I recently spent a couple of days in the Colombian beach town of Taganga, which is located very close to Santa Marta and figured I'd do up a little report for anyone interested in checking it out. Most of the information that I found on-line suggested that Taganga is basically a run down back packer ghetto full of hippies and coke heads and sure enough, it pretty much is. This short video will give you a good idea of what to expect there:
Before I went: This was my third trip up to the Caribbean coast of Colombia, I never really liked it all that much before because I found it run down, hot/humid and the local women aren't nearly as attractive as the ones in the interior of the country. I had two Canadian friends with me for a couple of weeks and figured the coast would be a decent place to take them, we hit up Cartagena for a couple of nights, rented a finca in a very small town outside of Santa Marta and spent the last two nights in Taganga.
Getting there: We flew in and out of Cartagena, which was cheaper than Santa Marta, you can also fly to Barranquilla. All of the cities on the coast are well connected by a decent highway and the best way to move around the cities is on the Marsol buses, these are 12 passenger, air conditioned mini-buses that run from Santa Marta to Cartagena (about 3.5 hour trip) multiple times per day. They're very easy to catch, just ask the hotel staff and they will sell you a ticket at reception, I paid 43,000 Pesos to get from Cartagena to Santa Marta. Marsol will take you directly to Taganga as well, which is about a ten minute drive from down town Santa Marta.
Where to stay: We stayed at Hotel Ballena Azul, its one of the better hotels in Taganga and probably has the best logistics as its located directly on the beach and very close (two minute walk) to the best night clubs and dive shops. Security can be a cock block though (more on that later) but at 120,000 pesos, the rooms were nice enough (pretty basic), however, there are better rooms, at a higher price. Apparently its one of the swankier hotels in town as a backpacker I spoke to thought I was a high roller for staying there, and a chick I almost took back (but was C-blocked by security) was impressed that I was staying there.
At the 4:15 mark in this video, you'll see the Ballena Azul hotel (white hotel on the right) and also see the main beach area, this is basically where most of the action takes place, all along that main drag.
The beach: Nothing special but it was better than I thought it would be, the main bay is quite small and the water is calm, no waves at all, theres a bit of green algae in the water too but not too much. You can get to another bay around the point which has a similar, small beach by boat for 3000 Pesos or you can hike over the big hill in about fifteen minutes, but this isn't advisable to do at night as there's been reports of tourists getting jacked there. Directly behind the beach is the main drag, basically a bunch of restaurants, fruit/juice stands and a few night clubs, this is where all of the action takes place and where you'll want to stay near. Outside of the main drag, the town is a fucking dump, dirt roads and shacks, unfortunately this is what a lot of the Caribbean coast is like outside of the main tourist hot spots.
When to go: I'd say any time between November to April would be a good time to go, the Colombian holiday season from about mid-December to mid-January would probably be the best, especially if you want access to hot Colombian women from the interior cities who are on vacation and in party mode. Another decent time would be before or after the Carnaval de Barranquilla, which is taking place on March 1st this year.
Diving: This is one of the main reasons that I went to Taganga and I dove one day, two dives, not too far from the main beach, probably 10 kms out. I tried to go with the most reputable shop in town, Poseidon Dive Center but their boat was broke so I went with Oceano Scuba. The diving was cheap at 120,000 Pesos, the gear was okay (old wet suit and only 3mm, could have used a thicker one as the water was a bit chilly). The diving was decent, nothing too crazy, lots of cool tropical fish, a couple of eels and I saw a barracuda but the coral was a bit boring, overall it was very easy diving at about 20M depths. Apparently Poseidon goes a lot farther out to some better reefs, hopefully their boat is working next time I go back.
Party scene: Taganga is known for attracting two types of people: divers and coke heads and the two types are there, in abundance. I've never seen so many people conspicuously doing coke and have never been offered so many drugs in my life (weed, coke, LSD, shrooms, etc). During the day the town is pretty normal, mostly people chilling at the beach, hanging out at bars and cafes, but at night the people party and do it pretty hard. Our first night was pretty tame and we hit up a strip club in nearby Santa Marta, a place called Bananas, its not a great place, especially if you're used to the ones in Medellin or Bogota. The second night we decided to party hard in Taganga and hit up a reggae themed beach bar with 2 for 1 cocktail specials before heading to the best club in town, Sensations. It was a Thursday night and by far the most packed place in town, when we arrived at around 11pm, there were more girls than guys, a good mix of foreigners (a lot of Argentines) and locals, apparently a lot of girls from Santa Marta go to Taganga to party. We drank a bottle of aguadiente and all of us managed to pull, well kind of, this is where the night gets funny.
