Getting to San Andres
Gustavo Rojas Pinilla International Airport is the main airport in archipelago serving the cities of San Andrés, San Luis and nearby island of Providencía. The airport is the sixth-busiest airport in Colombia in terms of passengers, and one of the Colombia’s fastest growing. Plenty of patience may be required going through the slow-paced bureaucracy arrival process, lengthy queues and slow baggage retrieval. On the other hand, departures are more pleasant with facilities such as bars, cafes and small collection of shops can be found around to make waiting for flight less of a bind.
A tourist card is required to entry San Andrés archipelago and can be purchased upon check in on mainland Colombia or upon your arrival at San Andrés airport (contact your travel agent or local Colombian consulate for Visa Requirements to Colombia). International departures from San Andrés archipelago incur the same tax as elsewhere in Colombia (you will need to present your tourist card at your departure too).
There are several daily connections to San Andrés Island with direct flights from most major Colombian cities (Bogota, Cali, Cartagena and Medellin) and from Costa Rica (San Jose), Panama (Panama City) and Canada (Montreal-Trudeau and Toronto-Pearson) amongst the others.
Two of the main domestic air carriers Avianca and AeroRepública offers frequent schedule between San Andrés and mainland Colombia, departing few times a day.
Getting to Providencía
There are no direct flights to Providencía other than those departing from San Andrés. SATENA or charter flights operated by SEARCA are two air carriers flying between San Andrés and Providencía at least four times every day. This journey takes no more than 20 minutes and the ticket will cost you around 300,000 COP for return flight. You may book your flight directly with the airlines or with the travel agency like Aviatur (Colombia’s largest travel agency) or San Andrés based travel agency Viajes Insular.
Few tourists are even aware there is boat operating between San Andrés and Providencía. In September 2009 a catamaran service has been launched, sailing between these two islands on Monday, Wednesday and Friday (this will possibly increase soon). The journey takes just over two hours and the return ticket will cost you around 180,000 COP. The boat is a 30-seater catamaran called ‘El Sensacion’ and departs from San Andrés around 8am in the morning (Marina pier near town centre).
For return journey, the boat leaves Providencía on the same days between 3pm and 4pm. At the moment, tickets can be book no more than 3 days in advance and you may book your trip calling representative at (0057) 3125672713.
The boat operator also offers 1 day return ticket between San Andrés and Providencía. Bear in mind that one way journey takes over two hours and you will spend around 5 hours on the boat as you must return to San Andrés the very same day.