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iodeac

By iodeac
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iodeac

iodeac 138

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Planning on doing an immersion program in Medellín for a week in February with a group of about 15 people, organized by the creators of a podcast I listen to. They did one earlier this year and it looks like a great opportunity. Is there a go-to website for aggregating prices, and when is the best time to book international travel? So far flights from Charlotte through Miami are around 800 round trip.

 

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Chopper

Chopper 17380

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4 hours ago, iodeac said:

 

Planning on doing an immersion program in Medellín for a week in February with a group of about 15 people, organized by the creators of a podcast I listen to. They did one earlier this year and it looks like a great opportunity. Is there a go-to website for aggregating prices, and when is the best time to book international travel? So far flights from Charlotte through Miami are around 800 round trip.

 

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What's the podcast?

Kayak has a price trend feature but it only really works for popular routes with lots of data.

Kayak also has a notification feature - they'll email you when prices drop. Another site that does this is farecompare.

I recommend searching at least 3 sites to check fares including a direct book with the airline of your choice. For example I was looking for a flight for my wife to Italy the other day. American's lowest offer price on their site was over $2500 but skyscanner found one with an AA code share on Iberia for about a thousand less.

If there's another airport near you that's close enough that you don't mind traveling from you might check fares from that airport, as well.

Also there's this advice from skyscanner

Quote
  • For international flights, booking as far ahead as possible usually gets you the best price. For domestic flights, the sweet spot is between 3 and 6 weeks ahead. Prices either side of that time period just aren’t as good.

https://www.skyscanner.com/tips-and-inspiration/why-flight-prices-change-every-minute

 

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futureman

futureman 22566

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1 minute ago, iodeac said:

It's called Españolistos. It's actually a really good podcast and they cover a lot of interesting topics. They went to Medellin in February and it looked like a lot of fun.
 

do they do these trips for longer than a week?  I’ve wanted to go to colombia for a while now but I’d like to stay for a couple months. 

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iodeac

iodeac 138

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do they do these trips for longer than a week?  I’ve wanted to go to colombia for a while now but I’d like to stay for a couple months. 
I think the podcast is pretty new so this is the first year. Next year there are actually two different options in February but they each are about a week. No doubt there are other immersion programs through other schools for longer periods of time though

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ramblin’ man

ramblin’ man 10

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On 11/30/2019 at 6:29 AM, iodeac said:

 

Planning on doing an immersion program in Medellín for a week in February with a group of about 15 people, organized by the creators of a podcast I listen to. They did one earlier this year and it looks like a great opportunity. Is there a go-to website for aggregating prices, and when is the best time to book international travel? So far flights from Charlotte through Miami are around 800 round trip.

 

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I went last year. Flew into Bogotá from Houston then Miami for 450 round trip. Once in Bogotá you can find a flight to Medellín for about 40-50 USD.

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iodeac

iodeac 138

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Beautiful country and extremely friendly people. Seriously, arguably the nicest group of people I’ve ever met. What cities do you plan to visit? I can get more specific, if I have an idea of where you are going. 
Mostly around Medellin, I think the second day we'll go up El Peñol. We're also visiting a coffee plantation at some point too. There's also a pueblo we'll visit called Gautapé.

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ramblin’ man

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5 minutes ago, iodeac said:

Mostly around Medellin, I think the second day we'll go up El Peñol. We're also visiting a coffee plantation at some point too. There's also a pueblo we'll visit called Gautapé.

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Good decision. My favorite city was Medellin. We were (friends I traveled with) also fortunate enough to have our hostel owner show us around the city, experienced the local places I otherwise wouldn't have known about. Spent a day in Gautapé, I enjoyed it, but you can tell it is getting touristy. 

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Zombie

Zombie 284

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I'm planning a three-week trip to Colombia and Peru for February and early March. My very rough itinerary right now: 

  • Texas to Cartagena for 4 nights
  • flight to Medellin for 3 nights
  • bus or flight to Salento/coffee region for 3 nights
  • bus or flight to Bogota for 4 nights
  • flight to Lima for 3 nights
  • flight to Cusco for 4 nights including a day in Machu Pichu by train
  • flight back to Lima for one night then back to U.S.

For those that have been, does this look like a reasonable allocation of days per city and order of travel? In terms of travel style/priorities, I enjoy seeing natural beauty sights for short side trips, but I'm more into urban cultural exploration. 

