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Place in Boyacá Department, Colombia
Photo: Foturcolombia, CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Villa de Leyva is a charming old colonial city in the Boyacá region of Colombia. Calm and quiet on weekdays, it gets flooded by tourists from Bogotá on the weekends. Villa de Leyva is one of the few towns in Colombia that conserved all its colonial architecture. It is 150 km north from Bogotá and has a nice dry and warm weather, although it gets windy and cold in the evening.
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64-year-old architect Octavio Mendoza literally baked the house he lives in. He named the house "the biggest piece of pottery in the world". Casa Terracota was built exclusively by hand using clay and baked in the sun. The architecture, reminiscent of Gaudi's style, is interesting and it's fun to get "lost" inside.
A collection of fossils.
Pictures and sculptures collected by this painter.
Impressive collection of religious art.
Military museum in the former house of Antonio Ricaurte
Last house of this independence hero. Displays some of his possessions.
Tasty French bread and postres.
Italian food with Wi-Fi hotspot.
Offers coffee and desserts.
Daily set meals for lunch and dinner (soup, main dish and juice), with choice of chicken and meat. They supposedly do breakfasts too.
They have good tea and coffee and great cakes.
All of their coffee is 100% Colombian and prepared with a smile; the owners are a charming Colombian couple who love to chat with their customers. The location is ideal (right on the main plaza next to the bell tower), so you can sit inside the cute little coffee shop and watch people pass by on the plaza, or you can sit out back on their patio and enjoy a great view of the bell tower. They also serve tasty desserts and little sandwiches.
Rents out double rooms for COP$15,000 per person.
Great location at a cheap price. No Internet.
Nice Spanish Colonial Hotel with many amenities. The rooms are cascading up the hillside surrounded by beautiful flowers and landscaping. The upper terraces require climbing many stairs. 4 pools, spa, gymnasium, jacuzzi, restaurants with room service and wireless internet. Has many local tours available. Horseback riding, Mountain bikes, Mini golf and more.
Grass field surrounded by walls. Showers and toilets on site.
colombian highlands
It is a 15-min walk outside of the city and offers therefore a nice and silent atmosphere. free wifi and kitchen, bike for rent, dorms start from COP$15,000, privates available.
Dorms, spacious and clean rooms with and without ensuite. There's a good common area, wifi and you can use the outdoor kitchen to cook.
Very simple no-frills hostel. The place has a large yard and is more like camping. It has private rooms and dorms. Martha the host makes the place a warm and inviting. No hot water, and outhouse bathrooms and kitchen. A spacious lawn that some choose to camp on. Free Wifi near office.
An easy going place with relaxed atmosphere. Wifi, kitchen and garden.
Vacation villas for rent, surrounded by mountains of green and brown colors, and a collection of orchids and bromeliads.
A cozy place with open air spaces to sit by a campfire and enjoy a panoramic view of the town. Lodging at tents with double rooms and dorms, each with bathroom. Hot water, kitchen, and a common area with cable TV and WiFi. Check at instagram.com/mirariglamping/
Santa Cecilia Sáchica
This hotel has a lot of greenspaces and owners take really good care of the place; the room has breakfast included, and the price is pretty decent considering it is very touristy area.
To reach the main plaza, take a right when you exit the terminal and head on that street (Cra.9) for a couple blocks.
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Bogota · International · BOG
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