There is a group of Colombian islands far to the north of the country, off of the coast of Nicaragua. San Andrés is the most popular, with a robust (in-season) vacation center, a 'downtown' area, and many larger (by Colombia standards) hotel/resorts. Nonstop flights arrive from Bogota, Cali (some days of week) and Cartegena on Avianca or AeroRepublica... and also from Costa Rica (TACA?) and Panama (COPA).

Providencia is a 20-30 minute flight on a 19-seater from San Andrés on West Carribean Air, which also has nonstops from Costa Rica (and maybe others?). Providencia is much less commercial, with no real 'downtown' (well, maybe a 2-blk stretch that they call their downtown).

The islands have about the same diameters... SA is long and narrow and a coral island, while Providencia is wide and circular and a volcanic island.

AIR

I flew from Cali. It appears the lowest price RT over recent time is about 330.000 pesos, which was sold out when I went and I had to pay about 450.000/person - on AeroRepublica. My flight from SA to Providencia cost 210.000.

SA HOTELS

The most popular hotel options are the following:

Sunrise Hotel - this is a large hotel, billed as the only 5*. It is in the downtown area. I did not visit it, as to me it seems overpriced and totally geared towards the Canadian/European tourist (they're aren't many Americans arriving), and I prefer the Colombian experience... who wants to be around a bunch of rich gringas?

Decameron - http://www.decameron.com/Destinations/San%20Andres/sanandres_intro_sp.html
This is a chain, with 5 all-inclussive resort-type properties on the island. Some have beaches, some are downtown, one is more remote. I stay 5 nights at San Luis, which was away from downtown, but offered the nicest less crowded beach. Since we could dine or use facilities at any of the five (that's the program), this worked out well. I'm with a GF, so why be in the downtown if it's all-inclussive? But beware, this chain is not all that great - the photos are nicer than the real thing, the food is nothing special, the bar serves only swill at most of the five properties, and the activities supplies (eg. snorkel masks, game stuff) are limitted (although I had no problem using a kayak or sailboat). Decameron seems to offer great promos, which may not be listed on the website. For example, in Cali I visited the local office, and they had a brochure offering about 100.000 per person per night, starting at two nights, all-inclussive including air (conditions were something like valid until Oct/31, book by Sep/15). So, my five nigth package should have costed 500.000/person all in - but the air space was not available (inventory-wise) so I spent like 800.000 all in. Call a local office (e.g. Cali, Bogota) to inquire on promotions I guess

Hotel Bahia Sardina - http://www.geocities.com/bahiasardina/
We stayed here two nights after returning from our Providencia visit. This is a great location, in downtown right across street from nice main beach. We looked at rooms in a couple of places before finding this, and the rooms are nice enough. We paid 104.000 (off-season rate?) for the room which included two breakfasts and two lunch-or-dinners (guests' option), with a view of the beach/sea. Rooms are large.

Others:
Lord Pierre - www.lordpierre.com - I liked what I saw of this one.
Hotel Casablanca - www.hcasablanca.com - I have a juice there and it was overpriced.
Noblehouse - www.sanandresnoblehouse.com - No info, only brochure.



SA TRANSPORTATION

Many taxis, but expensive. Fixed-fee with minimum of 9.000 and downtown to San Luis was like 14.000. You can easily rent a scooter which will do about 40mph. The asking rate is about 80.000/day, but I easily got that to 60.000 (overpaid), and on my second visit (after Providencia) rented at 50.000/day. I suspect if you worked at it, or had a long mulit-day rental, you could get to about 40.000/day which must be the going rate. Note, renting hourly is costly. I just loved exploring all over the island, so for me the scooters were awesome.

SA Restaurant

I had meals included in my hotels, so I can't offer much here. I will mention an awesome spot for dinner - Rincon Langostina. This is the most romantic option, the place is on the west side of the island with view of the sunset as it's set up on decks adjacent to the sea. With the location near the equator, sunset doesn't vary much by season, so say 6:30p in summer and maybe 5:30p or 6p in winter(?). Food was a little above average - shrimp casserole for her and fish in lobster sauce for me... I spent about 85.000 with one app, two entrees, three vodka drinks, and two non-liquor drinks. It's located about 20 minutes south of airport on west-side hwy (road).

