Colombia
Bogota
A capital in the clouds, with a whole hall of Muisca gold and the best restaurant scene in Colombia.
Bogota spreads across a high Andean plateau at about 2,640 m, a capital of millions under a wall of green mountains, cool and changeable in every month of the year. Its two signature sights sit almost side by side: the Museo del Oro, which holds the world's largest collection of pre-Hispanic goldwork, and Monserrate, the church-topped peak you ride up for the whole city laid out below. Between them run the colonial lanes of La Candelaria, and to the north a city of serious restaurants, bookshops and galleries.
Suggested stay
3–4 days
Language
Spanish
Currency
COP
Timezone
UTC-5
Why you'll love Bogota
The gold room after room of Muisca and Quimbaya goldwork, ending in a dark vault that lights up around you
The old city La Candelaria's steep colonial lanes, painted end to end by some of the best street artists in Latin America
Sundays the Ciclovia closes main avenues to cars and hands them to cyclists, runners and skaters
The table ajiaco and hot chocolate with cheese at one end, the country's most ambitious kitchens at the other
Best time to visit
Jun-Sep, Dec-Mar
Dry · 19-20° days
4.653° N, 74.084° W
UTC-5 · America/Bogota
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Weather & when to go to Bogota
Month by month: typical highs and lows, rainfall and rain days.
✓ Best Jun-Sep, Dec-Mar
Conditions Jan-Feb Dry · Mar Warming · Apr-May Wet · Jun Drier · Jul-Aug Dry · Sep Warming, wet · Oct Wettest · Nov Wet · Dec Dry returns
Watch for all year altitude risk
Cards tinted by verified verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
When to avoid Bogota
No bad season - the plateau is cool all year, with mild days, cold nights and sun and showers often in the same afternoon. Apr-May and Oct-Nov are the wettest stretches, when downpours and hail turn traffic slow, while Dec-Feb and Jun-Aug tend to run drier. The real adjustment is the altitude: take the first day gently.
Top things to do in Bogota
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Museo del Oro - the world's great hoard of pre-Hispanic gold
history culture arts 👍 PopularTens of thousands of pieces from the cultures of ancient Colombia: Quimbaya poporos, Muisca votive figures, breastplates and nose rings. The finale is the Muisca raft, the El Dorado ceremony cast in gold.
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Monserrate - cable car or funicular to the city's lookout
scenic culture arts 👍 PopularThe white church on the 3,150 m peak above the centre, reached by cable car, funicular or a steep pilgrim stairway. The view runs across the whole plateau; go early, before the cloud closes in.
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Museo Botero - Botero's own art and his private collection
culture arts ⭐ Highly recommendedA colonial mansion in La Candelaria filled with Fernando Botero's rounded figures, alongside the European masters he collected and donated: Picasso, Monet, Renoir, Dali. Part of a complex of central bank museums on the same block.
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La Candelaria street art - walking the painted city
culture arts 👍 PopularBogota is one of the great street-art cities of the continent, and the old centre is where it is densest: huge murals, stencils and political pieces. A walking tour with local artists explains who painted what, and why.
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Plaza de Bolivar - cathedral, congress and the city's stage
history culture artsThe great square at the heart of the capital, flanked by the Catedral Primada, the neoclassical Capitolio, the city hall and the Palace of Justice. Pigeons, protests and pageantry, all against the mountains.
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Ciclovia - ride the Sunday streets
adventure culture arts ⭐ Highly recommendedEvery Sunday and holiday morning, more than 100 km of main roads close to traffic and the city comes out on bikes, skates and foot. Rent a bike and ride the Septima or Carrera 15 with everyone else.
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Museo Nacional - the country's story in an old prison
history culture artsColombia's oldest museum fills a star-shaped 19th-century penitentiary, its cell blocks now galleries running from pre-Columbian pottery to independence portraits and modern Colombian art.
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Paloquemao market - fruit, flowers and breakfast
foodThe city's great covered market, with a cut-flower section that is at its best early in the morning, aisles of tropical fruit to try, and counters serving tamales and caldo to the traders.
