Looking for the perfect day trip itinerary from Santa Marta, Colombia? Look no further than Minca!
Just a 30 min drive away from Santa Marta is the tiny mountain side town of Minca. Set in the middle of the jungle, this town provides easy access to several fun activities for the day.
Head out early and simply follow the directions from your GPS or google maps to Minca. Start by parking your car here near Nonni Pizza (see left). There may be other options for parking but it seemed limited and this was the only parking lot we saw. I believe we paid just 5,000 for 5 hours.
Once parked, our first stop on this day trip to Minca - the Marinka Waterfalls. You can get here one of two ways, 1. by taking an hour long hike from town or 2. by hiring a motorbike to take you up. The entrance to walk up is actually quite close to the parking lot pictured above. Since the day was young and we wanted to save our legs, we decided to motorbike our way up and walk back down.
The motorbikes are easy to find at the center of the town and I believe we paid 20,000 for the two of us. Hold on tight for the way up and ask for a helmet if you feel more comfortable. They drive exactly like they do on the streets, fast and daring.
The ride up has lots of bumps, twists and turns. There were definitely sections that were very hilly so we were happy to be motored up. Enjoy the scenario as you fly up the hills. You'll be to the top in no time.
At the top, you'll get off your motorbike and follow the walking path up for another 10 minutes. This part is sort of steep but don't worry it's short. To enter Marinka Waterfalls you'll pay 10,000 per person. From here chose which of the three sections of the falls to visit first. To the right you'll end up at the top of falls. Here its shallow but you can really dunk yourself under the falls if you like.
When you've had your fill of brisk water dumped on your head at the top, back track to the fork in the trail, this time turning left. This section offers a larger pool, great for swimming in the middle of the falls. It was fun but when we visited in March quite cold!
There is another section of the falls you can see continuing left but it was under construction when we visited but didn't seem to be anything special anyway.
Enjoy a cerveza or snack at the restaurant in the middle section of the falls or head back when you're ready. If you negotiated for a round trip ride via motorbike, they will be waiting for you at the entrance. It's also possible to get a ride back by just walking up and asking around.
For those who decided to walk, it should take you around an hour.
Back down in Minca, we stopped for lunch at Restaurant Marhaba. Was not expecting Lebanese food in the middle of Colombia but when in Rome! It was great, fresh and highly recommended.
After lunch, we were running late to our next stop - a coffee tour at La Candelaria Coffee Farm. Because of this, we hopped back on motorbikes for this longer ride up. Google maps is somewhat confusing so FYI its not possible to drive up for this tour.
You can message them on WhatsApp to double check tour times but it seems like they offer a coffee or cacao tour at every hour. We arrived just in time for the coffee tour which took around 30 minutes. They walk you through the entire process from picking to drying and ends with roasting the beans before a final cup of coffee. Super informative and they let us try the chocolate too - a delicious souvenir we bought to bring back.
Your perfect day trip itinerary in Minca complete, head back to Santa Marta for a good night's sleep before tomorrow's adventure. Need ideas of where else to go next? Keep reading here to learn how to spend 48 hours in Tayrona National Park.