On our recent trip to Colombia, we spent a day and a half in the country’s capital, Bogota! Here are our top 9 things to do while you’re there…
- Explore La Candelaria, Bogota’s old city! One of the highlights in this historic neighborhood is Plaza de Bolivar, the main square of the city where you’ll see Colombia’s parliament building, the palace of justice and the cathedral. Other sites to look for are the presidential palace and the El Carmen church that sticks out in the neighborhood with its Gothic style among all of the colonial buildings.
- Visit the Botero Museum! Fernando Botero is a Colombian artist who’s known for playing with volume in his paintings and sculptures with exaggerated proportions in his subjects. Keep an eye out for his version of the Mona Lisa!
- Learn about Colombia’s pre-Hispanic cultures at the Gold Museum. Exhibits at the gold museum tell the history of the people living in what is now Colombia prior to the Spanish conquest. You can see all kinds of artifacts on display including all kinds of gold pieces, from jewelry to armor to artifacts hinting towards the existence of El Dorado, the City of Gold!
- Take the teleferico up Monserrate mountain! To get to the top of Bogota’s iconic mountain, we took the teleferico (cable car) but you can also take the train or walk if you’re feeling adventurous. At the top, there is a church that was built in the 17th century, a couple of restaurants and a market where you can buy souvenirs. And of course, being more than 10,000 feet above sea level, you can see some incredible views of the sprawling city of Bogota!
- Try your hand at Tejo, the national sport of Colombia! The game reminded us of cornhole, but instead of throwing bean bags at a board, you throw heavy metal disks at a mud target. And to add some excitement, there are little triangles of gun powder that explode when you hit them! (Check out our experience in this post!)
- Stumble upon some awesome street art! As a way of discouraging vandalism graffiti, the city promotes graffiti recognizing that it can be a form of artistic expression. It seemed like we found more everywhere we turned!
- Check out a local flower market. Flowers are one of Colombia’s main exports, we accidentally found ourselves in the middle of a flower market full of beautiful flowers during a walk near our hotel!
- Try some local foods – or at least a coffee! While we were in Bogota, we tried some delicious foods. Some we’d recommend trying are Ajiaco, a Colombian chicken soup; tamales and empanadas; and try some juices or fruits! And if you’re a coffee connoisseur, be sure to try some of Colombia’s famous coffee as well!
- Spend an evening in Zona Rosa! By day, Zona Rosa is a great place to do some shopping at many high-end stores and a large shopping mall. Then it turns into a lively area full of restaurants and bars by night!
And those are our top 9 things to do in Colombia’s capital city! What would you add to our list?
It's a Schmahl World 
South America is very high on my travel list but unfortunately it’s so far away. I’d love to try some local food and just explore all the sights. Colombia sounds like a fascinating country, especially for someone like me, from Europe. The old city looks beautiful! Loving your blog!
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Great post 🙂 Very useful!
Among top things to do in Bogota, I would recommend one tour: Heroes Tour, it’s from far my favourite: https://heroestourbogota.com
Why? Because I’ve never learn so much while doing a tour in my life and I felt I understand far better Colombia after this tour, and lots of earlier conversations with locals suddenly made sense.
This tour is an alternative visit of the center of Bogota, which explains all the recent history of the country, of the last 80 years, with topics such as the golden age of Bogota, the impact of escobar, the farc conflict, peace process.. it debunks so many clichés, it’s from far the most informative tour i’ve taken, the guide had a folder with lots of information sheets.
It’s the best tour I did in South America
There’s some food tasting as well,
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My husband and I just spent a month and a half backpacking around Colombia.
We loved this country! So much to do and see.
The people were especially kind, generous, and helpful. I highly recommend the graffiti tour in Bogata. The Salt Cathedral in Zipeciera. Salento and hiking to see the the wax palms is a must do.
The big cities are fine for three days. However to get to the soul of the country go to the country towns and talk with the people.
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