SA SCUBA DIVING and SNORKELLING

I dove three different days with Sharkey Dive, which is located in the Sunset Hotel. Roger, 513-0433 is the owner of both. Rafael was my guide, we spoke good English. Two tank program was 110.000 with weight and tanks - I don't know if they charge more if you need equipment as I brought my own. First dives were walls to about 130', second dives were shallow drops of deep walls, or 40' west-side flat coral areas (but maybe with more life). One day it was me and a Canadian dude (and my GF came along at no charge to sun on the boat), another day it was only me, and another day it was me and the second guide was completing deep water course with two Colombians. They also offer an excursion to Cayo Bolivar, but you'll need a group as it's like 200.000 per person, minimum of 5 (but you can join a group if there is one). Rafael will do a resort course for your GF, so she can join you on shallow dives, for a real good price - but my GF had too much fear...

There is less quailty snorkelling on the east sides where there are beaches... but the southern half of the west side offers nice reefs but at a minimum depth of 20 feet, with a coral/rocky coast. Still, there are some nice spots with great sunbathing options. There is a tourist spot called Piscina Natural, where you pay like 1.500 to enter and use their deck, slide/ladder into sea, and can purchase beverages and food(?). We drove by this many times, and never saw more than a handful of people - it's small and not a huge tourist area. We preferred the rocks infront of the Sunset Hotel and Nirvana Hotel (adjacent to eachother), where there is a ladder into the sea.

Other dive ops in SA:

Banda Dive - in the Lord Pierre hotel, www.bandadiveshop.com.
Looked like a nice op, and I saw there boat and it's the same size as Sharkey. They hit the same spot we hit that day.

San Andrés Dive
They had a large (8 people?) group, and it seemed more formal than Sharky.

Providencia info:

We may divide the island into four areas, not including the center mountainous zone which I don't even know that has roads (peaks reach to almost 900m?).

There is a remote south side, with nothing of great interest. The west side is highlighted by Agua Dulce and Southwestern beach areas, and separated from the east side by the very very small 'downtown' area.

The east side has a nice bay (Maracaibo Bay?) with reefs. Not perfect reefs, but spots of coral much covered by grass with nice sandy spots between. There is a nice little island call Crab Cay. There are a couple of hotels and cabana/cabin style spots. None were super nice as it's more of an ecological type setting - very remote, more like camping in cabins... not for everyone. I stayed one night and left as I preferred a little more luxury. But we returned to rent a kayak and snorkel the area. You see some fish, definitley barracuda, and there are larger spotted sting rays which you can miss (especially as I snorkelled towing the kayak with my GF sunning onboard!).

The west side is where the nice hotels (motels), and restaurants are. It is also where the two nice beaches are located. Agua Dulce has hotels and restaurants. Southwest beach is more remote. The are separated by maybe 10 minutes, and are located 10-15 mintues west or south of 'downtown'. The name of the place we stayed at was Cabanas-something, just north of the nicer Cabanas Sol Caribe. Hotel Morgan is also nice. We paid 80.000 for the room, two breakfasts included.

I knew the going rate for a scooter was 45.000, but the first guys I questioned wanted to charge me 60.000... I countered at 40.000 and he only came to 50.000. I walked the 25m to the next vendor, and he opened at 40.000 so we closed the deal.

I had only one full day in Providencia between my two travel days, and dove with Beda Vásquez. His business doesn't have a name as far as I can tell, but he was recommended by Rafael at Sharkey Dive in SA. I loved Beda and his op. He runs it with his dad, who is super nice. And the boat is right out thier beach adjacent to their house/business. Beda's number is (8) 541-8481. Another option told to me is to dive with Felipe - I don't have contact info but I was told to just ask my hotel how to contact Felipe for diving and they would know (it's a small island!).

Flhobbyer,

Great, great information!!! Sounds like you had a heck of a vacation. West Carribean Airways also flies from Bogota to Medellin for real cheap, like 119,000 round trip.

As cheap as Decameron is, I didn't think they'd be serving top-shelf liquor considering it's all-inclusive.

One question - how far is Hotel Bahia Sardina from the beach?

Great write-up!

Decameron's website claims "unlimitted international liquors". At the Aquarious I did have Absolute. At the Mar Azul they had Barcardi regular, but no imported vodka. At the San Luis, nothing but national brands. Life is to short to drink swill :^)

The Bahia Sardina is across the street from the main beach, very beautiful. Here's a photo from the balcony:



But all the beautiful beach shots you might find in a brochure are likely taken on the little island of Johnny Cay (the island in the photo above). If you are not a serious adventurer (meaning you aren't racing around everyday diving, snorkelling, exploring the island) and you want a more laid back experience (I'd guess - I didn't do it) take a small boat to the island (leaving from downtown, well under 10.000!, just ask any fisherman to supply you with a ride as it's not so organized) and you and you're girl will likely have a very beautiful, romantic afternoon.