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Zombie

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6 minutes ago, midtown said:

Do not take busses and skip Cartegena or reduce to 2 nights. Also 4 in Bogota sounds like a a day too many

 

 

Fair enough. What don't you like about Cartagena? It seems to be near the top of most "best of Colombia" lists I've seen online. 

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Mo Horn

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26 minutes ago, midtown said:

Do not take busses and skip Cartegena or reduce to 2 nights. Also 4 in Bogota sounds like a a day too many

 

 

Cartagena is fantastic, imo. I've never spent time to other parts of Colombia, but been to Cartagena multiple times. Great old, walled, city. Great seafood. Several things to do around the area. There are also a lot more areas of Peru so I might cut one or two days from Colombia and add them to Peru. 

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midtown

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I just found Cartagena kind of boring and it's touristy as hell. Yes the walled city is nice for a day and there are good restaurants. It just felt like a little like new Orleans in the Caribbean to be honest. The beaches are generally terrible. Perhaps it was because it was my last stop and I was kind of over being a tourist and I had come from Medellin and Manizales which are uniquely Colombian. If I could do it over I would go Santa Marta.

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midtown

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I did like the two hotels I stayed at on Cartagena . I stayed two nights in Getsemani at the Ameria Real. It's a much less touristy area and if your are a Vegas/cancun type traveler the neighborhood might not appeal to you but I loved it. And based on the construction in that area its gentrifying rapidly.

 

Then we moved into the walled area and stayed at the Bastion which was really swanky and nice. Not my normal type but if you like high end boutique hotels this is the place for you.

 

For the coffee region this is where we stayed. Amazing people.

 

http://www.haciendavenecia.com/

 

 

 

 

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Chad Fuck

Chad Fuck 17899

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Medellín is awesome. I want to live there. We saw everything, from El Peñol to Guatapé to Comuna 13. It's an amazing country and I basically ate every type of food and drank all the jugos.

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Can you be more specific as to what you did in Medellin? Like a list?

Mrs. F, Chad Jr. and I are headed down for Spring Break. Everyone says Medellin is great but they’re long on generalizations and short on specifics.

Where did you go?

Where do you stay?

Where did you eat?
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iodeac

iodeac 138

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Seconded the voluptuous part. And they all dress the same in the bars and they dance alot
Honestly everyone was so friendly and polite. I really didn't want to come back. It was a group of about 18 people and we were all part of an immersion program, there was one older guy from Austin and he was super cool, I've never been there but really hope to make it someday

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iodeac

iodeac 138

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Can you be more specific as to what you did in Medellin? Like a list?

Mrs. F, Chad Jr. and I are headed down for Spring Break. Everyone says Medellin is great but they’re long on generalizations and short on specifics.

Where did you go?

Where do you stay?

Where did you eat?
The two hotels we stayed in were the Hotel Novotel, located a little outside the city, and Dann Carlton, which was right in the center. They were both really nice hotels, I think I'd prefer the Carlton since there was a lot of activity around, but it was a little too posh for me.

As far as activities, we visited a coffee plantation and also the museum of Fernando Botero, along with the plaza which was pretty cool.

The things we did that I'd recommend were climbing El Peñol, visiting Guatapé and visiting Comuna Trece is a must. I would spend the whole day there if I were you.



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Chad Fuck

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1 hour ago, iodeac said:

The two hotels we stayed in were the Hotel Novotel, located a little outside the city, and Dann Carlton, which was right in the center. They were both really nice hotels, I think I'd prefer the Carlton since there was a lot of activity around, but it was a little too posh for me.

As far as activities, we visited a coffee plantation and also the museum of Fernando Botero, along with the plaza which was pretty cool.

The things we did that I'd recommend were climbing El Peñol, visiting Guatapé and visiting Comuna Trece is a must. I would spend the whole day there if I were you.



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That's all very helpful.  

What did you do in Guatape?  Did you use a tour group, or go on your own?  If you used a tour company, which did you use?

Chad Jr. is 7, so do you think the Comuna Trece tour would be appropriate/interesting?  Did you use a guide or tour group there?

 

 

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iodeac

iodeac 138

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That's all very helpful.  
What did you do in Guatape?  Did you use a tour group, or go on your own?  If you used a tour company, which did you use?
Chad Jr. is 7, so do you think the Comuna Trece tour would be appropriate/interesting?  Did you use a guide or tour group there?
 
 
In Guatapé we walked around a bit and went to a coffee shop to see a short demonstration. I think your son would love Comuna 13 most of all, it's very vibrant and full of music and wall murals, good food and culture.

