Posts Tagged ‘Travel to Colombia’
Colombia Travel Tips
Once a dangerous country plagued by drug crime, guerrilla warfare, paramilitaries and civil unrest, Colombia is currently experiencing a level of peace that has allowed tourism to thrive. Cautious travelers can experience the varied countryside full of mountains, jungle and coast, along with rich archeological and cultural sites.
Entry and Exit
1. A passport is required for travel to Colombia, although U.S. citizens need not have a tourist Visa if they are staying fewer than 60 days. A round-trip ticked is advised. There is an exit tax that must be paid when leaving Colombia by air. Some airlines include this tax in the cost of their tickets, but be sure to check with your airline. Otherwise the tax must be paid in cash at the airport before departure.
Tourist Warnings
2. Although crime has decreased over the last decade, Colombia can still be a dangerous place for travelers. Kidnapping is on the wane, but kidnappings do still occur. Criminal organizations use kidnapping to for political pressure and ransom, and foreigner travelers are no exception.
Travelers should stay up-to-date on the current safety warnings posted by the U.S. Department of State by calling (888) 407-4747 or checking the Travel Alert website. See the Resources section for a link.
Tourists can be particular targets for criminals. Robbers will sometimes approach tourists after they have taken money out of ATMs, frequently using motorcycles for quick getaways. Be sure to use ATMs only indoors and be aware of your surroundings.
Be sure to only use taxis that you have called or have asked to be called for you. Taxis hailed on the street, especially by lone travelers, can often be traps for unsuspecting tourists.
The taxi driver may be involved with other criminals in overpowering passengers and robbing them of their valuables, including kidnapping the passenger and forcing them to withdraw money from ATMs. This type of crime is less likely to occur when passengers call a taxi via a dispatch service as there is a record of the call. There is a higher incidence of this criminal activity in Bogota.
Criminals have been known to use drugs added to food and drink to incapacitate travelers, providing easy opportunities for theft and sexual assault. Remain vigilant when dining out. Do not leave your food unattended and do not accept drinks or food from strangers.
Beaches
3. Travelers to Colombia should check out the country’s beautiful beaches, with Santa Marta being perhaps the most well-known. On the Caribbean in northern Colombia, Santa Marta was founded in 1525 by the Spanish. The beach is right near town with lots of vendors and tourists and activity.
When you crave an escape from sand and sea, visit the Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino, the site of Simon Bolivar’s death. Bolivar was called The Liberator for his work freeing Colombia from the control of the Spanish. Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino is now a museum honoring Bolivar.
Tayrona National Park is a treasure of local wildlife and scenery. There are howler monkeys, iguanas, jaguars, lizards, toucans and lots of tropical fish. Snorkeling, swimming, and even Tayrona Indian ruins are also part of the scene.
Lost City
4. Located in the cloud forest of Colombia, Ciudad Perdida–or, literally, Lost City–offers travelers an unforgettable journey into the past. Built around 800 A.D. but only discovered in 1972, Ciudad Perdida is only accessible by hiking.
The hike takes six days and travel arrangements can be made in Santa Marta through Turcol, a company licensed to take travelers to the park and ruins. The city was built by the Tayrona people and includes drainage systems, houses and bridges built of stone. The trek can be difficult, so bring rugged hiking boots, bug spray, comfortable clothing and a water bottle.
Tags: Colombia, Travel to Colombia, Travelers to Colombia
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Aug 3rd, 2010
Visit Colombia
Most people who have not traveled to Colombia mistakenly think that is a dangerous country, full of drugs, guerrilla and jungle. However, people traveling to Colombia discover a very different country. Large numbers of tourists said to Colombia as a favorite in Latin America. Much of the country is perfectly safe to travel but there are some areas where it is necessary to take some precautions.
Colombia is one of the few countries in Latin America where tourists can enjoy almost any landscape, beautiful beaches, tour the woods, cabins in the forest, mountains and deserts, archeological ruins and colonial towns, nightlife and fashion in modern hotels towns, whale watching, diving and hiking, extreme sports and the warmth and kindness offered by Colombians. Easily could be two months traveling around Colombia, but for those with less time, this travel guide will help you decide which is the ideal place to visit on your vacation.
The most important tourist destination in the Colombian Caribbean coast is Cartagena, which is surely the most beautiful colonial city in all Latin America and the destination for those traveling to Colombia. Nearby you can find beautiful beaches in Islas del Rosario and Tayrona Park (perhaps the best beaches in South America). A 4 hours from Santa Marta Cartagena find the starting point for a wonderful tour of six days through the jungle toward the spectacular ruins of Ciudad Perdida.
