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From £90 - £104pp *(Depending group size)
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Salt Cathedral and Countryside Tour

Highlights

  • Explore the traditional town of Zipaquira, home of the Salt Cathedral
  • Visit a traditional farmhouse and learn how to make regional cheese
  • Enjoy a local Colombian lunch in the Hacienda
From £90 - £104pp *(Depending group size)
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What you'll do

A tour of the Salt Cathedral of Zipaquira is one of the most spectacular day trips from Bogota. During this day tour from Bogota, we will take you to the small, traditional town of Zipaquira, home of the stunning structure built inside the extensive caves of an old salt mine. After visiting the salt mine, we will head to a hacienda for a traditional Colombian lunch.This hacienda tour, plus exploring the Salt Cathedral of Zipaquira, will introduce you to an authentic side of Colombian culture and you will enjoy the beautiful countryside scenery surrounding Bogota, Colombia.

A tour of the Salt Cathedral of Zipaquira is one of the most spectacular day trips from Bogota.  Zipaquira is built inside the extensive caves of an old salt mine, and is located about 50 km north of Bogota. It will take us approximately 1 hour to reach our destination. We will spend about 1.5 or 2 hours inside the Salt Cathedral. The Salt Cathedral of Zipaquira is a true testimony to the miners’ faith in a higher power and one of the most notable achievements in Colombian architecture.

 

During our time in the cathedral, an expert guide will take you through the Stations of the Cross. At each station you will see a symbolic representation of events from Jesus’ last journey before his crucifixion. At the end of this walk, we will come to the main dome and the three naves of the cathedral that are interconnected by a gigantic crack, which symbolises the birth and death of Christ. You will learn about Colombian culture, religion and architecture during this day tour. Once we finish our visit to the cathedral, we will head to a traditional Colombian farm.

 

Traditional Colombian Farm

The farm owners will give us a warm welcome and start this portion of the Bogota day tour by showing us the old farmhouse. We will eat a traditional Colombian lunch in the main dining room of the hacienda. This is your chance to learn a little bit about traditional Colombian food. After lunch, we will explore the fields around the house then head to the milking station. A farmhand will even teach us how to milk the cows at the hacienda. We will then go to the hacienda’s main kitchen where the farm owners will teach us the step-by-step process of making the type of cheese popular in this region of Colombia. We will end this Bogota day tour by enjoying a delicious cup of Colombian coffee

What's included

Included

  • Transfers to and from the hotel
  •  Guided tour in English
  •  Entry tickets to the Salt Cathedral of Zipaquira
  •   Traditional Colombian lunch
Your local host

Nidia Penagos

Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

I was born and raised in Bogota when I was studying I actually didn;t didn’t study anything to do with tourism. My career began in engineering and I worked in this industry for many years, but I always maintained a passion for travel, discovery and exploring and did plenty in my spare time. Both in Colombia and across the rest of the world.

After a while, my husband got an offer to work in the UK and so we moved across the world and then came my idea to start a business… (which has always been a big ambition of mine)

What inspired you to work in travel?

As mentioned, I always had a passion for travel and always wanted to start my own business. It was about 7 ye... Read All

Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

I was born and raised in Bogota when I was studying I actually didn;t didn’t study anything to do with tourism. My career began in engineering and I worked in this industry for many years, but I always maintained a passion for travel, discovery and exploring and did plenty in my spare time. Both in Colombia and across the rest of the world.

After a while, my husband got an offer to work in the UK and so we moved across the world and then came my idea to start a business… (which has always been a big ambition of mine)

What inspired you to work in travel?

As mentioned, I always had a passion for travel and always wanted to start my own business. It was about 7 years ago I attended a conference where the Colombian government outlined their plans to invest in tourism to make Colombia fulfil its potential as a tourism destination. So here the seeds were planted to start looking to offer experiences in Colombia. Another influence was that obviously being from Colombia myself and my husband have deep knowledge of all the local, authentic things to do. So whenever our friends were visiting, they would always come to us to ask what to do and where to go and we loved telling people, so this was the second indicator. So we started to look to offer these experiences.

What makes your experiences special?

We combine the highlights of Colombia, the things most people want to see, with off the beaten track, authentic experiences that you wouldn’t get on any normal tour. So people really get an insight into true local life as well as seeing any must-see, main sights.

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Location

What our travellers are saying...

It was a fantastic tour that provided us with considerable insight into life in these smaller towns as well as gave us information about the site we were most interested in--the Salt Cathedral. We arrived in Zipaquira early in the day, and our personal tour of the Salt Cathedral was fantastic! Because we were there early, it felt like we had the area to ourselves. Later in the day, our hike around the lake was interesting and peaceful. I really e

Kristen

This was one of the highlights of our trip. It was great to get out of the city and see a smaller Colombian town and some of the countryside. The two major sites we saw were incredible and a must do for any traveler to Bogota. Using the tour alleviated any safety concerns we had to get to these major sites as well. Our guide was very informative and also taught us a lot more about the history of Bogota and Colombia. If you're traveling to Bogota

Will

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