Entry requirements | Organizing your trip | Visiting | Eating | Paying | Speaking |

Entry requirements

Passport and visa service

Visa for Colombia

Diplomatic representations

Colombian Embassies

For more information

Diplomatic Mission of Colombia in Rome
4, Via Giuseppe Pisanelli
00196 Rome
Phone: (+39) 3612131, 3614348
Fax: (+39) 3225798
eroma@minrelext.gov.co

Organizing your trip

Means of transport recommended in town

Recommendation

Getting around town is usually by bus or taxi. Big cities have a fast lane bus service, quicker and safer than the traditional bus network. The urban bus system Transmilenio, in Bogota, has had a lot of success over the last few years.

Maps of urban networks

Maporama
UT Library on line
Mapblast

Means of transport recommended in the rest of the country

Rail companies

Aviatur Travel and Tourism Agency (in Spanish)

Flight from Greece

The aircraft companies Air France and Iberia and Lufthansa operate regular flights from Athens to Bogota. To find out air connections from Greece to Colombia click here

Traveling by yourself

Recommendation

You are advised to drive very carefully or, even better, to take a taxi booked by telephone. The highway code being not fully respected, the rule of the strongest prevails. It is strongly recommended not to drive at night. An international driving license is required.
Traveling between cities is generally by bus or by airplane according to the distance. Since the setting up of policies to make the country more secure, road journeys between cities are relatively safe.
Getting fuel is suitably and regularly assured all over the country.

Road maps

Find an itinerary

Visiting

Different forms of tourism

Historical

-Museum of Gold in Bogota
-The Caribbean Sea coasts and San Andres y Providenzia Islands, off Nicaragua

Beach

Colombia, the fourth country of the sub-continent in area, has an extremely diverse relief. In addition, it is the only country bordered by both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, nearly 3 000 km of coastline. The landscapes of western Colombia are characterized by the mountains of the Cordillera of the Andes. Several summits rise to about 5 000 m; the highest summits in the country are in the Sierra de Santa Marta, the highest coastal range in the world. The Andes are divided into two chains: the western Cordillera and the central Cordillera. Two great rivers irrigate the valleys, the Magdalena and the Cauca. The east of the country is composed of two large regions: the Llanos, the vast plains of the Orinoco, and in the south, the Amazonian region, bordering Peru and Brazil.

Colombia offers tourists all possible climates, from the tropical beaches on the Caribbean and Pacific coasts, the mountains of the Cordillera of the Andes, and many other curiosities. For further information about tourism in Colombia, consult the website of the Colombian Tourism Office.

Tourism organizations

Aviatur
Ministry of trade, industry and tourisme.

Eating

Food specialties

Colombian gastronomy is like its people, a mix of Spanish, Amerindian and African cuisines. Meals most often start with a vegetable or meat-based soup, the main course is generally beef, pork or chicken accompanied by rice, plantains, red beans, manioc or potatoes and a salad. On the Pacific and Caribbean coasts, meals consist of a soup of fish and guinea bananas or plantains, and fish, most often fried, accompanied by coconut rice and fried plantains. Desserts consist of all sorts of fruit (apples, citrus fruit, bananas, strawberries...) including many tropical fruits, unknown or almost in our latitudes (curuba, zapote, uchuva, guanabana...). As for pastries, you can find coconut flans and cakes, as well as other specialties...

For further information about Colombian gastronomy (typical dishes and recipes) click here.

Drinks

Meals are accompanied by tropical fruit juices, with fabulous tastes (lulo, passion fruit, papaya, tamarindo...) or sodas of different flavours. Coffee is, of course, the national drink, and it is served everywhere. Black, it is "tinto" and with a little milk "pintado". It is generally quite sweet unless you ask otherwise, and it is more or less strong according to the region. There are several cheap local beers; Aguila, Costeña and Poker are those drunk most. As for strong spirits, aguardiente is drunk without too much moderation by the middle classes, as well as rum on the Caribbean coast.

Dietary taboos

There are no food restrictions in Colombia.

Paying

Domestic currency

Colombian Peso

ISO Code

COP

To obtain domestic currency

The currency is the Colombian peso. It is issued in bills of 1 000, 2 000, 5 000 and 10 000 pesos and in coins of 20, 50, 100, 200 and 500 pesos.

Possible means of payment

In large cities, you can pay with a credit card; in rural areas and in small shops, you pay in cash.

Exchange rate on

Automatic Teller Machines (ATM)

To find out the locations of ATMs in in Colombia, click on the link to your credit card: Visa, Mastercard or American Express

Speaking

Official language

Spanish.

Other languages spoken

There are still approximately 60 Amerindian languages in Colombia, and palenquero which is spoken by the Afro-descendants of the Palenque region.

Business language

Spanish, English.

Getting some knowledge

Free translation tools

Babel Fish - Free English-Spanish-English translation of texts and web pages
Systran - Free French-Spanish-French translation of texts and web pages
Dictionarios.com - Free Spanish-Catalan-English-French Dictionary
sensagent - Free Greek-Spanish-Greek dictionary
hexagone - Not Free Greek-Spanish-Greek translator

We can translate your foreign-language documents.

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