Tags: About columbia, Colombia, Colombia Travel, Tourism, Tourism in Colombia, Tradition In Columbia, Travel to Colombia, Traveling to Colombia, Visit
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Jun 9th, 2010
Justice or Impunity in colombia
Without an independent justice system there is no rule of law. Without respect for the judiciary by the ruler is in question the rule of law. Without compliance with judicial decisions by other public authorities undermines the rule of law.
Court decisions they can appeal and for that are the courts. But to question the judicial independence using the popularity of the ruling only further weakens the languid democratic institutions.
The conviction of the Third Criminal Court of Bogota Specialized against Colonel (r) Luis Alfonso Plazas Vega for the forced disappearance of eleven Colombian citizens is a landmark ruling that struck impunity and military interests that lie behind it.
Plazas was not convicted for the retaking of the Palace of Justice. Plazas Vega was convicted of forced disappearance, for their part in the disappearance of defenseless citizens in the days of the takeover of the Palace of Justice.
Activation of the solidarity of the body of the military and the ruling bloc is a call to impunity.
Squares have the right to appeal the ruling of the court and the government, along with the military, are obliged to respect the course of justice.
The hysteria of the government and the military is a reflection of their fear for the advancement of justice in this and other cases. Pending a ruling involving the general Arias Cabrales and a group of officers and NCOs, also for the case of the Palace of Justice. And the case is progressing rapidly and pikes of false positives.
Colombia needs more justice and less impunity. Colombia needs to strengthen democracy, not weaken, putting political power in the service of impunity.
Tags: About columbia, Colombia, Colombia City, South America, Travel to Colombia, Traveling to Colombia
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Jun 6th, 2010
Travel to Colombia: Experience the Colombia Travel
Colombia is the great tourism place. Many people from all over the world visit Colombia every year. Colombia is having huge mountains and valleys, and for the travel issue Colombia is the great place for every one. A person can enjoy there with there family and their partner. When we go to the path of security, Colombia Travel is very much secured travel place. Every person has to take permission for visiting any places there. So it is well secured place for tourist.
Colombia People, especially their merchants and hotel owners have to serve any thing in real prices. No one can cheat in Colombia. It is also an effect reason to Colombia Travel. Many facilities have been provided by US government for Colombia Tourism. Considering all the travel aspect, Government is trying to give more priority to their Tourism. So you don’t think much in traveling in Colombia.
People of Colombia are very good, and they are supporting people. You can visit many places in Colombia. Colombia is rich with great places. Colombia atmosphere changes according to months, so it can also be great travel for you. You can change your mind state with great Colombia Tourism. You can get good guides and Travel to Colombia Tourism providers over the online and offline market places.
Tags: cheat in Colombia, Colombia, Colombia People, Colombia Tourism, Colombia Travel, People of Colombia, Travel to Colombia
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Apr 22nd, 2010
Plan Your Next Vacations to Colombia
In this tough time when our economies have been severely affected you should have the option to save money while you can keep your traditions to take a vacation along your family. One of the most amazing options you can evaluate is travel to Colombia during your next vacations to South America. Colombia is one of the great touristic attractions of this part of the world having amazing beaches, great mountains, beautiful and modern hotels as well as beautiful women.
People in Colombia are very kind and I am completely sure that for your next vacations you could choose one of the amazing and affordable vacation’s packages that include hotel during 8 nights, flight tickets and transportation services. Traveling to Colombia during your next vacation is going to help you to relax a lot and enjoy of the Colombian lifestyle where everything is party, music and beach.
One of my best recommendations about that is you make a good plan so that you can get the most out of traveling to Colombia. A financial plan is very relevant before take a good decision. That’s why it is important that you make a good research in Internet about those vacation plans to Colombia and which are the things those plans are offering to you that are planning to travel alone, or perhaps with your girlfriend, friends or family.
One the other hand, you must know that Colombia is one of the best places of South America to practice all kind of water sports and if you love that, you can evaluate those hotels that are in the Pacific of Colombia that have included in the packages this kind of tourism. Planning your next vacations to Colombia is an amazing experience that you will never forget. Make a good plan, based on a good research and travel to Colombia in your next vacations.
Colombia Tourism
For many years serious internal armed conflict deterred tourists from visiting Colombia, with official travel advisories warning against travel to the country. However in recent years numbers have risen sharply, thanks to improvements in security resulting from President Álvaro Uribe’s “democratic security” strategy, which has included significant increases in military strength and police presence throughout the country and pushed rebel groups further away from the major cities, highways and tourist sites likely to attract international visitors.
Foreign tourist visits were predicted to have risen from 0.5 million in 2003 to 1.3 million in 2007, while Lonely Planet picked Colombia as one of their top ten world destinations for 2006. The improvements in the country’s security were recognised in November 2008 with a revision of the travel advice on Colombia issued by the British Foreign Office.
