Salento, in the Quindío department of Colombia, is one of the most popular destinations to visit in Colombia’s coffee region, thanks to its abundance of coffee farms and proximity to Cocora Valley. Although Salento is a very small town there is a surprising amount to do there, especially when it comes to hiking and the outdoors. It’s not surprising at all that Salento has become such a popular stop on Colombia’s tourist trail.
After spending quite some time in Medellin (given the time constraints of my trip I was definitely there for too long, but I was enjoying myself too much to leave), I decided Salento was going to be my next stop. In general, my motto for this trip was to always be going south, because I was basically trying to traverse the entire continent of South America in three months [cue gritted teeth emoji].
I was travelling with a friend I’d made on the San Blas Adventures boat trip from Panama to Colombia a few weeks earlier. We’d done quite a lot in Medellin and decided to stick together until we parted ways in Armenia (more on my journey out of Salento later!).
The best way to travel from Medellin to Salento is by direct bus. It’s easy, doesn’t take too long, and is the cheapest way to get there. Direct flights from Medellin to Salento do exist, but in my opinion they are a mighty waste of fuel. I would also argue that the bus is even the fastest way to get from Medellin to Salento, if you factor in travel to/from the airport, checking in, waiting in the airport, boarding, and all that other fun stuff.
I’m going to tell you the full story of how Ashlee and I got stranded with nowhere to stay on the completely deserted streets of Salento at 3am later in this article, but a quick tip if you’re skim-reading: taking the overnight bus is not a good idea!
Read more about Colombia: A Guide to Neighbourhoods in Medellin for Tourists & Locals
How to Buy Your Ticket from Medellin to Salento
There are several bus companies that run the direct bus line from Medellin to Salento, but the only one that is available to buy online, which is of course the fastest way to book your ticket, is Flota Occidental. I will run through the bus companies in the next section, but if you want to book your ticket online this is your only option.
You can either book directly on the Flota Occidental website, or use a third party app like BusBud or BookAway. I often use a third party app because, although it is usually a couple of dollars more expensive, it’s easier to get your money back or change routes if something goes wrong. (Don’t even get me started on the time we booked in-person at a bus station in Argentina to save $5, which meant we didn’t get told when the bus was cancelled and almost didn’t get our money back…)
Anyway, if you want to go with a different bus company, there are others that offer this route, but you have to physically go to the bus station in Medellin to buy your ticket. There are several bus stations in Medellin, but the one with buses going south (i.e. to Salento) is called Terminal del Sur. If you want to buy your ticket and travel on the same day, it’s a good idea to arrive early. You’ll likely get the cheapest prices and the biggest variety of departure times by doing it this way, but you have the added inconvenience of either going to the bus station twice, or risking not getting a ticket if you buy right before you travel.
Remember to take your passport or a copy with you when you book, because you will need your passport number.
Bus Companies Travelling Between Medellin and Salento
When I was travelling through South America, I usually did very little research before I chose my bus company. There are various bus operators throughout Colombia and South America that run various routes, and whilst I could have spent time researching which one was best… but, I didn’t. I just hopped on one and hoped for the best, which for the most part worked out for me.
As far as I know, there aren’t any horrendous, must-be-avoided bus companies in Colombia. And, as I mentioned above, if you want to get the best prices, you have to go into the bus station and be prepared to get your Spanish on.
My friend Ashlee and I took the Flota Occidental bus, because you can book them online and that was the best option for us. It wasn’t the most comfortable bus in the world, but it would have been fine if we hadn’t decided to take the night bus. It was not the kind of bus you want to sleep on!
There are even more options for departure times, bus companies and even first-class seats if you’re willing to take two buses. You can make a change in Armenia, a city about an hour from Salento. You can either take another bus from Armenia to Salento (which would not be first class, by the way) or a 30 minute taxi.
Read more about Colombia: Everything You Need to Know About Capurgana
The Bus Station in Medellin (Terminal del Sur)
The main bus terminal for routes heading south from Medellin is the Terminal del Sur. Having decided to take the night bus, Ashlee and I arrived there at around 9.30pm for our 10pm bus, which was due to arrive in Salento at 6am the next morning (emphasis on the word due).
