Minca, Colombia is a lush paradise high in the Sierra Nevada mountains, complete with stunning waterfalls, dense jungles, and jaw-dropping views. Most travelers visit this remote town for a few days vis a vis the bustling coastal city of Santa Marta, to relax amongst its natural beauty and soak up its laid back vibes. But once your time in Minca is done, how do you make your way out of this hidden mountain town? Here’s everything you need to know to get from Minca to Santa Marta once you’re ready to get back on the road and continue exploring the rest of Colombia.
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While there’s tons of awesome things to do in Minca, it’s admittedly a teeny tiny town, with just about 800 residents. Accordingly, there’s no airport or official bus stations here that make it particularly easy to get to and from other destinations. Luckily, though, Santa Marta has the Simón Bolívar International Airport and a bus terminal with transportation options to get pretty much anywhere else in Colombia and beyond.
How to Get from Minca to Santa Marta, Colombia
By Colectivo
If you’re on a budget, the cheapest way to get back to Santa Marta is by riding in a colectivo or shared public shuttle, which you can catch one around here, in downtown Minca. The colectivos leave from approximately 7 AM to 6 PM every half hour or so (or, really, whenever the colectivos fill up).
Pssst… depending on where you’re staying in Minca and how much luggage you have, you may need to grab a mototaxi to the colectivo stand in downtown Minca. Some of the hotels in Minca, like La Veranda Hotel (where we stayed) or Hostal Sierra, are located at least half an hour walk uphill from the downtown area and it may be a drag (quite literally!) to walk all of your luggage there.
Tickets cost 10,000 COP per person (around $2.50 USD; cash only!) and don’t need to be purchased ahead of time.
After about a 45 minute ride, you’ll be dropped off at the Mercado Público de Santa Marta in the city of Santa Marta. From here, you can either take an Uber or a taxi to the airport or bus terminal.
While colectivos are the cheapest transportation option, they’re also the most uncomfortable—there’s usually no air conditioning; they’re quite cramped; and, from our experience, the drivers typically drive quite fast along the narrow, windy roads around Minca.
Accordingly, if you have a bit more flexibility in your budget, I might suggest taking one of the other transport options or, if not, at least popping a Dramamine ahead of time!
By taxi or ride-share
Alternatively, you can hire a taxi through your hotel or get a ride through a ride-share app, like Uber.
The ride from Minca to Santa Marta should cost around 80,000 COP ($20 USD) one-way—and can be significantly cheaper if you’re willing to take a mototaxi there!
Taking a taxi or rideshare is clearly more expensive than a colectivo, but it’s still pretty affordable, especially if you’re traveling as a group. And once you factor in that a taxi or Uber will pick you up directly from your hotel and drop you off at wherever you need in Santa Marta (thereby, saving you the cost and time of any extra taxis you might have to take when using a colectivo), it honestly may wind up being approximately the same price per person as a colectivo. Plus, it’s way more private and comfortable!
We actually used Uber to get between Santa Marta and Minca. Uber is SUCH a great tool for travelers—it’s safer than taxis (which is, unfortunately, still somewhat of a concern in Colombia); you don’t need to worry about negotiating or any kind of miscommunication with your driver if you’re not fluent in Spanish; and you follow along with your ride on GPS on the app to ensure you’re headed the right way!
That being said, Uber isn’t exactly the most straight-forward in Colombia. It’s technically illegal there, so we’ve definitely had a handful of interesting experiences while using the app. For example, it’s not unusual for a driver to insist that you sit in the front seat with them and we’ve even had a taxi driver aggressively yell at our Uber driver while dropping us off.
Given how remote and sparsely populated Minca is, it also may take a long time for an Uber driver to accept the ride—if it happens at all! We had to wait for about 15 minutes for a driver to accept our ride from Minca to the Santa Marta bus station and about half an hour for the driver to show up.
So if you need to get to Santa Marta on a certain schedule, like if you have a bus or flight at a certain time, you might want to have a backup plan in case you encounter any bumps on the road.
It’s worth mentioning there are other ride share apps in Colombia that you might want to try, like Didi, Cabify, and inDrive, although the issue of finding a driver in the tiny town of Minca may still exist on them!
By shuttle
Finally, you can opt to take a private tourist shuttle back to Santa Marta.
These tend to be pricier than colectivos (starting at $12 USD per person), but, since they cater to tourists instead of locals, they’ll usually be a bit more comfortable, with air conditioning, more space, and safer drivers. Plus, they’ll usually pick you up directly at your accommodations and drop you off at your destination, saving you a bit of a logistical headache.
For example, consider:
- A private shuttle to the Simón Bolívar International Airport
- A private shuttle from downtown Minca to anywhere in Santa Marta
I hope you enjoy your time in Minca as much as we did—but there’s a whole lot more of Colombia to explore! Do you have any questions about getting from Minca to Santa Marta? Let us know in the comments below!