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Eat Bogota - ajiaco, tamales and chocolate with cheese
foodAjiaco santafereno is the city dish, a chicken and three-potato soup with guasca herb, capers and cream. Chocolate santafereno comes with cheese to drop into the cup. For modern Colombian cooking, Zona G and Chapinero lead the country.
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Usaquen - the Sunday flea market in a swallowed village
shopping culture artsAn old colonial village around a church and plaza, absorbed into the north of the city, where a Sunday market of crafts, antiques and street food spills through the lanes.
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Tejo - beer and gunpowder in a neighbourhood hall
nightlife music culture artsThe national sport: you lob a heavy metal puck at a clay board studded with paper packets of gunpowder that explode on a direct hit. Played in noisy halls with crates of beer on the table.
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Jardin Botanico Jose Celestino Mutis - the Andes in one garden
nature wildlifeGardens and glasshouses laid out by climate zone, from cloud forest and paramo with its frailejones to tropical rainforest, plus a large orchid collection. A calm afternoon away from the traffic.
Best areas to stay in Bogota
$ Budget $$ Mid-range $$$ Premium
Chapinero
Food & nightlife $$Bohemian, foodie, LGBTQ heart of the city
Explore hotels in Chapinero →
La Candelaria
Sightseers & backpackers $Colonial lanes, museums, hostels, street art
Explore hotels in La Candelaria →
Zona Rosa
Comfort & nightlife $$$Polished, malls, clubs, boutique hotels
Explore hotels in Zona Rosa →
Usaquen
Quiet & leafy $$$Old village plaza, calm, upmarket north
Explore hotels in Usaquen →
Live nightly prices from Booking.com, Agoda and others, centred on Bogota
Getting to & around Bogota
Getting there
Fly into BOG on the western edge of the city, then 30-60 min by road to the centre
Flight
El Dorado International (BOG)
About 15 km west of the centre and the country's main hub. Official airport taxis and app rides take 30-60 min to La Candelaria or Chapinero depending on traffic; TransMilenio feeder buses link to the network for those travelling light.
Coach
Terminal Salitre
The main bus terminal west of the centre, with long-distance coaches from Medellin, the coffee region, Cali and the coast; smaller northern terminals serve Boyaca and Villa de Leyva
Drive
Mountain highways climb onto the plateau from every direction, slow and heavy with trucks, and the city's own traffic is notoriously bad
Getting around
TransMilenio
Red articulated buses on dedicated lanes, the backbone of the city; fast but packed at rush hour, and watch your pockets
TBC
SITP buses
The blue city buses fill the gaps between TransMilenio lines on fixed stops
TBC
App rides and taxis
Use an app or a called taxi rather than hailing one on the street, especially at night
TBC
Bike
One of the longest bike-lane networks in Latin America, plus the Sunday Ciclovia
TBC
Walking
La Candelaria, Chapinero and Usaquen are walkable on their own; the distances between them are not
Free
Day trips from Bogota
Zipaquira Salt Cathedral
Full dayUnderground salt church
A cathedral carved into a working salt mine 180 m underground, with Stations of the Cross cut into the rock and a vast lit nave at the bottom. The colonial town above is worth a lunch.
Getting there
bus | car | tour
1-1.5 hr north by bus from the Portal del Norte, car or tour
Laguna de Guatavita
Full dayEl Dorado crater lake
The round green lake where Muisca chiefs, covered in gold dust, made offerings from a raft - the ritual behind the El Dorado legend. A guided path climbs to the rim through paramo.
Getting there
bus | car | tour
1.5-2 hr northeast by bus, car or tour
Villa de Leyva
1-2 daysColonial whitewashed town
A preserved colonial town of white walls and cobbles around one of the largest plazas in the Americas, with fossil sites, desert scrub and vineyards around it. Best with a night.
Getting there
bus | car
3-4 hr north by bus or car
Suesca
Full daySandstone climbing crag
A long line of sandstone cliffs beside a railway track, Colombia's best-known climbing area, with local guides running beginner sessions and walks along the Bogota river below.
