Cali Reports

[LeftSide]

I've taken the bus from Cali to Pereira many times. Its 3-4 hours depending on traffic or an accident, sometimes a police or military check looking for someone etc. Get the bus from the Terminal de Transportes. Lots of buses heading that direction. Its about $30-40 K. Most of the buses are fairly modern and comfortable.

Yeah easy journey Pereira to Cali. This site will give you an idea of prices and time. Should be able to buy tickets in advance as well.

https://www.redbus.co/pasajes-de-bus...ame=Pereira%20(%20 Ris%20)%20 (%20 All%20)&fromCityId=195232&toCityName=Cali%20 (Vac)%20 (Todos)&toCityId=195251&busType=Any&opId=20982&onward=23-Dec-2022.

[BayBoy]

More likely 4-5 hours. But the journey is very easy. There are plenty of bus companies plying the route with deoartures every 20 min pretty much 24 h /7 with exception of late night departures.

The tickets cost 35 k-60 k pesos. Can be bought before departure.

For the comfortable ride choose a company with large buses. I took expresso Brasilia and liked it.

I've taken the bus from Cali to Pereira many times. Its 3-4 hours depending on traffic or an accident, sometimes a police or military check looking for someone etc. Get the bus from the Terminal de Transportes. Lots of buses heading that direction. Its about $30-40 K. Most of the buses are fairly modern and comfortable.

[Ejjlk8274]

This is helpful.

I plan to leave via bus to Pereira. Journey indicates 3 and half hours? I saw someone post in the other areas forum about his bus journeys so hopefully its pretty straightforward plan.

More likely 4-5 hours. But the journey is very easy. There are plenty of bus companies plying the route with deoartures every 20 min pretty much 24 h /7 with exception of late night departures.

The tickets cost 35 k-60 k pesos. Can be bought before departure.

For the comfortable ride choose a company with large buses. I took expresso Brasilia and liked it.

[Nomars777]

Thanks for this information. I'm staying at 2 hotels in el centro (just because I wanted to stay at 2 places, see how they are), both close to the Bulevar del Rio, so I also planned on walking the river walking path. Been watching quite a few videos on YouTube by WalkingAround, which give a nice feel for how things are in Cali. That channel mostly has Cali, but also videos for other cities in Colombia.

Looking forward to exploring the city, in between "visits."

Nomars, Trip would know better than anyone but I walked around a lot. When I was on the roads, no one bothered me. Cali has a river that runs through it. I stayed at the Marriott and walked down to the river and then walked the river sidewalk (about 20 minutes or so) until I hit Dr. Amor. For the most part, I was not hassled. There were some homeless folks living near the river close to Dr. Amor who I avoided who may have asked for cash, but that was it. Granted, this was in early 2021. Still, the only people I heard the whole time I was there speaking English were in Dr. Amor, so maybe the people there are not that used to hitting up tourists per se. I heard English everywhere in Medellin.

FWIW, I saw a ton of people in scrubs. I am not sure if Cali is a health care or plastic surgery mecca but there were a lot of people in health care..

[BayBoy]

I've been to Cali 11 times over the years. Never been robbed or even hasseled by anyone. I've walked on the north side and the south side, mostly the greater downtown area San Antonio, Carrera 8 and around. Never been bothered. But I don't go out at night.

[Triple Darknes]

Statisically speaking Cali is more dangerous than Medellin or Bogota.

But Stats lie because in any place in the tourist zones you're not going to be targeted like you would be in Medellin or Bogota.

There's also a way lesser chance of being drugged in Cali as opposed to Medellin and Bogota.

That being said th Christmas season is when Colombia in general is the most dangerous.

Hope this Helps.

Trip.

[Elvis 2008]

I'm arriving in Cali this Saturday, staying till the 28th, and I like to walk, so I plan on walking as many of these areas as possible, to gauge how it feels in terms of personal safety. Especially as I'm considering it as a potential place to move to in the next few years, I'm very interested in seeing areas generally, not just for hobby purposes.

Nomars, Trip would know better than anyone but I walked around a lot. When I was on the roads, no one bothered me. Cali has a river that runs through it. I stayed at the Marriott and walked down to the river and then walked the river sidewalk (about 20 minutes or so) until I hit Dr. Amor. For the most part, I was not hassled. There were some homeless folks living near the river close to Dr. Amor who I avoided who may have asked for cash, but that was it. Granted, this was in early 2021. Still, the only people I heard the whole time I was there speaking English were in Dr. Amor, so maybe the people there are not that used to hitting up tourists per se. I heard English everywhere in Medellin.

