Zipaquirá is a town north of Bogotá known for its Salt Cathedral (more on that below!). We also know it as a great place to climb and bike! If you want to walk around and get to know the place or just do activities nearby, a visit is surely worth your while. This is how to get to Zipaquirá!
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How to Get to Zipaquirá
(See a map to get to Zipaquirá from Bogotá at the end of this post!)
In Public Transportation:
- First off, you need to get to Portal del Norte, where a lot of buses exit the city towards smaller towns to the north. It’s right on the Autopista (main highway), so you can get there on a taxi or on a Transmilenio (take pretty much any ‘B’ route, but especially B74, B75 and B13).
- Take a bus straight to Zipaquirá at Platform 2, South zone. Look for buses that say “Zipa.” The ride takes about 1 hour.
In a Car:
With a GPS: look for “Zipaquira” on Google Maps or Waze and follow the instructions.
Without a GPS:
- Exit Bogota headed north. Keep going, passing a toll, until you get to a bridge.
- Once at the bridge, do not cross the bridge. Keep right to go under it towards Chia.
- Right before Chia, you’ll get to another bridge. Go up the bridge, staying on the right to begin heading to Zipaquirá, and keep going that way.
- When you see a Homecenter, you’ll soon see a sign saying Zipaquirá is to the right. Go right shortly afterwards.
- When you get to yet another bridge, stay right following the signs to Zipaquirá and you’ll be there within a few minutes.
What to Do at Zipaquirá
Visit the Salt Cathedral
You may be asking yourself, “Is this a Cathedral made of salt?” Well, no. The Salt Cathedral is a Cathedral deep inside a salt mine right outside of Zipaquirá. Actually, it’s a very touristy attraction, but it is absolutely worth it. You get started walking into the dark salt mine, and it’s a treat from the start. My favorite part of walking inside is looking down into enormous black pits where you can spot workers continuing to mine salt in the most magnificent caverns I’ve ever seen. Of course, there’s also the Cathedral, which is pretty cool, but the real attraction is simply being inside such a huge, ancient mine. You can book tours here. There’s also a climbing wall right outside the mine! That takes us to the next point.
Climb
There’s a cliffside close to Zipaquirá that’s perfect for climbers of all levels! Access to Rocas del Abra is extremely easy and it has enough routes for a whole lot of sport climbing. I marked the spot on the map below. Make sure you pay before you enter and take care of the place. Access here has been blocked before by locals, so please make sure you don’t ruin everyone’s fun.
Bike
Zipaquirá is very hilly, one might even say mountainous, so it has cycling routes in every direction. Our favorite goes up to Páramo de Guerrero, and it’s a gorgeous ride the whole way. You can read about that ride here. Otherwise, we encourage you to explore Zipaquirá and its surrounding towns on a bike!
Walk around Town
If you’ve been to cities and towns in Colombia, you’ve probably realized every one of them has one, if not multiple plazas. Zipaquirá is one of those with multiple plazas. Walking through Zipaquirá is a lot of fun. You can see all the plazas, eat a whole bunch of typical food and visit museums (or so we’ve heard – we don’t love museums).
Some Things to Know
- There is one toll from Bogota to Zipaquirá and none on the way back.
Now that you know how to get to Zipaquirá, definitely do so! There’s lots to do in the town and close by!
If you’d like to read about an amazing camping spot close to Zipaquirá, click here!