My girl: A group of girls approached my two buddies and I as we danced near our table, something that doesn't happen too often in Colombia. Within ten minutes or so I'm dancing and making out with a cute short girl with huge tits, after a couple of songs, I suggest we go somewhere for a drink and she suggests the beach. I grab two beers from a store and then we're hanging out on the beach directly in front of my hotel, we're making out and fooling around then I suggest we go to my hotel. This is where I get C-blocked by security, she didn't have her ID and the guy wouldn't let her in, thinking back I should have bribed him with a 20,000 but it didn't even cross my mind. Next thing I know, she's wanting to go home because she had to work the next morning, I cut my losses but was impressed by the fact that she was willing to go back to the hotel so easily, again, something that doesn't happen so often in Colombia.
Friend #1's girl: My buddy is a life long friend and a stright up alpha, doesn't speak a word of Spanish but is well built, decent looking and super confident, he uses dance floor game very well to his advantage. He brought home the friend of the girl I had, a chick from Santa Marta, she wasn't really hot, probably a 6 but again, SNLs aren't so easy to come by, but as I've found, Taganga may be an exception within Colombia.
Friend #2's "thing": This guy is a fucking moron, a completely beta, awkward fucking tool and I can't believe my buddy brought him but anyway this fucking dummy hooked up with a tranny! I saw him dancing and grinding with what I thought was a chick, but we soon found out, thanks to a local who told him, that the chick had a dick!!! Haha, it was so funny and we razzed that guy so bad, I don't think he'll ever get over it, couldn't have happened to a better guy. So ya, watch out for the trannies in Taganga boys!
Safety: As always in Colombia, keep your wits about you and you should be fine, there's lots of local guys pushing drugs but they aren't overly aggressive, they will take no for an answer. After the bars close at 3am, people hang out on the beach to drink and do drugs, I didn't partake but if you choose to do so, be careful and don't take drinks or lines of blow from random people. As I mentioned before, don't walk on the paths at night, take a boat if you have to, but you shouldn't have to as you should be staying near the town anyway, for prime logistics. There's a police kiosk on the beach and you'll see cops around during the day, but not late at night so again, proceed with caution. The vibe I got was that most of the locals are cool but riff raff comes in from Santa Marta to prey on easy targets, drunk tourists, don't be one of them.
Overall: I recommend hitting up Taganga if you're in the Santa Marta area and checking out Parque Tayrona (which I didn't do but wanted to, will hit that up next time) which is also very close by. Its a good place to party and dive and catch some sun on a chilled out beach, I'd probably get bored of it after a few days but 2-3 days, but there's definitely good times to be had there, especially on the weekends, hit up Taganga and you'll enjoy it, just be ready to party hard!
Before I went: This was my third trip up to the Caribbean coast of Colombia, I never really liked it all that much before because I found it run down, hot/humid and the local women aren't nearly as attractive as the ones in the interior of the country. I had two Canadian friends with me for a couple of weeks and figured the coast would be a decent place to take them, we hit up Cartagena for a couple of nights, rented a finca in a very small town outside of Santa Marta and spent the last two nights in Taganga.
Getting there: We flew in and out of Cartagena, which was cheaper than Santa Marta, you can also fly to Barranquilla. All of the cities on the coast are well connected by a decent highway and the best way to move around the cities is on the Marsol buses, these are 12 passenger, air conditioned mini-buses that run from Santa Marta to Cartagena (about 3.5 hour trip) multiple times per day. They're very easy to catch, just ask the hotel staff and they will sell you a ticket at reception, I paid 43,000 Pesos to get from Cartagena to Santa Marta. Marsol will take you directly to Taganga as well, which is about a ten minute drive from down town Santa Marta.
Where to stay: We stayed at Hotel Ballena Azul, its one of the better hotels in Taganga and probably has the best logistics as its located directly on the beach and very close (two minute walk) to the best night clubs and dive shops. Security can be a cock block though (more on that later) but at 120,000 pesos, the rooms were nice enough (pretty basic), however, there are better rooms, at a higher price. Apparently its one of the swankier hotels in town as a backpacker I spoke to thought I was a high roller for staying there, and a chick I almost took back (but was C-blocked by security) was impressed that I was staying there.
At the 4:15 mark in this video, you'll see the Ballena Azul hotel (white hotel on the right) and also see the main beach area, this is basically where most of the action takes place, all along that main drag.
The beach: Nothing special but it was better than I thought it would be, the main bay is quite small and the water is calm, no waves at all, theres a bit of green algae in the water too but not too much. You can get to another bay around the point which has a similar, small beach by boat for 3000 Pesos or you can hike over the big hill in about fifteen minutes, but this isn't advisable to do at night as there's been reports of tourists getting jacked there. Directly behind the beach is the main drag, basically a bunch of restaurants, fruit/juice stands and a few night clubs, this is where all of the action takes place and where you'll want to stay near. Outside of the main drag, the town is a fucking dump, dirt roads and shacks, unfortunately this is what a lot of the Caribbean coast is like outside of the main tourist hot spots.
