Colombia Backpacking Budget 2026: How Much I Actually Spent as a Solo Traveller

Colombia was the country I spent the most time over my 7.5 months in Latin America during my career break and I easily could’ve spent more time there. What a brilliant place full of colour, music, joy, rolling countryside, beautiful beaches and vibrant cities!

This Colombia backpacking budget breakdown may look a little on the expensive side, and I’ll go into the reasons why my spend was higher than it could be for others, but I can tell you now that it was all totally worth it to get stuck into this beautiful country, especially visiting far flung Providencia island, which is not often seen on a Colombia itinerary.

I travelled to Colombia for 7 weeks over December 2025 into January 2026 – Christmas and New Year adds to the cost of travelling anywhere, so bear this in mind if you are planning on travelling or backpacking at all over this period. I’m a solo traveller, but for a couple of weeks in Colombia I travelled with friends I had made whilst backpacking, and for the 10 days immediately after Christmas a friend of mine from home visited for a holiday, so I had a little break from the backpacking life and enjoyed some lush hotels and fancy meals out during her visit.

In order to keep this as realistic as possible for other backpackers, I’ve clearly stated where I spent more in this festive holiday period, as well as advising ways you can keep costs down during your travels in Colombia.

If you’re travelling to Colombia as part of a wider South or Latin American trip, you can check out my full budget breakdown for the 10 countries I travelled to here.

My Colombia Spend: At A Glance

Colombia Backpacking Budget Breakdown By Category

You can see my personal Colombia backpacking budget broken down by category as follows:

Accommodation Costs in Colombia for The Solo Traveller

Colombia is another country where you’ll find some of the best and most boujie hostels of the backpacker circuit – something I really appreciated as a traveller in my 30s.

Many of the hostels have pools – and a lot of them are beautiful: infinity pools overlooking the jungle, city or ocean. The hostel I stayed in for Christmas 2025 actually felt like a Caribbean resort – seriously! I didn’t stay in one ropey hostel in Colombia, and at an average of £15 a night across the time I was in the country, I think that’s pretty good.

My favourite hostels in Colombia were Masaya Minca, Masaya Cartagena and Viajero Tayrona (Christmas hostel!) and I highly recommend all of them. When the hostels are great, the itch for a private room lessens. You can read about my favourite hostels for the 30+ backpacker here.

That said, I did stay in a few private rooms over my time in Colombia, but most of these were hotels shared with my friend who was on holiday. My friend generously paid more than her share given I was backpacking, but I have included my share in the below table. It’s worth noting if you are looking for a bit of a treat stay in Colombia, prices hike up quite significantly over the Christmas and New Year period, as it’s a particularly popular time for both local and international tourism, especially in Medellin and Cartagena.

I didn’t have any choice but a private room in Providencia, so I opted for one that I would enjoy the most rather than the absolute cheapest. For £31 a night I got a solo room with breakfast, air con, hot water, fridge and spacious balcony from which to enjoy watch the slow Caribbean life go by, and it was worth every penny.

Cost of Food and Drink in Colombia

My spend on food and drink in Colombia varied pretty drastically depending on where I was within Colombia. Coffee country towns Salento and Jardin had lots of good places on the slightly cheaper end, including places serving delicious menu del dia’s at insane value: between £3 and £5 for 2 or 3 courses! I felt Bogota was reasonable for the cost of food and drink, as was Providencia island – especially considering it was an island in the middle of the Caribbean, but felt the increase in prices significantly in Medellin and touristy Cartagena.

In fairness to Medellin, I was staying in a more upmarket area and didn’t venture too far from the hostel, but I did also utilise the kitchen and cook some of my own food, which aside from during my time in Jardin is the only place I did so in Colombia. Quite a few destination hostels I stayed in were isolated, so you only had the option to eat at the hostel restaurant and couldn’t seek out cheaper alternatives, and when I was in Cartagena I was in holiday mode as my friend was visiting, so we splurged on some fantastic restaurants and cocktails whilst there.

All in all: a very varied spend on food and drink across different places in the country, but my total came out at an average of £30 per day, which includes coffees and groceries, but also quite a lot of drinking. It was Christmas, after all!

The following table shows my personal breakdown by category across food and drink spend, but doesn’t consider where I have had drinks and coffee as part of a meal (this would be categorised under restaurants as a whole).

Transport in Colombia: Getting Around As A Solo Traveller

My collective spend on transport in Colombia was a lot – over £800. However, £330 of this total was on getting to San Andres and Providencia, which is a significant portion of the total spend and something a lot of people will skip.