The easiest way to get to the Terminal del Sur is by Uber, because Uber is really cheap in Colombia and I imagine you’ll have a bag or suitcase with you! It’s also around a 20 minute walk from Poblado Metro station, but it’s a bit of a dodgy area to walk through.
The Terminal del Sur is right next to Aeropuerto Olaya Herrera.
It’s important to note that, when you book online, you have to take your booking confirmation up to the booth of your bus company in the bus terminal and have your ticket physically printed. We tried to enter the departure lounge with the confirmation on Ashlee’s phone, but we were turned around and told to print our tickets, so it’s a good thing we’d arrived in plenty of time.
There were plenty of people hanging out of booths in the bus station, waving bus schedules at us and offering us rides to various places.
After we had gotten on the bus, the driver came on shouting our ticket numbers. And this was when we discovered that Ashlee had accidentally booked our tickets for the following week. Doh! How we’d managed to get as far as boarding the bus before anyone noticed that our tickets were for the wrong day is beyond me, but luckily there were a couple of spare seats so they let us stay on without paying extra.
So, given these two things it does seem like these buses don’t generally sell out and you could easily buy a ticket on the day.
Travelling on the Bus from Medellin to Salento
As I previously mentioned, the bus ride from Medellin to Salento was not the most comfortable on the planet. This was partly because the bus was just uncomfortable (3 out of 5 stars for Flota Occidental), but also because the road is winding, in that way that you can’t get your neck into a comfortable position because two seconds later the bus will throw you in the opposite direction.
This is definitely one of those bus journeys where it would have been worth paying extra for an upgraded seat, if it had been possible.
The other important thing to note is that this is not an eight hour bus like it said on our ticket. Of course, you can see on Google Maps that the journey is five hours long, but these buses usually make a lot of stops that lengthen the journey time. Well, not this one – this one careered all the way without stopping in 4.5 hours and dropped us off on the deserted streets of Salento at 2.30am.
We were tired, a bit confused, and cold because Salento is in the mountains. Almost everyone else who had been on the bus dispersed, and just a few people remained to walk 20 minutes across town to where all the hostels were.
I imagine if you do this journey at different times of day, you will get different travel times. Traffic jams can make a big difference to the length of the journey, so 8 hours could be more accurate if you take this bus during the day. However, I have noticed that the journey is now listed as 6 hours long on BusBud, which it definitely wasn’t when we booked!
Arriving in Salento
So, our total travel time for the direct service from Medellin to Salento had been around 4.5 hours and we were stranded on the streets of Colombia in the middle of the night. Luckily Ashlee and I were travelling together, because if I’d been alone, I would have been kind of pissed at the night bus driver for putting me in this dangerous situation.
We weren’t even at any kind of bus stop or terminal, we were just on the side of the road. Ashlee had booked one of the nice, well-rated hostels in Salento and we knew that they had a common area we might be able to crash in. I, on the other hand, was already over budget for my trip and was staying at a cheap hostel around the corner. They had given me a phone number to ring to be let in at 7am, but I wasn’t sure it was open to being answered at 3…
So, we walked together to Ashlee’s hostel where we were hoping we might just be able to sneak into an outdoor hammock. Luckily for us there was a sweet old man on the reception desk, who was loyally followed around the building by one of the biggest, sleepiest dogs I have ever seen in my life.
He asked us if we had a reservation, and we said not for tonight, but for tomorrow. (This was true for Ashlee, a lie from me.) Luckily he didn’t ask to see our reservations and led us downstairs into a common area where he offered us a blanket and a sofa each. We slept for another three hours or so before I had to creep upstairs and retrieve my backpack from their storage room before they realised I wasn’t a guest.
This was not the only time during my trip that I ended up stranded due to a night bus coming in at the wrong time, which has lead to the weirdly specific advice I always give to friends who are heading to South America: always have a contingency plan for night buses that arrive hours earlier than expected!