Bogota Colombia Is Safe To Travel With Kids

If I had a dollar for every concerned friend who was concerned if Bogota Colombia is safe to travel with kids I would be a rich woman.  Today is our first real day since arriving from Panama that we have to explore Bogota. We did very little yesterday afternoon, but my son was tired and a little jetlagged even though we had not traveled far.  We had organized to stay at a mission, but on arriving at the airport they were not to be found and had forgotten.

Bogota Colombia is Safe

So we jumped in a taxi and asked him to find us a hostel.  The trickiest part was we had to leave our bags in the taxi to see if they had a vacancy and inspect the hostel and we were glad of his honesty.  We had photographed his license – just in case!

So in this instance, Bogota Colombia is safe for using a taxi and not having your luggage stolen.

Exploring Bogota

Today we are excited, and it is a great day to explore La Candelaria – the old town. Fortunately, this is where we are staying also, and this little church was in the next street from our hostel.

The streets of the old town

We wandered around the quaint cobblestone streets and at the start of this street stands a policeman and his dog which instantly makes us feel safe. We love the little old buildings and historical feel. So far we feel pretty safe.

Invited In By Locals

At some point during our self-guided tour of the historical quarter, we meet a woodworker, who invited us in to see his craft.  He makes us feel welcome, has no push to sell us anything (though now I wish I had taken the courage to ask) and again, Bogota Colombia is safe in this instance.

Old Doors

Throughout the old quarter, we just wandered around and soaked in the history.  Explorason loves to run in and out of the little doors and explore and the locals were very friendly. Yes, so far Bogota Colombia is safe for you could bring your kids to us.

Old Churches

I love the old churches with incredible brickwork, but Explorason is quickly tired of them. Again on the opposite corner is a policeman and so he makes us feel completely protected in this city. Yes, Bogota Colombia is safe as far as we can tell.  In fact, there seem to be police everywhere! But we are not permitted to photograph them.

Fernando Botero Museum

We head to the Botero Museum and we instantly fall in love with his work. This is meant to be part of my son’s world schooling lesson for the day and I realize for the first time how passionate he is about art and sculpture, especially as he sees these chubby pieces of work. For Fernando Botero was fascinated with the fuller figure.

Mona Lisa lookalike

Explorason loves this ‘Mona Lisa’ style painting and just raves about it. One day he wants to visit the Louvre on our world trip to Paris to see the real Mona Lisa, so this is of interest to him.  When we planned our travels, we made vision boards of places we wanted to see and Paris was on his board. I’m sure Leonardo would get a chuckle seeing this piece – or maybe not?

Safety with the Guard

Explorason just loves Botero’s art, and we practice our Spanish with the ID tags for worldschooling.  there really are so many ways kids can learn besides traditional school. We get help from the guard on duty and that really makes it a wonderful time. He was not scary in the least, in fact, the opposite. So I can’t say that the staff in Bogota would make you apprehensive to bring your kids here either.

Meeting people from Adelaide

Just then, we meet two doctors from Adelaide and have a lovely chat and one has treated my son! We meet them again in the street and realize what a small world it is. It is nice to talk about travel and home. We also talk about how Bogota Colombia is safe and they agree.

Street Safety

Crazy Traffic In the Streets And Alleyways

The streets are crowded and a nightmare to cross so yes, this might be a bit of a concern when you bring your kids here. The mix of old and new is everywhere and so the lanes and streets are very narrow, but we later encounter far worse when we visit Vietnam on our world travels.  As far as traffic is concerned, Bogota Colombia is safe as long as you take their hand if they are younger children.

Local Street Sellers

Now some of you might think the street sellers are unsafe, but again, for us, we didn’t find this so.  My son loves this twisted metal art and buys a scorpion. I try to teach him to haggle, but Explorason sides with the seller. So we walk off and I give him a lesson on negotiation then he goes back with the COP $ and makes the deal. He gets COP $6000 off and makes a good deal. Well done I say 🙂

Explorason laughed and chatted with this street seller. Bogota Colombia is safe when it comes to street sellers negotiating deals with kids – well at least this is what we found.

Is the Bogota Political Square And Presidential Palace Safe?

Next, we head to the Political Square after the Botero Museum, and here we simply people-watch. We go to enter another Museum, but decide it is history my son is not up to understanding yet, so we leave. So we have a lesson about flags.  We are purchasing a flag from every country we visit, so itis important to learn them as we go.  Explorason is a whizz at this.

We love the streets as local people try to sell us pigeon corn and a myriad of other stuff we decline on.  The square is FULL of pigeons as my boy has a ball chasing them around.

We head down to the President’s Palace and here he meets the Palace Guard. Technically, you cannot put a foot on the path on this side of the road. So we are fortunate to get this photo but it shows just how safe it was for us.

The City Of Churches

They say Bogota has a church on every block and maybe it is true.  It is steeped in Catholicism and so here is another church. But by now my son is tired, and we leave to find a place for lunch. As we wander the street, we see the vendors selling mobile cell phone calls for people that don’t own phones, but the phones are chained to a pole so they are not stolen.

Precious Stones And Gems

As this is the gem and precious stone area of Colombia, many are sold on the streets. Over the coming countries, these become of interest to Explorason but it is important to know many are fakes. So in this instance make sure your kids don’t get ripped off. We head home – dodging trucks and carts.

Bogota Gold Museum

Next day we go to the Gold Museum for our world schooling. Here my son poses as the Jaguar. We learn a lot about history and I find it hard to breathe in here for some reason which feels almost spiritual.  It is very dark and closed in.

You can see the gold and how ornately they used to decorate themselves. I believe this is the largest Gold Museum in the world or the 2nd largest – my limited Spanish caused me to get confused.

My son loves the doors to each room. There are guards everywhere, so you feel very safe. But a warning to all, ‘heaven help’ if you breathe wrongly, eat, drink, or answer your phone. The guards pounce on you!

Traditional Locals

Outside we meet a lovely lady in traditional dress. She is lovely but her job is to entice us to visit the Gold Museum, and we just left!

Colombian Coffee

Colombian coffee is famous, and Bogota is very affordable so the next event is sweet.  My son decides to take me out for coffee! We enjoy going to our new favorite coffee haunt. They love children here and he has smiley faces on his hot chocolate.

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