Hi everyone,
i'm new to this blog so am saying howdy to all and am hoping to get some good advice from all you seasoned travellers. I'm planning on spending a month in South America in mid-September but can't decide between Ecuador and Colombia. I've heard good things about both but just wondered which is best for diversity, people, atmosphere, safety, scenery - basically everything !! I'd like to travel around a bit, maybe do a bit of volunteering in a children's home or orphanage for a few weeks and will be going with my boyfriend (we live in the UK). Is Colombia easy to travel around ? Is it safe ? Does it feel safe moving around ? Is Ecuador do-able in a few weeks ? I'm keen to hear from people who might be there now or who are based in Ecuador/Colombia...
Muchas gracias,
Chilli
Reply to this Hey, well I have been driving arround Colombia and now is much safe to travel in this country, also there are a lot of beautiful places to meet, nice people, parties, culture, and diferent natural scenes also many diferent wheater...
I have been in Ecuador also, but its much smallest than Colombia but its nice too.
but would be interesting for you to get an eye in the new Colombia, and its many cities to meet as Bogota, Cartagena, Medellin, Cali, and many others...
any advice let me know mi email
Reply to this Difficult choice. I spent a month in each country earlier this year and enjoyed both very much. If you like hiking and mountain climbing I think Ecuador is better (though there is an excellent 6 day trek to a lost city in Colombia), while Colombia has great colonial towns like Villa de Leyva or Barichara, a beautiful city in Cartagena, and fewer tourists as many people think it´s unsafe (which it´s not).
Both are easy to travel around and both seemed very safe to us, though a lot of people warned us about Quito in particular.
Reply to this thanks to you both for your responses. I think I'm veering towards Colombia at the moment as it sounds a bit more 'undiscovered' than Ecuador. The British foreign office currently has some scary warnings about not using buses/coaches to get to and from cities in Colombia and is advising everyone to travel by plane - which is why I was a bit unsure about going. I wish I could travel to both countries by sadly I have neither the time nor budget to do both.
Reply to this Caroline,
I think the British FCO website is slightly paranoid about Colombia. For example, when we were in Colombia, they warned against all but essential travel to Ciudad Perdida. However, this is one of the safest places for travellers as there are so many army people stationed in the area.
We travelled almost all the way from top to bottom of Colombia by bus and had no problems. The only part we flew was from Pasto to Bogota and that was to avoid a long 20 hour bus trip. Enjoy your trip.
Reply to this thanks barry, are there any good places for trekking or mountain biking in Colombia ? Also did you go to the islands of San Andres or Providencia ?
Reply to this The best known trek is the 6 day hike to Ciudad Perdida, you have to go with a guide and it costs about 200 to 250 dollars. I've a blog on this trek if you need more details, but I would highly recommend it.
A good day hike if you are in the area is from Barichara to Guane along an old colonial road. It's only 11 km round trip so you can do it in a few hours. San Gil is a good base for this area (I'd also recommend paragliding in San Gil), there's a very friendly hostel called Macondo run by an Aussie guy.
Also, there is supposed to be great hiking in Cocuy National Park (I think that's the name) near Venezuela border but we didn't make it out here. I don't know of any mountain biking trips.
Reply to this does anyone know whether it's cheaper to buy internal flights in Colombia or get an airpass or tickets from here in the UK ? I've been quoted around £390 for an Avianca pass which seems a bit expensive. The places that I'd like to travel to are Armenia, Medellin, Cartegena and then back to Bogota (spending around 4-5 days at each place).
Thanks,
Caroline
Reply to this Flights in Colombia are quite expensive. The one flight we took, from Pasto to Bogota, was 160 USD. Not sure how many flights your air pass covers but it does sound quite expensive to me. You could easily cover those places by bus and save a ton of money.
Reply to this places that we want to go to are armenia, medellin and cartegena - was the pasto to bogota flight one way or return ?
Reply to this that's one way, about an hour's flight. I'd expect the other places you mention cost similar. look for Aires airline, they are generally cheaper than Avianca.
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