Popular tourist attractions include the historic Candelaria district of central Bogotá, the walled city and beaches of Cartagena, the colonial towns of Santa Fe de Antioquia, Popayan, Villa de Leyva and Santa Cruz de Mompox, and the Las Lajas Cathedral and the Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá.
Tourists are also drawn to Colombia’s numerous festivals, including Medellín’s Festival of the Flowers, the Barranquilla Carnival, the Carnival of Blacks and Whites in Pasto and the Ibero-American Theater Festival in Bogotá. Meanwhile, because of the improved security, Caribbean cruise ships now stop at Cartagena and Santa Marta.
The great variety in geography, flora and fauna across Colombia has also resulted in the development of an ecotourist industry, concentrated in the country’s national parks. Popular ecotourist destinations include: along the Caribbean coast, the Tayrona National Natural Park in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range and Cabo de la Vela on the tip of the Guajira Peninsula; the Nevado del Ruiz volcano, the Cocora valley and the Tatacoa Desert in the central Andean region; Amacayacu National Park in the Amazon River basin; and the Pacific islands of Malpelo and Gorgona. Colombia is home to seven UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Tags: Cabo de la Vela, Colombia, Colombia Tourism, Colombia Travel, Colombian Lifestyle, ecotourist destinations, Pacific of Colombia, People in Colombia, President Álvaro Uribe, South America, Tatacoa Desert, Travel to Colombia, Traveling to Colombia, UNESCO World Heritage Sites, World Heritage Sites
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Mar 14th, 2010
Cruises to Colombia
You can find today several options to travel to Colombia in a Cruise that probably comes from the Caribbean during some nights and stop in Colombia for at least 3 or 4 days so that you can enjoy of the beautiful beaches and the sun tourism in this amazing place. Colombia is doing each year a lot of cruises and this is something that with the world financial crisis, the cruise tourism to Colombia is cheaper and more affordable each year.
I personally think that if you are planning to make a vacation through a cruise you take one of those Cruises that travel to Colombia and enjoy of the great adventure of travel to a paradise. Regards to the quality of the tourism (the Colombian tourisms) let me tell that people in this country is very professional as well as very kind.
If you decide make a trip to Colombia through a cruise, you are going to enjoy of diverse paradises in this country but also, you are going to experience the amazing satisfaction of travel through some of the high class cruises through South America.
Another great advantage is that cruises to Colombia are more impressive than travel to Europe and other locations of the world while the price you have to pay to travel to Colombia is cheaper. If you want compare cruise price to travel to Colombia you only have to make some searches in Google or Yahoo and in just few minutes you will be able to compare tourism packages to Colombia and other locations around the world.
The benefit of travel to Colombia through cruise is amazing and precisely in this time I personally think that is the best moment when you can travel to Colombia through a cruise for the most affordable price.
Tags: Caribbean, Colombia, Cruises to Colombia, Travel to Colombia
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Mar 11th, 2010
Travel To Colombia: Cali
Department: Valle del Cauca
Average temperature: 23 ° C
Altitude: 1000 m
Airport: Aeropuerto Internacional Alfonso Bonilla Aragón
Main sites:
- Archaeological Museum La Merced
- Museum de Arte Colonial and Religious La Merced
- Chapel and Convent of La Merced
- Archbishop’s Palace
- Gold Museum
- The Hermitage
- Holguines Trade Center Mall
Cali is known as the world capital of salsa. It is a friendly city, home to civic and gay friendly people and beautiful women, is the ideal place to hold events and meetings because resort has good national and international level.
In his search for the much cherished legend of El Dorado who undertook Sebastian de Belalcazar, left Quito guided by strange tales of a Northerner who preached the richness of its soil. Reported that the principal chief, after bathing in gold dived into the clear waters of a sacred lake while offerings of his people threw gold and jewels in honor of their gods.
In this way, and after seeing the failure of two of his expeditions, Belalcazar permanent foundations choose to use them as reference points, and finally on 25 July 1536, the day of St. James, Miguel López Muñoz, by delegation of Belalcazar , stuck a banner and make the foundation of the city under the name of Santiago de Cali.
The region currently has the largest sugar mills and one of the largest industrial areas of the country to the point that is the third city Cali Colombian industrial and commercial importance. The city has convenient shopping, social clubs, modern hotels and restaurants and green areas that make Cali one of the most pleasant cities in the country.
Framed by the Statue of Christ the King, the Monument of the Three Crosses, the Sebastian de Belalcazar Monument Park and the Farallones, Cali, the country presents itself as a friendly city, civic and joyful celebrations as the Feria de la Caña Sugar, held between 25 and 30 December, making it the “World Capital of Salsa” intermingling singing, dancing, bullfights, horseback riding, culture, typical food and fun.
