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The main beaches in Cartegena look horrible too, with people harassing you to buy shit literally every two minutes!

Bro, you mention the druggings in Cartagena, but don't say anything about the druggings in Medellin? Medellin is the epicenter of druggings and there are literally way more of those incidents there. Other than that, I agree, everyone should go to Medellin and not Cartagena.

I feel the same about Cartagena, I went there start of 2020 and got extorted for over $2000 AUD, granted I was hanging out with the wrong people but if you give them an inch they’ll take a mile. Don’t plan on going back there again.

Not sure why anyone would eat at a restaurant anywhere without knowing the price of the meal first.

Only been to Cartagena twice in the last year. Once with my family and once with my friends, two totally different types of trips and both amazing. The people and the experiences were outstanding on both occasions, never had a single issue with anyone. I feel we hear too much of the terrible news of Colombia and not enough of the good. I'm in Canada and every other day there's a news story of a targeted shooting or homeless people stabbing someone in our area lately. Bad news and people are everywhere if you want to look for them Cali is also amazing from my short stay, we are heading back there and checking out Santa Marta in a couple of weeks.

You didn’t mentioned one negative thing about Medellin. I’m wondering why you intentionally did that.

Thank you for vlog. Very informative and helpful 👍

For a single guy hoping to meet his match, would you recommend Bogota or Barranquilla ? Thanks

Can you tell your opinion on Bucaramanga if you have gone there before? Thanks mate.

Mr. AK, sir, This Is Exactly the kind of Info one needs to make a decision on Moving !👍👍👍OlWest

Totally agree with Cartagena. My friends got a shoulder rub on the beach …. Thought it was for free … we’re going to give the lady a tip ….. then she said she wanted $50 per person !!! Total commotion and bullying by her friends and after being surrounded by 5 of them for 15 minutes …. They decided it was just better to pay and leave. That’s not an isolated story either !!! Better places to go to.

Thank you for your content Joel, I too am from Australia and I don't find many Australian's that want to travel to the other side of the world and live there, so I relate to you! I'm not sure if you'll read this but did you completely cut ties with your Australian residency? As in you are no longer an Australian citizen? To be able to now live and work in Colombia? Or are you still being paid in AUD

Some people just attract con artists...

I’m in Bogota right now and I absolutely hate it. Fortunately the weather is beautiful this week but the vibe is so different from Medellin

@AK Joels Colombia some of my stepmoms siblings went to Cartegena on their way from Venezuela and they said its just a big ol beach town thats it. Id only go there bc i like the movies that they filmed down there and thats it. How is Bogota?

Hi Joel, great informative video. Love the improve restaurant role playing!! And I agree about Cartagena, the whole cost for that matter (excluding Rosario islands, they treat you great but it's incredibly expensive). I'll share one quick scam story from Rodadero beach, Santa Marta. So my wife and I are there a couple years ago on holidays, super hot as you know so we rent a beach tent for the day. We check with the vendor because we wanted to go into the water for a little bit, saying "we're gonna leave our stuff here is it safe" .."yeah of course it is." We come back half an hour later and another vendor buddy of his has rented our tent to another family and our stuff is sitting outside the tent.... WTF..lol... ... So it goes at on the Colombian Caribbean coast. Cheers !

Whoa, glad I listened to this. I was thinking about visiting while I am here. A friend visited on a cruise ship a couple weeks ago. Not bad reports.

Cartagena is beautiful but it became a tourist trap, definitely lost its soul 😢... It's all about money, prostitution... The centro historico is only Airbnbs and restaurants, Getsemani is also turning into that, Palenque became a tourist trap... Even dating "good" women from there is weird.. it feels like dating a girl from L.A or Miami. What a sad downfall for such a beautiful place rich in history...

I visited Cartegena in the early 90's then it was sooooo beautiful and crime free! Yes there were all the usual tourist traps but of all the cities is South America I visited (I was in the US Navy, and we went all around the South America) that was the safest and had the least crime!

