take a small boat ride over to Playa Blanca from El Rodadero which was nicer of a beach, but we did not get to check that out. We did enjoy some of the local places to eat to grab a drink.
next time in santa marta
I know we will be back to Santa Marta because Parque Tayrona is still on my must see list but now after going on know there are so many other places and things we could do with more time. Have you been to Santa Marta? Any top tips or things you have to do?
