The Cocora Valley of Colombia: Hiking Among Giants

Salento is one of Colombia’s most visited regions. It’s famous for the Cocora Valley as well as for being in the Coffee Axis of Colombia. This is the place to visit if you want beautiful views of the Andes mountains and to drink delicious Colombian coffee. Because the region is a tourism hotspot, it’s easy to get out and explore around Salento and it’s a very safe feeling town. The draw to Salento is definitely the tall wax palm trees of the Cocora Valley as it makes for great hiking. It’s the perfect place to visit for a few days of relaxation. I visited for three days as part of two weeks in Colombia and was so happy this was the first stop on my itinerary.

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How Long to Spend in the Cocora Valley, Colombia

Salento is the place to stay if you are visiting the Cocora Valley without a car. I spent three full days in Salento but I think two full days is enough to see the highlights of Salento. I budgeted for three full days in case one of those days was a rain day for hiking in the Cocora Valley but I ended up having beautiful weather when I visited so the third day ended up not being needed.

When to Visit Salento

Salento has pretty mild temperatures year-round, averaging 22 C (72 F) with lows of 13 C (55 F).

To avoid the heaviest rain seasons, the best times to visit Salento are January to February and mid-June to the beginning of September. If you visit at other times, rain may impact your plans. I visited in late March and although I had good weather on the day I hiked the Cocora Valley, mudslides had closed part of the trail.

Getting to Salento

Salento might seem a little tricky to get to because there is no airport in Salento, meaning you must arrive by bus or private transport. The two closest airports to Salento are Pereira Matecaña International Airport (PEI) or Armenia El Edén International Airport (AXM). Flights to either Pereira or Armenia from other big cities in Colombia like Cartagena, Medellin, or Bogota are quite cheap and quick. I used Avianca to fly within Colombia and had a great experience with them.

Pereira to Salento You can either get a taxi or arrange a private transfer in advance to get to Salento. It’s about an hour’s drive to Salento from Pereira. I arranged a private transfer with my hotel and it ended up costing 180,000 pesos plus tip. If your hotel doesn’t offer private transfer bookings in advance, you can book a private transfer from Pereira to Salento here.

The cheapest option will be to get the bus between Pereira and Salento. To get the bus, get a taxi to the Pereira Transportation Terminal and grab the bus from there. The buses run about every hour and drop you off just at the edge of Salento. Salento is quite small and walkable.

Armenia to Salento Same as above, take a taxi or book a private transfer. For the bus, head to the Armenia bus station by taxi. Buses run more frequently from Armenia than Periera, about every 20 minutes. The bus ride is also a little bit faster, it’s 45 minutes to Salento.

Where to Stay in Salento

I found it very convenient to stay close to the main square as this is where all the jeeps will leave from to get you to the Cocora Valley or to any of the coffee farms. It’s also nice to be close to restaurants. I stayed at Hotel Salento Plaza which was only one block from the main square and was so convenient. On top of being conveniently located, it was also a wonderful hotel. The rooms were a great size and there was a lovely private yard that you could sit in to have tea and watch birds. And they serve a fabulous breakfast that will have you filled up for your day of adventure.

Where to Eat in Salento

Salento’s speciality is the local trout. Almost every restaurant has it on the menu. I don’t eat fish but I easily found something vegetarian on every menu. The serving sizes in Salento all seem very generous. I definitely over-ordered some places expecting to get less food.

For some of the best views, check out Camino Real. Camino Real restaurant is huge and if you go all the way to the top back, there is bar seating that looks out over the mountains. The food was also excellent, I’m assured that the trout here was amazing.

Bambú Restaurante Bar on Calle 5 is another restaurant that has fantastic views and yummy food, the yucca fries here were delicious.

While in Salento I had a chance to try out Juan Esteban’s, which was great for huge serving sizes and their coconut-lime juice.

Brunch de Salento is good for getting bagged lunches for hikes. They also have massive serving sizes and really yummy desserts like the peanut butter brownie.

What to Do in Salento and the Cocora Valley

Hike the Cocora Valley

The Cocora Valley hike was one of my favourite activities I did in Colombia. There are so many wonderful hiking trails in Colombia and this is one of the best.

It isn’t very strenuous but you get amazing views of the mountains and valleys around. It’s peaceful feeling and there’s also a pretty good opportunity for watching hummingbirds at the farm. The tall wax palms here can get up to 200 feet tall and they are the tallest palms in the world. The landscape here isn’t a natural one though, those palm trees should be in forests instead of the grassland you see in Cocora.

