Colombia travel budget

Wax palms, walled ports and four-dollar lunches with soup and fresh juice.

How much per day?

Typical daily spend per person, everything included. Local amounts at the latest available rate (1 USD = 3,182.78 COP).

Backpacker

$35–60

COP 111,000–191,000

Dorms, street food, buses

Mid-range

$75–150

COP 239,000–477,000

Private rooms, restaurants, some tours

Comfort

$160–320

COP 509,000–1,018,000

Hotels, taxis, nicer dinners

What things cost

Item	USD	COP
Street food (arepa, empanadas)	$1–2.5	COP 3,180–7,960
Set lunch (menú del día / corrientazo)	$4–8	COP 12,700–25,500
Sit-down restaurant meal	$8–20	COP 25,500–63,700
Coffee (tinto to cappuccino)	$0.5–3	COP 1,590–9,550
Local beer	$1.4–3	COP 4,460–9,550
Bottled water (0.5–1.5 L)	$0.6–1.25	COP 1,910–3,980
City ride-hail, ~5 km (Uber/DiDi/inDrive)	$2.5–6	COP 7,960–19,100
Intercity bus (short hop to overnight)	$8–50	COP 25,500–159,000
Hostel dorm bed	$9–20	COP 28,600–63,700
Private double room (guesthouse/hostel)	$18–45	COP 57,300–143,000
Mid-range hotel	$45–120	COP 143,000–382,000
Prepaid SIM or eSIM with data (1–4 weeks)	$6–18	COP 19,100–57,300
Castillo San Felipe entry, Cartagena	$8–16	COP 25,500–50,900

Cash or card?

Cards work in most city restaurants, hotels and malls, but street food, buses, small towns and market stalls run on cash, so keep small notes on hand.

ATMs

Expect a flat fee of about COP 12,000–29,000 per foreign-card withdrawal. Coomeva (around COP 12,000, up to COP 2,000,000) and Davivienda (up to COP 2,000,000) let you take out more per withdrawal than Bancolombia (about COP 600,000) or BBVA (about COP 300,000), so take the maximum each time. Use ATMs inside banks or malls in daylight.

Tipping

Sit-down restaurants ask whether to add a 10% 'propina voluntaria' to the bill. It is optional, but most Colombians say yes, and some upscale places suggest 15%. Tip guides and porters in cash, and round up or tip a little through the app for ride-hail drivers.

Watch out for

When an ATM or card terminal offers to charge you in your home currency, decline and pay in COP. That dynamic currency conversion can quietly add 5–12% to the cost.

Make your COP go further

✓Eat lunch at corrientazo spots. Soup, a main and juice cost about COP 12,000–20,000, often half the price of a tourist-menu dinner.
✓Use Uber, DiDi or inDrive instead of street taxis, which have no meters in many cities. If you do take a taxi, agree the fare before you get in.
✓Book domestic flights on the airlines' Spanish-language sites and compare them with overnight buses. A cheap flight can beat a 12+ hour ride on price once you count the night's lodging it saves.
✓Stay outside gringo hotspots such as El Poblado and Cartagena's walled city, where accommodation and drinks can cost double. Neighbors like Laureles or Getsemaní are cheaper and close by.
✓Choose beer over cocktails. A local beer is about COP 4,500–9,000, while a cocktail in a tourist bar runs COP 28,000–40,000.

When to go

December–March and July–August are dry and busy, with peak prices on the coast. Coming in April–June or September–November means more rain but cheaper rooms and fewer crowds, and the Andean cities stay mild all year.

Where people are heading

Jardín
Coffee country with fewer crowds and lower prices than Salento.
Mompox
A UNESCO-listed colonial river town on the Magdalena.
Barichara
A quiet stone-paved town close to San Gil’s adventure sports.

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