Bogota is really nice, older city. It is the capital of Columbia. This city is situated 8,660 ft above sea level, so even though we didn’t get sick roaming around town, we definitely had to take breaks walking around to catch our breath. Despite what you might have heard about Columbia, Bogota is fairly safe for tourist. That may not be the case females traveling solo, but I felt pretty safe touring through the city as long as Dan was around, during the day of course. It is quite a beautiful city with so much history and is super affordable. We were only here for 3 days, but did quite a bit during that time.

We stayed at the Hilton Resort. Being Hilton members, they always treat us so well when we stay with them. We figured we would stay here since we were in a foreign country where they speak very little English. FYI very few people here speak English, so it’ll be best to either learn Spanish or download the google translator app. The google translator app helps get things flowing much easier.

Places to see in Bogota…

1. Mount Monserrate

Monserrate is a hill right in the city of Bogota. It is 10, 341 ft above sea level. The best way to get here is through the funicular or cable car. Just for the view and the experience going up and down the mountain in a funicular was worth the visit. They keep up the gardens beautifully here . There is a small church on the top of the mountain, where you can attend mass. There is a flea-market in the back with arts and crafts and lots of small restaurants. There is a main restaurant there, Restaurants Casa Santa Clara, which was a really nice dining spot. You get a really nice view of the city from here and the food was pretty good. Definitely try their empanadas!

2. Museo Botero

If you like art, this is the place to go! Fernando Botero is such an amazing artist. This museum has such a huge section of art work to roam through. Of the 208 art pieces on display here, 123 were of his own and 85 were of other international artists. It was definitely worth the trip.

3. Museo del Oro

This is the Museum of Gold. It’s a really big museum that has a wide display gold and other metal alloys. It’s pretty neat seeing the different artifacts and learning the history of gold and how it could be molded into different designs. This museum is in the downtown area, so you can walk around town here and see really cool building and do a little shopping.

4. Salt Cathedral of Zipaquira

This is a must do! Although it’s not exactly in Bogota, it is definitely worth the trip. We had to take an uber here which was about an 1 and a half hour here, but the uber here is cheap. I think it was around $30 each way.

The Salt Cathedral of Zipaquira is an underground Roman Catholic church built within the tunnels of a salt mine approximately 200 meters underground in a mountain near the town of Zipaquirá. The audio tour takes you through the birth, life and death of Jesus in full details. Each cross were hand carved in the halite rock in great details.

5. Jardin Botanico De Bogota

This was nice botanical garden. Its pretty big here so you can get in a nice walk. There were different plants and flowers and many ponds with little waterfalls to check out. It’s a nice place to visit if you have the time.

Places to Eat…

Unfortunately, Yelp doesn’t work here so we were not able to log on to see recommended restaurants close by to us. However we were able to use Google. One of the places that came highly recommended to us by other tourists was Andres Carne. The place was quite interesting. They have a large menu, but their food was ok. I think you come here more for the experience. It’s like a restaurant/bar thats pretty hip. You also have to try the tapas here. It’s pretty good. We went to Tapas Macarena. I really enjoyed it here. They had a nice selection of tapas and I thought it was good.

Other than that, I was really surprised how unimpressive with the food was here. They were mostly ok, but nothing spectacular and Dan felt the same. The only thing we both really enjoyed were the empanadas. Columbia really doesn’t have the recipe down for the empanadas so definitely get you filling in here with them.

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page” – Augustine of Hippo