Another long weekend, another trip.
I’ve been to Colombia before – but never to one of its islands!
Psyched.
Below is a photo of the budget breakdown I keep in my Excel spreadsheet:
First we booked the flight looong ago – last year on March 26th.
One thing I will always have is a trip booked for the Family Day long weekend. It’s cold. January is long as heck!! Typically once February rolls around, I need to escape ASAP.
Also, this January was the shittiest winter ever in Toronto. I really needed this one.
The flight was with Avianca and the cost was $606.00 CAD per person.
Roundtrip, carry-on included, with a quick layover both ways in Bogota.
Whether you go to mainland Colombia or to the islands, there’s a Tourist Card you’ll need to pay for.
Not sure what the cost is for mainland Colombia, but for San Andres Island it was 165,000 Colombian Pesos per person, about $61.75 CAD. You pay this during your layover in Bogota, Medellin etc. There’s usually a desk set up near your departure gate.
There were four of us going on this trip and since it was two couples, I wanted to make sure that we had two bedrooms + two bathrooms.
We found an AirBnB that looked to be close to the action, beach and had really good reviews. We also opted to book five nights in the AirBnB instead of four because we didn’t fly until the evening on the final day there – and I HATE checking out at 11am to be sweaty with my luggage outdoors or in airports until the flight time.
If the price is right – book the extra night.
You will not regret it.
Here is the link to the AirBnB, will report on our experience there in the recap.
Cost for five nights was $1011.83, so $252.95 CAD per person.
Of course, we had some excursions booked for this getaway.
The first one was a Sunrise Tour to The San Andres Natural Aquarium. The cost of this was $55.41 CAD per person and you have to be ready to go at 5:30am. Super early. Will let you know in the recap if waking up at this time of day on vacation was worth it.
The second tour was Johnny Cay and Aquarium Natural Full Day Semi-Private Boat. The cost of this was $65.20 CAD per person and it lasted 6.5 hours. For this tour the boat goes by Johnny Kay and like our sunrise tour, back to the Natural Aquarium. I was curious to see the difference between visiting early in the morning versus midday when everything is up and busy. Obviously, will also report back on this comparison in the recap.
On the day of the super early morning tour, we decided to rent a buggy to drive around the island just for the heck of it. You can book this ahead or ask your AirBnB host to help you find someone. We literally made friends with a guy on the street and had the buggy from 1pm to 7:30pm for 450,000 Colombian Pesos which was $168.19 CAD – $42.04 CAD per person.
You can get these for less or more, there’s a lot of variety on the island: buggies, golf carts, even bikes. Choose your own adventure. Typically you rent them 9am to 5-6pm for that same price we paid, but we just needed it for later in the day.
I didn’t get the name or phone number of the guy we booked ours from, sorry. It was one of those ‘we just felt like it‘ moments.
For spending money I budgeted 670,000 Colombian Pesos, so $250.00 CAD.
I wasn’t exactly sure if an island in Colombia would be as cheap or more expensive than the mainland, so I figured this was a reasonable amount for food and transportation.
The total budget for this trip is $1333.35 Canadian.
Honestly? I think this is pretty good. Could you do San Andrés for less? Absolutely. But for me, this was the sweet spot between comfort, experience, and not feeling restricted.
There are cheaper stays and less activities to do, but as I always say – I am never the one to do the least.
I will always do the most.
See you in the recap!
- Mirna