In the lands near Cali, green and fertile, there are beautiful farms that invite you for delightful excursions. A 36 km north of Cali, on the road to the Hill, is the Hacienda El Paraiso area in which the action unfolds in the novel Mary, greatest work of American romantic realism of Jorge Isaacs, several times taken to film.
We can also find on the outskirts of Cali and the estates of Cañasgordas Piedechinche, the latter is the seat of cane museum, it is also possible to know the Farallones National Park.
Tags: Archaeological Museum La Merced, Archbishop's Palace, Colombia travel destination, Gold Museum, Travel to Cali, Travel to Colombia
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Feb 6th, 2010
Travel to Colombia
We propose you to travel to Colombia that will surprise you for its richness, color and contrasts. Colombia will lead to a prosperous, wealthy, with a strong currency for years, hardworking, manufacturer and exporter of many products: coffee, sugar, coal, petroleum, nickel, and other more elaborate as furniture, textiles, flowers, medicines sold worldwide, with a large middle class mostly of European origin, a rich cultural life, the best culture in South America customer, a Castilian beautiful, a highly developed artistic creativity, and Overall, a mixed population (European, Indian and African) intelligent and awake.
Colombia is a country of contrasts where they exist, its people will captivate you with his kindness, his charm, his talents, as you walk through the unique old town of Cartagena de Indias heard as background music of an accordion vallenato de Carlos Vives, a cumbia, joints and fandangos, butt sauce, or just one of those great songs that interpret Shakira, Juanes or Maia. What more could you want!
If we also take into account its location between the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, with beaches and spectacular sites, the three ranges that traverse from north to south, giving us the valleys of the Cauca and Magdalena highlighting their National Parks and Tayrona Los Nevados with its volcanoes and the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta erected along the Caribbean Sea, we conclude that its geography and relief combine perfectly, if not explain, vigor and vitality of the Colombian people.
Especially attractive are its archeological remains. At the head of them, the Lost City. A dream location, difficult access and where we perceive a sensation similar to what must have felt the first to arrive at Machu Picchu, before mass tourism environment.
In short, this is an amazing country Colombia, sometimes surreal for the visitor because you have said is happening around and it seems that nothing happens, except the time, although the Colonel did not care because you have blind faith that ultimately The letter waiting for so come.
Tags: amazing country Colombia, Colombia, Travel to Colombia
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Feb 2nd, 2010
Top Reasons to Travel to Colombia During The Summer
Which are the top reasons to travel to Colombia during the summer? Let me tell you that if you travel to Colombia during the summer you are going to receive a lot of benefits and if you go there with your family you will enjoy a lot during your next holydays. Colombia is a beautiful place, with incredible beaches and very kind and helpful people.
There are many reasons to travel to Colombia and in this article I have the intention to tell you which are those reasons so that you can be aware of that and take a good decision the next time you are planning have a vacations with your family. Now let’s see the top reasons to travel to Colombia in this summer season.
* Colombia has a wonderful mountain tourism: If you like practice the mountain tourism, these wonderful mountains in Colombia are the best scenario that can help you to do that.
* You can enjoy of water sports: Water sports are very popular in Colombia and there are several options that are even included in hotel packages. You can enjoy in Colombia from almost all kind of water sports.
* Colombia is one of the best destinations for having a resort: Resorts in Colombia are incredible, in front of their impressive beaches. These hotels are often five-star all inclusive and you enjoy of them with your family.
* Beautiful beaches: In Colombia you can enjoy of the beast beaches of these zone that are located near to hotels.
* Tourism in Colombia is cheaper but better than other similar destinations: An important thing is that tourism in Colombia has a high quality and is more affordable than other destinations of South America, which make of Colombia a very competitive destination.
Tags: Colombia Travel, Tourism in Colombia, Travel, Travel Colombia, Travel to Colombia
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Jul 4th, 2009
Things You Should Know When You Plan Traveling to Colombia
Colombia is one of the most beautiful places of South America and has a population of around 44 million people and its capital is named Bogota. If you are attempting travel to Colombia is very important that you have in mind the type of place your are going to move, if you are moving for business reasons to Bogota or any other important city of this country, it is advisable that you go with the company with other persona that can take you to the places that perhaps you don’t know.
When you are traveling to Colombia your security is something very important that you should have in mind, and never forget that even thought the government of this country has been doing a huge endeavor to keep the peace and have crime under control, Colombia could be dangerous if you don’t take the precautions you need. Now, I would like to give you some basic recommendations that are going to give you peace of mind when you are traveling to Colombia. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Bogota, Colombia, Colombia Travel, Colombia Travel Advices, Travel to Colombia, Traveling to Colombia
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Jun 10th, 2009