I’ve broken down the cost of transport in Colombia by type in the following table:

Buses

Coaches are used for the main tourist routes in Colombia and they’re comfortable: spacious and air conned. Journeys often take longer than described, though the one major exception to this was the overnight bus I took between Bogota and Armenia (to travel to Salento), which arrived at least 2 hours early due to some of the craziest driving I experienced on my whole trip. Aside from this experience, I would say that the driving was better overall than in Peru and Bolivia.

More local buses are common in the more rural areas of the backpacker trail: no air con, open doors, chickens as cargo and zero suspension (my FitBit thought I’d done 20,000 steps…). Mini vans that leave when full at the brim with passengers and cargo, known locally as ‘collectivos’ are also widely found. You are likely to encounter this style of transport between Salento and Jardin, between Tayrona and Palomino and around Minca.

Taxis

I used Uber a lot in Colombia but also Cabify, which is a similar app used in South American countries. I would check the prices of both and go with the most cost effective.

Included in this total taxi cost of £200 were the tuk tuks I took in Jardin, collectivos, the jeep from Minca town up to Masaya Minca Hostel, and a shared taxi that took me and two friends from Minca to Taryona, which cost £20 each but saved us a lot of agg, time and multiple changes. I also paid £20 for my share of a taxi between Palomino to Santa Marta when my friend was visiting instead of tackling the local bus (my friend isn’t really into the backpacker vibe!)

Internal Flights

Over £400 is a huge cost on internal flights, I know. The vast majority of this total was for the return flight from Cartagena to San Andres, and then onto Providencia from there – £330 all in. The vast majority of travellers will probably not make this journey (although Providencia is so worth it!), so bear this in mind when looking over this budget to help decide yours. I think I also inadvertently travelled over a Colombian holiday which made the flight pricier – flights not much later in the year (February and March instead of January) looked significantly cheaper when I was researching.

Activities and Experiences

There is so much to see in Colombia! From the tallest palm trees in the world in Cocora Valley, learning about coffee at one of the many farms in coffee country, hiking, bird watching, diving, walking tours to learn about the vibrant cities and museums: it is impossible to be bored in Colombia.

Activities are good value across the board: day trips never cost me more than £27, walking tours were around £10 and museum entry was either free or £1! One way I saved money was navigating the jeepney and Cocora Valley hike unguided rather than opting for the pricey option offered by the hostel.

I was travelling with friends at this point of my trip, otherwise as a solo traveller who is not confident in hiking, I would probably have joined a tour. I’m really glad we were able to do our own thing though; it gave us so much flexibility, time to head to the hummingbird cafe on the Cocora Valley hike and it cost us less than half what it otherwise would have done.

At £40 a dive, Providencia offered not only scuba diving for a reasonable price, but some beautiful and easy-going dive sites. If you’re interested in recreational diving or learning to dive on Providencia island, I cannot recommend Anda Di Wata enough.

Miscellaneous Costs to Budget For in Colombia

The miscellaneous costs you don’t think of can really add up whilst backpacking, and Colombia is no exception.

Data

I got myself a local sim card in Colombia which I topped up once to cover the 7 weeks I was travelling there. I also had an e-sim with some data on my spare phone for my time in Colombia – phone theft is common in lots of cities across South America, but I had been particularly warned for Colombia.

I spent £37 total on data over the 7 weeks which works out at just over £5 a week.

Laundry

Laundry was easy to sort and was weighed and paid by the kilo. I had laundry done 5 times and the total cost was £37.

Fees and Charges

There were a mix of fees and charges that added to my Colombia spend. Sometimes these were towel hire or to use a toilet, but the majority were on ATM fees, which were pretty hefty.

I most commonly paid 26000 COP, equivalent to around £5-5.30 depending on the week (travelling in Dec 2025 & Jan 2026). I did not find anywhere that did free ATM transactions. There was one ATM that was cheaper at 18000 COP but you couldn’t get out as much money, so it made sense to pay a bit more on the fees for more cash.

Shopping

Another country where the shopping was good and my budget suffered accordingly! I bought some clothes, jewellery, chocolate covered coffee beans (highly recommend) and a beautiful bag as well as some gifts to send home with my friend.

Beauty Treatments

Colombian women look after themselves and as such Colombia is a great place to get a mani pedi or a wax if you want one. I also got two massages during my time in Colombia, including one 2.5 hour massage and facial combination that cost me just £37!

A mani and pedi cost me £25 in Medellin and a pedicure plus gel removal cost me £28 in Cartagena. Prices definitely get higher around the coast and in Cartagena.

Toiletries

I spent £112 on toiletries during my time in Colombia which is quite a lot! I had to stock up on suncream three times, moisturiser – which was surprisingly expensive, micellar water, medicine and other toiletries.

