Date of Travel:  August, September, October, November 2015

Date of Writing:  November 29th El Jardin Hostel Asuncion Paraguay

(All values in Canadian Dollars unless otherwise noted)

Colombia was my first country in South America, a place known for drugs, guerilla warfare, and dangerous tourist kidnappings, but this reputation is immensely out of date and could not be further from the truth.  Go to Colombia and you will find a vast array of incredible destinations to visit, many of them still of the newly beaten path backpacks are slowly creating throughout the country. Above all though you find the Colombian people, and they are among the friendliest people in the world, not to mention utterly beautiful as well.  From the remote coastal desert at the northern tip of South America, to the different african inspired culture of the Pacific Coast,  The surroundings of the city of Eternal Spring to Coffee Country down south, Colombia has lots to offer every kind of traveller.

So many gringos go to Colombia for a short trip only to fall in love with a Colombian woman and hence there’s a great variety of Hostels and International restaurants, opened up as a means to stay in Colombia, and honestly I can hardly blame the owners.  Colombia is a beautiful country full of beautiful people, but how much does it cost to travel in Colombia?

I spent 78 days in Colombia, and will be back for more at some point in 2016, this country won over my heart right away and offers a vast variety of experiences for tourists.  To be honest Cost of travel is somewhere between Chile and Peru, but closer to the latter than the former.  Buses are costly and some of the nicer hostels charge a bit of a premium, but food is available cheaply and there are limited “famous”  sites with high admission charges.  Below you will find my spreadsheets fro Colombia, it’s worth noting that this is my first country using the template found at www.alittleasrift.com  as such I had not worked out the currency conversion and therefore converted myself before inputting values, so everything is in CAD. I also had issues with my computer inColombia so the last handful of days only have totals, as such those totals will not be used in the category breakdowns below.

Totals:

In 78 Days in Colombia I spent 3423.37 CAD cents including everything except for flights while in the country.  That works out to a daily average of 43.89  CAD per day or 32.82 USD.  This total was spent while living well, staying at some of the best hostels and eating out almost every meal.  It would certainly be possible to cut this budget down to about 30-35 CAD if the need arose using a little couch surfing or volunteering as well as cooking for yourself more often. And with the incredibly friendly people of Colombia I think an even cheaper budget would be possible if you skipped out on hostels cost of the time and chose instead to stay with locals.  (For all categories below averages will be calculated off of 61 day period, as my recording did not break into categories for the last 17 days of my time in Colombia)

Lodging:

In 61 days in Colombia I spent  807.48 on Lodging costs which works out to a daily average of 13.24 CAD.  Keep in mind I stayed only in hostels (and cheap hotels in small towns where hostels did not exist.) Usually I stayed in the best one I could find so cutting this to 10 CAD or even 8 CAD per day would be very possible if you need to.

Food and Drink:

In 61 days in Colombia I spent 1277.18 on Food and Drink including tons of fresh ice cold lemonade’s a long the Caribbean Coast.  That works out too 20.94 CAD  my most expensive food budget in South America so far.  The thing that surprised me about Colombia was the quality of International food everywhere you went, probably because of all the Gringo’s who couldn’t leave the women they meant.

Transportation:

Buses in Colombia are more expensive than in Ecuador or Peru, though till not all that bad. It’s also worth noting that VivaColombia provides cheap domestic flights which can sometimes be cheaper or around the same price as the comparable bus journey.  In 61 days in Colombia I spent 514.86 CAD on transportation translating to a daily average of  8.44 per day.  This does not include my flights to the pacific coast(163.33 CAD r/t) or my flight from Bogota to Medellin (33CAD), but does include all boats between pacific coast villages and all taxi’s taken and all public transport while in the bigger cities.  I think you could lower this total a little, but not that much without sacrificing mobility and enjoyment of this awesome country, which seems bigger than it looks on the map. 7-8 CAD is a good transportation budget while backpacking in Colombia, though if you need to lower it more and speak passable Spanish, hitchhiking could certainly prove a boon to you, just make sure you check with locals to see that your region is safe as Colombia does have a few small parts which present some dangers to the careless tourist.

Activities and Entertainment:

In Colombia there is less big name attractions since the countries tourism industry is only just blooming after turbulent political times.  That said you can still spend a decent chunk of money and usually, the expenditure is worth it.  In 61 days in Colombia I spent 83.38 on activities and entertainment working out to a daily average of just 1.37 CAD per day.  That said I did most things independently here, visited only a few museums and skipped the Lost City Trek and Parque Tayrona which dropped my budget considerably.  All in all I’d a lot more money for this for most tourists coming to Colombia.  Maybe 3-5 dollars a day would be ideal, though, as I have proven, it’s easy to get by on less.

Miscellaneous: 

This being the beginning of the second leg of trip I didn’t have to replace all that much, still the little expenditures do add up to more than zero.  In 61 days in Colombia I spent 78.19 working out to a daily average of 1.28.  How much you spend in this category depends on the yep of traveller you are, but it’s easy to get by on just a little.

Flights to Colombia:

Getting to Colombia has seriously never been easier or cheaper if you are from North America.  Spirit Airlines and Jet blue both fly regularly from different points in the United States for cheaper than I’d imagined possible.  If you have date flexibility you can find a one way direct flight from NYC to Cartagena for as low as 160 USD, this makes a quick trip to Colombia very feasible budget wise, and trust me when I say any time you can spend in Colombia, you should spend in Colombia, because it’s an incredible country that I can’t wait to return to.

Conclusions:

Colombia is not the cheapest country to travel in but it doesn’t break your budget either, and with a little couch surfing, camping or volunteering in a hostel (a lot of them take volunteers)  you can cut the budget down to a good deal less than I spent.  Once again in 78 days in Colombia I spent 3423.37 CAD cents including everything except for flights while in the country.  That works out to a daily average of 43.89  CAD per day or 32.82 USD.  I’d say it would be fairly easy to hack ten CAD dollars off that daily budget without sacrificing any basic human needs, more if you are willing to volunteer or couch surf.

Peru Shoestring travel suggested backpacking budget: 18-22 USD

Peru Comfortable travel suggested backpacking budget: 25 -30 USD

***If you would like to download a blank copy of the budgeting template I use visit the link here.  All credit for this fantastic document goes to the people at www.alittleadrift.com another very useful travel website.