ToursColombia - Tourist and Business Information about visiting Colombia

General Facts about Colombia

English / Español

Tourism

Known for its diversity of cultures and customs and for its architectural and patrimonial wealth, Bogotá offers residents and visitors all the features of a modern city: a vibrant, diverse cultural and intellectual life, restaurants, night clubs, and a great variety of entertainment spots. The city is famous for its colonial architecture, its collection of pre-Columbian gold handiwork, its colonial churches and museums. At the same time, it is also a city of futuristic architecture and modern buildings.

> Read testimonials from our Tourist guests

Business

Bogotá offers foreign business persons a privileged and well-equipped city centre for doing business, with its hemispherically strategic location, airport infrastructure, skilled work force, good universities, public utilities, telecommunications, urban infrastructure and variety of competitively priced productive resources. It serves as headquarters for research and technology centres and is an easily accessible, large consumer market. All these features make the city an ideal platform for international business.

> Read testimonials from our Business guests

> Link to Corferia Events

Medical Tourism

Colombia has established itself as a world class destination for quality low cost medical procedures ranging from aesthetic / plastic surgery to dental treatments. There is a wide choice of modern clinics to choose from all of whom are utilising the latest surgical techniques.

> Read testimonials from our Medical tourist guests

Living in Bogotá

Bogotá boasts the highest quality-of-life indicators of any Colombian city, while ranking sixth among the cities of Latin America. According to the UBS, in 2000 Bogotá had a standard basket of goods 2.2 times less expensive than New York and 1.9 times less expensive than Caracas. Among the Latin American capitals only Asuncion and Quito have a lower cost of living than Bogotá, so considering the value of the basket of goods and per-capita income, living in Bogotá is a relative bargain.

Security

Bogotá has gone to great lengths to change its crime rate and its image with increasing success after being considered in the mid-90s one of the most violent cities in the world. In 1993 alone it had 4,352 intentional homicides and a rate of 80 per 100,000 people. The success was the result of a participatory and integrated security policy, "Communidad Segura", that was first adopted in 1995 and continues to be enforced. In 2007, Bogotá had a murder rate of 20 persons per 100,000 inhabitants with 1,401 fatalities. Today, Bogotá has one of the lowest murder rates within the main South American cities. Rates are lower than Sao Paulo, Caracas, and Rio de Janeiro.

> Links to Embassies, Tourist & Business pages

General Facts

Bogotá: Capital and political, administrative, economic and cultural center of Colombia.

Location: Plateau in the eastern chain of the Andes Mountains, 2640m above sea level.

Area: 1732 km2, or 173,200 hectares.

Currency: Colombian Peso (COP)

Language: Spanish

Seasons: Due to its location near the equator, Bogotá does not have seasons.

Climate: Pleasant climate all year, with an average annual temperature of 14°C (57°F).

Int. Airport: El Dorado International Airport is located 11km from the center of the city.

Nat. Carrier: Avianca

Metro: No metro available

Buses: TransMilenio (using specialist bus lanes), local buses

Cycles: Extensive bicycle lane network, Ciclovia (Sundays & Festivals).

Health: Modern & extensive health system

Health Tourism: Well reputed plastic surgeons at reduced costs compared to foreign provision.

Education: Well developed primary, secondary & University education

(>50 Bilingual schools)

Banking: National & multinational providers.

Large ATM network (maestro, Visa, Mastercard)

Single transaction limit of 300-400.000 COP / transaction

Daily transaction limit of 1.000.000 COP / day

Airlines Serving Colombia

List of airline carriers with direct flights from Bogotá, El Dorado international airport.

AeroGal - Quito

Aerolineas Argentinas - Buenos Aires-Ezeiza, Lima

AIRES - Maracaibo

Air Canada - Toronto-Pearson

Air Comet - Madrid

Air France - Paris-Charles de Gaulle

American Airlines - Miami

Avianca - Aruba, Barcelona, Buenos Aires-Ezeiza, Caracas, Cancun [seasonal], Curaçao,

Fort Lauderdale, Guayaquil, Lima, Los Angeles, Madrid, Mexico City, Miami, New York-JFK, Panama City, Porlamar, Punta Cana, Quito, Santo Domingo, Santiago de Chile, São Paulo-Guarulhos, Washington-Dulles

Avianca operated by SAM Aruba, Curaçao, Guayaquil, San José de Costa Rica, Valencia

Continental Airlines - Houston-Intercontinental, Newark

Copa Airlines - Panamá City

Copa Airlines operated by AeroRepública Caracas, Panama City, Porlamar, Punta Cana

Cubana de Aviacion - Havana

Delta Air Lines - Atlanta, New York-JFK

Emirates Airlines - Dubai, Frankfurt [begins 2009] [2]

Dutch Antilles - Express Curaçao

Iberia - Madrid

JetBlue Airways - Orlando

LAN Airlines - Miami, Santiago de Chile

LAN - Perú Lima