Getting there
bus | car
1.5-2 hr north by bus or car
Chingaza National Park
Full dayHigh paramo lakes
Misty paramo of frailejones and glacial lagoons that supplies most of the city's water, with marked trails and a chance of spectacled bears. Visits are controlled, so go with a guide.
Getting there
car | tour
2-3 hr east by car or tour
A little history of Bogota
Before the Spanish, the savanna was Muisca country, a confederation of farmers and goldsmiths whose ruler at Bacata gave the city its name. Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada founded Santa Fe de Bogota on the site in 1538, and it grew into the seat of the Viceroyalty of New Granada, a city of churches, convents and colonial administrators cut off from the coast by weeks of mountain travel.
Independence started here in 1810, and after Bolivar's victory at Boyaca the city became capital of Gran Colombia and then of the republic. The assassination of Jorge Eliecer Gaitan in 1948 set off the Bogotazo riots that burned much of the centre and opened a long era of violence in the countryside. The city that emerged grew to many millions, and it is known now as much for civic experiments - the TransMilenio buses, the Sunday Ciclovia, public libraries - as for its colonial core.
Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada founds Santa Fe de Bogota on the Muisca savanna
The city becomes the permanent seat of the Viceroyalty of New Granada
A quarrel over a borrowed flower vase on 20 July sparks the break with Spain
After Bolivar's victory at Boyaca, Bogota becomes capital of Gran Colombia
The central bank begins buying pre-Hispanic gold, the start of the Museo del Oro
The assassination of Jorge Eliecer Gaitan sets off the Bogotazo riots, which burn much of the centre
The first Ciclovia closes city streets to cars on a Sunday
M-19 guerrillas seize the Palace of Justice on Plaza de Bolivar, and the building is destroyed in the army's retaking
TransMilenio opens, a bus rapid transit system later copied across the world
Know before you go
Payment
Cash preferred
English
Limited
Wifi
Reliable
Power
Type A / B
110 V, 60 Hz
Dialing
+57
Altitude risk in this window; check current conditions before you go.
Mobile network & SIM card
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FAQs about Bogota
▸ When is the best time to visit Bogota?
Any month works, because the temperature barely changes through the year. Dec-Feb and Jun-Aug tend to be the drier, sunnier stretches, while Apr-May and Oct-Nov bring the heaviest rain. Every month can still deliver sun, cloud and a downpour in a single day.
▸ Does the altitude affect you in Bogota?
At about 2,640 m, many visitors feel it on the first day or two: breathlessness on stairs, mild headaches, poorer sleep and alcohol hitting harder. Take it easy at first, drink plenty of water and leave Monserrate, which is higher again, until you have settled in.
▸ What should I pack for Bogota?
Layers and a waterproof. Days are mild and the high sun burns quickly, but cloud brings a sharp chill, nights are cold and many buildings have no heating. A warm jacket, an umbrella and sunscreen all earn their place in the same bag.
▸ Is Bogota safe for visitors?
Most visits pass without trouble, but petty theft is common. Keep your phone out of sight on the street, use app rides or called taxis rather than hailing one, and avoid walking La Candelaria and the centre after dark. Busy TransMilenio buses are pickpocket territory.
▸ How many days do you need in Bogota?
Three days covers the Museo del Oro, the Botero museum and La Candelaria, Monserrate and an evening in Chapinero. A fourth adds the Salt Cathedral at Zipaquira or Guatavita, and plan around a Sunday if you can, for the Ciclovia and the Usaquen market.
More in Colombia
Cali
The world capital of salsa, where you come to learn the steps and stay for the nights.
✓ best Jun-Oct, Dec-MarCartagena
The best-preserved walled city in the Americas, and the Caribbean at its most operatic - ramparts, cathedral bells and champeta on the corner after dark.
✓ best Dec-AprMedellin
The city of eternal spring, and the most remarkable urban turnaround in the Americas - ridden up the hillsides by cable car.
✓ best Jan-Feb