Santa Marta Things to Do 

 

A sponstanenous journey to Santa Marta, the oldest Hispanic town in Colombia. Recommend by a tour guide in Medellin lead us to Santa Marta, and is just 4 hours from Cartagena with an air-conditioned Mercedes Van. This ride is along a scenic coastal route famed for its spectacular vistas of the Caribbean Sea.

 

How to go to Santa Marta from Cartagena?  

BERLINASTUR minivan (Mercedes Van), departs every 20 minutes at a cost of 40K COP. The terminal located at Marbella, however, is called Berlinas – Marbella Station. Clean, comfortable, fast with air-conditioning with one stop in Barranquilla for toilet break and coffee, 3.5 hours journey total.

Another transfer service, Marsol provides door to door pick up but as I read online, it will take you 6 hours to the Santa Marta, if you are the first pick up and the last drop off.

Santa Marta Things To Do!

Parque de Los Novios – Great city square surrounded by places filled with music, restaurants, and bars in every corner, safe area in the historical center. It translates to Park of Lover. Well, I agree.  I visited the park and Locals and tourists are gathered in this park for food and chill and dating as well.  English is my third language as I grew up in Malaysia.  

This hippy place is filled with good vibes and yummy street foods. You can sit in any restaurant in this walking street (no cars allowed) while enjoying your meal/drink and watch the live band.
Or you can buy your own beers at the store and sit at the park and enjoy the night by watching how the local’s flirt. If you can’t find a store, don’t worry, there always have locals carry white ice-filled coolers filled with different local beers.  

 

Local coolers Price is 500 COP cheaper than stores and half price of bars. My Favorite place for drinks and watching people is at OFICINA  with Micheladas, COP 3500, cheap and refreshing. There are outdoor dance performances and mannequins there to entertain you. Don’t forget your gratitude as this is how they earn their living.   

Lulo Cafe Bar – Delicious healthy foods with good vibes. Staff is so helpful to explain the menu and even show me the food in the kitchen making it easy for me to choose. This is a popular restaurant in the Santa Marta and it might have a long wait during dinner. It’s nice to sit at their outside tables and people watch and enjoy the rest of the night. This restaurant also is vegetarian-friendly.

 

Iglesia de San Francisco – Plain Colonial Church dating from 1597. 400 yrs old Church which is easy to visit and it is free.

 

Rio Don Diego – The cold water of Rio Don Diego (river) is ideal tubing on the hot Colombian day. You can admire the nature and beauty of the landscape, as you flow from the mountain to the warm Caribbean Sea. It was too relaxing and I almost fell asleep while the tubing.  Business opportunity–someone should actually offer big balloon beds for easier sleeping while tubing, lol.  

 

We bought a Don Diego Tour from Juan, Unique Colombia COP 60K (excluding local bus fee to the river transportation) but includes local guide, tubing, short trek and boat return back from the beach.

Transportation: To get there is pretty easy. Catch a bus toward Palomino at El Mercado (market) Santa Marta, COP 9k per trip and 1.5 – 2 hours to get there. Tell the driver to drop you at Rio Don Diego, a ‘’store’’ named El Trupillo (the Very small store you even will miss it). The bus will drop you actually the sign of Rio Don Diego. They send a local guide to wait for us at the store. Actually, I had Juan record a voice message in Spanish that I can play for the bus driver so he knew where to drop me (worked great).  Juan sold me the tour and he speaks English–his WhatsApp +573134274434.

The best thing has I met some Indigenous kids, howler monkeys, and saw a variety birds.  At the point when the River meets the Caribbean Sea was amazing.  There was only natural with a sandbar filled with Pelicans looking at me (see picture above).

P.S: Don’t forget sunblock on your feet. I got free black shoes forever with me.

There are a few other tubing experiences you can enjoy.  Mine was cold water or you can enjoy the warm water river in Palomino.  If you stay at Palomino, you can get the hostel to book for you and it will be cheaper, cost COP 30k for each, but you won’t have as much privacy with nature.

Tayrona National Park – Travellers come to Santa Marta to see the most beautiful park in Colombia, Tayrona Park. Camping, hiking, diving are the popular activities in the Park. Well, besides that, you can have a day tour to visit the beautiful beaches. Google Tayrona Park if you are the fan of camping & hiking, you will definitely love the Tayrona Park.

