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Fancy to travel off the beaten path in Colombia? Then I can highly suggest to visit La Playa de Belen, a small picturesque town in the Norte de Santander region. This charming pueblo has everything you need for an incredible trip into rural Colombia, where to the pace of life is slow, the locals are still genuinly friendly and there isn’t any other foreign tourist around. Read on to learn everything you need to know about this hidden gem!
La Playa de Belen, Colombia, South America
La Playa de Belen (Bethlehem Beach) is a cute town in the North Santander department of Colombia. It’s not really close to any other major tourist sights in the country and that’s what makes this location perfect for conscious travelers who like to stray off the beaten track.
Even though remote, La Playa de Belen has earned a designation for being one of Colombia’s ‘pueblos patrimonio’. This label is awarded to small heritage towns in Colombia that represent Colombia’s true character and through its architecture, history, and natural landscape.
18 towns in Colombia received this label so far. It includes the popular tourist towns of Villa de Leyva and Barichari but also places that are not on the radar of foreign tourists like for instance Buga, with its incredible pink church and La Playa de Belen.
La Playa de Belen is the ideal spot to visit if you like to take a few days of rest during your trip in Colombia. Its laidback vibe and rural charm are what you come here for and exploring the town doesn’t last that long since it only consists of three streets and a small plaza.
Nevertheless, there are some sights around La Playa de Belen that can keep you busy for a few days, like the wonderful Los Estoraques National Park!
In the next section, you can find the best things to do in and around La Playa de Belen. While the town is small, there are some great hikes that you can do in the area and I will highlight the best one below.
What I also absolutely loved about La Playa de Belen is that you can reach all these places on foot from the town center. No need to take a bus or taxi in this town to get to the main sights!
Before I get into the hikes that you can do starting from La Playa de Belen, let me explain what you can expect from the town center.
As La Playa de Belen is a ‘Pueblo Patrimonio’, a warm and rural atmosphere awaits you here. The town is known for its cobblestoned streets, colonial architecture with houses colored dominantly in white and red and the central point of town is the ‘Iglesia de Nuestra Señora del Carmen’, a beautiful historic church.
One of the best things to do in town is to look for a bench on the main square on a sunday morning and watch the locals attend church. The plaza will be filled venders sellings street food and snacks and you will love the community vibes.
There are also two great places in town to have a coffee, Papo Art Cafe and Artesias and the traditional Colombian Bakery Panaderia Santi.
The main sight at La Playa de Belen is Los Estoraques Unique Natural Area. This park is one of the smallest parks in Colombia and is located only a 15-minute walk from the center of La Playa de Belen.
The otherworldly landscape of Los Estoraques National Park
This park is known for its unique geological rock formations called “Estoraques”, large pillars that have been created by erosion processes of the sand and clay for millions of years. It looks a bit similar to the grey Tatacoa Desert near Villavieja in Colombia, only do the formations have a more distinct shape here.
The park is open every day from 8:30 A.M. to 5:30 P.M. and the entrance fee is 8000 COP. You can visit the park by taking a short 3-kilometer hike. It took us about 1 hour and a half to explore the park, making several stops for photos and snacks.
When you venture a little but further out of town, you can find ‘Los Pinos’, a landscaped pine forest on a mountain near la Playa de Belen. While the pine forest itself is nothing special, the views here over the surrounding area are wonderful.
You can get to Los Pinos by following the same road that leads to Los Estoraques National Park. However, there is a much more enjoyable hidden route that you can take that is much shorter.
The pine trees at Los Pinos
Check Maps.me and look for the Los Pinos entrance. Start walking on Carrera 1 in town and follow the road in that direction. At a certain point you will encouter a closed gate just before you reach the entrance. Deviate back and you will see a small gat to your left that leads you past a few local houses. There is a small path there uphill that takes you right to Los Pinos.
If you do end up taking the road that leads to the official entrance, note that you might be charged to enter. The forest is located on private property and there was a sign saying that it costs 1000 COP per person to enter (and 2000 cop for bringing a motorbike), however, I didn’t see anyone actually collecting money.
When you feel like going for a stroll in the evening, one of the best places to visit in La Playa de Belen is the cemetary. This might be a weird place to spend your evening but you can get some incredible sunset views here!
The cemetary is located on a hilltop on the western side of town and looks out over the town center and the surrounding mountains. When the sun sets, it illuminates the mountains with a warm glowing light and you can also see a Tibetan bridge here hanging between the mountains that belongs to Yaragua Natural Park.
You can find the entrance to the cemetary right next to Papo Art Café and Artesanias.
I’ve seen other bloggers mentioning another viewpoint in La Playa de Belen called ‘Mirador Santa Cruz’ but I wasn’t able to find anything by that name. What I did discover (and it’s hard not to see it from town) is that there is a hipster glamping site with sleeping domes built on the mountains east from town.
