I often get asked if I want to show Bogotá as a private guide, the beautiful Colombian capital where I happily live. Many travelers, whether alone, as a couple, or with family, need a local guide to show them this bog city. Unfortunately, I don’t do this myself, but there is an easy and sustainable alternative: Withlocals. The name says it all: choose a local private guide in Bogotá, Medellín, or Cartagena and discover the city in a different way. It’s a great way to experience Colombia more like a local while supporting the community. Want to know more? Here you can read all about this awesome travel experience with a local.
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Where in Colombia can you easily book a private guide?
With Withlocals, you can easily book a private local guide in Bogotá, Medellín, and Cartagena. Optionally choosing a specific type of experience such as a food tour, a city walk, a history tour, an off-the-beaten-path experience, or something geared specifically toward family activities. However, you can also book the guide tailored to your specific wishes.
Withlocals is a platform where you book a local private guide or a personalized tour with a local host. No large groups, but one-on-one with your private guide. This way, you learn everything about the city from your local, and you can tailor it to your own wishes and interests. Also perfect if you want to get to know Bogotá, Medellín, or Cartagena off the beaten path.
The company was founded in the Netherlands in 2013 and is now active in dozens of countries at more than 100 destinations.
Why book a local private guide with Withlocals?
Booking a local guide in Colombia not only provides a very different experience than a group tour, but it also has other advantages. A private guide can be very nice for introverts traveling, you get personal attention, you can ask all your questions, and you get a tour tailored to your wishes. Additionally, Withlocals focuses on sustainability and conscious travel. These are their key points:
1. Travel sustainably in Colombia
At Withlocals, sustainable tourism is central, with the aim of reducing the impact of tourism on climate change. If you book a private guide with Withlocals, you contribute to this.
They mainly offer walking and cycling tours and increasingly a vegan food tour at more locations. The latter is not yet available in Colombia, but if you mention it to your host, they can tell you where to find good vegan or vegetarian food. Or read here where you can find vegetarian or vegan food in Bogotá.
Additionally, they teach the hosts how to reduce their ecological footprint, and thereby also yours as a traveler. And since 2021, Withlocals is CO₂-neutral. The organization is also B Corp certified. This means the company focuses on impact beyond profit. Withlocals published an Impact Report 2023 / 2024, where you can read about the impact they have actually made.
2. Support the local economy in Colombia
By booking a local private guide with Withlocals, you help improve the livelihood of your local guide and support the local economy. Your local guide earns a fair income, and you get a local insight into the city.
The locals are trained and taught new skills, and they learn how to grow their business. The private guides largely come up with their own tours, which they develop together with Withlocals. And also fun: during the tour, your local guide takes you to other small local businesses, which are also supported.
3. Travel consciously
Traveling should enrich everyone’s life, both the local and the traveler. This is only possible if the local culture is respected and understood. And by traveling consciously. Withlocals is therefore focused on minimizing the disruption of local life, culture, and the environment by tourism.
By booking a local guide, you get a culturally authentic experience and learn more about the history, culture, local cuisine, and environment. And importantly: you help prevent mass tourism.
How does Withlocals work?
1. At Withlocals, you can choose per tour or per guide. Click here for tours and local guides in:
Per city, you see various tours, and if you scroll down, the local guides. Per local, you see which tours are available, and per tour, you can choose the private guide that appeals to you the most.
You can also just book the guide and communicate your wishes, and your guide will tailor the tour completely to you. On each tour page and host page, you find experiences from other travelers.
On each guide’s page, you also see which languages the guide speaks. In the case of Colombia, this is at least Spanish and English, sometimes other languages too.
2. Choose your date, time, and how many people you want to book for. You can book from just one person. The price is adjusted based on the number of people, so if you book with more people, it’s cheaper.
You can also choose not to book a suggested tour, but just the guide. You do this by going to the guide’s page, where you’ll find a button with ‘request a personalized offer’. Fill in the form and date, and get the guide exactly for what you want.
3. Personalize your tour. After booking a suggested tour, you can send a message to your guide to tailor your tour completely to your wishes. For example, if you’re a vegetarian or want to see something else on the route.
Within 24 hours of booking, you can cancel or change your date and time. Check the information with your chosen tour and guide for the exact conditions.
Tips for a tour with a private guide in Colombia
- Plan your tour at a convenient time. In Bogotá and Medellín, outside rush hours (after 9 AM, but before 3 PM), this often saves a lot of travel time. In Cartagena, it can be nice not to walk through the city during the hottest part of the day. Earlier in the morning or in the late afternoon is a better choice.
- Communicate your specific wishes. For example, do you want to focus on coffee? Or try the typical hot chocolate with cheese in a real Bogotá café? Or discover a completely non-touristy neighborhood? Let your guide know!
- Bring some cash. Handy if you want to buy something on the way in a store without an ATM. And there are quite a few, depending on which neighborhood you’re going to.
Experience Colombia in a different way with your private guide
Withlocals is a great way to experience the Colombian cities of Bogotá, Medellín, and Cartagena in a different way. More personal and more local. Stel alle vragen die je hebt, stem het af op jouw wensen en ontdek plekken buiten de gebaande paden. Great for you as a traveler, sustainable, no mass tourism, and you support the local economy as well. Have fun!
This article contains affiliate links. If you click on one of these links and purchase something, I will receive a small commission for it. The price remains the same for you. This helps me to create new content and maintain my website.
This is not a paid collaboration with the company, but a genuine recommendation because the concept really appeals to me, and because I personally focus on mindful, conscious travel. I haven’t used Withlocals myself yet, but I hope to do so soon, whether in or outside Colombia!
