Dear NextTriber,

We skipped Colombia last year and now it’s back by popular demand!

The itinerary works, so we haven’t changed much…just an extra night in Medellîn vs. Cartagena. Cartagena is very colorful and interesting, but when we led this trip in 2024, Medellîn was where the group wished they had spent a little more time.

See? When you give us feedback, especially on the post-trip surveys, we pay attention! We’re always looking for ways to improve our trips and nothing helps more than hearing from you about your experience on a trip. So if you’ve traveled with us before and filled out one of our surveys, THANK YOU!

This NextTribe journey is led by Victoria Reyes (on the right, above). She was born in Colombia and has a BA and MA in anthropology, history, and Latin American studies. She’s the kind of trip leader who can explain not just what you're looking at, but why it matters. Alongside her longtime Colombian guide-partner Lee (on the left, above), she shows NextTribe travelers her Colombia, one that is not often experienced by travelers who go there on their own.

This trip takes you through Plaza Botero with the stories behind the sculptures, Comuna 13's street art with guides who lived through its transformation, we’ll try coffee straight from a family farm in the hills, and have a jewelry workshop with single mothers rebuilding their neighborhood one bead at a time.

Come with us July 10-17, 2027 for 8 days!

Check out the itinerary

Most people still picture the Colombia of forty years ago, or they picture the Cartagena of a cruise-ship day stop. Neither one is the whole picture. Medellín has spent a generation reinventing itself — nowhere more visibly than in Comuna 13, once one of the city's most dangerous barrios, now covered in murals and shops. An hour outside the city, flower farmers and coffee growers are still doing the quiet, generations-old work that built the region's reputation, long before anyone was calling it "the city of eternal spring."

🎨 Plaza Botero & the Museum of Antioquia — Fernando Botero's oversized bronzes in the plaza that bears his name, then a metro and cable car ride up to Parque Arví for the whole valley laid out below you.

🌸 Santa Elena's Flower Farms — Carmen and José welcome you onto their organic flower farm in the hills above Medellín, where much of the city's famous flower trade still begins.

👊 Comuna 13, Up Close — a community art tour through the neighborhood's turnaround, a jewelry-making workshop with the single mothers of Mi Barrio Mi Sueño, and a visit to the Barrio Boxing project — women's empowerment in action!

☕ A Family Coffee Farm in Envigado — a hike through the rows with the family who farms it, followed by a farm-to-table lunch at a nearby organic farm.

🏰 Cartagena's Walled City — a guided walk through 500-year-old colonial streets and stone ramparts, UNESCO World Heritage listed, followed by a dance class in salsa, merengue, vallenato, and champeta.

🌶️ Castillo de San Felipe & a Caribbean Cooking Class — a walk through the fortress that once guarded the city with Victoria, then a hands-on class built around fresh seafood and coconut rice.

🌊 Rosario Islands by Boat — kayaking and a beachfront lunch on Isla Bella's white sand, with optional snorkeling and a waterfront massage for anyone who'd rather float than swim.

We didn't build this trip around a highlight reel — we built it around a guide who actually grew up here. Victoria's own history with Colombia, backed by a graduate degree in the region's anthropology, means the context runs deeper than most tours.

We've kept a good rhythm of structure and freedom — full days built around the people and places that matter, with room to breathe on your last morning in Cartagena and a choice of snorkeling or a waterfront massage out on the islands. You'll split your nights between the Hotel Boutique Quinta Ladera in Medellín's El Poblado district and the Hotel Santa Catalina, tucked inside Cartagena's historic walled center. Expect Medellín's famous "eternal spring" — mild and mountain-fresh — and a hotter, more humid welcome once you reach the Caribbean coast, so pack for both.

You land in Medellín by mid-afternoon on July 10th and settle into the Hotel Boutique Quinta Ladera in El Poblado, with a welcome dinner at a nearby restaurant that first evening. Day two is Medellín's art and mountain side: Plaza Botero and its sculptures, the Museum of Antioquia, then the metro and cable car up to Parque Arví, before an afternoon with Carmen and José at their organic flower farm in Santa Elena.

Day three turns to the story of a neighborhood remade — a visit to the nonprofit Mi Barrio Mi Sueño, a jewelry-making workshop alongside the single mothers who run it, a stop at the Barrio Boxing project, and a community-led art tour through Comuna 13, once one of the city's most dangerous barrios and now one of its most creative. Day four slows things down with a family coffee farm in Envigado — a hike through the fields, then a farm-to-table lunch at an organic farm nearby

On day five, you fly to Cartagena and trade mountains for the Caribbean, checking into the Hotel Santa Catalina inside the historic walled city. A guided walking tour through the UNESCO-listed Old Town's colonial streets gives way that evening to a dance class working through salsa, merengue, vallenato, and champeta. Day six brings Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas, the fortress that once defended the city, followed by a hands-on Caribbean cooking class built around fresh seafood and coconut rice.

Your last full day is an island one: a boat out to the Rosario Islands and Isla Bella, with kayaking, a beachfront lunch, and your choice of snorkeling or a waterfront massage. A final relaxed morning in Cartagena closes things out before flights home on July 17th.

Early Bird Price till 10/16.

Book today with a

$500 Deposit

then

7 payments starting October 10

Jeannie Ralston, Co-founder and CEO