Quindío, Colombia: every shade of green in the coffee region
How much time do I need?
First things first.
How much time do you need to visit this region? The Quindío is one of Colombia's smallest department with its 1 845 square meters. This is a place you could flash through in two days, or take the time to soak in for a month. However, if you are short on time or trying to fit this itinerary inside a broader travelling journey, a week is exactly what you need.
In this time you will not dive super deep into everything there is to do, but you will get the chance to see what is, in my opinion, truly worth it and get to remember those feelings for a long time. Every stay in this itinerary is subject to your liking and personal preferences, where I mark two days you can stay one, or four, there is no right answer! The good thing about this itinerary is that it is very flexible, you are not relying on specific transportation schedules or anything to be able to truly customize your travel.
Let's talk budget.
Okay, this is what's most tedious for me when I travel. Any trip can be made super expensive or not depending on what you choose. In this case, I chose local typical hotels instead of Airbnb's, for example, which changed my budget of 20$ USD a night to maybe 40$ USD a night, so all of this has an impact. However, you get all the cultural aspect of it, the services, the security, etc. This, for me, is very worth it.
Another thing to consider is that we were two people travelling. This means we get to split expenses like hotel rooms, groceries and such. While travelling alone, your budget might look a bit different from what mine looks like.
While keeping this in mind, we (two people) spent about 500$ USD in cash (typically in food, taxis, souvenirs, tips, etc) and another 500$ USD by card in reservations of hotels and extra consumptions. Again, we didn't do a whole lot of shopping, so if you plan on bringing many souvenirs (they are really cute) or to eat five times a day, update your budget.