I love Cartagena. But I go to the beaches where nobody goes to and I generally get a home cooked meal. I know a lot of good people in Cartagena.

The druggin is way more common in Medellin than Cartagena

Hi. Pretty much agree with you: Medellín is the best large city in Colombia. Love it. However, you did not even mention a city that would be 2nd to me after Medellín: Manizales. Very nice, safe and clean.

I was living there 25 yrs ago, at that time there only a few tourist from italia, and Iseral. So none of the over charging was going on. ... the ocean was dirty, polluted, hassle by beach venders. I found its a good idea to ask before each purchase.

Bogotá for Europeans/Americans/Canadians - In their home countries they have HEAT inside. Not in Bogotá. Even quite nice AirBnBs and decent hotels have NO HEAT. I do not mind the 55 or 60 F weather outside as long as I am not having to wear sweaters and coats inside and in bed. Also, guys know, certain body parts do not function well in the cold. Women learn about that from their boyfriends and are not happy about that. If you go to Bogotá make SURE your room is heated and do not be surprised if it takes a LOT of searching to find a place that is. The video does not mention any other Colombian cities with moderate temperature weather. Most Colombians live in the mountains but not the very coldest (Bogota) and not near sea level (like near the coasts). All the coffee belt cities (Medellin is one of them) have nice weather. A bit higher or lower temperatures than Medellin depending on their elevation. Manizales, Pereira, Armenia, Ibague (sort of coffee belt). Somewhat warmer but not nearly as hot as the coastal cities is Cali, the salsa capital of the world.

Agreed, wasn't a fan of Cartagena. It could be amazing but has too many problems at the moment. Beggers, hustlers and scammers everywhere isn't conducive for a tourist attraction.

Such a drive by on Cali 😮 fantastic city but as you say, each to their own.

I just stick to the wall city in Cartagena When going there and really see what the restaurant is like before eating there . We was just there in March of 2024 . The only thing I didn't like was the vendors way to pushy.

Cartagena is a beautiful historic city. Unfortunately, it has turned into a huge tourist trap. The constant harrasment and scamming that tourists are being subjected is going to kill its tourism industry.

All you said, plus all the people begging and standing in front of you while eating dinner while you have about 20 people bumrushing you to sell you water. Then the hookers. Then the rappers that want a buck. My wife and I ended up finding backroads and walking the long way to avoid them all. I will never go again.

Many, I imagine, have ocean in their retirement dream. If Cartagena does suck in some ways, what towns with beaches and surf casting would you say are nicer?

Barranquilla is quite and peaceful but its such a limited area you can stay in .. You can only safely stay in the north part of the city..

It seems Medellin is leading in scoping and deaths of foreigners than CartegenA or Cali right now. The block is hot right now. I also like Medellin but been hesitant. I never really liked Cartegena even tho I had a great time. I had the best times in Cali, but still like Medellin more. That new travel advisory is focusing on Medellin with all the recent deaths and scopings warning US citizens

There are so many positive Tik Tok videos about Cartagena i guess you have to know where to go and who to trust.

Cancel Cartagena ? But that’s where all our wonderful street walkers are 😂

It’s sad that Passport Bros are going around the world promoting a certain type of tourism instead of actually enjoying a country. Colombia is beautiful

What about Valledupar? It's a very fast growing city and there are some quite few things to do and it's the capital of vallenato a famous musical genre.

Cartagena 😊 is lovely in my opinion although to be fair it is a bit touristy like here at home in Jamaica 🇯🇲 but for the most part I liked it…only problem is that (la propina es voluntario) 😂 pero no es 😅 it’s almost like reverse psychology they tell you this to play with your emotions to give them tips lol 🤣 😅it’s crazy…also that issue with them hiking up the price is true they’ll deliberately put a tip on every meal and don’t tell you about so that you pay it 😂so you have to keep your eyes 👀 open all the time

In terms of population the 4 biggest cities in Colombia are: 1. Bogotá (capital city) 2. Medellín 3. Cali 4. Barranquilla