FWIW, I saw a ton of people in scrubs. I am not sure if Cali is a health care or plastic surgery mecca but there were a lot of people in health care.

BTW, Trip advisor put down as #1 thing to do in Cali is the Cali Zoo. I took a life long Cali resident there who had never been, and we had a great time. I have been to a couple of zoos in South America, and this was the best one I had seen. It is really well maintained, and you will walk a lot there. It is worth seeing.

[John Clayton]

I'm arriving in Cali this Saturday, staying till the 28th, and I like to walk, so I plan on walking as many of these areas as possible, to gauge how it feels in terms of personal safety. Especially as I'm considering it as a potential place to move to in the next few years, I'm very interested in seeing areas generally, not just for hobby purposes.

I was there for a week in September and walked or bicycled everywhere. I am in my late 70's. I'm not a nightowl and didn't walk far from my apartment at night. My big fear is not getting mugged, but stepping into an uncovered manhole or tripping on bronken pavement.

[Nomars777]

Hi,

I'm planning to visit Cali this coming January and wondering if Cali is the same as Medellin and Bogota in terms of safety. It's because I heard Cali is more dangerous compared to those two cities. I've been only to Medellin once and my Spanish is a joke.

I'm arriving in Cali this Saturday, staying till the 28th, and I like to walk, so I plan on walking as many of these areas as possible, to gauge how it feels in terms of personal safety. Especially as I'm considering it as a potential place to move to in the next few years, I'm very interested in seeing areas generally, not just for hobby purposes.

[Ottotot]

Hi,

I'm planning to visit Cali this coming January and wondering if Cali is the same as Medellin and Bogota in terms of safety. It's because I heard Cali is more dangerous compared to those two cities. I've been only to Medellin once and my Spanish is a joke.

[Viajando Musico]

Wonderful trip report. Thanks Buddy! Where did you end up staying. Recommendations will be very useful.

The hotel I ended up staying for the rest of my trip was Hotel Quinta Norte Chipichape. The reason I chose this hotel was, I didn't see any review complained about the noise in a hotel, rare in Cali Norte. It's a newer hotel in a good neighborhood, 6-7 min. Walk to Chipichape Mall. I paid just a few bucks more for their bigger room option, and it was worth it. I never planned to take or invite a chica back to the hotel, so I don't know their chica policy.

[Rover2]

I just recently spent 5 days in Cali after a very long absence. It is also my first trip to Colombia since the breakout of Covid. My old memory of Cali is quiet vague, so I didn't know what to expect, and what to do in Cali either. My preparation of the trip was mostly based on the info I gather from the site doncolombia.com. This is a local forum that has more updated info about the scene in Cali. In a short conclusion, my trip was quite fun, and I enjoyed every minute of my trip. Here is my view of current situation in Cali for our hobby.

Hotel.

.....................................................

In general, I enjoyed this trip a lot. There were some small drawbacks, but nothing major to spoil the trip. Changing the hotel after the first day was a good decision. Cali is different from my last trip years back, but not in a bad way. On the girl side, I found passable quality. The highest score of girls I found was 8, and there were only a couple of them, far less in # comparing to BOG or MDE. Now I relearned the lay of land here again, I shall return.

Great reporting covered everything needed to lay a foundation for a fellowship members first trip. Thank you.

[SankarShetty]

I just recently spent 5 days in Cali after a very long absence. It is also my first trip to Colombia since the breakout of Covid. My old memory of Cali is quiet vague, so I didn't know what to expect, and what to do in Cali either. My preparation of the trip was mostly based on the info I gather from the site doncolombia.com. This is a local forum that has more updated info about the scene in Cali. In a short conclusion, my trip was quite fun, and I enjoyed every minute of my trip. Here is my view of current situation in Cali for our hobby.

Wonderful trip report. Thanks Buddy! Where did you end up staying. Recommendations will be very useful.

[Triple Darknes]

I would like to have such an information too.

Next year, I will be in this area.

Hope this Helps.

Trip.

[Triple Darknes]

What's a relatively safe city I could go to in Colombia where there's a lot of big curvy black women, because I don't see many in Medellin, Pereira, Armenia, Bogota etc. Maybe the Carribbean coast but not going back there at the moment. At the local Medellin airport there's often many like that cueing for flights to Quibdo, but that's pretty far off the beaten track. How about Cali, or anywhere else you could recommend? Thanks in advance for any ideas 🙂.

Hope this Helps.

Trip.