Day 1 — A travel day (New York to Bogotá, Colombia)
We got on a very early morning flight to Bogotá which went by pretty quickly. Our immigration process was also speedy. We stayed at the NH Bogota Boheme Royal in Zona Rosa. This would be a good neighborhood to stay in if you want to be in a safe area that is located centrally to a lot of shopping malls and restaurants. It is a 30 minute uber to the historical downtown areas, but is pretty accessible overall. I liked our hotel and the breakfast every morning, however, the rooms were pretty noisy at night because it was located in such a central club-y area. That night, we got food at La Taqueria, which was pretty good and then headed back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep.
Day 2 —Bogotá, Colombia
This day was mostly spent exploring La Candeleria, the historic downtown area of Bogotà. We took a walking tour through Viator which brought us through the downtown area. I would highly recommend taking a tour through this area to learn more about Colombia’s history, churches and food. We got to try a couple of really interesting fruits. Colombia is home to so many different types of fruits and vegetables and I highly recommend checking out their local markets to try different produce.
After the tour, we headed to a fancier 7 course lunch at Prudencia in the Candeleria neighborhood. This was a pricier meal by Colombian standards, but was really good and felt very farm-to-table. This restaurant is a bit hidden and requires knocking on their door to get in.
Post-lunch, we walked around the downtown area a bit more and headed to the Botero Museum. This is a free museum that I also really recommend seeing. It is located in a beautiful building that hosts a lot of his art as well as other pieces by renowned artists like Picasso and Vermeer. After all of this walking, we were pretty tired and headed home to rest.
Note: Most of the time, we took an Uber to get to places in Bogotá. It is really cheap and safe to take Uber! We did organize a taxi to/from the airport which is a service our hotel offered.
Day 3 —Bogotá, Colombia
Lake Guatavita and Salt Cathedral day! This was a really long but fun day that took us a couple of hours outside the city. For this day, we had organized a taxi through whatsapp to take us to Lake Guatavita and the Salt Cathedral. There are tours that you can book that will take you to both these places, but we felt like a private taxi was more our speed.
First, we headed to Lake Guatavita, specifically the Laguna de Guatavita that is protected. The road to get there was a bit windy and rocky, but the entrance is pretty well marked. Here, you can take a guided Spanish tour throughout the lake where they teach you some interesting facts about how the lake was formed and the importance of it to the native people and later, the Spanish colonizers. This was a really easy and nice hike that set the scene for a lot of the stuff we would learn later on in the week at the Gold Museum.
For lunch, we stopped in the town of Guatavita at a restaurant called La Cava. The food here was really tasty, and I got to try a local smoked trout.
After the lake, we headed to the Cathedral de Sal, located an hour away in Zipaquira. This is a really neat cathedral located in a salt mine. You can do a guided tour in English that takes you through the cathedral. I’ve personally never seen anything like this cathedral. It’s a bit eerie but fascinating to see a place of worship so deep under the ground. After wrapping up the cathedral, we headed back to Bogotá to get some more sleep.
Day 4 —Bogotá, Colombia
Overall, this was my favorite day in Bogotá. We woke up semi early and head out to Montserrate, a church located on top of a mountain that overlooks the city. If there’s one thing you can do in Bogotá, it would be this (in my opinion). You can get up to the top of the mountain by either hiking, driving, cable car, or funicular. This day, the funicular was the only thing running, so we took it up. It’s honestly quite a fun experience because it is so steep and has a beautiful (but also scary) view of the city. Once you are at the top, you can see the entire city, as well as the church at the top. I recommend doing this trip earlier in the day because the views are generally more clear in the mornings because of the weather. It is also not recommended to do this at night because the area becomes a bit more unsafe.
Once we came back down, we explored the Plaza de Bolivar a little bit more. This was really nice and we were able to get some souvenirs as well. For lunch this day, we went to La Puerta Falsa, an iconic Colombian restaurant serving huge tamales, hot chocolate (with cheese!) and ajiaco (a very typical potato soup with chicken and corn). The food was tasty and very filling.
After lunch, we walked over to the Museo de Oro. This is a very well done museum with lots of information about Colombia’s complicated history with gold and the Spanish colonizers. There are guided English tours throughout the day as well as self guided tours. I was pretty tired after the museum and so we headed to Cafe San Alberto for a cup of coffee. This is a really pretty cafe located just outside the museum. I bought some coffee from here to take home :)
Day 5 —Bogotá, Colombia
This was the chillest of all the days. We woke up a bit later and headed to the Paloquemao Market. This is a huge fruit and veggie market that is really fun to walk through. There are so many different types of fruits that you can find here. If you have some extra time, this is a really fun place to hit up. After the fruit market, we headed to the botanical gardens, which were so beautiful. I liked being able to see all the plants and trees from which the fruits we had been eating all week came from. This is also a nice place to escape the sounds of the city.
For lunch, we headed to Crepes and Waffles. This is a cheescake factory-like chain in Colombia that is honestly really good. We got a sweet and savory crepe that was so filling and tasty. In the afternoon, we got our nails done and legs waxed (pro-tip if you want to get any sort of beauty things done, it is so much cheaper to do it in Colombia compared to New York!!!).
Day 6— A travel day (Bogotá, Colombia to New York)
We packed up, and headed back to New York on a nice afternoon flight!
Some reflections
I had a really wonderful time in Bogotá. It is such a massive city and beautiful city with lots to do. This trip made me want to see other parts of Colombia, specifically Medellin. I felt really safe in Bogotá, at least during the day and all the people were very friendly and welcoming. My favorite part of the entire visit was being able to eat so many different types of fruit. I tried so many different varieties of passionfruit and papayas. Every morning for breakfast, I tried a different type of juice. Colombia has such an abundant produce selection and the land is so beautiful. I hope to visit again soon and I hope this guide is helpful to anyone who is considering visiting.
