Colombia Sierra Nevada Surfing

Caribbean Coast, Colombia · Colombia

Moderate7 daysSouth America~£700 est.

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Overview

Set your expectations honestly and Colombia's Caribbean coast over-delivers: Palomino and Costeño Beach are mellow, sand-bottomed beach breaks, warm as bathwater — but they are the only waves on earth you can ride while the snowfields of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta hang 5,700 m above the palms behind you. Surf camps between Tayrona and Palomino run cheap boards, hammock dorms and bonfires; mornings glass off before the trade winds fill in. December to March is the season, when the trades push consistent chest-high swell. The rivermouth currents that make Palomino's paddle-out easy demand respect after rain — that is the local catch. Flat days solve themselves: Tayrona's jungle coves at Cabo San Juan, tubing the Palomino river, or four days walking to the Lost City with the Kogi and Wiwa communities whose sierra this is. Getting there is a beach-road bus from Santa Marta. Around £700 for a week of camps, boards and park fees — one of the cheapest surf weeks in the Americas, with the strangest backdrop.