Our 3 Day Itinerary in Bogotá

In order to get our feet wet in Colombia, our first country in a trip around the world, we landed late at night in Bogotá on Friday, July 27. Bogotá is the capital of Colombia and is located in the central region of the country on a mountain plateau in the eastern Andes. The city’s high altitude (2600m) definitely requires some adjustment for the first few days.

Where We Stayed

We decided to stay at Hotel NH Collection WTC in Bogotá’s Chico business district. Although this area is rather far from the tourist hotspot La Candelaria, we did find it convenient and safe to walk to other great neighbourhoods in the city. If walking is not your thing, Uber is an affordable, transparent and safe method to get anywhere in the city easily. The hotel was clean, had very friendly staff, security at all hours and spacious rooms.
Update: On our second trip to Bogotá, we stayed in the Zona T neighbourhood and it was a great location close to restaurants and shopping. 

DAY 1

Our first day began with an 8am wake up call from the construction workers in the hotel and the marching bands practicing at the military academy nearby. As it is a business hotel, everybody in the building was probably already awake except us, who were hoping to sleep in after arriving so late the night before.

Try Juan Valdez Café

Our initial stop of the day was at a nearby Juan Valdez Café (the Starbucks of Colombia) for an affordable breakfast and coffee. These cafés are everywhere and are certainly an easy place to have a rest, a good coffee and free wifi.

Explore and dine in Zona Rosa and Zona G

After breakfast, we walked through Zona Rosa (also known as “Zona T”, a neighbourhood filled with nice restaurants, shops and nightclubs) and continued on foot to Zona G (another area known for upscale restaurants in the Chapinero district), where we stopped for lunch at Crepes & Waffles – Arte-Sano, which is a fancier location of the common Colombian chain restaurant. Our food (lentil salad and harissa curry) was delicious and the fresh lemonade and mango drinks definitely hit the spot.

Eat in Parque 93

After travelling by foot back to the hotel for some R&R, we then walked to Parque 93, which is just north of Zona Rosa and surrounded by restaurants and nightlife. We dined at a wonderful restaurant called Gato Negro, where we were serenaded by live music on the patio while indulging on a huge platter containing, beef, chicken, chorizo, blood sausage and chicharrón as well as fried yucca and cheese sticks, potato and grilled corn. The meal was delicious and we would eat there again in a heartbeat.

DAY 2

Have a tinto at Selina in La Candelaria

We began our day by taking an Uber to La Candelaria, an exquisite Colonial-era neighbourhood containing narrow streets filled with shops, restaurants and museums. We started by having a tinto (espresso) and avocado toast at Selina, a restaurant and hostel with beautiful murals and friendly staff.

Visit the free Botero Museum

We then made our way down the street to the Botero museum. This amazing museum is free of charge and contains a wide array of Fernando Botero’s own pieces as well as many other prominent artists such as Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet and Henri Matisse, to name a few. We spent about 45 minutes there, but could have easily could have stayed longer.

Acquaint yourself with the pigeons at Plaza de Boliva

After taking in this beautiful art, we walked down the road to Plaza de Bolivar, the city’s main square bordered by beautiful historic buildings and accented by a statue of Simón Bolívar. The square is filled with local merchants selling their goods and thousands of pigeons. You can pay a local to get your picture taken with the pigeons. We opted to avoid the thousands of birds and forge on with hopes of escaping the area dropping free.

Take a free graffiti walking tour

Parque de la Periodista was our next destination for a 2pm free Graffiti walking tour. Our tour guide, Jeff, provided us with an excellent background of Colombian history, politics and its people through graffiti art. Our specific tour had almost fifty people attending and lasted approximately two hours. Despite the huge group, it and was definitely worth it. We each tipped him 20,000 pesos.

Explore La Candelaria by foot

We completed our day in La Candelaria with a stop at a local Crepes & Waffles for a small snack followed by an Uber ride back to our hotel.

Eat burgers at Sierra Nevada 

Dinner was in the form of burgers at a nearby Sierra Nevada joint, as we decided our feet could use a break after all the walking we had done. Despite being a “fast food” restaurant, our burgers were both juicy and delicious and would recommend it as an easy place to grab a bite.

DAY 3

Take the teleferico up Mount Monserrate

Our final day in Bogota consisted of a morning Uber to one of Bogotá’s main attractions, Mount Monserrate, which offers some of the best views of the city from the top (3152m above sea level). We opted to visit Monserrate on a Sunday, as the price to take the cable car (teleferico) is heavily discounted (8000 pesos instead of the usual 14000). Furthermore, our bodies were beginning to adapt to the higher altitude in Bogotá so it was a little bit easier to handle the trip.

You have three options to get to the top. You can walk, take a train or the cable car. We opted for the cable car and as the most popular option, we were prepared for a long wait. In all, our wait was just under one hour, but it seemed to transpire quicker than we anticipated. The cable car holds approximately 40 people and takes around four minutes to reach the top. We would recommend standing at the back of the car on the way up and the front of the car on the way down, as you will experience the best views of the city.

When we reached the top of the mountain, we went to one of the cafés for a tinto and a traditional Colombian breakfast called chocolate con queso. On first impression, the sound of dipping cheese into chocolate sounded a little strange, but it was incredibly delicious!

After breakfast, we took in the views of the city and poked our head into the Sunday service taking place in the 17th century church. The wait time to board the cable car was similar as the way up.

Stroll through the Sunday flea market in Usaquen

When we reached the bottom, we took uber to Usaquen, an upper middle class area north of the city to visit the Sunday flea market. This market felt a little bit more high-end, with most of the items being homemade crafts, clothing and food items. We appreciated the friendly vendors were not overbearing like other markets we have visited in the world.

Explore the high end neighbourhood of Usaquen

Usaquen is also home to many wonderful restaurants and cafés. We stopped into Tienda de café for a late lunch of of chicken, arepas, yuca fries and lemonade then finished our afternoon sampling various coffees from different regions of Colombia at Catacion Publica. Unfortunately, our coffee education was provided in Spanish, but Shaleen was able to translate most of it for me so I didn’t feel completely left out. Catacion Publica is a must for coffee lovers, as they provide many experiences ranging from tasting sessions all the way to barista training (get your own french press here)

While this three day itinerary simply helps you dip your toes into some of the many amazing things that Bogotá offers, we recommend making a bigger splash by spending more time exploring this incredible city! You won’t regret it!