3 Days Itinerary | Tayrona National Park

As mentioned in the Complete Guide to Tayrona National Park if you’re planning to spend more than just one day wandering around the Park then you’re doing the right thing! During our time there, we trekked around the park for 3 days (2 nights) and we absolutely loved every little part of it. Some paths were hard, some were easy but in the end we don’t have any regrets! Here for you to check out the itinerary we followed.

Calabazo -> Playa Brava (Day 1)

Total Kms Walked | ≈9km
Walking Time | 3h15min
Difficulty | Medium-Hard

Calabazo to Junction Path Teyumakke Camping
Once arrived in Calabazo with the bus from Santa Marta we only have to walk 10min up a well-indicated and easy-to-walk dirt road to reach the official entrance of the park where to pay the tickets. The next step on our plan is to reach the junction with the path leading to Playa Brava which, to common knowledge, is supposed to be located around 1h30min away. And the trek starts! For a good hour, the path we’re on just keeps going up and up until we reach some kind of a flat area and a small huts selling some food, drinks and other snacks.

Path to Playa Brava

So far so good, with a couple of small pauses in-between the path has been good to us. Unexpectedly, just after another 15min of walking we reach a junction which is not indicated in the park map (not even on the app maps.me) that says “Camping Teyumakke”. That is indeed the name of the only camping in Playa Brava so we decide to follow this other “unofficial” path and start our descent toward our destination for today.

View of Playa Brava from the “unofficial” path

Junction Path Teyumakke Camping to Playa Brava
Well, to say the truth this path is not an easy path and its not even a descent! For more or less 2 hours, this path doesn’t stop a second to wind up and down like a rollercoaster: up a boulder, down a boulder, up a boulder, down a boulder… Pretty tiring, uh! Funnily enough, it is only by eventually arriving at Playa Brava that we discover that if we walked 15min more on the main path we would’ve reached the much easier alternative (and official) path. Dang!

Playa Brava!

Anyway, at the camping they give us two hammocks (30k/each) with sea-view and the weather is great so how could we complain much! The beach of Playa Brava is beautiful, pretty tourist-free (there are only 6 more people sharing with us this place) and even though the sea is very rough you can still take a quick dip into the refreshing water of the ocean. We enjoy the beach for the rest of the day and by 7.30pm we’re already back in “bed” ready to wake up tomorrow at sunrise!

Playa Brava -> Arrecifes (Day 2)

Total Kms Walked | ≈11.5km
Walking Time | 3h40min
Difficulty | Medium

Playa Brava to Pueblito
Today, after enjoying a beautiful sunrise in the middle of the jungle, we start our second day of trekking but… not on the same path! We decide to take a different path from the one of yesterday and opt to go back to the main path with the official less windy path. The first part of this path follows a dried riverbed inside the jungle and its pretty easy to follow. Believe it or not, here is also where we have our first encounter with capuchin monkeys!!!

Riverbed path

Capuchin Monkey

Once the riverbed is finished, the path will steadily start heading up the hills until you reach the main path again. We find this path to be much easier than the one of the previous day: think that it takes us only 1h and a half to complete it! Once on the main path, in just 10 more minutes we reach the beautiful Pueblito where we stop for a lunch-break. Make sure to spend sometime in Pueblito cause its much worth the effort to walk there, trust us!

Beautiful Pueblito

Pueblito to Cabo de San Juan
After the relaxed lunch break and a final goodbye to the indigenous people, we’re back on the road heading toward Cabo. In order to get to Cabo we have the option to (1) Take an easier but longer route inside the jungle or (2) Take a slightly more difficult but shorter route with plenty of viewpoints over the jungle. We decide to opt for the latter and… what a path!

Believe it or not that was part of the “path”!

On this path, we literally have to climb, jump and crawl up and down massive boulders which are considered to be the “path” down to the beach! But nothing to say about the views! The last 20min of the walk are pretty much an easy beach path which is kind of nice for our muscles to relax. All in all, in just an 1h20min we eventually reach the hyper-touristy Cabo de San Juan.

Arrival at Cabo

Cabo de San Juan to La Piscina
The positives of Cabo? Beautiful white beaches, plenty of shade to relax, great facilities and kind of swimmable areas available. The negatives? Tourists, many of them! Yes, our arrival at Cabo make us miss that jungle loneliness we experienced back at Playa Brava. We walk a bit toward the west end of the beach and there is slightly quieter plus you can climb some rocks and enjoy a breathtaking landscape.

Landscape of Cabo

After a small break, we decide to move on and opt to walk the 15min that separates us from La Piscina to seek for an even quieter place. The path is easy and my friends, La Piscina is what you should be looking after to! Same beautiful beach of Cabo, much less tourists and a beautiful bay, surrounded by huge wave crashing boulders, where to spend hours snorkeling. Not bad, uh?

Easy beach path heading to La Piscina

Here we spend the rest of the afternoon under one of the many tiny huts in the shade slowly sipping a tasty Aguila beer and looking at the world pass by.

La Piscina to Arrecifes
Later, we take the road again and in less than 30min we arrive in Arrecifes where we find a cheap camping to stay for the night. Here the beach is VERY wide, the trees are far from the water and the sea is so rough you can’t even think about having a dip but… the sunsets are breathtaking! Also, if you wanna have a bite, check out the Panaderia located on the path to Cabo, the pan-au-chocolat is something you’ve gotta try!

Sunsets at Arrecifes are breathtaking!

That same afternoon, after settling in and having a shower, we go and sit by the beach to enjoy the sky lighting up orange, then red, pink and finally purple. What a sight!

Read our Complete Guide to Tayrona National Park!

Arrecifes -> El Zaino (Day 3)

Total Kms Walked | ≈7.5km
Walking Time | 2h
Difficulty | Easy

Arrecifes to Cañaveral
Once again, the next morning we wake early enough to catch the first rays of light hitting the camping. Breakfast, shower and there we go back on the road again. To reach Cañaveral we decide to take the path on the ocean side (you can also go through the jungle on another path) and enjoy the fresh breeze that finds its way behind our backpacks. The path we take is very easy to walk on and overall there are only a couple of annoying up & downs that some people could struggle on.

What makes the path the best option of the two are the lookout points; in fact, in the last 10min of that path we find two beautiful lookouts overlooking the west and east coast of Tayrona. Only then we can truly appreciate the beauty of the contrast between ocean and pristine jungle. Oh not to mention that just before reaching Cañaveral a group of cotton-head tamarins wave us goodbye from the treetops!

The goodbye staff

Cañaveral to El Zaino
Arrived in Cañaveral we decide to finish up our visit at Tayrona with the Path of the Nine Stones (1h loop). This path, again easy to walk on, bring us on the top of a small hill where a couple of lookout point give us similar beautiful views to what we enjoyed just before reaching Cañaveral. What a nice way to end the day!

Tired but satisfied by our 3 days trekking, we decide to give a pass to walking back to El Zaino (4km of boring paved road) and opt for the 3000COP shuttle.

These days we’ve done a lot but looking back we wouldn’t change a single thing. White beaches, crystal-clear waters, amazing sunrises, beautiful sunsets, curious indigenous populations, amusing endemic fauna and breathtaking landscapes: this is Tayrona!

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