drvannostren

I went to PEI a couple months ago on a day trip. I base myself (when I'm there) out of MDE but I feel the need to see other parts of the country. So I headed out on Easyfly to PEI for a day/overnight trip. It's a nice city, a bit bigger than I thought it might be but it's also a bit sleepier than I thought. I went there took a bus into town got a bit lost, cabbed back downtown, walked around, met some nice people found a hotel stayed overnight and left in the morning.

It's a nice relaxing way of travelling, just hitting the ground and not having anything in mind. Turn on some podcasts and just walk, take in the city, see what's what. The airport is brilliantly small, there's virtually nothing to it, it's like a northern Canadian one only with better weather .

As far as it being international, that JFK flight puzzles me a bit. I can't imagine too many people from PEI needing to go to JFK but hey that's just me. Even adding the CTG pax, I don't really see it. As someone who's in Colombia enough to know the size and stuff, I really don't see the downside of a quick flight to BOG then onwards to anywhere in the world. Unless you're going to south florida or panama I don't see a need for international flights from CTG/MDE/PEI/AXM/SMR or anywhere other than BOG.

MDE has a glut of flights on CM to PTY all day, it's cheapish and service is fine but low and with PTY's connections to anywhere in North/Central/South America, those make sense to me. But like they had MDE-MAD at one point as well I think and that just seems kinda wasteful. There's 25-30 flights a day from MDE-BOG and sure maybe PAX don't wanna do that but it makes sense.

End of story after tangent...Pereira is nice, the bridge is nice and has good views, but there's no MAJOR draw to go there other than to now say I've been and I'd be happy to go back if I had a reason to.

drvannostren

If it's a house right on the beach I can't see how it'd be worth nothing. Even if you can only spend 6 months a year there, even if it's cumbersome, would it not be a good purchase for either rich Colombians to have a sick vacation home or for a foreigner to buy something on the cheap and either rent it out for days here and there or even just use it himself from time to time?

I'd love to go to San Andres and Providencia, haven't gotten around to it yet and the cumbersome aspect + the costs of flights kinda have me balked at it. Plus I'm not going by myself it's more of a with the girlfriend kinda trip and I'm not in any kinda situation for that at this particular time haha. That said when I was and anecdotally, I get the feeling San Andres isn't that sought after for Colombians most of the people I know would rather go to Panama or the big one being Cancun, as far as beach going goes...no one wants to go to Cartagena, either cuz they've already been there or they just know better. I liked CTG but the heat was so intense I had a rough time with it as well.

JohnnyColombia

I think Pereira has a few nice things going for it. Of course there are lots of amazing things surrounding it, like coffee.

1) It is the only major Colombian city that I know of where the centre is lively and safe during the night. I think this is quite a big deal. You can go, hang out in the plaza comerical on the main square, walk safely to tonnes of shabby chic bars. You wouldn't do that in Medellín, Manizales, Bogotá, Bucaramanga etc. unless you were packing a big lunch.

2) Generalising some but the people there are very affable and humble, you are unlikely to get into an argument with a pereirano/a

3) It has a quirky affinity for old music like Rocio Durcal and Roberto Carlos. It's a veritable latino cheese fest, but the music seems consistent all over the city and gives the place a flavour of its own.

Regarding the PEI CTG JFK flight. It's actually excellent for tourism as you can do the coffee zone and CTG without backtracking through Bogotá. Probably not many cafeteros go to NYC but plenty will go to CTG and plenty of people from CTG to JFK. I wonder if AV started the route because it is genuinely useful of if they want to run Viva Colombia of town.

I think AV still flies MDE and CLO to MAD, maybe even MDE to BCN too. Bear in mind that Medellín is bigger than Chicago and not far off LA in terms of population. If it were in the USA then it would be the third biggest city and probably none of us would question its international connections. Doesn't surprise me one bit that there are plenty of international connections from there.

JohnnyColombia

I think you must hang out with more aspirational Colombians than I do. A lot of bogotanos will not hear a word against San Andrés, despite their fondness for it being based on an arguably outdated view.

I am always surprised how many people here in the capital have never even seen the sea, I'd guess it is over 50%