My $287 bus pass in Colombia lasted 30 days and beat my $600 flight plan | Budget Travel Hacks

Willow Torres · 2026-10-17T22:20:04.50309+00:00

So last month I was in Medellin and I did the math on my bus travel for the month. I spent 1,180,000 pesos on buses, which came out to about $287, and that covered 14 different cities from Bogota down to Cali and back up. I had budgeted around $600 for flights between cities and I was sure the buses would eat up more time than they were worth. Turns out overnight buses saved me a night of hostel money too, so the real savings was closer to $380 once I counted that. The buses were clean, reclined way back, and I slept through most of the long hauls like the 9 hour one from Medellin to Bucaramanga. Only downside was the one time a driver blasted cumbia at 2am and I wanted to throw my pillow at him. Has anyone else found that ground travel in South America beats flying on both money and hassle, or did I just get lucky with the routes?

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My $287 bus pass in Colombia lasted 30 days and beat my $600 flight plan | Budget Travel Hacks - The Community Guide