 

Playa Cristal – It is a beautiful beach with different layers and colors of sea waters. Highly recommend doing the snorkeling to explore the colorful fish and coral reef. This calm beach is only allowed up to 300 visitors in a day. (Accordingly to Culture Trip) so you can enjoy the wonderful time at the private beach and there is no hotels/hostel there. Everyone is leaving before dark including the restaurants’ staff. During this tour, you will also visit the viewpoint of the seven waves, where you can enjoy the scenery and take pictures. After 7 waves photos, continue about 10 minutes to Neguanje, taking a boat for 10 minutes to the final destination, Playa Cristal.

 

 

The Diving Team can provide underwater pictures if you like. It is 10K COP with 3 pictures but if you want more you may negotiate with him. He will WhatsApp you the pictures by the end of the day. For me, it was good as I don’t have the waterproof camera.

 

 

 

Bahia de Santa Marta – Enjoy the lovely sunset at Sunset Bar & Grill with a Micheladas (Beer with lime & salt). This bar is located on the second floor which you can enjoy the sunset with better yacht view.

 

 

Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino – The hacienda famous where Simon Bolivar spends his last days on 17 December 1830. Simon Bolivar was the military and political leader who played a leading role in the establishment of Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Panama as sovereign states. Everywhere you go in this part of the world, they name the central park, Bolivar Plaza.  He was born in Caracas, Venezuela on 24 July 1783 and died at Santa Marta, Colombia. I was fascinated by his legend as president of many countries that he liberated, so I wanted to pay a visit. The picture shows the bedroom where Simon Bolivar passed away.

 

Rodadero – 15 mins by car away from Santa Marta, the beach here is slightly better than Santa Marta as is a long wide beach. We arrived in January which is school holiday still, so the beach is full of Colombians.  This is one of the national beach places for Colombians.

We stay in Calle 11 Rodadero, a beautiful old mansion with a swimming pool and electronic lounge music. So, during the day, jumping to the pool is always nice.

While in Rodadero, I recommend spending only a day at Playa Blanca & Canopy. Playa Blanca is the nearest white sand beach and blue water, you can enjoy in Rodadero/Santa Marta.

Transportation: As you walk on the beach, facing the ocean, go right until you go over a bridge on Rodadero beach.  You will cross a bridge and ticketing promoter will come to you and ask for Playa Blanca, you can buy from them. 10 mins with Water Taxi, COP 12K for return. Remember to keep your receipt as you need to show for return boat.

 

If you go at morning time at Rodadero beach, next to the above bridge, you can watch Pelicans waiting for the fisherman to feed them.

While at Playa Blanca, besides the white beach, take a Canopy to enjoy the marvelous ocean and beach if you enjoy the high. You can WhatsApp +573144433204 them for the information. Thanks to WhatsApp to make everything easy these days.

 

Taganga – Scuba diving heaven in this small fish town. Taganga is more quiet and calm then Rodadero & Santa Marta. The beach is calmer and less crowned. Taganga is just 15 mins by car away from Santa Marta. Just get your hotel/hostel to call you a taxi and checking the price with hotel/hostel and confirm with the driver before you hop into the taxi.

 

We stayed in Svahns Aparta-Hotel, on the beach in Taganga. Nice king size bed that you won’t easily find while traveling in Colombia. Your suite comes with kitchen facility that can have a small cook,  rooftop patio for sunbathing and shower to cool off. The great thing is, the suite includes breakfast at a beachside cafe. So, we went for morning jogging, swimming and then just get back to the cafe to enjoy breakfast, what a life! No worry, this hotel cost is average for a suite. You can book using my link to Booking.com.  It is the same price to you but the small fee I receive will me make future posts.

 

Bahia Taganga – We just stay right on the Bahia Taganga, tranquil and better beach compare with others and this is FREE. I would recommend staying here for a couple of days if you love to be out of the city for a bit, enjoy the small fish town.

Playa Granate – A perfect short trip for snorkeling, kayaking, sunbathing, swimming. 10-minutes water taxi, return COP 5000. At Taganga, you can take the boat to everywhere in Tayrona Park but the wave is very strong. You can try it for experience with good life jacket & excellent swimming skill.

 

Now, let me enjoy the Taganga beach with my Limonade Coco. See you soon, somewhere else in the world!

Transportation & Tips: There is no uber in this town so you need a taxi service in Santa Marta,
420 9000 Taxi service number and also THAT is the company name. Once you call, taxi arrival in 2 mins. But this is good for people who speak Spanish.

Taxi WhatsApp number: Angel +57 300 4271397, Victor +57 313 450 7185 They both speak a little English but the good thing is Whatsapp. You can use google translate App to translate to Spanish and copy it to Whatsapp. This is how I do it.

 

Please free feel to ask me about Santa Marta, I would love to help!