We went through an immersion program arranged by this couple that does a weekly podcast, so everything was arranged through them. They had about 4 people in charge of logistics, getting us where we need to be and all that. It was basically a week long thing so we did all sorts of stuff

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Chad Fuck

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In Guatapé we walked around a bit and went to a coffee shop to see a short demonstration. I think your son would love Comuna 13 most of all, it's very vibrant and full of music and wall murals, good food and culture.

We went through an immersion program arranged by this couple that does a weekly podcast, so everything was arranged through them. They had about 4 people in charge of logistics, getting us where we need to be and all that. It was basically a week long thing so we did all sorts of stuff

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Espaniolistas, per chance?
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iodeac

iodeac 138

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Espaniolistas, per chance?
That's it. Nate and Andrea were great, I can't even imagine how much work it would involve. They get two days rest before they're back at it for another 5 days.

Our group became really good friends. It was legit hard to say goodbye to everyone Friday night, the good thing is that there were about five of us on the same flight to Miami yesterday with layovers so we could spend more time together. We all agreed that if they offer another trip next year we're 100% in. In our group this year there was a lady from Houston/Sugarland and a guy from Austin. There was one couple from London, another guy from Australia and the rest from the US. Honestly it's been hard to be back and for example go to a grocery store and speak English instead of Spanish

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Goodman

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On 1/13/2020 at 10:25 AM, midtown said:

I just found Cartagena kind of boring and it's touristy as hell. Yes the walled city is nice for a day and there are good restaurants. It just felt like a little like new Orleans in the Caribbean to be honest. The beaches are generally terrible. Perhaps it was because it was my last stop and I was kind of over being a tourist and I had come from Medellin and Manizales which are uniquely Colombian. If I could do it over I would go Santa Marta.

I agree with you but some folks like the "feel" Cartagena provides. I'd spend 90% of my time in Medellin and push the limits, great city if you are single. 

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iodeac

iodeac 138

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Medellín was amazing and I want to go back like yesterday. Amazing people, culture, music, etc. Ate all the food and drank all the jugos. Even fell off a horse when we were supposed to go horseback riding after visiting a coffee plantation. Spoke a ton of Spanish and it was legitimately difficult to get back on a plane to the US and say goodbye to really good friends I made over the week we were there. Curious to see what flight prices look like now with Coronavirus.

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Chad Fuck

Chad Fuck 17899

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so you flew international, out of the states, only a couple days ago?  bold.

On Thursday, when we left, CDC said Colombia had 9 cases in the entire country and was least risk. I’ve done a significant amount of overseas travel so it was a calculated risk and we took it.

On Friday, while we were at the Botero museum (fantastic), after visiting the Gold Museum (also cool) they put up signs saying the government was shutting down all the national parks and museums.

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Chad Fuck

Chad Fuck 17899

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1 hour ago, futureman said:

did you make it back home yet?  how was customs?

Yes, we were supposed to fly to Medellin (from Bogota) Sunday morning.  Instead, we went to the airport and bought tickets home.  We had booked the whole trip on miles, which are hard if not impossible to change, so I had calculated buying emergency return tickets back in my budget for the trip.  We were supposed to return a week from Sunday, but I've since learned that AA has canceled that flight back, so lucky us.  We got back to DFW at 4:30am Monday.  Customs didn't open until 5am, and it's their rule that no one leaves the plane until they're open.  Cooling our heels in the airplane was nothing compared to 6 hours hanging out at the airport on the Bogota side, so I didn't mind.  Even that wasn't bad at all.  We had VIP waiting room access once we got through security so we were able to minimize contacts to people to some extent.  Anyhow, being the first plane at the airport, and having Global Entry, we literally didn't stop moving from the time we got off the plane until we got on the Uber.  Maybe the easiest customs interaction I've ever had.

In any case, it was a great long weekend in Bogota, all things considered.  I'll post some more pics later.  

I feel for the people of Colombia.  They don't have the medical infrastructure that we have and their tourism industry is going to get hammered.  If any of you ever go, I have the name of a great driver.  I'd encourage you to pm me about him as I'd like to give him all the business I can.  

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Chad Fuck

Chad Fuck 17899

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2 minutes ago, midtown said:

Luckily tourism is pretty small for Colombia

In the grand scheme, true.  I went to a restaurant on Friday night with friends and we were literally the only table there.  We went to one of the top restaurants (Misia) on Saturday, and it was less than half full.   Same tough times there, as here, are coming.  

 

 

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