6 days in Colombia, 1 in Panama City: Hotel, airfare, breakfast under $500. Overall total under $800

For my recent trip to Colombia and Panama City, my airfare was $291 (after all taxes and fees).  My hotel, which I found on booking.com was basic, but for the 7 nights was $187 (including breakfast).  My room was basic, but I had my own bathroom, the A/C and Wifi worked well, and the location was great (I could easily walk to all the attractions except Bazurto).  That means that airfare (from Chicago), hotel and breakfast cost a wonderfully low $478.

Attractions and food in Cartagena were cheap (for the most part) as well.  The tour of the Bazurto market was $55, but after that, things were quite affordable, with many dinners (a cheeseburger, fries, and soda, tacos, and a margarita, ceviche, and sangria, etc) being $10 to $20, and lunches (a ham and cheese and pineapple arepa, a sandwich, or a small ceviche) were usually $5 to $10.  Most of the attractions are public squares, churches and just the quaint streets.  I didn’t pay to enter anything.

In Panama City, things were a bit more expensive, with the BioMuseo being $18 and the Canal Museum $10, and I took Uber to get around, so I probably spent about $100 that day alone.

I traveled the dates the airfare was cheapest, after poking around at options for a while, and spent a while on hotel sites looking at options and updating where I was staying as new options became available.  And this way, I saved a lot of money on a really great trip.

There is a ton of stuff you can do in Cartagena, so it’s a great place to visit.