Top 25 attractions in Colombia

Snow-white beach­es washed by the Atlantic and Pacif­ic oceans, noisy car­ni­vals, trop­i­cal veg­e­ta­tion — these are not all the sights of Colom­bia.

Who travels to Colombia and why

Colom­bian muse­ums present a vari­ety of col­lec­tions that tell about the wealth and cul­ture of this coun­try. They will be inter­est­ing to inquis­i­tive per­sons and fam­i­lies with chil­dren.

The archi­tec­ture of megac­i­ties and small towns in the hin­ter­land will intro­duce tourists to the South Amer­i­can fla­vor. It will be espe­cial­ly appre­ci­at­ed by roman­tics and fans of con­tem­pla­tive relax­ation.

The nat­ur­al parks of Colom­bia are a mag­i­cal world of col­ors inhab­it­ed by exot­ic crea­tures. Unfor­get­table impres­sions and col­or­ful pho­tos are pro­vid­ed to you.

Natural attractions and parks

Sierra Macarena

Locat­ed about 150 km from Bogo­ta, the Sier­ra Macare­na reserve is con­sid­ered the largest in Colom­bia. Its ter­ri­to­ry exceeds 1 mil­lion hectares. Most of it is cov­ered by moun­tains, which are home to hun­dreds of species of birds, ani­mals and insects.

The flo­ra of the park is not infe­ri­or in diver­si­ty to the fau­na. More than 50 species of orchids grow here, many plants are endem­ic. They are found only here and nowhere else in the world.

The pearl of the park is the “crys­tal” riv­er Caño Cristales. Peri­od­i­cal­ly, it changes its col­or, like a chameleon. The phe­nom­e­non is explained by the pres­ence of mul­ti-col­ored microor­gan­isms and algae in the water.

Los Nevados

The nation­al park is locat­ed in the heart of the rocky Andes. On an area of ​​about 60 thou­sand hectares there are bizarre forests, moun­tains, dor­mant vol­ca­noes and deep lakes of glacial ori­gin. The most vis­it­ed place in the park is the Enchant­ed Lagoon.

For tourists, sev­er­al walk­ing and car routes have been devel­oped. Those who plan to stay in Los Neva­dos are invit­ed to stay in one of the guest hous­es with min­i­mal ameni­ties and max­i­mum immer­sion in the charm of nature.

Tayrona National Park

The nat­ur­al pearl of Colom­bia is locat­ed on the Caribbean coast. It occu­pies an area of ​​about 12 thou­sand hectares, where impen­e­tra­ble jun­gles, pic­turesque coral reefs, blue lagoons and sandy beach­es await you.

The park is home to over 100 bird species and 300 ani­mal species, and its ichthy­ofau­na is con­sid­ered one of the rich­est in the world. The local waters are home to over 100 species of fish and shell­fish.

There are prac­ti­cal­ly no ben­e­fits of civ­i­liza­tion here. The main means of trans­porta­tion is a bicy­cle and legs. Lodg­ing for the night — an open-air ham­mock or a bun­ga­low with­out ameni­ties.

Las Hermosas

One of the most pic­turesque places in the Colom­bian Andes has become a nation­al park. This is the king­dom of the jun­gle, lakes, rivers and water­falls. Among the local flo­ra and fau­na, there are many endemics, such as spec­ta­cled bears and cougars.

Wax palms and cedars are rare spec­i­mens found exclu­sive­ly in moun­tain­ous areas. You can admire the beau­ty of the local nature by trav­el­ing along one of the many routes of vary­ing degrees of dif­fi­cul­ty.

Los Katios

The nation­al park stretch­es along the Atra­to Riv­er on the bor­der with Pana­ma. This place will appeal to those who want to see nature in its pris­tine beau­ty. There has nev­er been con­struc­tion or agri­cul­tur­al work in the park.

Trees are gigan­tic giants sev­er­al thou­sand years old. Lakes are a water kalei­do­scope (although their inhab­i­tants are not always friend­ly). It is in this part of Colom­bia that a quar­ter of all birds in the coun­try live. Los Katios is famous for its cot­ton trees, the fruits of which are used to make sus­tain­able fab­rics.

Rock of El Peñon de Guatape

A giant with almost smooth slopes is locat­ed between the set­tle­ments of Guat­ape and El Peñol. They gave him such a beau­ti­ful long name. The height of the rock is about 220 m, about two thirds of the colos­sus, like a land ice­berg, is hid­den under­ground.

The age of the rock is 70 mil­lion years. To climb to its top, you will have to over­come 644 con­crete steps. The peak is crowned with a bench for rest and a stat­ue of the Vir­gin Mary.

Tekendama waterfall

Locat­ed 35 km from the Colom­bian cap­i­tal on the Bogo­ta Riv­er, Tek­endama Falls is rec­og­nized as one of the most pic­turesque in the coun­try. Water rush­es down from a height of 140 m. The gorge nar­rows sharply at the place of the cliff, mak­ing the fran­tic stream lit­er­al­ly roar. But in Decem­ber, the riverbed dries up, and the water­fall changes its usu­al loca­tion.

