Colombia has been a budget travel bargain for years with plentiful affordable guesthouses and hostels, lots of ways to eat well for less, and reasonably priced internal transportation and tours. But Colombia may be the biggest travel bargain in the world right now because everything is basically 40% off for anyone with foreign currency, particularly US dollars, to spend.

Colombia is almost 40% cheaper right now

Twelve months ago the Colombian pesos was 1,850 per US dollar. Today? As we publish this post US$1 gets you 2,992 Colombian pesos and will most certainly surpass 3,000 any day now. Even better? Prices within Colombia are not being jacked up to make up for the foreign currency conversion. This means that Colombia is almost 40% cheaper for travelers with US dollars than it was one year ago.

What does that mean for your travel budget? Well, that lovely pizza (25,000 COP) and glass of wine (14,000) at the excellent Julia Pizzeria in Bogotáwould have cost you US$19 one year ago. Today, just US$13. The legit new pastrami sandwich at La Fama Barbecue (27,000 COP) used to equate to US$13 but is just US$9 today. Go ahead and eat pure ingredients with a gourmet touch at newly-opened Hippie everyday if you want. Their already reasonable prices are downright cheap right now.

And the same goes for rates at any locally-owned boutique hotels, attractions, transportation, and tours that are priced in pesos, not dollars.

No more excuses

We’ve spent more than 15 months in Colombia and have loved everything we’ve seen, done, and eaten and now you can do it all for nearly 40% less than we did. In other words, there really are no more excuses for not visiting Colombia.

Here’s more about travel in Colombia