Once you are in the Cocora Valley there isn’t really anywhere to get lunch so grab some snacks and fruit from the grocery store before heading out. I recommend heading to the Cocora Valley as early as possible to avoid crowds and afternoon rain showers. Surprisingly, a lot of people go in the afternoon. It’s only about a 20-30 minute drive to the start of the Cocora Valley hike. Make sure you take some small change with you, when I visited the going rate for using the bathroom was about 1000 pesos.

When you get to the entrance of the park you will have to pay 10,000 pesos. There is a map with the costs clearly marked on it. You will have to pay 10,000 pesos again when you reach the farm if you want to continue walking and doing a loop.

When I visited there had been recent mudslides so it was not possible to visit the hummingbird farm or do the loop that goes over the bridged area. So it was an out-and-back hike with the farm being the furthest you could walk. Unfortunately, the woman at the farm said she was not allowed to operate so you can’t count on this being a food and bathroom stop for your hike. All this aside, it was still a fantastic hike and a highlight of my time in Colombia.

Visit a Coffee Farm

Salento is the perfect place to explore coffee farms in Colombia. There are multiple within a short distance of Salento. Once you are in Salento you can book a trip to one of the farms and a jeep drive by checking out the times on the back of the sale booth in the centre of town.

I’m sure all of the farms are a great experience. I ended up going to Ocaso. It was a nice tour that included showing us the coffee plants and giving us a chance to pick coffee beans. You could also see how they were processed and learn about different brewing methods. The tour ended with a tasting session.

Souvenir Shop

Salento was the best place I visited during my time in Colombia to souvenir shop. There’s lots of shops here with traditional food items and lots of trinkets to choose from. If you’re looking for the perfect hammock or coffee beans, this is the place to be. One specific shop I can recommend for excellent coffee is the coffee shop in the basement of El Fin de Afan on Carrera 6. The owner of the cafe, Carlos, speaks fluent English and roasts his own coffee as well as has other local beans.

Play Tejo

A game of Tejo is the perfect way to cap off a long day hiking or exploring the region. To find the tejo hall, just look for the rules of tejo posted outside of the pool hall of Bar Danubio on Carrera 6. Go down to the basement and you will find a small bar and a playing area for Tejo.

Tejo is basically a game where you throw a metal puck onto a clay playing area that has a small explosive in the centre that you try to hit to score points. A beer is included in your ticket price and luckily, some of the men there happily demonstrated how to play. I won’t claim to be the best tejo player around, but it was a lot of fun.

Visit the Viewpoints Above Salento

A visit to the viewpoint above Salento is the perfect way to get a view out over the town and the Andes mountains. Head straight up Carerra 6 and go up the 180 stairs to get to the viewpoint. The first viewpoint, the Mirador Alto de la Cruz, is perfect for views over the town of Salento. To get to the second viewpoint, from the Mirador Alto de la Cruz head down the stone path and go by a kids playground. The second viewpoint, Mirador de Salento, is even better than the first as it gives you beautiful views of the valley and mountains around Salento. After this viewpoint, you don’t have to go back to the stairs, you can just walk down the street here and head back into the main area of Salento.

Visit Filandia

A visit to Filandia should take only a morning or afternoon so you could do it on the same day you visit a coffee farm. Filandia is a small town that is less touristy than Salento. It’s quite cute and there are several viewpoints in town to look out over the valley here. Unfortunately, when I visited, it poured rain and Mirador de Filandia was closed down because of safety concerns. Otherwise Mirador de Filandia looks very nice to visit, its a huge wooden lookout tower that I’m sure give excellent views. A really nice free viewpoint can be found at the corner of Calle 7 and Carerra 9.

Go Birdwatching at Santa Rita Waterfall

I really wanted to make it out to Santa Rita waterfall and didn’t have time to. This birdwatching tour seems like the perfect way to visit the waterfall and see some really unique Colombian wildlife.

With More Time in Salento

If you have an extra day in Salento, then a day trip to Santa Rosa de Cabal and Hot Springs would be my pick.

With an extra 3-5 days you can take an overnight trip to nearby Los Nevados National Park. The landscape here looks completely different than the area around Salento and it looks like a lot of fun. I wish my itinerary had allowed for this.

Visiting Salento and the Cocora Valley

Salento was a wonderful place to visit in Colombia. Fantastic scenery, hiking, and really yummy coffee. The people here were so friendly and even though it is a popular spot for backpackers, Salento has a very laid-back vibe. I would happily visit again and explore more of the hiking this area has to offer.

After a wonderful time in the Andes mountains, it was time to check out the rainforests of Minca, in the Santa Marta mountains.

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