Just Landed in Colombia? Your First 7 Days

Prepaid (prepago) SIMs are cheap and sold everywhere with just a passport, and 4G/LTE is strong across cities and patchier in rural areas and the mountains. Claro has the broadest national coverage, Tigo and Movistar are solid urban alternatives, and WOM is a cheaper challenger. eSIMs like Airalo or Holafly work the moment you land if your phone supports them, which is the easiest bridge for your first few days.

Typical cost: COP 30,000–60,000/month for a prepaid plan with 15–30GB of data plus unlimited WhatsApp and social apps

Cards (Visa and Mastercard) are widely accepted in city shops, restaurants, and supermarkets, but cash remains essential for taxis, markets, tiendas, and tips. Notify your home bank of travel to avoid frozen cards, prefer bank-branded ATMs inside branches or malls, and expect withdrawal fees of around COP 20,000–30,000 per transaction. Contactless and QR payments (Nequi, Daviplata) are increasingly common even at small vendors.

Opening an account: Opening a traditional local account usually requires a resident visa and a cédula de extranjería (foreigner ID). Bancolombia, Davivienda, and BBVA are the most foreigner-friendly high-street options. For everyday digital money, Nu (Nubank) offers an app-based account and card that is comparatively easy to open with a cédula, and Nequi (by Bancolombia) is the near-universal mobile wallet for transfers and QR payments.

Cash: Carry small notes (COP 2,000–20,000), because vendors and taxis often cannot break a COP 50,000 or COP 100,000 note. Keep cash discreet, split it across pockets and a bag, and never count a wad in public. The peso has many zeros, so double-check you are reading COP 50,000 and not COP 5,000 on price tags and menus.

Tipping: Restaurants add a voluntary 10% service charge (propina); staff will ask '¿desea incluir el servicio?' and you can accept or decline without awkwardness. Taxis are not tipped, though rounding up is common, and it is normal to tip supermarket baggers and petrol attendants a small coin or two.

Colombia has no general local address-registration requirement for arrivals — you do not report to a town hall or register your home address the way you would in parts of Europe. Your entry is recorded electronically by Migración Colombia at the border via your passport stamp. Separately, if you hold a visa valid for more than three months, you must obtain a cédula de extranjería (the foreigner ID card) from Migración Colombia, which is your key to banking, contracts, and public services. Tourists on an entry stamp do not register anything and simply respect the permitted stay (typically up to 90 days, extendable to 180 in a calendar year).

Where: Migración Colombia offices and its online portal for the cédula de extranjería; the Cancillería visa portal (micancilleria.gov.co) for visas and extensions.

Cities rely on app-based rides, buses, and mass transit; Bogotá runs the TransMilenio bus rapid transit plus the SITP integrated bus network, while Medellín has a clean, safe, well-run Metro (with cable-car Metrocable lines up the hillsides). Ride-hailing apps are the safest default for newcomers, especially at night. You tap in with a rechargeable card (Tullave in Bogotá, Cívica in Medellín) rather than paying cash on board.

From the airport: From Bogotá's El Dorado (BOG) to the centre or Chapinero, an Uber or authorised airport taxi costs roughly COP 30,000–55,000 and takes 30–60 minutes depending on traffic. From Medellín's José María Córdova (MDE) into El Poblado it is a longer 40–60 minute ride over the mountain, typically COP 90,000–130,000; the small in-city Olaya Herrera (EOH) handles regional flights. Use the marked taxi rank or an app, and never accept rides from touts inside the terminal.

Most newcomers start with a furnished short-term flat via Airbnb, a local agency, or Facebook groups, then sign a longer unfurnished lease once they hold a cédula and can provide a Colombian co-signer or a fianza policy. Rents are quoted excluding administración (building fees) and utilities, and vary sharply by estrato, the 1–6 socioeconomic band attached to every address that also determines your utility tariffs.

Typical rent: A furnished one-bedroom in a desirable Bogotá or Medellín barrio runs roughly COP 2,500,000–4,000,000/month; unfurnished long leases in mid-estrato areas can be COP 1,500,000–2,500,000. Add administración of COP 200,000–600,000 on top.

Deposit norm: Landlords traditionally want a Colombian co-debtor (codeudor) or a fianza/seguro de arrendamiento policy from an insurer rather than a cash deposit, which is a common hurdle for foreigners. Furnished expat rentals sidestep this by taking one to two months' rent upfront instead, which is why most people start there before tackling a formal lease.

Colombia has an excellent, affordable private healthcare sector, with top-ranked clinics in Bogotá, Medellín, and Cali; public EPS coverage becomes available once you contribute as a resident. Private consultations and prescription medicines are inexpensive by Western standards, and many pharmacists can advise on and dispense common medicines directly without a prescription.

How to access it: For non-emergencies, book a private clinic such as Fundación Santa Fe or Clínica del Country (Bogotá), Clínica Las Américas or Hospital Pablo Tobón Uribe (Medellín), or a Colsanitas centre, and pay out of pocket or via insurance. For emergencies, call 123 or go directly to any urgencias department, which must treat you regardless of insurance status.

Insurance: Residents enrol in an EPS (health plan) such as Sura, Sanitas, or Nueva EPS via employment or independent contributions. New arrivals, digital nomads, and the self-employed typically hold private international insurance or a local medicina prepagada plan (from Sura, Colsanitas, or Coomeva) until they are enrolled in the public system.

• Greet people before getting to business; a warm 'buenos días' with a handshake, or a single cheek kiss for women, sets the right tone.
• Use the formal 'usted' with strangers, officials, and elders until invited to switch to the informal 'tú' or the regional 'vos' (common in Medellín).
• Punctuality is relaxed socially but expected for work; arriving 20–30 minutes late to a party is normal, but be on time for business and appointments.
• Address service staff, doormen, and drivers politely and always say 'gracias'; Colombians place a very high value on courtesy, warmth, and treating people with dignity.
• Learn basic Spanish quickly and try it even imperfectly, as the effort is warmly received and English is limited outside tourist zones and business districts.
• Accept offered coffee (tinto) or food graciously; hospitality is central and declining outright can feel cold, so at least accept a little.
• Dress a notch smarter than you might at home, especially in Bogotá; presentation matters and looking put-together earns respect in shops and offices.

• 'No dar papaya' is the local mantra: don't flash phones, jewellery, laptops, or cash, as opportunistic theft targets the visibly careless rather than the unlucky.
• Avoid joking about drugs, Pablo Escobar, or 'narco' stereotypes; many Colombians find it offensive and tone-deaf given the real suffering behind it.
• Some neighbourhoods shift from safe to risky within a few blocks, so ask locals which barrios and streets to avoid, especially after dark.
• Be thoughtful about the armed conflict, displacement, and the peace process, which have touched many families directly; listen more than you opine.
• Respect regional identities (paisa, costeño, rolo, valluno); playful rivalry is fine, but sweeping generalisations about any region land badly.