Overview
** SAN ANDREAS, COLOMBIA **
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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.
San Andrés is one of the best places I have ever been in my life, people are just genuine and happy, they help you without expect anything from you, they have that ceribbean vine that makes you feel like home. This is an island that I would definitely recommend, and if you go there do all the small island around because they are absolutely worthy. Please don’t miss Rocky key
If you ever wanted to be in a screen saver, San Andreas is the place. The beaches and water are the best I have seen with my own two eyes.
Lodging
We stayed in the middle of the island within walking distance to the west view attraction. With all intentions of spending our days exploring the island, we stayed at the Republica San Andreas. This location was perfect, in the south amount the native people of the island, but 20 minutes from the more touristic north. They are also many Airbnb and booking options.
Food
The food on the island was great to stay the least. We ate unlimited breadfruit and fresh fried fish. On the beach in the north, a group of people sells fresh home cook food a few days of the week to include lobster, crab, conch and shrimp empanadas. Surprising, they also have a good selection of liquors.
Vibes
The locals speak three languages English, Spanish, and a version of Patois. The island felt welcoming, it was like being back in Guyana’s countryside. This was the most comfortable I fell on an island. The vibes in the south are very authentic.
Thing to do
There are several things to do on the island, so make sure you are going to stay a few days. There daily tours to the nearby Johnny cay, el Acuario, rocky cay, and the local ships the crashed in the reefs. San Andreas is a part of Colombia so the currency is Colombian pesos with a current rate of about 1 USD to 3,000 Pesos. The culture of the people we came in contact with was to make sure we had a great time, even if that meant them losing business to other venders. This was quite different from what I’ve seen while traveling.
I visited San Andreas a few months ago and it was amazing . I stayed at an all inclusive hotel there which is better to stay in my opinion. The beaches there are amazing . There is a local church there that you can visit and actually go to the roof to get the most amazing view of the city. This is a place to go for all around relaxation. Keep in mind, not many people know English, even the hotel staff but there is that ONE person there that can speak it. Who needs to know your language when you are staying at an all inclusive with unlimited drinks and a hot beach. There are not many things to do at night in which I would recommend but it’s a very safe place to visit.
My last stop on during my Multi City Colombia trip ended in San Andres.Yes! There is a real island called San Andres. Its not the fictional place from the video game.It absolutely beautiful. Its about an hour plane ride from Cartagena (the island is part of Colombia).Breathtaking beaches and crystal clear waters. Pre dominantly Spanish but English is spoken island wide along with a local creole dialect. Its surrounded by the Caribbean sea. Lots of adventure although it is incredibly small.I visited Rose Cay and Johnny Cay. Two small islands off the cost which are both nature reserves so they do limit the amount of time you spend there. Rose Cay is the smaller of the two and is beaming with aquatic life. If you’re a snorkeler this is the place to visit although you can walk great distance into the ocean without the water getting above you knees.Next stop Johhny cay.They allow more time on this island. We garbed some beers and a nice big deep fried whole fish and chill.I also took a tiny tour of the island (about 10 mins)to look for wild life, not much to see but every part of the island is different.I ended my time in the middle of the island where there’s like an oasis of coconut trees and the greenest grass I’ve ever seen.It s totally hidden from the beach. I took a tour around the island (about 30 mins) and we ended at the blow hoe.This natural hole the gushes with water is the tide is high. Unfortunately the tide was not high so i didn’t get to witness the phenomenon, but we did get to swim through it.I ended my trip on the beach drinking beers eating cheviche watching the sunset wishing i could spend a few more days on this hidden gem of a place.