A Comfortable Budget for Backpacking Colombia
Budgeting can be hard, especially when you're planning for a country you've never been to. Here's absolutely everything the two of us spent in Colombia for a 3 week backpacking trip. The only thing not included is the transport there and back, cause that varies so much depending on where you're coming from. This budget was not hard to follow, and we even made a few splurges on some fancy meals and awesome activities. You could easily shave it down. If you want to see how much slow travel costs in Colombia, check out Along Dusty Road's post here.
Budget for 23 days: 5,900,000 pesos/$2,070
What we Spent: 5,730,000 pesos/$2,006
Daily Budget: 260,000 pesos/$90
Actual Daily Average: 249,000 pesos/$87
*note all prices are per pair unless otherwise noted - divide by 2 and add a bit if you're looking for the cost per person
Budget Breakdown
Accomodation
🏠
Total spent: 929,000 pesos/$325
percentage of budget: 16%
Average cost per night: 40,000 pesos/$14 per room
most expensive: 65,700 pesos/$23 for an airconditioned airbnb
least expensive: 23,000 pesos/$8 for two hammocks
Accommodation is reasonable in Colombia, but not the cheapest we've experienced. Our rooms were normally 40,000 pesos for a basic hotel room or 30,000 pesos for a room in somebody's house. Keep in mind we were staying mostly in guest houses; hostels maybe sometimes were marginally cheaper, but not much cause these are often more touristy and/or foreign run. Cities cost more, as always: the most we spent was in Cartagena cause we just had to have air conditioning. Hammocks are a great option if you're trying to save money - most of Colombia is pretty temperate. We didn't try camping, but it's definitely not as popular here as in other places in South America.
Food
🍳
Total spent: 2,589,000 pesos/$906
Percent of Budget: 45%
Daily average: 113,000 pesos/$39.50
Breakfast: 10,000 pesos/$3.50 meal for two
Cheap lunch: 17,000 pesos/$6 meal for two
average dinner: 40,000 pesos/$14 meal for two
Street snack: 2,000 pesos/$.70 for one simple snack
upscale meal: 90,000 pesos/$30 meal for two
fancy coffee: 6,000 pesos/$2 for one cup
Wow, we went a little crazy on food, as we often do. If you stuck to a standard breakfast, lunch, and dinner, you could easily spend under 50,000 pesos a day per pair. Simple, local places will have very reasonable meals. The best deals are often at lunch. Sometimes you can find small set lunches at markets where you can share communal tables with the locals, though we found these to be more prominent in other parts of South America. We treated food as an activity and enjoyed seeking out the best we could, especially within cities (and when we could afford it). Also, Stefan eats like a horse. If you're traveling for a long time, and are going to set up shop at a place with a kitchen, Éxito will be your best bet for a grocery store and markets always have these cheapest prices and highest quality produce. Be wary, though - groceries often add up to more than simple local joints unless you stick with pretty basic stuff.
Top tip: You can drink the water! No need to spend your budget on bottles or bags.
ACtivities
🎯
Total spending: 770,000 pesos/$269.50
Percent of Budget: 13%
Daily Average: 34,000 pesos/$12
Splurge: 430,000 pesos/$152 scuba for two
Museum entrance: 8,000 pesos/$3 per ticket
There are tons of free activities in Colombia and honestly most days we spent 10,000 pesos or under. You could easily eliminate some splurges, bring this expense way down, and never be bored; we seriously had packed calendars. Check museum free days cause most have at least a few. Other good free activities: hikes, beaches, markets (tons of these), walking tours, and view points.
Ground Transport
🚐
Total spent: 880,000 pesos/$308.50
Percent of budget: 15%
Average daily spending: 38,500 pesos/$13.50
Long distance bus: 6,000 - 12,00 pesos/$2-$4 per ticket per hour
30 min Uber: 8,500 pesos/$3 per car
public trans: 2,000 pesos/$.70 per ticket
Colombia is a bigger country than you realize, and you'll spend a lot of time in busses. It isn't the cheapest country for transportation, though. We found busses were roughly between 6,000 and 12,000 pesos per hour. The more touristy the destination, the more they'll cost. You CAN bargain for busses, so it's a good idea to have this rough figure in your head. Public trans and collectivos are very cheap and a good option for short trips. Ubers will almost always be a better choice than taxis in cities because you won't get ripped off. They're obvi more expensive, but will also save you time. We also walk almost everywhere we can, which helps to keep transport costs relatively low.
Flights
✈️
Total Spent: 337,000 pesos/$118
Percentage of budget: 6%
Flights taken: 2
Most Expensive: 100,000 pesos/$35 per ticket
Least Expensive: 68,600 pesos/$24 per ticket
We only took a couple flights while we were in Colombia (Santa Marta - Bogotá and Bogotá - Medellín), but they were totally worth it, and very cheap if booked in advance. All the major cities have airports, so it's worth considering if you're going between Cartagena, Bucaramanga, Santa Marta, Medellín, Bogotá, and Cali. The cheapest airlines tend to be Viva Colombia and Avianca. Just like budget flights in the US, they will cost you more if you need full size carry ons (you can normally fudge these) or checked bags.
Beer
🍺
Total spent: 160,000 pesos/$57
Percent of budget: 3%
Daily average: 7,000 pesos/$2.50
six pack (store): 8,000 pesos/$3
Craft beer six pack (store): 25,000 pesos/$9
Fancy Drink at the bar: 14,000 pesos/$5
We got drinks about a third of the nights. They're much cheaper in the store (of course) so we would usually stick with that and imbibe our bounty at the hostel, wandering the streets or at the beach. If you go to the bar a lot, at least the fancier ones, it will definitely add up. Fun fact, Colombia has some good craft brews and most of them are for sale at Éxito - shout out to Tres Cordilleras, our fav.
Tidbits
💸
Total spending: 57,000 pesos/$20
Percent of Budget: 1%
Daily average: 2,500 pesos/$.90
Sim card: 30,000 pesos/$10 per Gig
Cold Meds: 6,000 pesos/$2 throat lozenges
We didn't have much miscellaneous spending in Colombia, but it's always good to budget in a bit. SIM cards are free, and you can prepay for data/texts/calling as much as you want. It's kinda hard to tell how much it actually costs, cause bargaining is involved. But it shouldn't be more than 30,000 pesos for a gig and a bit of texts or calls normally come with it. Meds are very cheap if you need to run to the pharmacy. Corner stores have the least expensive toiletries. There's also some good shopping, in Medellín especially, but we didn't indulge.
Visas
📋
Total spending: 0 pesos/$0
Percent of budget: 0%
No visa fees for us! 90 day visa free travel for US citizens. Luckily, many other nationalities get the same perks.
What did you spend in Colombia? Got some budgeting questions? Shoot us a comment.