Religious sites and architecture

Church of Las Lajas

Part of this Goth­ic-style cathe­dral is erect­ed on a high bridge, the oth­er rests on a moun­tain. Due to this loca­tion, it seems that the build­ing is float­ing in the air. The effect is enhanced by the dec­o­ra­tive ele­ments of the facade, sharp spiers, lancet win­dows and numer­ous arch­es.

The main shrine of the tem­ple is the image of the Vir­gin Mary with the baby Jesus, which mirac­u­lous­ly appeared on a rock about 250 years ago. It is believed that the face of the Moth­er of God heals any dis­ease. This is con­firmed by hun­dreds of clay tablets with thanks­giv­ing on the rock near the church.

Salt Cathedral of Zipaquira

The Catholic Cathe­dral is locat­ed in a salt mine under­ground, where not a sin­gle ray of light pen­e­trates. All rooms are carved into the rock. Salt crys­tals on the walls shim­mer like pre­cious stones in the rays of col­ored illu­mi­na­tion. Inside, the tem­per­a­ture is always con­stant — about +20 ° C. At the same time, the church is active, and ser­vices are held in it on Sun­days.

The unusu­al cathe­dral is part of the Parc de la Sal nature reserve, which also includes a muse­um of min­er­al­o­gy and nat­ur­al resources, a cin­e­ma and a gift shop.

Fortress of San Felipe de Barajas

Locat­ed in the sub­urbs of Carta­ge­na, this fortress is con­sid­ered the prop­er­ty of Colom­bia. The fort with pow­er­ful and almost sheer walls stands on the hill of Lazar, from where the sur­round­ings are clear­ly vis­i­ble.

Start­ing from the moment of con­struc­tion in the 16th cen­tu­ry and up to the begin­ning of the 19th cen­tu­ry, the for­ti­fi­ca­tion suc­cess­ful­ly repelled attacks. Today, cul­tur­al events and recon­struc­tions of his­tor­i­cal events from the glo­ri­ous past of Colom­bia are held on the ter­ri­to­ry of the fortress.

Cathedral

The Cathe­dral of the Immac­u­late Con­cep­tion of the Vir­gin Mary stands on the cen­tral square of Bogo­ta, Palace Boli­var, the most vis­it­ed church in the cap­i­tal. The build­ing, built in the 16th cen­tu­ry, was destroyed by an earth­quake, and its recon­struc­tion dragged on for almost 2 cen­turies. Now the cathe­dral in the clas­si­cal style is replete with columns, por­ti­cos and domes. But inside it — a min­i­mum of decor and mod­est dec­o­ra­tion.

National Capitol Building

The build­ing in the clas­si­cal style with 8 columns stands on Boli­var Square, in Bogotá. This is the home of Con­gress, where the most impor­tant laws that deter­mine the life of the coun­try are passed. The famous artist and sculp­tor San­ti­a­go Mar­tinez Del­ga­do worked on its inte­ri­or dec­o­ra­tion.

Nunnery Convento de la Popa

The monastery is locat­ed on a hill about 150 m high. This is the high­est point of Carta­ge­na, offer­ing stun­ning views of the sur­round­ings. Built on the site of a wood­en chapel, the 16th-cen­tu­ry build­ing attracts tourists with colo­nial Span­ish-style archi­tec­ture, the image of the Vir­gin Mary on a carved altar gen­er­ous­ly cov­ered with gold, and a shady gar­den in the court­yard.

Botero Square

This square in Medellin is named after the most famous Colom­bian artist, Fer­nan­do Botero. It has 23 bronze sculp­tures that he donat­ed to the city. The fig­ures, frozen in strange pos­es, are very unusu­al and attract atten­tion. There are always a lot of tourists on the square who want to take beau­ti­ful pho­tos.

Cathedral of San Pedro Claver

The main cathe­dral of Carta­ge­na was built in 1575, but after 10 years it was destroyed and loot­ed by pirates led by Fran­cis Drake. The church was restored only in the ear­ly 1600s and was giv­en the name of a Span­ish mis­sion­ary priest, whose remains are still kept in the chapel at the cathe­dral.

In the inte­ri­or dec­o­ra­tion, a carved altar with gild­ing deserves spe­cial atten­tion. It is believed to have been made by African slaves whom Clav­era con­vert­ed to Catholi­cism.

Historical sights and places of interest

San Agustin

On the banks of the Mag­dale­na Riv­er, between the east­ern and cen­tral Cordillera, an impor­tant archae­o­log­i­cal find was made. In the jun­gle, sci­en­tists have dis­cov­ered more than 500 stone fig­ures depict­ing gods, rulers and myth­i­cal ani­mals. Pre­sum­ably the stat­ues were made in the VI BC. The area of ​​“habi­tat” of ancient idols was declared an archae­o­log­i­cal reserve.

bare feet park

An unusu­al park with a speak­ing name is locat­ed in Medellin and is ful­ly con­sis­tent with the East­ern phi­los­o­phy of Zen.

