Santa Marta

Santa Marta is the oldest surviving Spanish city in South America, but it is not where you spend your days — it is where you base. The city itself is a working Caribbean port; the surrounding coast and mountains are the reason to come.

An hour east, Tayrona National Park spills its jungle directly onto white-sand beaches. An hour up into the Sierra Nevada, the village of Minca offers waterfalls, hammocks, and small coffee farms above the heat. North of the city, the long Caribbean beaches of Costeño and Palomino are where surfers and remote workers have quietly settled.

Santa Marta itself is best for a night before or after — a sunset at the malecón, dinner at one of the chef-led restaurants in the historic center, then out into the landscape that surrounds it.