Ride, hike and sip your way through Colombia's Zona Cafetera, from working coffee farms to the towering wax palms of Cocora Valley.
Colombia's Eje Cafetero produces some of the world's best arabica, grown on steep volcanic hillsides between Salento, Filandia and Manizales. This trip is based in small fincas and colourful pueblo hotels, with mornings spent on working coffee farms learning the process from cherry to cup, and afternoons exploring the region's postcard towns with their balconied wooden houses and central plazas.
The centerpiece is a day in Cocora Valley, home to the wax palm — Colombia's national tree and the tallest palm species on earth — hiking through cloud forest and open pasture where the palms rise 60 metres against the mist. Add horseback rides through coffee country, a visit to the Panchina thermal springs, and evenings over tinto and aguardiente in Salento's plaza, and you get a slower, deeply local read on Colombia far from the coastal resorts.
