bluefive5

In March we are flying into Bucaramanga, Colombia and is 114 km to San Gil, Colombia. Thinking of renting a car at BGA and making the 2 hour drive to San Gil. Recently I have rented cars in Ecuador and Costa Rica without problems. Is it more difficult to drive on this route in Colombia.

Other alternative is a taxi. Anyone know what that might cost?

miguel0881

Made this trip a couple of years ago by taxi from Bucaramanga airport through San Gil and onto Barichara. I don't remember exactly what it cost but I want to say around USD 150 for the one way.

The Chicamocha Canyon is a good stopping point along the way. We had the driver wait for us there for a couple of hours while we explored the park and took the cable car.

As a note, the road from Bucaramanga to the top of the canyon is very curvy if you're prone to motion sickness. A great trip though!

coolcoil

I can't compare driving in Colombia to Ecuador, but I do drive in Colombia every day and I can tell you it's doable. You have to pay a lot more attention and you cannot drive as fast as in the USA or the UK, but you get used to that quickly.

I looked at some Google street view pictures along your route, and the road looks pretty good. That's a drive I would like to make myself.

drvannostren

I wouldn't drive it, I can't say I have experience driving THAT route, but just having spent enough time in Colombia and on some of the mountainous roads, I just wouldn't wanna be doing that.

Honestly the cost for a bus or taxi will likely be pretty decent especially if you're not travelling by yourself (you did say WE) vs renting a car and insurance. If you have decent Spanish you could easily negotiate something with a cabby too for like a day rate or something. If I'm not mistaken on the pricing charts in the cars they have a low hourly/day rate though I've never actually enquired, it's there, so why not try and get someone else to do the drive.

This is all moot if you just wanna drive and be able to say "I did this" or whatever, then by all means, just go for it and ignore the costs.

FlyingIsCool

It depends.

Do you like to drive? Then go for it! It shouldn't be a problem. Roads are great. You can stop wherever you want.

If you don't like to drive, then just take a bus. It's more of an adventure (well, if you are into that).

AA_EXP09

or maybe that is a better alternative because it costs less?

FlyingIsCool

Less cost is not always a better alternative

coolcoil

I'm not a fan of taxis or hiring drivers that have not come recommended by a reliable source. I would say that about 20% of the time I take a taxi in Colombia I get somebody who drives like a maniac, the car has serious safety deficiencies or both. I have had some terrifying rides between my town and Medellin.

I would much prefer to rent a car from a reputable company and be in charge of my own destiny. It must be noted though, that car rentals here are pretty expensive. If you stick with the smallest car the company offers, it's not too bad, but always much more than I have paid in other countries, especially if you have to take the insurance too. Cars are very expensive here thanks to high excise taxes, and the rental rates reflect that.

alamedaguy

I have a similar question about driving vs bus vs taxi. It will be my wife and I with our three kids, 8, 5, and 2 years old. We are flying into Armenia then hoping to hit Salento/Valle de Cocora, Termales de Santa Rosa, Manizales, and Reserva Ecologica Rio Blanco. We are flying back out of Manizales, which I suppose might be an issue for renting a car. I think with the kids taxis would be preferable to the bus, but I haven't been able to find much info on long distance taxis and we don't speak Spanish, unfortunately. Any advice?

coolcoil

Taxis here are typically small. 5 people, even with three little kids is not going to work. They do have minivan taxis here, but in my experience they are not for private hire like you need. I would look into a car or finding a private driver with a larger vehicle.

Another option would be to look at bus routes. Personally, I think taking the buses here generally works pretty well. However, I think it would be very stressful with no Spanish and 3 kids.

You might want to PM FT user JohnnyColombia. I believe that he is in the business of arranging things like that here in Colombia.

alamedaguy

Thanks.

JohnnyColombia gave me the name of milanocar.com, who took care of our needs. Someone met us at the Armenia airport with a car then met us in Manizales a few days later. Driving went pretty well, though we got lost in the cities a few times since the roads were a little complicated. As the navigator, I sometimes found it hard to follow along with directions like these from google maps.

Continue onto Cl. 18/Salida A Armenia
Continue to follow Salida A Armenia
700 m

Continue onto Route 29
260 m

Continue straight to stay on Route 29
260 m

Continue onto Salida A Armenia
190 m

Continue straight onto Route 29
94 m

Slight right to stay on Route 29
100 m

Continue onto Cl. 16a
100 m

Continue onto Cra. 12/Av. Ferrocarril
Continue to follow Av. Ferrocarril
850 m

Continue onto Pereira-Manizales/Viaducto Cesar Gaviria Trujillo
900 m

We also got pulled over when my wife made a left where it wasn't allowed, but the officer just told us we needed to pay better attention to the signs then led us where we were trying to go. ^

coolcoil

I'm glad to hear it went well. Though, you are the first people that I've ever heard of being pulled over for a traffic violation in Colombia. IME, the only traffic enforcement is speed cameras and speed bumps with the occasional paperwork checkpoint thrown in.

This doesn't help you, but may help others: I recommend the Waze app instead of Google Maps in Colombia. Waze downloads the map of your route to your phone, so if you lose internet connection it still works with just the GPS connection (unlike Google). Waze also provides turn-by-turn instructions as you go, which does not seem to be the case for Google.

JohnnyColombia

You never been "pulled over" as a pedestrian though to have your documents checked? Happens to me all the time

Completely agree with this, another issue with Google maps is that is is crowdsourced. No disrespect to my august host country but Colombians are really crap at meddling badly with it, putting in wrong street numbers, adding the direction wrongly, or business owners managing to put their hotel/bar etc in the wrong street. Waze just works

coolcoil

No, it's never happened to me in the nine years I've been here (knock on wood). But, I live in a smaller town, not a city. That may be the difference. The only paperwork check I've ever run into was a late-night police road block where they were looking for drunk drivers. I just had to show my license and registration.

Of course, now that I've said that, I'll probably get stopped every day for the next three weeks.