Is Bogotá dangerous or safe for a tourist? In this post, I will give you my (second) impression of the sprawling capital of Colombia.
Yes, you read correctly, a second impression not a first. Second impression because it is a return to Bogota, after the 2015 experience.
The Colombian capital is a huge city with several interesting neighborhoods, great restaurants and nightlife, an overwhelming number of cars, and exaggerated traffic. But what about danger? well, read on and you’ll know.
Is Bogotá dangerous or safe? Let’s say beautiful and cursed
Speaking of danger, let’s try to answer the question is Bogotá dangerous? by going into details and into neighborhoods:
- The historic center (Candelaria) is where most of the tourist attractions and hostels are located. Alive and full of people during the day, the downside is that in the evening it can be a bit dark and frequented by shady characters. I have always walked alone everywhere, even in the evening, and I have not encountered any problems. I certainly imagine that for a girl things could be different.
- In general, tourists avoid the whole area south of Candelaria because it is rightly considered quite dangerous. Unless you are a journalist or you know exactly what you are doing, better stay on the beaten path (to be clear I’m talking about the districts of Ciudad Bolivar, Caracas, San Cristobal, Kennedy, Usme).
- To the north of Candelaria there are the districts of Teusaquillo, Chapinero, zone G (g stands for gourmet), and then Parque 93, zone T, and finally, about 13km from the center, Usaquen. These districts tend to be chic, generally safe both in the day and at night, and they offer gated residential areas and shopping malls with more than a few designer shops. Anyone who wants to experience Colombian artisan coffee or the latest food trends must necessarily make go in these districts (Catacion Publica in particular).
Having said that, you know better than me that with a lot of alcohol, dark corners can always be considered dangerous. Not to mention some occasional robbery out of clubs and discos.
Is Bogotà dangerous? It’s time to walk
Getting around, even on foot, is quite simple and I love it. If you want to walk around Bogotá let’s make some point clear:
- Public transport is more messed up than in Rome and the absence of a subway is kind of dramatic between 18 and 19.30, during the rush hour of traffic. Keep in mind that the number of cars in the city is simply too large for everyone to get around and every day, in working hours, there’s an alternate plaques system in place.
- Taxis are cheap but it’s not really easy to find them at peak hours.
- Bycicle is certainly an option but please be rerally careful and absolutely wear an helmet.
But how much do cherries cost?
Moving on to the more practical aspects, in Bogotà you can get screwed buying cherries. For example, I paid 100gr of cherries 3 euros! I was rusty, not ready for bargaining. That’s something that could definitely happen to you. In Bogotà and in a lot of other countries. As a tourist, you pay much more than the locals. Sometimes it’s ok, sometimes less ok.
When the newspaper El Tiempo opens the front page of Monday with an article on traffic and the average speed of cars (if you are interested in 21km/h on average during rush hour), then it means that the city has left the era of violence and civil war, to enter that of consumerism where time, you know it well, is money.
Is Bogotà dangerous? Negative experiences in Bogotà
Having said that, I must also tell you that in San Agustin, I met a Swiss girl who was robbed in broad daylight, in the Candelaria, by a boy who got off a motorbike and pointed a knife at her. Understand that for her the question of whether Bogota is dangerous or not has taken on a slightly different consistency.
I wrote about this story in the article on security in Colombia and here too, I repeat it. Keep your eyes open, use common sense, and if you are a woman, pay even more attention. But the whole thing must not degenerate into paranoia.
If someone wants to tell me their experience, you are more than welcome!
Bogotà dangerous. The car bomb in September 2019 and 2022 elections
Unfortunately, in September 2019, Bogotá was hit by a car bomb in front of the Police Academy, in the north of the city. It seems that the responsibilities fell on the ELN members, trying to make the peace process more complicated.
We have to remember that many prominent members of the left-wing paramilitary groups, especially FARC, who tried to reintegrate into civil society, were killed (we are talking about a few hundred people in 2018) by various gunmen. Peace doesn’t bring peace… For this and a lot of other reasons (namely, control of the lucrative drug trade), the ELN has not ceased hostilities, and other ex-guerrillas, alarmed by the risk of ending up killed, have taken up arms.
Finally, the war on drugs has not achieved any results, and the farmers in the most isolated areas of the nation (quite a few, believe me) have not seen the benefits of the subsidized conversion programs. The war on drugs obviously is mixed with guerrilla movements, criminal gangs, social justices issues and a loto of other terribly complex themes.
By the way, watch this VOX video, they are much better than me.
Finally, we arrive at the most recent elections, the 2022 presidential elections, in which the result was quite extraordinary: the winner was Gustavo Petro, candidate of the Colombia Humana coalition, a progressive coalition.
Petro is an economist, politician, and former leftist guerrilla and is considered the first true leftist president in the history of Colombia. His election has rekindled the hope of ending the peace process with the guerrilla formations still active and of arriving at a better management of the drug production problem, after he has declared that “the war on drugs has failed”.
So, we have a bunch of bad news, and some good one. If you are a political analyst, a geopolitical expert, an investigative journalist with a focus on the drug trade, then there is a lot to be worried and a lot to say. Also. If you are a drug dealer, trying to expand your connections and looking for some cheap raw material to build your trade then, again, there is a lot to say about Colombia.
If instead, you are just a simple tourist who somehow managed to arrive at the end of a boring and extremely complicated post that started with a very simple question: is Bogotà dangerous?, then just follow my advice:
- Be careful
- be always aware of your surroundings
- use common sense
And just fly to Colombia, because this is a trip you won’t regret. I’ll give you my word.
The post where I tried to answer the question is Bogotà dangerous for a tourist? is nearly finished. If you are still not convinced and you are looking for an answer to the question is Colombia safe for tourists ? click on the link.
And then some of my classics :
Panama and the Las Tablas carnival
Quito and La Capilla del Hombre
5 reasons why you have to go to the Caucasus
Let’s have a walk in the Peruvian capital. Is Lima dangerous?
