Santa Marta walking tour & city guide

The city

The historic center has a white cathedral, a seafront promenade and the Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino, where Simón Bolívar died. Nearby, the fishing village of Taganga has a laid-back beach.

Nature

Tayrona National Park has jungle-backed beaches. The mountain village of Minca is surrounded by coffee farms and waterfalls, and the Lost City trek leads to an ancient Tayrona city in the jungle.

A day in Santa Marta

Santa Marta is the oldest surviving city in Colombia. Walk around the cathedral and the seafront promenade, then visit the Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino, where Simón Bolívar died.

Most visitors head to Tayrona National Park, where jungle trails lead to beaches.

Good to know

Santa Marta is the base for the Lost City trek and for Minca, a mountain village with coffee farms.

Tayrona closes for part of the year to let the land rest.

Why it is worth the trip

Santa Marta, founded in 1525, sits between the Caribbean Sea and the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, the highest coastal mountain range in the world, whose snowy peaks rise to almost 5,800 meters just 40 kilometers from the beach. The mountains are home to the Kogi and Arhuaco indigenous peoples. Taganga, a fishing village nearby, is popular with divers, and the Lost City trek leads through jungle for four to six days to ancient terraces older than Machu Picchu.