Getting there
Land:
The bus terminal is on the outside of the city, but close. There are many buses between Medellin, Cartagena (4 hours – sometimes direct, sometimes with connections in Barranquilla), Barranquilla (1.5 hours), Bogota (16 hours), Bucaramanga (9 hours), Maracaibo, Venezuela (7 hours) and Santa Marta. The roads are paved and safe.
Air:
The airport is 16 kilometers south of Santa Marta on the Barranquilla-Bogota road. It serves Avianca, Aires, and AeroRepublica with daily flights to and from Bogota and Medellin. Viva Colombia, Colombia’s newest, low-cost airline, also has flights from Santa Marta to Bogota and Medellin. If you buy early, you can get a great price.
Water:
If you’re in for an adventure, albeit somewhat uncomfortable, you can hitch a ride on passenger/cargo boats up the Magdalena River. It’s a 7 ½ hour trip to Barrancbermeja (one of the hottest cities in Colombia) where you can get a bus to Bucaramanga. It’s the Indiana Jones way to explore Colombia’s biggest river.