This year I moved from Irvine to Chicago for grad school, and for the first time experienced a winter with temperatures in the teens and twenties below freezing, along with days that had less than 10 hours of daylight (and you still barely see the sun even during the day). So on a whim, I decided to spend a few days in South America. After looking around, it seemed like every option was either at war or dealing with internal unrest, so I ultimately chose Colombia. To be honest, I only started planning and booking flights and hotels 6 days before departure, but overall I was pretty satisfied with how the trip turned out.

This post mainly covers basic information. I’ll write a separate trip report later, but this article should be a useful reference for anyone planning a trip to Colombia.

Basic Information

Language

I have to put this first. I’ve been in the U.S. for so long that, before this trip, other than traveling within the U.S. and mainland China, I had only really visited Hong Kong and Japan. In Hong Kong, Mandarin and English were fine; in Japan, English plus my terrible Japanese got me by. So I was genuinely not prepared for the fact that immigration officers and airport staff in the capital of a country would basically not speak English.

Spanish is the main language in Colombia (pretty much the only one). English is not very useful. At hotels in the capital, Bogota, the front desk staff should generally speak it, but at our hotel in Medellin, the front desk staff did not speak English at all. So if you don’t speak Spanish, I recommend preparing a translation app ahead of time, such as Google Translate. In our actual experience, communication was still manageable, but we mainly translated between English and Spanish. I’m not very sure how accurate Chinese-to-Spanish translation would be. Given the training data available, I recommend translating between English and Spanish for better accuracy.

Mobile Service

Note that there is currently no 5G coverage anywhere in Colombia. In Bogota and Medellin, 4G coverage is still quite good, but in some remote areas you may only get 3G, or even no service at all. I recommend downloading offline maps and offline translation ahead of time.

Safety

Most people have probably heard something about safety in Colombia, given its reputation as a source of drugs in the Americas. But after years of improvement, most parts of Bogota and Medellin are fairly safe now. That said, I strongly do not recommend that women travel alone. There were two of us on this trip, and I recommend having at least one travel companion.

Pay special attention to Zona T in Bogota and El Poblado in Medellin. When our driver passed through these two areas, he warned us that they were unsafe. In Medellin’s Plaza Rojas Pinilla, we even saw street-level drug dealing in broad daylight. Avoid going to these two areas, and if you have to pass through them, keep your doors and windows closed. Also, do not wear obviously expensive accessories such as bracelets, necklaces, earrings, or rings.

Emergency Number

The police emergency number is 123. As for the embassy phone number, just refer to the text message you receive after arrival.

Payments

Credit Cards

You can use Visa / Master at the vast majority of places. AMEX is a bit less widely accepted, but generally still not a problem. I didn’t personally try Discover on this trip, but anywhere that accepts Discover should also accept UnionPay, since they have a partnership. If the cashier doesn’t understand, just ask them to run it through the Discover network and swipe your UnionPay card directly. Apple Pay also works fine. Most POS terminals support Tap, so Apple Pay is usable in most places.

Currency and Tipping

Colombia’s currency is the Colombian peso (COP), usually just called the peso. If you’re able to exchange some before leaving China, it’s worth bringing a little with you. If you’re departing from the U.S., I recommend carrying a Charles Schwab or Fidelity debit card. Both let you withdraw cash directly from overseas ATMs, and the daily equivalent limit of $1,000 is more than enough. Realistically, if you’re carrying that much cash in this country, you’re already ahead of 99% of people. ATM fees are also reimbursed, so there’s no need to worry.

Lodging and Food

Lodging

Hotels generally do not provide complimentary disposable amenities. Toothbrushes, toothpaste, shower caps, and similar items are usually extra. Soap, shampoo, and body wash are provided. At the two hotels we stayed at, even disposable slippers were unavailable, not just paid extras.

Power

U.S.-style outlets, 110V, so there’s nothing to worry about here.

Water

Although the water in Bogota is theoretically safe to drink from the tap, I don’t recommend it. It’s very hard. Bottled water is cheap: in the city it usually costs around 2000 - 4000 COP（3 - 5 CNY）, and even at the airport, where the price is roughly doubled, it’s still acceptable.

Food

I found the food here pretty easy to get used to. Rice is the main staple, usually served with pork, chicken, beef, seafood, and so on. Lamb is relatively uncommon. Prices are similar to eating out in mainland China, and much cheaper than in the U.S.

Nature and Climate

Climate

Bogota, the capital, sits on a high plateau at an elevation of about 2600m. If you’ve had altitude sickness before, it’s worth being a little careful: don’t run around, and don’t wash your hair on the first night. Since it’s below 3000 meters, though, most people probably won’t have much to worry about. Because of the elevation, temperatures are not very high even though it’s not extremely far from the equator. When we visited in December, temperatures were around 10-15 degrees, but the sun was very strong, so I recommend bringing sunglasses and sunscreen.

Although Medellin’s airport is also up in the mountains at an elevation similar to downtown Bogota, the city itself sits in the middle of a basin at around 1500m, with temperatures around 25 degrees. It can still feel pretty hot at noon.

Mosquitoes

There are mosquitoes. If you plan to go into the mountains or rainforest, remember to get the Yellow Fever vaccine. You can get it for free at Bogota airport.

Entry

If you hold a mainland Chinese passport, you can enter visa-free with a valid U.S. visa or Schengen visa (a Canadian visa does not work). At check-in and immigration, you’ll need to show a return ticket, and at entry you’ll also need to provide a hotel reservation for your address of stay. Fill out the Check-Mig form online 72 hours in advance, although in our case nobody actually asked to see the QR code. The immigration website is very poorly designed.

We waited in line for an hour on arrival, and departure was about the same.

Getting Around

Rideshare

Just use Uber. Link your credit card and pay in the app so you don’t have to deal with cash or trouble finding the driver, and Uber is also safer. You can also use the international version of DiDi, but I personally do not recommend it. When I used DiDi, I was charged extra after arriving, which has never happened to me with Uber. In practice, prices between the two are not that different anyway. Most rides cost around 10,000 - 20,000 COP, which is about 2 - 5 U.S. dollars（15 - 35 RMB）. Wait times are usually around 5 - 15 minutes.

Flights

We took a round-trip domestic flight between Bogota and Medellin. Security screening for domestic flights was very relaxed. IDs are checked at boarding, and you can use a mobile boarding pass.

Reference Link

[1]https://apps.migracioncolombia.gov.co/pre-registro/en

About the Author

This post is reposted from reader ZL Asica’s WeChat public account. If you like it, you can follow her blog or WeChat account.