San Andreas, Colombia

San Andres was my last stop in Colombia, after going to Bogota, and Cartagena first, and with a friend, it was just the solo beach get away I needed. I did a lot of walking and touring and exploring in the other 2 cities, so I was in need of a place of relaxation. It was the end to a beautiful 11 day birthday trip, I flew there with LATM airlines from Cartagena, which was inexpensive and only an hour flight.

It’s a beautiful island and not expensive at all. You can easily find decent places to stay for under $100 a night, right near the beach. I recommend staying near the city center, unless you want to rent a scooter or ATV for the days you are there. Most of the main food, shopping, and activities are near the main beach and what they call they city center. I didn’t book my stay there until the night before so I just got a pretty basic clean room, in a good location at the Aparta Hotel Marbella. However, around the corner from me was a place that had food, drinks and massages all inclusive for about $140 a night, called El Dorado Hotel. I will prepare you to say that Colombia is a SPANISH speaking country and most do not speak much English. So break out your google translate, or brush up on your Spanish. Also it isn’t super fancy hotels there, but they do have nice clean ones on the beach and bigger ones further away from the main city.

The beach there the water is blue and warm unlike Cartagena, and you can do just about all the water activities you can think of. I did the jet skies one day, a trip to Johnny Cay island, with some snorkeling and relaxing. There’s a night party boat another, where they give you a live show, dinner and open bar for about $50 usd or less. You can eat and drink on the beach at the many restaurants within walking distance, one that I like was called Nikos Seafood. You can rent a scooter or ATV and drive around touring the full island, you can take your time or do it in about an hour if you just want to look and not stop. There are plenty of more tours, but I recommend the one where you stop at Rose Cay and Johnny cay in one day, and visit 2 other places along with sting rays, spend the extra $20 and get a picture with it if you aren’t afraid. It was a highlight of my trip.

I totally loved San Andres and think it’s a little piece of paradise. It’s beautiful, simple and yet still amazing!! I think people don’t really know much about and it gets looked over because of Cartagena’s culture, but I definitely got plenty of island vibes and culture from visiting there. It it a beach city and reminds me of a mix of Jamaica and Miami. They party on the beach strip til late night, they do have few clubs I think the big one was called Coco Bongo, but I didn’t go. For me it was all about the beaches and water activities along with food. They have plenty of bars and liquor stores to get drinks for your satisfaction.