If you’re wondering what to do for a day on the coast of Colombia, my answer is that you need to go to Tayrona National Natural Park. It’s one of Colombia’s most popular, most beautiful parks. The landscape is amazing; standing on the beach you can see the landscape switch from ocean to beach to mangrove to jungle to mountains. It is one of the most diverse, unique places I have been, and it was bunches of fun even though it was just for a day! So here’s what to do on a day-trip to Tayrona Park.

What to do on a Day-trip to Tayrona Park

There’s a TON to do here, and you can browse activities here! These are some of our favorite things to do in Tayrona Park:

1. Hike from the park’s entrance to Cabo San Juan. This hike will take you through some of the most beautiful coastal landscapes you’ve ever seen. It takes about 2.5 hours, although that can vary depending on the person hiking. Get to the “El Zaino” entrance (more info on how below), where you pay the entrance fee, find the trail to Cabo San Juan and just start hiking.
2. Once you get to Cabo San Juan all sweaty and tired from hiking in the baking sun, the best thing to do is to get right in the water. Now, if you’re down for some adventure, there’s a pretty large rock in the bay that is perfect for diving. The rock is out a ways from the beach right where you get to Cabo San Juan. You have to swim there, do a little bit of easy scrambling to get on top of the rock and then jump the six feet down into the ocean below. I marked the spot on the map below so you can find it easily, and if you want to see it beforehand to recognize this diving rock when you go to Tayrona Park, check out our Youtube video below!
3. Yet another activity you can do at Cabo San Juan is snorkel. The crystal clear, calm water makes for a great time enjoying the underwater world. This does mean you’ll have to carry your own mask and fins or rent them in Santa Marta or Taganga because there is no snorkeling service in Tayrona Park.
4. Hike to Pueblito Chairama. At the far end of the Cabo San Juan campground, towards the mainland, you’ll find a trail that will take you on a mini-Ciudad Perdida hike (one of Colombia’s most popular multi-day hikes) to an abandoned, historical Tayrona tribe town. The hike is uphill and takes about 1.5 hours, which may vary. *Doing this hike along with everything else listed here might jam pack your day, making you rush from one activity to another, so if you were to discard any of the activities in this list I’d recommend discarding this one. Still, the hike is awesome, so do it if you can!
5. When it comes to food, the one restaurant in Cabo San Juan can have long lines and low quality food and can sometimes run out of certain dishes because of the crowds during high season. At the same time, if you take food, you have to carry it and it’s rarely as good as a cooked meal. What I prefer, just for simplicity’s sake, is to brave the line at the restaurant.
6. Unless you have your car with you, head back on a boat! After a long day hiking, diving, snorkeling, eating and relaxing on the beach, it might be hard to feel motivated to take the long hike back. I find that the most enjoyable way to get back is on a boat. It leaves from Cabo San Juan at the end of the day and you get to see the sun set in front of you as you ride to Taganga. You can buy tickets for the boat at Cabo San Juan. Buy them as soon as you get there! To buy them ahead of time, there’s a travel agency called Tayrona Taganga Express right when you enter Taganga where you can buy your boat ride ticket from Cabo San Lucas to Taganga or vice versa. I marked the spot on the map below! More info on prices later.
7. And don’t forget to just relax on the beach, maybe take a nap in the shade! Enjoy!

How to get to Tayrona National Natural Park:

This blog post, what to do on a day-trip to Tayrona Park, is based on entering the park through the El Zaino entrance and then getting to Cabo San Juan. This is how you do that!

Get to the Entrance:

On a bus, you have two options. The first is to take a bus going to La Guajira from Santa Marta’s bus terminal (search for “Terminal de Transportes de Santa Marta” in Google Maps or Waze) and tell the bus driver to drop you off at the El Zaino entrance to Tayrona Park. Just say “Déjeme en la entrada el Zaino del Parque Tayrona.” It costs $12,000 pesos ($4 dollars). The second option is to get your hotel or hostel to set you up with transportation. This will cost a little more, but involves less planning.

In a car, you’ll want to get on the Troncal del Caribe road, which is the main road that crosses the Caribbean coast of Colombia. Follow the signs to La Guajira, which will be east. The Zaino entrance is the last one going west to east, so it will be about a 50 minute drive there from Santa Marta. There are no signs until you’re right at the entrance, so be watching for it on your left. In addition to the entrance fee (info on that below), you’ll have to pay $13,000 COP ($5 USD) for the car and $9,000 COP ($3 USD) for a motorcycle.

Get to Cabo San Juan:

From the El Zaino entrance, you have 4 options.

1. If you’re renting a car, follow the road until you reach the parking lot. A day of parking costs $9,500 COP ($3.25 USD) for a car and $7,500 COP ($2.50 USD) for a motorcycle. From the parking lot, find the trail with the ocean on your right and start hiking! (You can hire someone to get you to Tayrona Park here.)
2. Then, you can take a small bus owned by the park from the entrance all the way to where the road ends. The bus costs $3,000 pesos or $1 dollar. Find the trail from wherever it drops you off with the ocean on your right and start hiking!
3. You can also ride a horse all the way to Cabo San Juan for $40,000 pesos ($14 dollars). This way, you get a guide to explain things as you ride and get to enjoy the hike while sitting down. It’s a pretty awesome deal!
4. Walk from the entrance all the way to your destination. Walking to Cabo San Juan takes about 2.5 hours. The trails are amazing, easily identifiable and include some of the most beautiful hiking I’ve ever done.

Here’s the map to get there from Santa Marta – I indicated three spots on the map too: Pueblito, the Diving Rock and the travel agency, Tayrona Taganga Express!

Some things to know:

• You’ll most likely see monkeys and, if you’re lucky, alligators!
• The times between which you can enter and exit the park are 8:00 am to 5:00 pm.
• Some beaches along the trail have signs that prohibit getting in the water. This isn’t just to protect the area environmentally. Since those beaches are not bays, there are currents in the water that can sweep you away from the mainland into the vast ocean in a matter of seconds. So don’t get in the water at those beaches!
• Get your yellow fever shot at least 10 days before going to Tayrona National Natural Park. If you’ll be in Bogota beforehand, you can get the shot for free at the airport.

Payment

• Colombians or foreign residents below the age of 25 pay $10,000 Colombian pesos or $4 US dollars ($11,000 or $4.40 during high season) to enter the park.
• Colombians and foreign residents above the age of 25 pay $17,500 pesos or $6 USD ($19,500 or $6.50 during high season) to enter the park.
• Non-resident foreigners pay $44,000 pesos or $15 USD ($48,500 or $17 USD during high season) to enter the park.
• High season is December 15 to January 30, June 15 to July 30, Holy Week and all Holidays.
• Students get discounts, so take your student ID!
• Make sure you take cash, because you can’t pay for anything with a card at Tayrona Park, and that it is in Colombian pesos.
• The boat ride costs between $35,000-$45,000 pesos ($12-$15 USD). If you’re not staying in Taganga, take a bus (less than $2,000 Colombian pesos or 0.75 US dollars) or a taxi (about $40,000 Colombian pesos or $13 US dollars) to Santa Marta.

I hope this helps you figure out what to do on a day-trip to Tayrona Park! If you’re staying in Taganga or Santa Marta, check out this blog post about what to do while you’re there and some things that are good to know!

Another place you have to visit on the Colombian coast is Isla Fuerte. This island vacation spot isn’t as well-known as Tayrona or that part of the coast, but it is a totally unique, remote and gorgeous destination. Read about Isla Fuerte here!