BOGOTÁ · COLOMBIA
La Candelaria, Monserrate, and the long way down a salt mine.
The colonial old town, the sanctuary on the hill, the underground cathedral, and the Andean day trips that ring the city. Bogotá at 2,640 metres, top to bottom.
Only in Bogotá
Three things you can’t do anywhere else.
Walking tours, food tours and bike days exist in every capital. These three don’t. A cathedral built inside a working salt mine, a city that pays its street artists to paint, and a Spanish sanctuary still standing 500 metres above the avenidas. Plan the rest of the week around them.
Underground
The Salt Cathedral
Two hundred metres below the surface of a working salt mine, the people of Zipaquirá carved a full-scale cathedral out of the rock salt itself. Stations of the cross down a 350-metre tunnel, then three vast naves and a luminous cross lit from inside the wall. Day trip from Bogotá — there is nothing like it anywhere else in the world.
- 1 Zipaquirá: Salt Cathedral Group Tour with Pickup
- 2 Bogota: Guatavita and Salt Cathedral Daily Group Tour
- 3 Bogota: Zipaquirá Salt Cathedral and Lake Guatavita Day Tour
On the walls
The Graffiti District
Bogotá decriminalised street art in 2011 after a teenage writer was killed by police. The city now pays muralists to paint the walls of La Candelaria and beyond, and the result is one of the largest open-air galleries on the continent. The free graffiti tour is run by working artists who know who painted what and why.
- 1 Graffiti Tour: a fascinating walk through a street art City
- 2 Graffiti Tour in La Candelaria Bogotá
- 3 Bogotá: La Candelaria Graffiti & Urban Art Guided Tour
Above the city
Monserrate at 3,152m
A colonial sanctuary sits on a peak 500 metres above the city. A funicular runs up the eastern slope, a cable car runs down the southern one, and a switchback pilgrimage path links them on foot. The view at sunset — the lights of nine million people coming on against the Andes — is the moment that fixes Bogotá in your head.
- 1 La Candelaria, Monserrate and Museums Bogotá Private City Tour
- 2 Bogota + Monserrate Private City Tour, Museums, Candelaria.
- 3 Bogotá: Private City Tour, Monserrate, Emerald and Botero
Start here
The first booking most travellers make.
If you’ve only got one full day, this is it. The most-booked Bogotá experience on the site, ranked by the people who actually went.
The classics
Bogotá’s Most Popular Tours
La Candelaria, Monserrate, Zipaquirá, Guatavita, the graffiti walls. The things most travellers come to Bogotá to do.
By place
Where to go in Bogotá.
Each place is its own half-day or day. La Candelaria for the colour and the colonial streets. Monserrate for the view. Zipaquirá for the underground cathedral. Guatavita for the El Dorado legend. The Museo del Oro for the gold itself. La Chorrera when you need a waterfall.
By tour type
Or pick how you want to spend the day.
Walking if you want the city slowly. Bikes if it’s Sunday. Food and coffee if you came hungry. Graffiti for the politics on the walls. Tejo and salsa for the night that doesn’t end. Pick the verb first, the place fills in.
The historic centre
Walking La Candelaria.
Plaza Bolívar, the painted balconies of Calle del Embudo, the Botero collection, the cathedral and the courtyards of Universidad del Rosario. The colonial half-kilometre everyone walks first. Three guided walks we’d send a friend on.
Eat the city
Bogotá on a fork.
Ajiaco at Paloquemao market, arepas grilled on the corner, fruit you have never heard of cut open at the stall, and the high-end Chapinero tasting rooms that grew out of all of it. The three food tours we’d book first.
Direct from the farm
Coffee, from the source.
Colombia grows the second-most arabica on earth, and the cleanest version of the trip is a day on a small finca outside the city — pick a cherry, see the wet mill, taste the cup that came from the bag you saw filled. Three farm-day picks we’d put on the itinerary.
If you’re here on a Sunday
Ciclovía takes the streets.
Every Sunday and public holiday from 7am to 2pm, Bogotá closes 120 kilometres of avenidas to motor traffic. About 1.5 million people walk, run, skate and ride. The bike tours plug straight into it — the route from La Candelaria up to Usaquén is the classic loop. Three rides we’d book if it’s a Sunday.
When you need air
Out of the city.
Bogotá sits at 2,640 metres with the Andes wrapped around it. Within ninety minutes you can be in cloud forest at Chicaque, páramo at Chingaza, or under the 590-metre drop of La Chorrera, Colombia’s tallest waterfall. The days worth taking when the city catches up with you.
Just added