Everything you need to know about getting around Bogotá

11.08.2023 - 10:57 / lonelyplanet.com

The traffic may be anarchic and there’s no citywide subway system, but Bogotá is still a relatively easy place to navigate.

Two 21st-century innovations have helped ease the gridlock: a comprehensive web of designated bike lanes (over 500km/310 miles of them), and a slick integrated bus system known as the TransMilenio. Taxis plug the gaps when time is of the essence, while most of the headline sights in the historic quarter of Candelaria can be navigated on foot.

For something a little different, you can take a cable car or cable railway to the top of Cerro de Monserrate, the city’s sentinel mountain.

Bogotá’s BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) system is a copy of a pioneering network first piloted in Curitiba, Brazil in the 1970s. Called the TransMilenio, it uses large articulated buses operating in specially dedicated lanes in a system that mimics an above-ground metro. For ease of entry and exit, the buses utilize special purpose-built stations with raised platforms to increase the speed of boarding. When full, the largest buses can carry up to 270 passengers. As of 2023, almost half of the city’s fleet of 3300 buses was electric.

Launched in 2000, the TransMilenio has grown to incorporate 12 lines and 152 stations spread over 114km (70 miles). A fleet of smaller “feeder” buses that share the roads with cars connect to areas where the TransMilenio doesn’t reach.

To use the TransMilenio, you first need to purchase a smartcard called Tullave for COP$7000. The contactless card can be loaded and recharged at any bus station. Fares are relatively cheap costing COP$2950 per ride. Beware: services can get notoriously crowded, especially during rush hour.

A private company known as Tren Turístico de la Sabana runs a weekend-only heritage train from Bogotá’s neoclassical Sabana station to the town of Zipaquira, 42km (26 miles) north of the capital, site of the famous subterranean salt cathedral. It stops at Usaquén en route.

Sabana station is located in the Los Mártires neighborhood, a 20-minute walk from Candelaria’s Plaza de Bolívar.

The Cerro Monserrate rises steeply above the roofs and skyscrapers of downtown Bogotá and is crowned by a handsome basilica and pilgrimage site. Scaling it has become a city rite of passage.

There are several ways to ascend. The most energetic is to puff-and-pant your way to the summit on a paved path with sporadic steps that climb 500 vertical meters over 2.5km (1.5 miles). Bear in mind, Bogotá’s already at a significant altitude, meaning the air is gasp-inducingly thin. Acclimatize before you even think about attempting the climb.

If you'd like to conserve your energy, there’s the option of taking a funicular (cable railway) or a teleférico (cable car). Rather than running simultaneously, the