Our guides’ recommendations in Bogotá

This is the list we give to everyone who walks with us on the free tour. It is not a catalogue: these are the places we send our own friends to, and the ones people ask us about every week at the end of the walk.

It is built for the three or four days a first visit to Bogotá usually lasts. If something here helps you, tell us; if something has closed or changed, tell us too.

First things first: getting cash

ATMs do not all charge the same. Caja Social and Davivienda charge the lowest fees on foreign cards. Check which works out better with your own bank — over a week the difference is not small.

Carry some cash: many small places, markets and taxis do not take cards.

What to eat

Bogotá food is not the Colombian food of the coast. It is highland cooking: soup and maize.

The dishes: ajiaco (Bogotá's soup, with three kinds of potato and guascas), changua (a milk and egg soup, eaten at breakfast), chocolate con queso (yes, the cheese goes inside the hot chocolate).

To snack on: almojábana, pan de bono, buñuelo, oblea, bocadillo, salchipapa, tamal, brevas con arequipe, cuajada con mora y arequipe.

Where to have lunch

• San Felipe — Calle 12B #6-30, in La Candelaria. Everyday food at neighbourhood prices.
• La Bruja — Calle 12 #3-45, also downtown.
• Andrés Carne de Res — Calle 82 #12-21. Order the lomo al trapo and the arepa de choclo. The one in Chía is bigger and wilder — we go there on one of our tours.

Coffee

Colombia exports its best coffee, but some of it stays in Bogotá. Amor Perfecto, San Alberto, Café Quindío, La Mesa de los Santos and Juan Valdez. San Alberto is one of the most awarded coffees in the country.

Museums

• Gold Museum — the most important pre-Columbian goldwork collection in the world.
• Botero Museum — free entry, every day.
• National Museum — housed in a former panopticon prison.

Going out at night

BBC and Quiebracanto to start. Theatron is the biggest party in Bogotá, with several rooms and several kinds of music at once. The Zona T is where the bars and restaurants are. And if you happen to be here on a Tuesday, Vintrash.

Places worth your time

• Monserrate — the mountain you can see from anywhere in the city.
• Paloquemao market — the big one. Take a vehicle even if it looks close.
• Perseverancia market — smaller, good for lunch.
• Planetarium — the 360° dome.
• Colpatria Tower — viewpoint.
• Usaquén flea market — Sundays only.
• Botanical Garden — do not miss the tropicarium.
• Distrito Graffiti — an industrial district painted top to bottom.

Getting out of Bogotá

This is what people ask us most. Here are the places, and we say plainly which ones we run tours to.

• Zipaquirá Salt Cathedral — the first wonder of Colombia, a cathedral carved inside a working mine. We run this tour.
• Guatavita Lake — where the ceremony behind the El Dorado legend took place. We visit it together with Zipaquirá.
• A coffee farm near Bogotá — bean to cup, in a day. We run this tour.
• Nemocón salt mine — less known than Zipaquirá, and more authentic. We run this tour: write to us.
• Villa de Leyva — a colonial town with the largest cobbled square in the Americas. We run this tour: write to us.
• Chicaque Park — cloud forest, hiking. We run this tour: write to us.
• Chingaza páramo — the ecosystem that gives Bogotá its water. We run this tour: write to us.
• Jaime Duque Park — amusement park with a zoo. We run this tour: write to us.

To understand the country

If you want to know why people in Bogotá talk about the Palace of Justice the way they do, this documentary tells it: the siege of the Palace of Justice (in Spanish).

Questions?

Write to us on WhatsApp and we will tell you. We would rather answer than have you lose a morning at a place that is closed.