Colombia
Untouched jungle beaches with not a single road, then a pre-Columbian city older than Machu Picchu
Colombia
A journey along Colombia's wildest Caribbean coast: Tayrona National Park, whose white-sand beaches fringed with jungle can only be reached on foot or horseback, then the Lost City, a pre-Columbian city founded by the Tayrona people centuries before Machu Picchu, reached after a multi-day trek through the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.
When
Dec to March
Price
From 3 300€ excl. flights
(based on 2 people sharing)
How long
8 nights
Ideal length
Days 1-2
The first chapter unfolds in Tayrona National Park, where the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta plunges straight into the Caribbean Sea with no road interrupting the landscape. The beaches of Cabo San Juan and La Piscina, reachable only after a walk through rainforest, rank among the most photogenic in South America, with their granite boulders polished by centuries of erosion.
Day 1
The walk to Cabo San Juan
A walk through the park's rainforest to Cabo San Juan beach, where a rocky promontory separates two white-sand bays, an overnight stay in a hammock facing the ocean.
Day 2
La Piscina and Tayrona remains
A swim at La Piscina, a bay naturally sheltered from currents by a coral barrier, then a visit to Pueblito, the remains of an old Tayrona village still visible amid the forest.
Days 1-2
Departure for the multi-day trek to the Lost City, founded by the Tayrona people around the year 800, roughly six hundred years before the founding of Machu Picchu. Rediscovered only in 1972 by grave robbers, the city reveals itself only after climbing over one thousand two hundred original stone steps, through dense jungle still home to indigenous Kogi communities, direct descendants of the Tayronas.
Day 1
Through the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta
A walk through the dense jungle of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, river crossings on foot, and nights at rustic camps, meeting indigenous Kogi communities along the trail.
Day 2
The final climb to the Lost City
A climb up the one thousand two hundred original stone steps to the Lost City's circular terraces, still enveloped by jungle, before the long descent back to the starting point.
Other trips built in the same spirit — more to draw inspiration from.
