Radisson Royal Bogota Hotel, Bogotá

Advantages: Easy to navigate
Disadvantages: Traffic jams

...This city is immense and viewed from the vantage point of Monseratte it seemed to fill the entire plain below. The phenomonal difference in the northern and southern suburbs is sometimes ovewhelming but both have thier own beauty. In the the north there are elegant and palatial homes, areas of great beauty and historical interest, modern shopping malls and restaurant areas (Zona Rosa). You can buy emeralds, sleep in comfortable and expensive hotels, and pretend for a while that this is a city in central Europe. In the south you will experience the shanty towns, poverty at ground level, literally, and some large part of the real Colombia which is the friendliness and happy disposition of the people. The city offers a multitude of historical and interesting sites all of which are better described in the Lonely Planet but the city itself... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: Food, Shopping, People, Views
Disadvantages: Thieves

...Bogota has imporved over the years, once a place of chaotic traffic, bad roads and a general sense of disorganisation, it has changed immesly for the better. Transport - Buses and Taxis they are frequent and roughlty cost the same amount which ever you decide to take, For the buses you jump on where you want and then just let the driver know when you want to get off, there are no bus stops as such. there is also the new El Transmilenio - which is a giant bendy bus which gets around the city much faster. Shopping - Bogota is a great place to shop, you can buy typical colombian things, you can buy jewerelly from tradiational colombian pendents with pre colombian figures, to emeralds and dimonds. For clothes shopping i recommend a place called San Anderisto - IT sells fashionable clothes, along with Toys, Jewerelly, Bed Linen ect ect... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: A country of extremes
Disadvantages: Its a long flight

...I went to Colombia for the first time in August 2006 with my family and friends asking 'why?' The immediate response to my decision to travel there was that it was a place of drug runners, murderers and thieves and yes, maybe parts of the country are best left alone but the rest of it is so big and so beautiful that to not see it is a crime in itself. I stayed in Quindio but we traveled hundreds of miles in all directions from there, as far as Medellin, Bogota, Corcora, Villa de Leyva and Gautape. Each turn in the road brought with it a new visual experience and a view more spectacular, although the 8 hours taxi ride from Quindio to Bogota was one I might not repeat. Mountain folk on horses pull up alongside the 4 x 4's, children sit on the side of the road selling corn or arepa, streams tumble down mountains and the earth is red covered... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful