Three trips to take inspiration from, depending on how long you have, what to prioritise in each and which Passport story every stop points to.
These three trips are not a fixed itinerary or a booking: they are three ways of ordering a trip around the time you have. Every stop is a real place and, where one exists, points to the story we have already published about it. Opening times, fares and availability are always confirmed by each place.
Two days: one village, one mountain
The short version works with a single rule: one town per day. Trying to fit in more turns the trip into a transfer.
Day 1 · Salento and the Cocora Valley
Start early in the Cocora Valley, home to the wax palms, Colombia's national tree. It is the walk almost nobody skips, and the one that rewards morning light most. Leave the afternoon for Salento: its main street, the craft workshops and the view from the lookout.
Day 2 · Filandia
Filandia is the same village postcard with fewer visitors. Here the craft leads: basketry has its own story in Del Bejuco al Canasto, where you can watch the vine being woven. And the table carries the day: Helena Adentro and Cocina de la Loca are two kitchens we have already written about.
Three days: coffee joins in
With one more day, coffee stops being a souvenir you buy and becomes something you understand.
Day 3 · Coffee culture
Give the day to a farm that explains the full process, from seed to cup. If you are travelling with children, or want the festive side of the tradition, Parque Los Arrieros, in Quimbaya, tells the story of the muleteer culture through performance and craft.
Five days: the Quindío that is not in the photos
From the fourth day the trip changes character: you leave the busiest circuit behind.
Day 4 · Slow pace
Circasia, Pijao and Córdoba are towns for walking without an agenda. The plan here is the main square, the corner café and the conversation; after two days in the mountains, this is the rest that makes the trip feel long in the best sense.
Day 5 · Adventure or a blank page
To finish on adrenaline, high-mountain flying out of Salento has its own story in Paramotrek. And if you would rather close with no plan at all, that works just as well: something usually turns up that was never on the list.
If your trip lands on a festival
The festival calendar changes the mood of a whole town. In Events and Fairs we gather the ones we cover, with what is known about each. The final programme is always confirmed by its organiser and can change, so it is worth checking close to the date.
Taking it into the app
- Look up each stop in Explore, by town or by what you feel like doing, and see it on the map to understand what sits near what.
- Check the editorial routes: journeys curated by the team, with their stops in order, useful as the backbone of a day.
- Build the day in My trip, your private plan of up to five stops: reorder it and open it in Maps as you head out. It requires signing in.
- Save whatever you do not get to. Almost nobody completes five days on the first visit, and that list is where the next trip starts.