What You Need To Know

Salento Travel Guide

Your ultimate Salento Travel Guide, where I’ll unveil the hidden gems of this charming Colombian town. Get ready for an unforgettable adventure in the heart of Colombia’s coffee region.

Salento Unveiled

Discovering Salento's Charm, Colombia's Colorful Heart

The first time I went to Salento back in 2019, I loved it. It was enchanting and beautiful, so colorful and full of life. It felt like one of Colombia’s best-kept secrets. Fast forward post-pandemic and you can’t walk a few steps without running into Americans and tourists here! Made famous by Encanto, Salento is now becoming a part of the backpacker route.

The hit Disney movie was inspired by Salento and its surrounding area, known as el eje cafetero, or the Coffee Region. This area receives its name because it’s known for growing and producing the majority of Colombian coffee. Its landscape and scenery is just like you see in the movie – deep green mountains with tall palm trees and colorful towns. Salento and the surrounding region are listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites so despite the influx of tourism, it maintains its charm.

Vanessa's Insider Tips

My Travel Tips for Salento

Here are some helpful Salento travel tips to know before you go:

When to Go: The dry seasons are December – February and July – September.
Where to Stay: Salento is easy to get around and is a small town, so it won’t really matter where you stay. If you want good sleep though, I’d recommend not staying in the main plaza because the bars play music until late hours in the night.
How to Get Around: To get around Salento itself, everything is within walking distance. For the attractions, you can either book a tour or use public transportation or there’s even Uber available.
Salento Solo Female Travel: In Colombia, these small towns are where you’ll be safest – it’s the big cities you’ll need to look out for! In Salento, there’s no need to worry. Not only are there police patrolling the streets, but it’s a laid-back, small town that’s very safe. Here, you can walk around with your phone out no problem. Since it’s also becoming popular with backpackers, you’ll have no problem meeting people as well!

Discover Salento

My Recommended Itinerary for Salento Travel

Salento is one of those places where you can spend forever here, just enjoying the peaceful scenery. It’s a great place to decompress and just relax. Here’s what I recommend for Salento:

Plaza de Bolivar:

This is the main square of the town. There’s a beautiful church you can visit, as well as a small park in the middle. There are also restaurants, pharmacies, and bars here. You’ll inevitably end up here every day most likely.

Calle Real:

Another place you will inevitably end up in – this is a street right off the main square. It’s super colorful (great for pictures!) and has an endless amount of shops, cafes, souvenir shops, etc.

El Mirador:

If you go to the end of Calle Real, you’ll see a million stairs leading up a mountain – that’s the mirador, or lookout spot. You have to pay to go up, and it’s a LOT of stairs, but offers beautiful views of this quaint town.

Cocora Valley:

You cannot come to Salento without visiting the main attraction – Cocora Valley. Cocora Valley is about 25 minutes away from the town and is home to the world’s tallest wax palm trees! It is absolutely stunning, and you can easily spend an entire day there exploring.

The cheapest way to get there are with shared rides called Willys. Willys were the original Jeeps and are now seen everywhere in the Coffee Region. They leave the town every 30 minutes or so. Ask around if you want to take a Willy because I heard it left from the main square but when I was last there, I was told it left from somewhere else. I ended up taking a taxi, but you can also Uber.

Once you get to Cocora Valley you’ll see its sectioned off as various parks. You unfortunately have to pay to enter each park (it wasn’t like this pre-Encanto fame). What most people do, and what I highly recommend, is to go to the one called “Bosque de Palmas.” Tell your driver and they should know but if not, go to the very last parking lot. From there, walk up (in other words, away from the street you just drove through) until you see signs that say “Bosque de Palmas.” Once you pay the entrance fee you have a few choices: either walk around and take pictures at the various spots – such as the giant hand or Colombia flag, or you can do a hike. If you choose to hike, you have within that option 2 other options: the long 4–5-hour hike, or the quick 2-hour hike.

I can only speak about the 2-hour hike, but I was satisfied with everything I saw and the pictures I got. There’s a very well-laid out path so it’s almost impossible to get lost. You’ll start off on the trail and go all the way up until “Mirador 2.” After “Mirador 2” if you continue going up, you’ll end up doing the long hike, or you can turn around and go to “Mirador 1” on your way down. “Mirador 2” is where you’ll get those famous Instagram pictures with the tall palm trees so in my opinion, that’s enough! It’s not a difficult hike at all, just a steady incline all the way up. Once I got to the bottom, I took pictures at the various photo spots. Going to this park is well worth it.

There are a few other parks. The only other one I went to was a short 1-hour route. They have so many things set up for pictures – various viewpoints, colorful Willys, signs, etc. It’s honestly so much fun and everywhere you look is the perfect photo op.

Cocora Valley also has horseback riding, which is very popular. There are also restaurants and cafes. I’d recommend spending an entire day here because there’s so much to do and seeing those giant palm trees is just so mesmerizing!

Visit Filandia:

Salento isn’t the only beautiful town in the Coffee Region, it’s just the most popular one. Another beautiful town to visit is called Filandia. This one hasn’t yet been discovered by tourists but let me tell you, it’s much more beautiful than Salento in my opinion! In fact, when I went for the first time, I was so bummed that we weren’t spending the night there. I’d actually recommend staying in Filandia – but since it’s 30 minutes from Salento, then that means you’d be about an hour away from Cocora Valley. Filandia is bigger than Salento and while Salento only has Calle Real, Filandia has MANY vibrant, busy, lively streets. You can spend hours just walking through them. Another thing I loved about Filandia were the viewpoints – there are so many! Go to “Mirador Encanto” and you’ll find an Encanto-style attraction where you can take pictures. Another one I liked a lot was “Mirador Don Quijote” where there’s a coffee cup on the roof that you can go inside and take pics.

Coffee Tour:

It’s crazy to say, but although I have Colombian blood in my veins, I am actually not a coffee drinker! It just does not taste good to me. This one I have yet to do but I will eventually do it – I swear! But you can’t come to the Coffee Region and not visit a coffee farm, or “finca.” There are so many in the area so I would recommend asking your host for recommendations. From what I’ve heard though, people have been a bit disappointed because the high-quality coffee that Colombia produces is exported, so what’s offered in this region isn’t as good as people anticipated. Nevertheless, support local businesses and visit a coffee farm!