Minca
Minca is a small Colombian village that is slightly elevated in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.
Minca, Colombia is so pretty that it is a must visit if you are in the area. Many consider it a colony of alternative thinkers, those that want to escape from city life and artists. It is the perfect place to find peace, happiness and tranquility.
Although Minca is close to the Caribbean coastline, due to its lush mountain location, the vegetation is completely different. An abundance of vibrant and dense green plant life. The area’s fertility made it one of Colombia’s first regions to exploit coffee cultivation.
The recent history of this beautiful setting is somewhat less idyllic. Historically the mountains around Minca have been the battleground for some of the most violent aspects of Colombia’s civil war. Only more recently with the demobilisation of paramilitary groups has the region become viable for tourism. Despite this region’s proximity to popular tourism destinations such as Santa Marta and Tayrona, it really is at the cutting edge of modern Colombian tourism. It is an area you genuinely should not have considered visiting just 10 years ago.
The village has now fashioned itself as a melting pot of exiles from all over the world, each having set up their own small restaurants, hostels, coffee shops and handicraft stores. The ambience is one of independence, creativity and friendliness.
The surrounding area benefits from stunning scenery, hiking to Los Pinos and and many attractions such as cacao farms, organic coffee farms, the Marinka waterfall and birdwatching.
How to get to Minca
Minca’s location in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is readily accessible from main destinations on the Santa Marta and Tayrona coastline. The nearest airport is Santa Marta.
- From Santa Marta – 22km, a journey of 45 minutes by car.
- From Cañaveral Tayrona – 45km, a journey of 1 hour by car.
- From Palomino – 90km, a journey of 1 hour 45 minutes by car.
- From Finca Barlovento – 50km, a journey of 1 hour 5 minutes by car.
Our tour store has private transfers and day trips to Minca from Santa Marta that can be booked online.
Programme
We hotel stays from 1 night or longer in Minca. The village can be reached easily in under one hour from Santa Marta and we offer private transportation to get you there from either the airport in Santa Marta or your hotel in Santa Marta or Taganga.
The first day we can offer a guided tour through the village combined with a visit to a charming and charismatic coffee shop, overnight is spent on a beautiful finca in Minca’s surroundings. The second day you can visit el Pozo Azul a fantastic waterfall further up into the Sierra Nevada. There you can enjoy a picnic and afterwards we organise an ecological walk through the wild flora of the coastal mountain range.
During the ecological walk we will stop off at a La Victoria traditional coffee farm which affords the chance to discover the cultivation and processing of coffee.
There are additional options to make your own perfect programme, for example a visit to an orchid farm or a visit to typical guadua housing, a type of structural bamboo which is commonly used for all manner of structures and is very typical in the Sierra Nevada.
Birdwatching
Minca is a top birdwatching destination, in this destination a specialist birding guide is available with expert knowledge of the local birdlife. Birdwatching tours from Santa Marta can be booked online.
