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Overall, the quality of the guides, restaurants and hotels were fantastic. Boris and his team did a fantastic job, from the pre-planning with Boris, to the fine tuning with his staff and the near-daily emails while on the trip. He had to work around the fact that we were attending a wedding in Cartagena, with its own activities, but kept us quite active on the other days.
Boris and his team made us feel very comfortable. Going in, we were somewhat apprehensive regarding the potential dangers of Colombia, but his team made us feel safe and secure at all points. In retrospect, our concerns were clearly overblown, but his team eliminated any stress from safety concerns. In fact I’d rate Colombia as a pretty safe place, at least in the major cities. I found most of our friends had similar concerns, but those in my kids’ age bracket (under 40) knew otherwise and they were correct.
Each of our three guides were quite good—Oscar in particular with his anthropological background and the perspective that provided. But Isaac and Govinda were also strong, compared to other guides we have used. Each did a great job in tailoring the guiding to the right level of detail—my wife in particular can glaze over if there’s too much history, but each guide delivered the right amount for us.
All the tours were excellent, but a couple stood out for us: the private art tour with Antonio in Bogota, where we went to the galleries and met with artists, saw the photojournalism exhibition and met Colombia’s “most famous” photojournalist and ending in the apartment of one of the curators. Our food tour in Bogota, where instead of sampling the basic dishes (more empanadas and arepas), we went to 3 of the better restaurants in town and sampled a few dishes in each. On a separate note, I like that at the included meals, there was a lot of flexibility in what we could order, no nickel and diming or only getting the least expensive items. Finally the tour to Guatape/Penol with a boat trip on the dam also was a highlight.
As the trip greatly exceeded our expectations, and there were no hiccups along the way (a feat in itself!), there’s not much in the room-for-improvement category. The key was in the upfront discussions, making sure Boris knew the things we were interested in, so he could tailor the trip accordingly.
We highly recommend Boris and Colombia to our friends and family.
Members of the Whisenant family during a trip highlight: A cooking class at the home of a chef.
Boris and his team planned a fantastic journey and really stepped up when we had issues! Our group of 6 worked with Boris’ team to plan our trip to Colombia. We visited Medellin, the coffee region and Cartagena. Our group consisted of me, my husband, and two of our sons on spring break from college, another couple and one of our other sons who was working in Medellin unexpectedly. Despite planning the trip in advance, our group had two issues. Two weeks before our trip, one of my older sons found out he would be working in Medellin at the same time we were in Colombia. I contacted Boris, who was able to book my son on a flight from Medellin to Cartagena at the end of his work week. He was also able to secure a room for my son to stay at our hotel in Cartagena. My son was able to join us for the last portion of the vacation and activities thanks to Boris and his team! The second issue we ran into was the couple traveling with us had a family member pass away during our trip. The husband had to fly home early. Boris and his team worked to make arrangements to accommodate this change.
We covered a wide variety of activities in Colombia. In Medellin, we visited District 13 and a historical monument dedicated to the loss of life during the Escobar years (our guide Lillian was very informative regarding the history of Colombia…she was also a reporter). We visited the second largest collection of orchids in the world at the home garden of the collector. Over 5,000 different types of orchids were being grown on site!!!! We also had a private cooking class at the chef’s private home. Very yummy food and a wonderful setting.
In the coffee region, we stayed at a wonderful hacienda out in the country….so tranquil and lots of birds. We visited a coffee plantation and went bamboo rafting. In Cartagena, we did a rum tasting, a private cooking class (one of the trip highlights!!!!), street food tour (I am NOT a fan of street food in foreign countries, but our guide took us to some fabulous places and the food was divine and no one got sick!) The final day was spent island hopping in the Rosario Islands with a stop for a late lunch at a beach club…a perfect end to our trip.
We traveled to Colombia for 12 days in early March. Boris was highly recommended and we could not have been happier with the results. We understand some people are reluctant to travel there—but there should be no hesitation—it’s a beautiful country filled with lots to do, wonderful people, fabulous food and completely safe!
We started in Bogota, then went to the Coffee Region, Cartagena and Medellin. Hotels were luxurious with excellent service. In each location we had a guide and driver. The quality of the guides was superb—and to us that’s what really made the trip extra special. We had many fun excursions—food tours, cooking class, coffee and cacao plantations, art gallery tour, bamboo rafting, just to name a few. And, a WOW Moment luncheon at the home of a local farmer/landowner was a special highlight.
I should also mention that the back office support was excellent. When our morning bike ride was canceled due to inclement weather, our activities were moved around and we switched internal flights to fly earlier to our next destination—the changes completed quickly and efficiently. Each night we received an email detailing the next day’s plans and timing, a very helpful touch.
We can’t recommend Colombia and Boris enough—you will not be disappointed!
Boris et. al. planned and guided us through our 12-day trip in Colombia in January. We had only one full day in Bogota, but packed in a cable-car trip up to the monastery on Monserrate mountain, a tour of the food market, a walk through colorful, busy La Candelaria, and still had time for a thorough visit to the Botero museum.
The next day we were off to the impressive salt mine, with underground cathedral big enough for 8,000 people. Then the drive through the countryside past dozens of tomato nurseries and dairy cows (one in every yard in some towns) to Villa de Leyva. We stopped at the historic colonial town of Raquira, the “Cradle of Columbian Handicrafts.” Its vividly-colored houses contrasted with Villa de Leyva’s white-washed buildings. Both have cobblestone streets, which seems to have the pleasant effect of slowing down the traffic. We enjoyed hanging out with many others in the square (the largest in Columbia). The fossil museum, built and run by the farmers who found the fossils in their fields, has the largest most complete marine reptile fossil existing today.
The short flight to Pereira put us in Columbia’s coffee region, which brought bird-watching, bamboo rafting and a tour of a coffee plantation (with the most tasty, fresh food served for lunch). We were also lucky to have a rain-free hike in the Cocora Valley, where it was a pleasure to see the Colombian national tree—the wax palms that only grow at a certain altitude on the steep slopes of the Andes and take 50 years to reach full maturity.
We were captivated by the city of Medellin, in spite of, or maybe partly because of, the history of violence it had. The transformation from a dangerous city to one celebrated for its innovation is impressive. The city is nestled in the mountains and connected with an impressive cable car metro system. Another highlight for us was a visit to an orchid farm that is located in a lush forest and has 25,000 species. A real treat!
Last stop: Cartagena. Murals and artists in the Getsemani district. Sloths and monkeys in the central plaza. A street food tour. The places important in the fight for independence. Restaurants for good dinners in the evenings. Mango, both ripe, and green with salt, pepper and lime. Trip to Palenque, a village founded by escaped slaves that is keeping the African culture alive in language and art.
All of our guides (Tomas, Guillermo, Juan Carlos, Carolina) were excellent, and we really appreciated knowing the name and phone number of the person who was going to meet us the next day. Boris’ team’s communication was very good. We also appreciated the suggestions of books and music to familiarize ourselves with Colombian culture. If we’d started planning the trip earlier, we could have made even better use of those suggestions