I’ve been reading up on reviews about Tavolandia and, from what I understand, there is also a viewpoint there that you can visit for 4000 COP. I didn’t visit it because the site looks quite artifical and spoils the natural landscape but they have a pool and a nice-looking bar so it could be worth checking out.
If you are a bit of a daredevil, then you will probably enjoy Parque Natural Yaragua. This park is home to a mirador, a Tibetan bridge and a 420 meters zip line. Games like paintball and target shooting are also on offer and the park promotes ecotourism hiking and you can visit the area with a guide.
The site also boasts a restaurants and cabins if you are looking for a place to stay in La Playa de Belen. My partner and I visited Yaragua but eventually didn’t enter because we felt that it didn’t fit our travel style.
At the park entrance was a sign that said that you needed to pay 1000 COP to interact with a group of geese. It felt weird and we questioned the ‘eco’ aspect of the site a bit as it was like the geese were put there to make from them.
If there is one thing that you can ay about La Playa de Belen then it is that it is not the easiest place to reach! Cucuta is the nearest city with an airport but, getting to La Playa de Belen by bus makes more sense since it can be done by doing a detour from the road that leads from Bogota to Santa Marta.
When you are coming from the Caribbean Coast, look for a bus that makes a stop in Aguachica. Aguachica is a small city on route between Bogota and Santa Marta and from there, orange taxi vans leave for the city of Ocana.
Orange taxibus from Aguachica to Ocana
There is no fixed schedule for the taxivans to Ocana (they leave when full) and you can find them directly on the lefthand side of the bus station after entering the building. It takes about an hour and half over a very winding road to reach Ocana. The price for a ticket is 23.000 COP.
When you arrive in Ocana the taxibus will drop you off on the main square. From there, you will need to look for the minibuses that go to La Playa de Belen. You can find there station here. A ticket costs 10.000 COP per person and it takes about half an hour to reach La Playa de Belen.
Aternatively, if you come from Bucaramanga or Bogota, there are buses that go directly to Ocana. They will drop you off at the main bus station and you can hop on a minivan to La Playa de Belen there.
Getting around La Playa de Belen is very easy. The only thing you need to have with you are your own two feet. Literally everything is in walking distance in La Playa de Belen. The town consists of only three streets and only counts 641 inhabitants.
local life
It might be worth it to rent a motorbike for a day to go and explore nearby villages but I’m not sure if it will be easy to find a place in town that can rent out a motorbike. The best thing you can do is ask your accommodation to arrange this for you.
There are not many restaurants in La Playa de Belen en the ones that are there are unfortunately not of the best quality. As a vegan in Colombia, it was also not that easy to find a decent meal and we didn’t have a kitchen at our accommodation so we were completely reliant on what we could find at the local restaurants.
There is one typical Colombian restaurant with a set ‘almuerzo’ in La Playa that is only open for lunch. It was quite busy when we visited and we were able to get a meal for only 8000 COP but the quality wasn’t great. It’s not on Google Maps but you can find it on the corner of the main square.
Aside from that, there are two pizza places in town, El Merendero de Yader and La Casona, which were decent but don’t expect italian style pizza.
The best restaurant we found in town was El Portal. If I would go back I wouldn’t bother trying any of the other restaurants anymore and go straight for this one. The food has a much higher level of quality here, they understand what plant-based is and the prices are not expensive.
As mentioned before, Papo Art Cafe and Panaderia Santa are the best places for coffee, cakes and bread. We also tried La Trivola, which is on the way to Los Estoraques National Park but the quality wasn’t that great here either.
There are various accommodation options available in La Playa de Belen but you can find none of them on popular booking sites like Booking or Agoda. The best thing you can do is whatsapp them in advance to see if they have a room available. You can find most of their numbers on Google Maps.
Here are a few options:
Yes, La Playa de Belen is incredible safe. In fact, I can even say that is was the town I felt the safest in throughout my whole trip through Colombia. There is little no crime here, there’s a peaceful atmosphere when you walk around at night and the locals are the among the friendliest I’ve met in the country.
There you go! I hope you enjoyed this post about La Playa de Belen in Colombia. Let me know in the comments below if you have any questions or drop me a message through my contact page.
Also, don’t forget to check out my resources page with my favorite booking platforms and tips to start planning your trip. Additionally, have a look at my favorite travel gear if you want to pack more consciously!
ENJOY!
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Hi! I am Annelies and this is Travelers & Dreamers, a blog about conscious travel which means traveling in a more mindful way, with a positive impact on the world and yourself!
On this website, I cover different topics like slow travel, plant-based food guides, responsible travel, sustainable packing, eco-travel, and more!
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