How to plan a family road trip in Colombia? My 7 tips for traveling with peace of mind
In a few weeks, we’ll be heading on a big road trip in Colombia with our two teenagers. Between flights, hotels, budget, insurance, and organizing on the spot, preparing for a multi-week trip requires a bit of anticipation.
After several long family trips, I have developed some tips that allow us to travel more comfortably while making great savings. Here’s how we prepared our road trip in Colombia!
1. Compare flights to significantly reduce the budget
The first step was to compare the airline tickets. To do this, I systematically use Google Flights, which allows me to have a very clear view of the prices depending on the dates, the airlines, and the routes.
This year, for our trip to Colombia, we chose to make two stops rather than a more direct flight. This choice allowed us to almost halve the price of our plane tickets for the whole family. When traveling as a group of four, the difference is far from negligible!
My advice: start monitoring prices several months before departure and be flexible with your schedules and stops.
2. Book hotels very early… with free cancellation
As soon as our itinerary was defined, I booked all our hotels on Booking.com with the free cancellation option.
This strategy has two advantages:
- to secure the best accommodations; ;
- continue to monitor the evolution of rates.
And it paid off! A few months later, several hotels had lowered their prices. So I cancelled some reservations to make new ones, which allowed us to save several hundred euros across the entire trip.
I regularly check the prices until a few days before departure.
3. Never leave without travel insurance
As with every one of our trips, we took out travel insurance with Heymondo.
For me, it is unthinkable to go abroad without health insurance, especially with children. With medical expenses, cancellations, luggage, or unforeseen events, travel insurance makes traveling much more relaxed.
Obviously, I hope I never have to use it, but knowing that the whole family is covered is a real relief.
4. Plan for an eSIM to stay connected from the moment you arrive
For our road trip in Colombia, we chose to use Saily eSIMs. I find this solution extremely convenient: no more need to look for a local SIM card at the airport or to handle physical cards. Everything is done directly from your phone in just a few minutes.
Saily offers several packages for Colombia, starting at €4.04 for 1 GB over 7 days, with packages up to 20 GB for long stays. This makes it easy to choose the offer that best suits your trip, whether you’re leaving for a few days or several weeks.
- 1 Go – 7 days: €4.04
- 3 GB – 30 days: 10.34 €
- 5 GB – 30 days: €13.49
- 10 Go – 30 days: €23.84
- 20 GB – 30 days: €32.84
My advice after several trips: Activate your eSIM before taking off and especially think about disable cellular data from your French SIM card before landing.
I recently had another unpleasant surprise in Switzerland: I had waited to land to cut off the data from my French line, and a few seconds of connection were enough to generate data that was not included in the package. Since then, I always take a few minutes before takeoff to check:
- that my eSIM is properly installed; ;
- that the cellular data of my French line are disabled; ;
- that the roaming is cut off on my main SIM card.
Thus, as soon as I landed, I had immediate access to the Internet without any unpleasant surprises on the bill.
👉 You can benefit from % a 15% discount on Saily with my TMH15 code
Since I discovered eSIMs, I find that they are one of the most convenient digital accessories for traveling with peace of mind.
5. Join French travel groups in Colombia
Before every trip, I join several Facebook groups of Francophone travelers about the destination.
For Colombia, this turned out to be a veritable gold mine. I found:
- recommendations from Francophone guides in Bogotá; ;
- contacts in Medellín; ;
- updated safety advice; ;
- ideas for activities; ;
- many good addresses.
Beyond the practical information, I love reading travel stories and following the local news. This already allows you to immerse yourself in the atmosphere of the country before you even leave.
6. Organise your budget with several bank cards
For our trips, we use several credit cards:
- two Revolut cards; ;
- two N26 cards.
This organization allows us to easily allocate our expenses:
- a card dedicated to hotels; ;
- a card for restaurants; ;
- a card for activities.
We also create «budgets» to precisely track our travel budget.
Another significant advantage: when withdrawals are limited to a certain amount per ATM, as is often the case in Latin America, having several cards allows you to make multiple withdrawals and to manage your cash more easily.
7. AirTags: my indispensable travel companion
I have been using an Apple AirTag in my main suitcase for several years now and I find it extremely reassuring.
However, equipping an entire family with Apple AirTags does represent a certain budget. So I discovered the compatible trackers sold at Action, which cost about €5 each.
I bought eight of them:
- four for our luggage in the hold; ;
- four for our cabin luggage.
For a very reasonable investment, it allows us to locate all our luggage directly from the iPhone, which is particularly reassuring during long trips with multiple connections.
We are ready for our road trip in Colombia!
Between flight comparison sites, flexible bookings, travel insurance, eSIMs, Facebook groups, bank cards, and AirTags, we now have all the ingredients to travel with peace of mind.
We just have to pack our bags and fly off to our big road trip in Colombia as a family.
And what are your best tips for preparing for a long family trip?
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