Airline Schedules
To Get You To The Land
Of Sun, Sea And Beaches

Airline Schedules for planning a trip to the land of beach vacations and palm trees pose no great challenges, just one airport stop in Colombia gets you to Santa Marta.

Unfortunately you cannot fly direct from Fort Lauderdale, Miami. or other US destinations. Life would be so much easier if the airline schedules included Santa Marta direct from Fort Lauderdale, as I always enjoy the bus ride I don't rally mind that much and it is always enjoyable to pass through Cartagena. If you do not speak Spanish then added connections complicate things a bit, other than that the route only requires one connection in Colombia.

The easiest direct routes are

1. Fly from the United States to Panama City, Panama then take an Avianca or Copa flight direct to Santa Marta.
2. Fly from the United States to Bogota, Colombia (the capital) then to Santa Marta, this can be a longer route as you must travel to the center of the country then double back to the coast.
3. Fly to Cartagena, on the Caribbean coast of Colombia, then take a bus to Santa Marta.
4. Fly to Barranquilla. then take the bus to Santa Marta, about 2 hours, the airport in Barranquilla is a long way out of town, if you are hunting for a bargain fair, say on Spirit Airlines, do not take the flight that gets in at 2:00 am, the airport will shut down not long after all the people have cleared customs as that is the last flight of the night, when the airport shuts down the cabs disappear, if you have been to Barranquilla before it may not be a problem, just make sure you have a hotel booked.

The three airlines that operate out of Santa Marta are

• Aires
Colombian regional budget airline.
• Avianca
Colombian domestic and international airline.
• Copa
Panamanian airline based out of Panama City, Panama.

If you would like to fly to Cartagena or Barranquilla from Fort Lauderdale then Spirit Airlines is another choice. Check the airline schedules of the particular airline.

All three fly out of Santa Marta on a daily basis to Bogota, Medellin and Panama City. There is great flexibility on the airline schedules throughout the day and into the night. The fares from Santa Marta to either city seem to be around $400.00 - $500.00 return but they are always changing, all you can do is shop for the best price. I find that route number 3 is the easiest, because I have followed this route so many times before but of course the first time is always a challenge.When you arrive in Cartagena, if it is not too late in the day you can take a cab direct to the bus station, about one half hour drive and 23.000 Colombian pesos which works out to be about $13.00 - $15.00 dollars. today one US dollar will by 1,768 Colombian pesos. Usually I just drop the 3 zeros and divide by two to get a rough idea of what it would be costing in US dollars

The Cartagena airport is not very large and is on one level, so when exiting the plane you will walk inside the building and customs is right there.When you are in line to go through customs in Cartagena you will see a money exchange on the left on the other side of customs, change some cash so that you can pay for the cab fare to the bus station then pay for the bus to Santa Marta, the bus costs less than $20.00 but you will complicate your life if you only have American Dollars or whatever currency you happen to have.

Cartagena is a great place to visit, or a great place to live. If you have time or want to look around, one good place is the Boca Grande, the main street, which is about 15 minutes and about 12.000 pesos away, from the airport this is the easy way to get there. Ask how much "cuanto cuesta" before you go.

Say to the cab driver “Hotel Caribe”, it is a large hotel at the end of the Boca Grande, the following photos should explain, I use this method all of the time as the cab drivers know this place so you don’t have to explain.

The bus takes about 4 hours in total, 2 to travel to the Barranquilla bus station then another 2 to Santa Marta. Do yourself a favor unless your a thrill seeker, travel on the big buses that travel from bus station to bus station and not on the little minivans (colectivo). The larger buses have better drivers, are new and modern, give you better protection on the highways, they run on a schedule.

The highways for most of the journey are good but one lane each way and the smaller minibuses spend a great deal of time passing vehicles and take far too many chances, sometimes when you get one one of these buses, the driver has to drive all around the city to pick up their passengers, so you could be on the bus an hour before you even leave the city.

The journey is very nice running along the Caribbean with farmland, small towns and interesting sites along the way. You will not see the foothills of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta until you are getting close to Santa Marta as the mountain range is on the other side of the city.

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