Thanks for the info FLhobbyer, don't see much on San Andres on the boards.

Hunter

FLhobbyer, great info and in-depth analysis of the different options on San Andres. My amiga has visited there many times and always stays there at Decameron and when we planning on going over there that is where I made my reservation. Would you stay at Decameron again as now you know your way around? I know you did not get a chance to explore p4p action as you were with your GF but did you happen to notice any options there if you go there without a GF?

Regarding where to stay - if you are the 'beach type' and enjoy lying there on the sand, relaxing, and hanging in the water (that's not me, I'd be bored, I'm the type that needs a vacation after my vacations) then the San Luis Decameron is an good choice (just don't expect the level of quality their website suggests). It is removed, but if that's ok as you're with your girl, then yes, I'd stay there.

If you want something in town, and/or you'll be busy in the day and not just relaxing on the beach (e.g. exploring the island, snorkelling in remote spots, diving, boating to remote cays like Johnny or Acquarion Cayos), then I can't say I'd use Decameron - there are just too many less expensive options (now listed here) that are almost as nice but at a much lesser price. If you have some other motivation for spending greater amounts of money, then choice Decameron Aquarious (but there is no beach on property - you can easily walk to public beach). Decameron Maryland is a dump, and Isleno is not so great I'm guessing, leaving only Mar Azul (not in downtown) among the chain.

Thus, to summarize the answer to your post on Decameron's five properties, I'd return to the San Luis pending my motivations and with a lower expectation, I'd certainly not stay at Maryland or Isleno (nor can I see why anyone else would choose these), I can't see the motivation for staying at Mar Azul, and while I most likely wouldn't stay at Aquarious I can't say it's not a good choice for some.

Regarding p4p - I saw nothing, didn't even see any of the spots which I had written down on my 'plan B' paper (or had I been lucky enough to get my girl to entertain 2-on-1 experimentation... darn). I did see a hottie with an old ugly dude exiting the El Dorado hotel - but that place is a dump so even if you choose to explore the disco there which might be recommended (although I didn't see a disco) don't stay there (all my listed hotels are within 2 blks anyway).

Where are the best chica places on this island?

I just got back from San Andreas and liked it very much. May I suggest a couple of other places to stay.

I stayed here

The price seemed fairly reasonable but higher than what you might find other places in Colombia mainland.





Here is their Website http://www.apartahoteltrescasitas.com/


I also stayed at CasaBlanca.

http://www.hotelcasablanca.net/english/welcome.htm

Although it was a very nice hotel, it was a little expensive for what I was use to in Colombia.

San Andreas is a great Place to go snorkeling or scuba diving. Take the boat to John Cay island. Cost is about 10,000 pesos.

I flew two women in at different times. I like non pro action and unfortunately I didn't have a chance to check out the locals.

Here is a link to all the photos I took.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Marcust2/SanAndres?authkey=KEyy9CuC7Kk
(Message edited by marcust2cr on June 24, 2008)

(Message edited by marcust2cr on June 24, 2008)

Just found this list of Hotels complete with links.
http://www.colombiamania.com/hoteles/sanandres/index.htm

Generis
viajes y turismo
Calle 25 Norte #5n-60
PBX 668 6701 Fax 678 2403
cell 315 661 3172


Edith Arturo 311 643 3693
On Vacations Hoteles
Bogota 742 56 42 - 742 56 50
Medellin 265 47 00
Pereira 334 34 42

Might go to San Andreas on Monday. They have a special for 1,565,892 ($824 total, $412 per person) for two people including flight, hotel, etc. It is a promotion price the price is much higher on other days.

Edith is the person I spoke to about the package deal. Other deals are much higher such as 1,356,000 per person.

It seems expensive to fly there if you just buy a ticket. Let me know if there is a disount airline or any special from Cali. The package uses avianca and is suppose to be non stop.

Just got back from San Andres. The package deal was cheap but the hotel and service was not great. The rooms did have ac and cable but no hot water and no internet. We were at Hotel Blue Reef. It was not close to the main are so we had to take a cab each time which was 6000k.

The package did include three tours. We did Snuba one day. You were a large helmet and can walk under water. The snorkelling was good and you can hold a stingray.

There was one strip club close to the blue reef. it was open late and had some decent girls there. they were quoting pretty high prices. they wanted 120,000k for one hour. i am sure you could get their number and take them out later. the cover was suppose to be 10000k but we did not pay.

The beach is much nicer than cartagena but cartagnea has a nicer town and more night life. there was not a ton of night life in san andres.

if i went back i would spend more money for a nicer hotel. you can rent golf carts or a moped.