The ter­ri­to­ry is divid­ed into 3 zones that can only be vis­it­ed by tak­ing off your shoes:

• The Air Zone is a beau­ti­ful gar­den with a cyclic labyrinth of paths for walk­ing and reflec­tion.
• The land area is notable for its rock gar­den and is pop­u­lar with lovers of con­tem­pla­tive relax­ation.
• The water zone is small pools, foun­tains and water­falls.

Tierradentro

The name of this archae­o­log­i­cal reserve is trans­lat­ed as “land with­in”. There are crypts and buri­als here — some are avail­able for inspec­tion by tourists. Bur­ial cham­bers are locat­ed at a depth of 5–8 m.

The walls are dec­o­rat­ed with images of spir­its and orna­ments, and the ceil­ing in the cat­a­combs is sup­port­ed by mas­sive columns. Near the entrance to the park is a muse­um where arti­facts found in the tombs are kept. These are house­hold and reli­gious items, as well as ancient ceram­ics.

Botanical Garden

The gar­den with the long name José Celesti­no Mutiz is one of the tourist attrac­tions of the cap­i­tal. The park was found­ed at the end of the 18th cen­tu­ry. Since then, it has grown notice­ably, and its col­lec­tion of flo­ra has replen­ished with many new types of veg­e­ta­tion.

Now there are more than 800 of them on the ter­ri­to­ry of 8 hectares. Long alleys invite you to an excit­ing walk, bench­es offer rest in the shade, and small foun­tains and stat­ues com­plete the land­scape.

Ciudad Perdida

The ancient Indi­an city is lost in the moun­tains of the Sier­ra Neva­da de San­ta Mar­ta. Pre­sum­ably, it arose in 800 BC, and 8 thou­sand peo­ple lived in it. It was a major reli­gious and cul­tur­al cen­ter of the Tyrone Indi­ans.

When the Spaniards invad­ed Colom­bia, the city fell into dis­re­pair and was swal­lowed up by the jun­gle. It was redis­cov­ered in the 70s of the last cen­tu­ry. Of par­tic­u­lar inter­est here are the main square and the tem­ple, but to get there, you have to over­come 1200 steps.

coffee park

This the­mat­ic reserve appeared in 1995 thanks to the Colom­bian asso­ci­a­tion of cof­fee pro­duc­ers. The park is one of the most vis­it­ed. There are many attrac­tions, swings and carousels. On open-air venues, sev­er­al times a day, excit­ing per­for­mances based on nation­al leg­ends are giv­en. Col­or­ful pro­ces­sions and parades are not infe­ri­or in scope to the famous car­ni­vals.

The cof­fee muse­um, locat­ed here, tells about the stages of pro­duc­tion of a pop­u­lar drink. Inter­ac­tive stands always have a lot of chil­dren. And the end­less cof­fee plan­ta­tions are part of the land­scape. The park even has its own mini-rail­way with an 18-meter clock tow­er. It is equipped with an obser­va­tion deck that allows you to see the panora­ma of the area.

Museums

Simon Bolivar Museum

The house in which the great rev­o­lu­tion­ary leader lived was turned into a muse­um by the Colom­bian author­i­ties. In a small one-sto­ry build­ing with a spa­cious patio, Bolí­var’s per­son­al belong­ings, doc­u­ments, books and clothes are stored. It will be of inter­est to those who are inter­est­ed in the his­to­ry of Latin Amer­i­ca and the per­son­al­i­ty of the gen­er­al who fought for the inde­pen­dence of the Span­ish colonies.

Museo del Oro (Museum of Gold)

The rich­est muse­um in Colom­bia con­tains almost 500,000 pieces of jew­el­ry. Most of them belong to the pre-Columbian era. These are jew­el­ry, rit­u­al masks, fig­urines and house­hold items. A sep­a­rate expo­si­tion is devot­ed to ancient weapons from all over the world.

Emerald Museum in Bogotá

It is in Colom­bia that almost all nat­ur­al emer­alds are mined and processed. The appear­ance in the cap­i­tal of a muse­um ded­i­cat­ed to this pre­cious stone was nat­ur­al.

There are three expo­si­tions in a pri­vate insti­tu­tion:

• The rarest col­lec­tion of emer­alds is exhib­it­ed in the first hall, where the most beau­ti­ful and expen­sive stone weighs 265 carats.
• The sec­ond room is a trad­ing floor.
• A nar­row tun­nel leads to the third sec­tion of the muse­um, where you can learn a lot about the min­ing and cut­ting of emer­alds.

Modern Art Museum

The muse­um, opened in 1974 in Bar­ran­quil­la, quick­ly became famous. It hous­es the rich­est col­lec­tion of con­tem­po­rary art. These are paint­ings, sculp­tures and instal­la­tions by Latin Amer­i­can authors.

Among them are the works of rec­og­nized grandees Car­los Rojas, Enrique Grau and Luis Caballero. In addi­tion to per­ma­nent exhi­bi­tions, tem­po­rary exhi­bi­tions are also held here, where you can get acquaint­ed with new names in the art world.