16 days minus Villa de Leyva?

Thorn Tree forumCountry forumsSouth AmericaColombia
Enter custom title (optional)
This topic is locked
Last reply was
41
…
Send as an e-mail
Send as an e-mail
MooglesX99
MooglesX99

Hello,

I've read other itineraries for similar amounts of time in Colombia.

It'll be my first time in South America. Given that I'll most likely be very impressed by so many things anyway (including other smaller towns like Guatape and Jardin) I'm wondering if I could skip Villa de Leyva (and Barichara) so as to spend more time elsewhere.

At the moment the plan is to spend the first two days in Bogotá then fly to Cartagena. Maybe 3 days tops if I do a day trip to the islands. PNN Tayrona doesn't appeal - I'm just not a beach / palm trees / tropical jungle kinda guy. But Cartagena I absolutely want to visit; a day trip to one of the islands just because I might as well while I'm up there.

After that I'm looking at spending the rest of my time in Medellín (maybe 3/4 nights) and Zona Cafetera.

(I may well have time to return to Bogotá and then go to Villa de Leyva for a night but didn't want to do this at the beginning as I want to allow myself ample time to relax and enjoy Zona Cafetera as a priority.)

Any thoughts would be most appreciated. Is not going to Villa de Leyva going to be one of my death bed regrets?!

(I'm going in the last half of September.)

Thanks :)

Morgan

View last reply
Report
1
mvbergen
mvbergen

You must have around six months to be able to see all the country then with sixteen days, you need to choose which places you want to discover.
There is no good or bad choice. Your itinerary will be fine.
You can easily skip Villa de Leyva and/or Barichara.
Have a nice trip.

Michel

Copy and paste the url below to share the link.
Permalink to this post
Report
2
mstep
mstep

Definitely skip visiting Barichara. the transport time to get there is too much. Personally I would rather visit Villa de Levya than Jardin, and the transport time from Bogota to VDL is shorter than the bus ride time from Medellin to Jardin. Either town can be done just with an overnight stay, but not by daytrip. Guatape can be done by daytrip, or so can Santa Fe de Antioquia, from Medellin.

Copy and paste the url below to share the link.
Permalink to this post
Report
3
MooglesX99
MooglesX99
In response to #2

Thank you for your suggestions :)

Copy and paste the url below to share the link.
Permalink to this post
Report
4
MooglesX99
MooglesX99
In response to #1

Thank you Michel.

Copy and paste the url below to share the link.
Permalink to this post
Report
5
alanymarce
alanymarce

Villa de Leyva is now accessible in a day. The autopista has been upgraded a lot, and several previous bottlenecks are now by-passed. You can get a day trip from Portal del Norte for around COP 60,000. I would suggest making it an overnight stop, however, since the evening is worth it.

Personally I would trade one of your nights in Medellín for a night in Villa de Leyva.

Alanymarce
www.unochoenafrica.blogspot.com
www.alanymarcemoreexploration.blogspot.com
www.suramericacontraelreloj.blogspot.com
Copy and paste the url below to share the link.
Permalink to this post
Report
6
Thorn Tree

This topic has been automatically locked due to inactivity. Email community@lonelyplanet.com if you would like to add to this topic and we'll unlock it for you.

This topic has been locked by a moderator.

Pro tip
Lonely Planet
trusted partner