Calle 10, Bogota -cr-nileguide.com

Bogota, the cultural heartbeat and capital of Colombia, is undergoing major changes, welcoming tourists with open arms and providing visitors with quality hotels to match Heard about the upturn in Tourism in Colombia and considering coming to Bogota? Tired of chain hotels? Fancy something more original? Bogota has the answers.

The Tourist Renaissance of Colombia

Much has been made of Bogotá’s renaissance as a tourist destination and tourism chiefs in Colombia have been lauding the facts and figures that show that in 2006 for the first time in Colombia’s history over 1 million people visited this troubled country.

Previously, potential visitors have been swayed from travelling here due to the constant stream of negative press regarding the conflict, cocaine and kidnapping. Much of this reporting is wholly justified but the Colombian Government is taking this newfound source of income in tourism very seriously and has 2 million tourists in their sites by 2010.

Bogota – The Number 1 Destination

Bogota is naturally the city with the highest number of arrivals being the capital and the main port of entry. Unsurprisingly just over 49 per cent of all those coming to Colombia arrived here, a total of 518,000.

In order to escape the every room/ any place/ anywhere in the world syndrome and find yourself in luxury in the real Bogota, you need to dismiss all fears of Bogota as mad bad and dangerous to visit.

Besides from the traditional tourist haunts of the Gold Museum and the Plaza de Bolivar there are a variety of day trip ideas easily accessible from the Capital and Bogota is growing as a destination for Cosmetic surgery with some of the most practiced experts in these fields.

Head to the Candelaria district.

Bohemian, eclectic and majestic, the Candelaria is where you will find two hotels worthy of note. Hotel La Opera and Hotel Casa de la Botica are two options to make your visit to Colombia’s cultural capital a pampered and memorable one.

Hotel La Opera

Formerly home to Simon Bolivar’s – Liberator of Latin America – personal guard, the creators of Hotel la Opera have knocked together two fine colonial buildings alongside the ornate Teatro Colon, originally constructed between 1800 and 1900, on the famed Calle 10 in the Candelaria.

Elegant suites which are complimented with period Italian furnishing stand alongside fine restaurants and the design brilliance of the Thermae Spa make Hotel La Opera the most exclusive destination in the heart of Bogotá’s bohemia.

Hotel Casa de la Botica

Just one street over from Hotel La Opera, Hotel Casa de la Botica is an example of restored Republican architecture and is very much proof of the value of the “less is more” theory. With only ten suites, service and attention here is impeccable.

Behind the hotel’s blue painted façade lie treasures in the form of interior courtyards, gardens, fountains and chimneys. Guests are spoilt for choice for food with a French bakery, pizzeria and high quality restaurant in the building.