Colombia's oldest city — Tayrona jungle beaches, the Lost City, and Caribbean soul
Santa Marta is Colombia's oldest city (founded 1525) and the gateway to two of the country's most extraordinary natural experiences: Tayrona National Park (dense jungle tumbling into turquoise Caribbean coves) and the four-day trek to La Ciudad Perdida (Lost City) — a pre-Columbian city older than Machu Picchu, still actively sacred to the Kogi and Wiwa indigenous peoples. The Taganga fishing village, Minca cloud-forest reserve, and the cool colonial quarter around Parque de los Novios round out a destination that goes beyond the beach.
Santa Marta was founded in 1525 by Spanish conquistador Rodrigo de Bastidas — Colombia's first permanent European settlement and the oldest surviving city in South America's mainland. Simón Bolívar died in the nearby Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino on December 17, 1830, having resigned the presidency of Gran Colombia two months earlier; the quinta is now a museum. The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (which rises to 5,775m just 40km from the sea — the world's highest coastal mountain range) was never fully conquered by the Spanish, and the Kogi, Arhuaco, and Wiwa peoples continue to maintain indi…