Colombia's Colonial Jewels & the Coffee Triangle
Overview
Highlights
- Explore Bogotá
- Discover Medellin
- Visit the Antioquia Museum at the Plaza de Botero in Medellín
- Visit the Cocora Valley
- Visit the massive cathedral on Plaza Bolívar
What's this trip about?
Details
Travel Themes
Destinations
Attractions
Activities
Trip includes
- All land transportation and internal flights
- Accommodations for 11 nights
- 24 meals—11 breakfasts, 7 lunches, and 6 dinners
- 19 small group activities
- Services of a resident, English-speaking OAT Trip Leader
- NEW: Gratuities for local guides, drivers, and luggage porters
- 5% Frequent Traveler Credit toward your next adventure—an average of $299
Itinerary
Accommodations: Hotel de la Opera or similar
Depart the U.S. today, arriving in Bogotá in the evening. An OAT representative will meet you at the airport and assist with the transfer to our hotel, where you'll join travelers who took the pre-trip extension to Bolivia: La Paz & Lake Titicaca. Dinner is on your own.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Accommodations: Hotel de la Opera or similar
This morning after breakfast, we begin our discovery of Bogotá. Originally a settlement known as Bacatá by the indigenous people who inhabited this area on the high plains of...
Meals: Breakfast
Accommodations: Hotel de la Opera or similar
After breakfast today, you can join our optional tour to the Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá in the mountains north of Bogotá, a fascinating religious site. En route, we visit Paloquemao, Bogotá's...
Meals: Breakfast and Lunch
Accommodations: Le Parc Hotel or similar
View Medellin from a metrocable
Our travel in Colombia continues with a flight from Bogotá to Medellin this morning. As we explore the city, we'll see how it is undergoing an econ...
Meals: Breakfast and Lunch
Accommodations: Le Parc Hotel or similar
This morning, we head for Guatape, a colorful village in the countryside outside of Medellin known for its socalos, beautifully crafted tiles that decorate houses and the town's church. ...
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Accommodations: Hacienda Castilla or similar
Explore a coffee plantation in Ecuador
After breakfast, we visit the Antioquia Museum at the Plaza de Botero in Medellín. The plaza has an open-air collection of 23 sc...
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Accommodations: Hacienda Castilla or similar
See the coffee plantation Hacienda Venecia
This morning, we’ll visit Santa Ana, a village in the town of Quimbaya in the countryside near Armenia, and experience A Day...
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Accommodations: Hacienda Castilla or similar
Explore Corcora National Park
The final turn in our triangle is the region around Armenia, once a way station on the march of Simón Bolivar. We visit Salento, a 19th-c...
Meals: Breakfast and Dinner
Accommodations: Hotel Bantu or similar
Encounter the tango in Colombia
This morning, we'll fly from Pereira via Bogotá to Cartagena on Colombia's Caribbean coast. Officially known as Cartagena de Indias—so named because...
Meals: Breakfast and Lunch
Accommodations: Hotel Bantu or similar
Encounter local cuisine in Cartagena
We begin our day in Cartagena's oldest section, the Ciudad Amurallada, or Walled City, which is encircled by twelve-foot stone walls and conside...
Meals: Breakfast and Dinner
Accommodations: Hotel Bantu or similar
Discover La Popa Convent and San Felipe Castle
This morning, we'll take a walking tour of the Getsemani neighborhood, the oldest part of the city. We continue to the hilltop La Pop...
Meals: Breakfast
After breakfast, we transfer to the airport for our flight home. Or, begin your optional post-trip extension to Ecuador: The Andes & the Devil's Nose Train.
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Your trip, your way, planned by an expert:
- You choose budget, destinations, activities, transport & lodging type
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Dates & Availability
Check Current Availability, prices, specials with Overseas Adventure Travel (O.A.T. Tours).
The total tour cost includes the tour price (regular or promotional) and the compulsory local payment. The promotional price is subject to change. Check directly with the operator for the latest price offer. The tour operator requires you to pay only the tour price to purchase your travel. The compulsory local payment will be paid when you join the trip. All prices are based on double, twin or triple share occupancy. Solo passengers will be accommodated in a double, twin or triple room according to availability with a passenger(s) of the same gender. Single supplement only needs to be paid if the passenger does not want to share and requests their own room. Discounts can only be applied at the time of booking and cannot be added at a later date, regardless of any changes made to the original booking.
Prices may vary due to local taxes and trip seasonality. Click "Request Info" to inquire directly with the tour operator for the final trip price.
Overseas Adventure Travel (O.A.T. Tours) Reviews & Ratings
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Policy over practical customer service. zero customer service
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Our recent Tanzanian Safari was indeed the trip of a lifetime. Saw the big 5, met the wonderful locals and spent 5 days in the Serengeti. Saw many lions, zebras, gi...
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Tour Operator
Overseas Adventure Travel offers unique small group adventures worldwide to Americans over 50. By land and sea, we explore on—and off—the beaten path with a resident OAT Trip Leader, immersing ourselves in local cultures, sampling unique modes of transportation, and staying in authentic lodgings that reflect the essence of your destination. Grand Circle Small Ship Cruises serves both our GCT and OAT brands with an award-winning fleet known for exceptional value and high-quality experiences in Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America. Custom-designed according to our travelers’ specifications, our fleet includes 50+ small river and ocean-going ships that we own or privately charter.
Grand Circle Corporation is a global enterprise—comprised of a family of travel companies—committed to changing people’s lives by offering high-impact experiences to our travelers and building local communities through philanthropy, social entrepreneurship, and volunteerism.
Simply by traveling with OAT, you support the work of the nonprofit Grand Circle Foundation, which was created with the mission of changing people’s lives through travel—both those of our travelers, and of the people who welcome us so warmly into their homelands.
