Travel Advice For The Caribbean Coast Around Santa Marta, Colombia and RegionMy travel advice for Santa Marta is, don't miss this wonderful area for exploration, it's just full of the great outdoors. The question always remains though, is it safe to travel in Colombia? The Caribbean coast is safe, the safest area in Colombia. The Colombian government is aware that there are many people visiting from other countries and you will find police and military throughout the region and they do a good job. Poisonous Insects are a concern and an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. My own travel advice would be to say that yes it is safe to travel around the Caribbean coast but planning helps to improve your factors of safety. Another point is if you cannot speak the language you are always more vulnerable and may not pick up the same feel as when you are at home. I travel around Santa Marta and also go by bus to Barranquilla and further on to Cartagena and have never felt worried or in danger, the biggest worries are traveling early to take a flight the next day because of rain and when it rains there are floods, especially throughout Barranquilla, my concern is not for safety but missing my flight out of Cartagena the next day. There are three groups that have played a big part in Colombia's history of conflict, they are FARC , AUC and ELN Of the places I would not go my travel advice would be to avoid the border and jungle areas of
Concerning the internal conflict between the government, the FARC (fuerzas armadas revolutionarias de colombia), the revolutionary armed forces of Colombia are still a force but somewhat diminished. There is a group operating in the Magdelena department in which Santa Marta is located but they are not very active, member estimates of about 200 with a very low profile. The other main group are the ELN Ejército de Liberación Nacional (National Liberation Army). They do not operate out of the Magdelena district. Much of the time, a person does not realize when he or she is in danger, just getting around is sometimes your biggest risk, especially the highways. The small buses that run between cities may be convenient but my travel advice is the large buses taken from the bus station are safer. I have traveled both ways and feel that many times the drivers of the small buses are up very early in the morning and although they do not drive all day they may have to wait all day for enough customers to do their return trip, which could be from Cartagena or Barranquilla. They are paid on a per seat basis so they wait around much of the day to fill the bus and by the end of the day they want to go home, and spend a lot of time passing vehicles on the highway and the highways are two lanes, one lane each way. The larger bus companies have set routes and travel times plus the buses are larger, so normally it is just a regular bus ride. If there is an accident you can walk away from it, but with the small buses your odds of survival are much worse. Colombia has changed greatly since the now president Alvaro Uribe came to power in May 2002 to the present and the country is much more secure than in the past. The armed conflict is mostly confined in the south and west of the country in the jungles, mountains and border areas Additional Travel Advice
CNN wrote a good article on The world's most dangerous cities? on April 13, 2010, these are listed in no particular order.
We sometimes perceive the world to be the same as it was 10 or 20 years ago. Always something to think about when you travel, none of the cities listed were from Colombia, in the past there might have been one, this is a good example of the changing face of the country. Santa Marta and it's surrounding region is safe if common sense is used, almost all tourists enjoy a great holiday without incident although there is always the exception but what you have to consider is that this is the exception and not the norm. Be a little cautious as you would with any new and different place and you will not have problems. Return from Travel Advice to Santa Marta Travel Guide |