I really appreciate this video cause i have now an idea what those other city looks like. I just went to medellin and i didn't like that much but it's only because i didn't do much and basically everything was closed due to the holidays.im currently in cartagena, my 3rd there and i love it. Besides the nonsense harassing every 1 minutes and feel weather feel like Jupiter 😅 you're ok

Ah man LOL. That same situation happened to me and some friends at a strip club in Paris about ten years ago. One of my friends promised his table dancer a drink....she wanted Champagne but he bought her like a rum and coke LOL. She got mad, told her boss...and they tried to shake him down for like $200 for the Champagne. He finally relented and said he didn't have that many Euro's, but only credit cards. They busted out that old skool credit card machine where you slide that thing across the card to make a copy of it hahahaha. But I went to Cartagena about 5 years ago and had a good time. The only thing I didn't like was that me being a darker-skinned Nigerian-American, if I refused any service (like not buying anything from a street vendor), they would look at me with disdain, then point to their arm, and then point at me (to say....."you are black, too-help us out). I didn't like the guilt trips but otherwise I had a grand time there!

Im curious about pereira myself.

👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿

I don't get these KZfaqrs .... You saying don't go cartegana .... But u other passport channels saying don't go to medellin because they killing passport bro .... Some KZfaq channels say don't Columbia period ... I'm just confused ... I got my passport and I really want to Columbia but hard to choose

Good video! I agree Cartagena is overrated … what did you mean by “not much to do” in cali? What can you not do in cali that you can do in Medellin?

you forgot Bucaramanga! and other coffee region cities. Any opinion on Bucaramanga?

Medellin -why leave?? San Andres has the best beach cartegena - go so you can see what ppl say about it . But in my opinion is not recommended.

!Wow😊👍

This guy is clearly biased, people are also drugged in Medellin and that will happen to those hanging with bad company anywhere in Colombia. What about Medellin & the horrible air quality the valley is literally a bowl of soup of pollution. I’ll gladly live by the beaches of Cartagena and enjoy the sea breeze. The simple solution to not being overcharged, if something doesn’t have a price ask how much it is. Each city has its own problems much of the population is considered the lower class just remember that & don’t be a dummy.

Those overcharged in Cartagena are not seating in restaurants but informal food points on the beach, just to correct you. Also, anyone that thinks Cali is boring and has nothing to offer 1000% does not know the city, yes it is more dangerous than other cities in Colombia but Boring? No sir! No way!

my boy got scoped two days ago in Cartagena smh

¿which is the second choice country u would live if it wasn't colombia 💯%

I'll jut stay in Tunja thank you very much.

Cartagena is tranquil

Northern cities at Party Central Broski, that's the best place to party.😂😂 My girlfriend is from Cartagena actually.

ok go to a real restaurant look at the menu. Take pictures of the menu. By the beach yes they will over charge u.. If you go to the beach take ur own snacks, As far as Medelli the crime is way uo. In the last few months quite a few tourist have been killed and druged etc etc.

I love cartagena personally

i have yet to go to Medellin. I might go during my next visit. Cartagena is overpriced and overrated in my opinion.

You can tell you didn't do anything in Cali...

This guy is lying about Cartagena. The most tourist trap city is medellin. Cartagena has very fine dining, which you will not be surprised by the price because they give you the menu with the price on it if you can’t afford it, and then you just can’t afford it go eat at a local place. But also, Medellin has a lot of places that are fine dining as well too that comes with a price. Also,more people get drugged and robbed in Medellin not Cartagena. I like both cities, but what he is saying about Cartagena is completely false.

$400 us for fish in Cartagena? Wtf.

Thats why sosua is better At least no one would try to sell you stuffs

Medellin is boring as United States is that is the reason you like stay there !

Cartagena is beautoful i had a good rxperience there. Anywhere in latin america you need to be on your A game. Always ask before you buy anything how much and negotiate. One thing to keep in mind cartagena the street vendors are very aggressive.

LMAO

Cartagena 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