Traveling to Colombia in august

Martai says on Jul 11, 2006, 23:05:

Manizales I'll try to answer your questions even though I have never traveled to Manizales from abroad.
To start with, Manizales has a small airport. It's not an international airport. You'll go through customs and immigration in Bogotá. Most probably, you'll have to spend the night in Bogotá. Usually, the flights from the US arrive in the evening and going through immigration and lugagge claim will take quite a long time. Eldorado Airport in Bogotá is quite chaotic when these flights arrive, they seem to land all at the same time.
Also, you would have to go to another terminal for domestic flights to take your flight to Manizales. This is quite easy, there are buses that will take you there with no problem, but as far as I know, there's no late flight from Bogotá to Manizales so I doubt you'll be able to get a connection. I'm not familiar with the flights to Manizales.
Your lugagge will not be checked to Manizales because as I said, I'm sure you'll have to spend the night in Bogotá.
All airlines are about the same, just get the one that best fits your budget.
I can't tell you which days are better to fly.. airlines keep changing. Just find out on internet or with a travel agent what the best fares are.
I've seen many people traveling to Colombia with their laptops so I don't think there's any problem. But you better find out if you need to do something like reporting it before leaving the US so you won't have problems with customs.
I hope this will help.

martaif

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Peter Miami says on Jul 12, 2006, 08:48:

Second hand experience. Hi GringoShawn,

I can not tell you from first hand experience because I always travel American Airlines from Miami to Cali, I stay in Cali and then I drive or fly to the rest of the country. But Craig a friend of mine that lives in Orlando and just married a girl from Manizales travels using Avianca to Manizales all the time. He never has had any major problem. He flies from Orlando to Miami and Miami to Bogota then to Manizales. He has never stayed overnight in Bogota. Maybe if you travel late that happens like the other poster wrote. I hope this helps you out.

Good luck,

Peter Miami

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brad216 says on Jul 12, 2006, 21:13:

philly to colombia hey shawn.
good to see another person from philly on here. i have been to colombia 8 times and will be leaving from philly to cali next week with my wife to visit her family.

i can tell you all my flights have been from philly to miami to cali or bogota on either american or avianca. they are pretty much the same and have not had major problems on either. next week i am traveling from philly to houston to cali on continental airlines. i recommend not only hitting the airline websites but also using travelocity. this trip is my first purchase on travelocity but i was able to get roundtrip for $500 from philly while the same flight on continetal's web page was $750.

The others are correct in telling you that you will have to fly into bogota and then probably have to stay overnight. i suggest making the best of it and enjoy a night of fun in bogota before going forward to Manizales.

enjoy your trip.
brad

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