Colombia has been a budget travel bargain for years with plentiful affordable guesthouses and hostels, lots of ways to eat well for less, and reasonably priced internal transportation and tours. But Colombia may be the biggest travel bargain in the world right now because everything is basically 40% off for anyone with foreign currency, particularly US dollars, to spend.
These two million Colombia pesos would have cost US$1,080 last year. Today they cost US$670.
Colombia is almost 40% cheaper right now
Twelve months ago the Colombian pesos was 1,850 per US dollar. Today? As we publish this post US$1 gets you 2,992 Colombian pesos and will most certainly surpass 3,000 any day now. Even better? Prices within Colombia are not being jacked up to make up for the foreign currency conversion. This means that Colombia is almost 40% cheaper for travelers with US dollars than it was one year ago.
Here is the exchange rate for the Colombian peso (COP) versus the US dollar over the past 12 months. That steady upward curve means more bang for your US bucks. (via xe currency)
What does that mean for your travel budget? Well, that lovely pizza (25,000 COP) and glass of wine (14,000) at the excellent Julia Pizzeria in Bogotáwould have cost you US$19 one year ago. Today, just US$13. The legit new pastrami sandwich at La Fama Barbecue (27,000 COP) used to equate to US$13 but is just US$9 today. Go ahead and eat pure ingredients with a gourmet touch at newly-opened Hippie everyday if you want. Their already reasonable prices are downright cheap right now.
And the same goes for rates at any locally-owned boutique hotels, attractions, transportation, and tours that are priced in pesos, not dollars.
No more excuses
We’ve spent more than 15 months in Colombia and have loved everything we’ve seen, done, and eaten and now you can do it all for nearly 40% less than we did. In other words, there really are no more excuses for not visiting Colombia.
Here’s more about travel in Colombia
Plus, in Bogota you can move around in Uber, which is safer and cheaper than regular taxis.
We agree! Uber X has proven to be cheaper than regular yellow cabs here in Bogota. We can get from where we’re staying in the Galerias area to Zona G or Zona T for around US$5.
Colombia is magical place. Colombia looks like it has something for everyone!
We’ve been intrigued by Cartegena. So we’ll be very interested to read more of your upcoming Columbia posts :-).
Colombia is stunning.
However, when a currency loses value, the prices tend to “recuperate” (by increasing). Thus, there is no guarantee that it’s 40 % cheaper. Of course, the USD will have greater purchasing power in Colombia now.
We were in Colombia last week and there had not been any significant increase in prices to make up for the exchange rate, so bargains are still to be found!
[…] from travelers, and the opportunity to practice my Spanish. And, not to be opportunistic, but the Colombian peso is currently at a record low against the dollar, making Colombia more of a budget destination than […]
I am going to visit Colombia next week. Unfortunately I will be there only a few days. Thank you for sharing such an interesting information! Best regards!
Enjoy! This link will take you to a pre-sorted index of all of the posts we’ve published, so far, about travel in Colombia https://trans-americas.com/category/country/south-america/colombia/. We’ve got dozens more posts about Colombia on the way!