The internet is full of blogs about budget travel in Colombia with some even claiming that it is possible to travel for free.  The only guaranteed way to not spend any money on travel though is to stay at home.  Good budget traveling isn’t about cutting all costs.  It is justifying how much value you will gain from each element your expenditure.

The trick to optimising your experience on a budget isn’t to take the most frugal option.  Sometimes in spending 10% more you can have twice as good an experience.  Other times you may be able to have practically the same experience for a fraction of the cost.  Unfortunately there is no such thing as a free lunch, and some expenditure is unavoidable.  This article is designed to ensure you get value for your money thereby enjoying the maximum experience for the most efficient cost.

Travel expenditure can generally be classed in 4 categories:

• Food
• Accommodation
• Inter-city Transport
• Cost of doing and seeing things

Menu del dias (menu of the day) lunch restaurants are plentiful in South America and give you a huge plate of food for only a couple of dollars.  These restaurants don’t give any variety, but make one dish per day for all its customers.  Eating a big lunch means that you won’t be too hungry and will probably be happy with just a small snack for dinner.

It may seem obvious that cooking yourself will save you money compared to eating in a restaurant.  Colombia however this isn’t necessarily the case.  The sum of the price of all the ingredients is often more expensive in the supermarkets than it would be in a small menu del dia restaurant.  This is because the owners of the restaurant will go to the wholesalers in the morning, finding out what is cheap that day and buying direct from the farmers.  They then design the day’s meal around this produce, buying in bulk as they know they will be only preparing one meal.

There are so many hostels to choose from with prices ranging significantly from one to the other.  You are likely to spend a lot of time in your hostel and a good hostel can be an amazing resource of information, service and facility to meet other travelers.  Better hostels cater for travelers on all kinds of budgets and are able to give a range of advice depending on the needs of each person.  Cheaper hostels tend to be cheaper for a reason.   The result is you will probably end up spending more in compensating for a lack of free breakfast, lack of wifi or unreliable information.  It may seem a good idea at the time to save $1 by opting for a hostel with no breakfast.  That is until the following day when you have to pay $2 to make your own.

Purple Monkey Hostel Free Breakfast

Your trip will be defined by the people that you meet and the places you visit.  Staying in an unsociable hostel with few other guests or unwelcoming communal areas won’t help you with the former.  Speak to other travellers about their experiences in specific hostels.  Also read online reviews rather than just focusing on the cost.

Being such a mountainous country, journeys that may take an hour in the air may take up to 12 hours on a bus.  Consider how time pressured you are on your trip.  Are you likely to be able to sleep on a bus, or is it likely that you will need to catch up on sleep the following day in your hostel?  You may end up wasting a day in that city and having to pay another night in accommodation.  Some intercity bus companies have monopolies on certain routes meaning that they don’t need to compete on price.  Check out the costs of flights for the same destination.  You may be surprised that it works out cheaper.

VivaColombia is owned by Ryanair and is Colombia’s only budget airline.  Yes the customer service is poor and it infuriating being charged extra for bags.  If you follow the small print you can save a lot of money however.

Where possible, try and book your flights a week before to get the best prices.  If you can be flexible on your destination you can even turn up at the airport and ask for a discount on flights that aren’t full just before they are depart.

Before considering booking any tour you should consider if it is feasible to go yourself.  If you want to go and see a famous church for example, how bothered are you really to hear a guide talk about its construction for an hour?  It is likely that this information is readily available anyway on the internet so just read up on it before you go.  Tour companies have to pay for transport, guides, insurance and all this cost is passed on to you.  Check with your hostel if there is an alternative method of seeing it, if it is close to public transport or even if it is open to the public for free on certain days.

We would always recommend taking a licenced taxi or Uber after dark in Latin America.  Saving a couple of dollars by walking home through a dark neighbourhood isn’t particularly smart and expert budget travellers know you can’t put a price on safety.  This being said, during the day public transport is often cheap, frequent and safe.  In Colombia most people don’t own cars, it is just too expensive for the average person.  For this reason the locals rely on buses or in Medellin the excellent Metro system to get them from place to place.  It is always better to do as the locals do, so follow their lead.  Public transport is generally safe as long as you pay attention to your belongings.