When to go: I'd say any time between November to April would be a good time to go, the Colombian holiday season from about mid-December to mid-January would probably be the best, especially if you want access to hot Colombian women from the interior cities who are on vacation and in party mode. Another decent time would be before or after the Carnaval de Barranquilla, which is taking place on March 1st this year.
Diving: This is one of the main reasons that I went to Taganga and I dove one day, two dives, not too far from the main beach, probably 10 kms out. I tried to go with the most reputable shop in town, Poseidon Dive Center but their boat was broke so I went with Oceano Scuba. The diving was cheap at 120,000 Pesos, the gear was okay (old wet suit and only 3mm, could have used a thicker one as the water was a bit chilly). The diving was decent, nothing too crazy, lots of cool tropical fish, a couple of eels and I saw a barracuda but the coral was a bit boring, overall it was very easy diving at about 20M depths. Apparently Poseidon goes a lot farther out to some better reefs, hopefully their boat is working next time I go back.
Party scene: Taganga is known for attracting two types of people: divers and coke heads and the two types are there, in abundance. I've never seen so many people conspicuously doing coke and have never been offered so many drugs in my life (weed, coke, LSD, shrooms, etc). During the day the town is pretty normal, mostly people chilling at the beach, hanging out at bars and cafes, but at night the people party and do it pretty hard. Our first night was pretty tame and we hit up a strip club in nearby Santa Marta, a place called Bananas, its not a great place, especially if you're used to the ones in Medellin or Bogota. The second night we decided to party hard in Taganga and hit up a reggae themed beach bar with 2 for 1 cocktail specials before heading to the best club in town, Sensations. It was a Thursday night and by far the most packed place in town, when we arrived at around 11pm, there were more girls than guys, a good mix of foreigners (a lot of Argentines) and locals, apparently a lot of girls from Santa Marta go to Taganga to party. We drank a bottle of aguadiente and all of us managed to pull, well kind of, this is where the night gets funny.
My girl: A group of girls approached my two buddies and I as we danced near our table, something that doesn't happen too often in Colombia. Within ten minutes or so I'm dancing and making out with a cute short girl with huge tits, after a couple of songs, I suggest we go somewhere for a drink and she suggests the beach. I grab two beers from a store and then we're hanging out on the beach directly in front of my hotel, we're making out and fooling around then I suggest we go to my hotel. This is where I get C-blocked by security, she didn't have her ID and the guy wouldn't let her in, thinking back I should have bribed him with a 20,000 but it didn't even cross my mind. Next thing I know, she's wanting to go home because she had to work the next morning, I cut my losses but was impressed by the fact that she was willing to go back to the hotel so easily, again, something that doesn't happen so often in Colombia.
Friend #1's girl: My buddy is a life long friend and a stright up alpha, doesn't speak a word of Spanish but is well built, decent looking and super confident, he uses dance floor game very well to his advantage. He brought home the friend of the girl I had, a chick from Santa Marta, she wasn't really hot, probably a 6 but again, SNLs aren't so easy to come by, but as I've found, Taganga may be an exception within Colombia.
Friend #2's "thing": This guy is a fucking moron, a completely beta, awkward fucking tool and I can't believe my buddy brought him but anyway this fucking dummy hooked up with a tranny! I saw him dancing and grinding with what I thought was a chick, but we soon found out, thanks to a local who told him, that the chick had a dick!!! Haha, it was so funny and we razzed that guy so bad, I don't think he'll ever get over it, couldn't have happened to a better guy. So ya, watch out for the trannies in Taganga boys!
Safety: As always in Colombia, keep your wits about you and you should be fine, there's lots of local guys pushing drugs but they aren't overly aggressive, they will take no for an answer. After the bars close at 3am, people hang out on the beach to drink and do drugs, I didn't partake but if you choose to do so, be careful and don't take drinks or lines of blow from random people. As I mentioned before, don't walk on the paths at night, take a boat if you have to, but you shouldn't have to as you should be staying near the town anyway, for prime logistics. There's a police kiosk on the beach and you'll see cops around during the day, but not late at night so again, proceed with caution. The vibe I got was that most of the locals are cool but riff raff comes in from Santa Marta to prey on easy targets, drunk tourists, don't be one of them.
Overall: I recommend hitting up Taganga if you're in the Santa Marta area and checking out Parque Tayrona (which I didn't do but wanted to, will hit that up next time) which is also very close by. Its a good place to party and dive and catch some sun on a chilled out beach, I'd probably get bored of it after a few days but 2-3 days, but there's definitely good times to be had there, especially on the weekends, hit up Taganga and you'll enjoy it, just be ready to party hard!