Journey with the Leader in Adventure Travel and Watch Your Dreams Take Flight: It is the stuff of dreams: gazelles bowing to lap at a glassy pool in the Serengeti as the vast sky turns purple with night, the tiered splendor of the Himalayas, rising behind a Tibetan monastery. Dreams like these are everyday realities for OAT travelers, thanks to the principles which ground every OAT adventure: value, choice, discovery, and carefully paced itineraries.
Our Value puts your travel dreams within reach: OAT can help you realize your travel dreams for a lot less than you thought possible. Together with our regional offices located throughout the world, we’ve been able to establish long-term relationships with many local vendors and hotels. Buying direct brings down our costs—and allows us to pass the savings on to you. And negotiating directly for hotel space also allows us to secure as many single room allotments as possible for our solo travelers. That way, we can also extend our great value to solo travelers. In fact, we offer the best value for solo travelers, guaranteed.
The Choice is yours: You’ll always have plenty of choices with OAT. We offer you a breadth of awe-inspiring travel destinations—from the peaks of the Andes to the sweeping desert sands of the Sahara to the rugged natural beauty of Iceland. You'll also enjoy more trip extension choices than ever before—like hiking to ancient monasteries in Bhutan or discovering the Moai monolithic rock statues on Easter Island. You have plenty of choices within each adventure, too, including several interesting optional tours. And the free time we’ve woven into our itineraries allows you plenty of opportunities for independent exploration. You can shop, unwind, perhaps linger at a sidewalk café, visit an interesting gallery or museum, or explore a cobbled street that caught your eye earlier in the day. You can do as much or as little as you want on an OAT adventure—the choice is yours.
OAT Difference
Adventure Travel: Adventure travel with OAT is a journey beyond the familiar, one that takes you into the very heart of a destination—to meet people where they work and live.
OAT Advantages: Journey with the leader in adventure travel and watch your dreams take flight, thanks to the principles which ground every OAT adventure: value, choice, discovery, and carefully paced itineraries.
Small Groups, Big Discoveries: When you discover the world in an OAT small group, you’ll journey off the beaten path to the places the big tour groups miss—and enjoy an intimate, discovery-filled adventure filled with personal connections, shared experiences, and treasured memories.
Trip Leaders: No matter where in the world you venture with OAT, you'll have one of our resident, expert Trip Leaders by your side. All are fluent in English and possess the skills, certification, and experience necessary to ensure an enriching adventure.
Airport Transfers: We’ve listened to your feedback, and will now offer international airport transfers to and from your hotel to our travelers who choose to purchase their own airfare on OAT adventures as part of our Personalize Your Trip program, which allows you create the OAT adventure that's right for you.
Personalize your trip: OAT travelers have long expressed the desire to decide exactly where they’re going, how they get there, and when they wish to leave. That’s why we developed a variety of choices that enhance the value of every trip we offer, allowing you to create the adventure that works best for you.
Traveling solo? Enjoy your own room or cabin—at no extra cost: You’re in control of your travel dreams—and we’re making them more affordable than ever: Maybe you prefer the freedom of solo travel—or maybe you and your usual traveling companion can’t agree on a destination. Whatever the reason, you don’t have to put your travel dreams on hold. When it’s time to go it alone, you’ll never pay a Single Supplement to have your own room or cabin with OAT.
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Logistics
Accommodation
Cancellation Charges Generally: Unless otherwise stated next to the program’s rate chart, you will receive a refund equal to your Trip Price less the following per-person charges. Charges shown include the $300 administrative fee.
Cancellation Charges for Land Tours:
- If Prior to departure is 90 days or more, then charge is $300
- If Prior to departure is 89-60 days, then charge is 10% of selling price or $300—whichever is greater
- If Prior to departure is 59-30 days, then charge is 65% of selling price
- If Prior to departure is 29 days–departure, then charge is 100% of selling price
11 Breakfasts, 7 Lunches, and 6 Dinners
Pre-trip: Bolivia: La Paz & Lake Titicaca
5 nights from only $1295 | Single Supplement: FREE
From the shores of Lake Titicaca to the blend of modern and ancient cultures in La Paz, countless discoveries await you in Bolivia. Journey here before you travel to Colombia and explore Andean landscapes, visit indigenous villages, and discover ancient ruins that pre-date the Inca Empire.
Post-trip: Ecuador: The Andes & the Devil's Nose Train
6 nights from only $1895 | Single Supplement: FREE
Explore Domes Cathedral in Cuenca, Ecuador.
Experience the Andean side of Ecuador, a region of snowcapped volcanoes, traditional cultures, and a dramatic rail route. From local markets in the countryside to Spanish colonial Cuenca, you'll meet the people who call this scenic region home. Join us to discover more of South America's cultural and natural diversity.
Optional Tours
Zipaquirá Salt Cathedral
Day 3 $95 per person
Explore Zipaquira Salt Cathedral in Colombia
This optional tour takes us into the mountains north of Bogotá, where we'll explore a fascinating religious site, the Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá. En route, we visit Paloquemao, Bogotá's largest local market, where we'll learn about Colombian fruits and flowers. Then we continue to the cathedral, where we'll see how it is built into the tunnels of a salt mine, stretching more than 600 feet underground, with statues and ornaments carved out of the mine’s rock walls. The complex features three main sections, including an entryway lined with 14 small chapels that depict the Stations of the Cross, and is considered a highlight of Colombian architecture. More than just a monument, this site is an active Roman Catholic church, drawing up to 3,000 visitors to its Sunday services. Following our tour of the cathedral, we’ll enjoy lunch at a local restaurant that features dishes cooked using salt from the Zipaquirá mine, as well as ajiaco, a traditional Colombian soup of chicken, potatoes, and corn.
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