The Caribbean region is located in northern Colombia along the Caribbean coast, between the Morrosquillo Gulf and Riohacha, in the Guajira province. It includes the San Andres and Providencia Archipelago.

This region has four main cities: Cartagena de Indias, Barranquilla, Santa Marta and San Andres, plus a variety of medium-size cities and countless small towns and picturesque villages along the shores of oceans or streams, rivers or swamps, or tucked away in forests or desert zones such as the Guajira.

From this region comes the fabled literature of Nobel Prize-winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez who made the region famous with his mythical Macondo featured in “One Hundred Years of Solitude”.

The Colombian Caribbean features three large coral reefs; close to Providencia is one of the largest coral formations in the Caribbean.

The Caribbean region has several archipelagos and many beautiful islands including the Rosario Islands near Cartagena, the San Andres and Providencia archipelago off the coast of Central America and just a 2-hour flight from Bogotá, Isla Fuerte and the San Bernardo Islands in the Golf of Morrosquillo.

Towering some 5,770 meters (18,930 feet) above the Caribbean coast is the great Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, the world’s highest coastal mountain.  At the foot of the mountain lays the Tayrona National Park with its gorgeous bays and white-sand inlets perfect for environmental and eco-tourism.  Crystal-clear creeks and rivers tumble down from the high mountains into canyons and valleys of astounding natural beauty.  The Sierra is populated by several indigenous communities such as the Tayronas and the Coguis, both descendants of the Maya people.

The Salamanca Island Park Drive runs along the Caribbean coast.  Its mangrove swamps provide refuge for an incredible variety of migratory sea birds and its lagoons and swamps are rich with animals, fish and vegetation.  Inside the Grand Cienaga lies a picturesque fishing village of Cienaga with its wooden houses overhanging the water, resembling a kind of ancient Venice.

At the eastern tip of the region, towards the Venezuelan border, lies the Guajira desert, a land inhabited by the nomad Wayuu people and full of strange and beautifully barren landscapes that stretch to the sea.