Colombia holidays

Cartagena de Indias is the country's headline Caribbean destination. Founded in 1533 by Pedro de Heredia, it became Spain's most-important port in the New World — the bullion ships departed for Seville from here. The result is a UNESCO-listed colonial walled city with 11km of preserved fortifications (the longest fortifications in South America), candy-colored stucco facades, balconies dripping with bougainvillea, and a deep Afro-Caribbean cultural layer that's closer to Havana or Salvador da Bahia than to Bogota or Medellin. The Walled City (Centro Historico) and Getsemani (the formerly-edgy quarter that's now the trip's most-photographed area with the famous "Umbrella Street" and the Plaza Trinidad) are walkable. The offshore Rosario Islands are a 45-minute boat from the main port — day-trips to the boutique-resort island of Isla Baru (or the splurge Sofitel Baru Calablanca for an overnight) reach the Caribbean beach without the all-inclusive vibe.

Medellin's reinvention is one of Latin America's great urban-renewal stories. In 1991 it was the world's most-violent city (murder rate 380/100,000). Today's rate is around 14/100,000 — lower than several US cities. The Metro Cable cable-car-as-public-transit system (the first such municipal system in the world) connects the steep hillside slums of Comuna 1 and Santo Domingo to the metro network — both a transport solution and a social-integration symbol. Comuna 13 (in the western hills) was the most-violent neighbourhood during the cartel years; today it's the headline tourist destination with the dramatic outdoor escalators (a 2011 public-works project that reduced commuting time from 35 minutes uphill to 5 minutes), street-art murals telling the neighbourhood's history, and the local hip-hop scene. The Casa de la Memoria museum tells the cartel-era story unflinchingly.

The food: arepas (the corn cake, varied by region — the thicker arepa de huevo from the Caribbean, the smaller paisa from Antioquia, the choclo sweet-corn version), bandeja paisa (Antioquia's mountain breakfast — pork, rice, beans, plantain, avocado, fried egg, chorizo, chicharron), the seafood ceviches of the Caribbean coast, ajiaco (the Bogota chicken-and-potato soup), the fruit varieties unknown to Europe (lulo, guanabana, maracuya, cherimoya, feijoa, pitaya — best at Bogota's Paloquemao market). Coffee is exceptional — the country's coffee-growing region is a UNESCO Cultural Landscape, and single-origin Huila, Caldas, Antioquia and Sierra Nevada beans now compete with the world's top specialty origins. Salsa is the Caribbean coast's music; cumbia originated here; reggaeton in Medellin (J Balvin, Maluma, Karol G all from here); plus the Andean folkloric vallenato in Valledupar.

UK travellers don't need a visa for stays up to 90 days. Colombia uses the Colombian Peso (COP) — high inflation in 2022-23 has the currency at roughly 5,000 COP to the GBP. Spanish is the universal language with a distinctive Colombian accent (clear, considered one of the easier Latin American accents for learners); English is patchy outside upscale tourism and the young in Bogota and Medellin. Direct UK flights are limited — most travellers route via Madrid, Frankfurt, Amsterdam or via the US East Coast. Internal flights connect everything quickly and cheaply on Avianca, Latam and Wingo.

Best for: colonial-city travellers, coffee enthusiasts (Colombia's coffee-growing region is one of the world's finest), photographers (Cartagena and the Cocora Valley wax palms are postcard-iconic), salsa and music travellers, Pablo Escobar-history travellers (handle with care), adventure travellers (the Lost City trek, paragliding from San Gil, snorkelling at Tayrona). Often combined with Ecuador, Peru, Panama (Cartagena-Panama City is 75 minutes by flight), or as a 2-week standalone.