San Andres Tourist Card

To travel to San Andres and Providencia you will need to pay for the San Andres Tourist Card at the airport. In January 2026 this cost 146,000 COP, which was around £30, but as of May 2026 this has gone up to 153,000 COP, or around £35.

You pay this at the airport after check in for your flight and can usually pay by card – but maybe take cash to be on the safe side. Keep hold of this as you will need to show it on entry to both San Andres and Providencia.

Backpacking Colombia Solo: How It Affects Your Budget

As previously mentioned, whilst I am a solo traveller, I spent half my time in Colombia travelling with friends I had made or with another friend who was visiting for a holiday. This enabled me to enjoy some hotels and private rooms over the Christmas period, but this was circumstantial and I would’ve stayed in dorms had I been solo.

I travelled to Providencia solo, and there were no dorm options available there, so I spent a bit more on accommodation there. However, a private room for five nights was much needed after 4 months on the road, and still good value at £31 a night for a room with air con, fridge, balcony and breakfast included.

I was able to share some expensive taxis in Colombia but had I been solo, I would’ve taken public transport for these journeys and that actually would’ve been cheaper than what I spent for my share of the taxis!

What Pushed My Colombia Budget Up 

Without question, Christmas, New Year and having a friend visit for a holiday added significantly to my Colombia spend. It was always going to happen; there’s no way I was going to rein it in whilst spending a Christmas away from home! I ended up being very lucky to spend this time with great travel friends, and then the arrival of my oldest friend continued the holiday mode, making the lack of regard for the budget at least two weeks long, if not more.

I stayed in a lot of hotels shared with my friend whilst she was visiting for a holiday. She very generously paid more than her share for our hotel stays given my backpacking budget, so whilst I spent more than I would have done on a hostel dorm bed, the price I paid is not accurate to the cost of the hotels at this time of year: I have simply stated how much I personally paid. Expect high costs over Christmas and New Year; anywhere you travel over this period will charge higher prices due to increased demand, so factor that into your budget regardless of where you will be.

In addition, my insistence on travelling to San Andres and Providencia added a lot to my budget as the flights were so expensive; the timing also coincided with a Colombian holiday and given San Andres is a popular destination for Colombians, flights were a lot more than you can often find them for. Again: zero regrets as Providencia was probably my favourite place I spent time on the whole of my Latin America trip. I got back into diving there too, which is an expensive hobby.

Colombia was a boozy time given the time of the year, and not many hostels I stayed in had kitchen access, which meant a high spend on meals out or at the hostel restaurant. The food in Cartagena was particularly good, so I really enjoyed checking out the restaurant scene and likely would have done so even if I did have access to a kitchen there.

Ways to Spend Less in Colombia

Skipping the boujie destination hostels will help bring your budget down, as many of them not only charge a premium (although they are worth it in my opinion), but they don’t have kitchens and you’re often isolated and only able to buy food and drinks at their on site restaurant. Staying in places with a kitchen will allow you to cook for yourself, or alternatively actively seek out local restaurants with a menu del dia on offer – usually 2 or 3 courses for a very reasonable set price (more common at lunch time).

Avoiding travelling over Christmas and New Year will help any travel budget as prices are always at a premium at this time of year, no matter where you are. Spending more time in the more rural areas of Colombia such as Salento and Jardin will keep things cheaper; cities like Medellin and Cartagena are significantly more expensive, as is the Caribbean coast in general.

Cutting out San Andres and Providencia unless you can get a far more reasonable priced flight will help with your budget. The islands are closer to Nicaragua than Colombia, so flying is the only way to get there – there isn’t even a boat service between the two islands now as seas are commonly too rough.  

Final Thoughts: Is Colombia Worth the Cost?

Colombia was one of my favourite countries I travelled to on my career break, and even where I spent more than anticipated (over the Christmas period, travelling to Providencia), everything was worth the cost – I loved it.

Please don’t let my spend put you off backpacking in Colombia. Unless you are also travelling over Christmas, have a friend visiting for a holiday and insist on paying over £300 in flights to get to far flung Providencia, you can do Colombia on a lot less money than I did! I estimate if I took away what I spent travelling to Providencia and the extra spend during my friend visiting, my overall spend for Colombia would have been approx £800-1000 less than it was.

The energy of this vibrant country should be on every backpacker’s bucket list: the rolling hills of coffee country, great beaches and colourful but complex cities feel really unique to anywhere else I have been.

If you’re planning a big Latin America trip, you can find my full budget breakdown for 7.5 months of travel here.

Colombia Backpacking Budget FAQs

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