---
type: Place
title: Santa Marta
description: The Caribbean city Harry uses as a working base before the jungle — a cheap co-working day pass, a £5 barber, and the one place in Colombia he says disappointed him.
tags: [colombia, santa-marta, caribbean, coworking, digital-nomad, barbers, safety]
coordinates: {lat: 11.2321, lng: -74.1951}
timestamp: 2026-08-07T11:00:00Z
---

# Santa Marta

A city on [Colombia](/countries/colombia.md)'s Caribbean coast, east of
[Cartagena](/places/cartagena.md), and the jumping-off point for
[Tayrona National Park](/places/tayrona-national-park.md).

**Harry's verdict is the most negative he gives anywhere in the cluster.** He
says outright that Santa Marta is not as nice as he expected, that it doesn't
seem very interesting, and — at the end of the day — that it was disappointing
and just not his thing. He is careful to qualify it twice: he may not have
explored enough, and he is sure it works for other people. Nothing in the video
contradicts him, but nothing much tests him either; he spends the day working.

## Safety

Walking back at around 10 p.m. in the dark, a man followed alongside him asking
for money. Nothing happened and Harry treats it lightly — he jokes about the
stories people tell of being mugged in South America — but it is the closest
thing to an incident in the cluster and it happened on his first night here.

## Working here

This is the bundle's clearest picture of Harry working rather than travelling.
Facing several days in the jungle with no electricity or wi-fi, he spends the day
getting four videos edited and scheduled so they publish while he is off-grid.

- **A co-working space inside a hostel**, flamingo-themed, with private offices
  to rent and an open room he had almost to himself.
- **A day pass: around £4–5, or $5** (from video – unverified), including tea,
  coffee, water and wi-fi.
- **Speeds of about 12 Mbps down and 12 up.** He calls that not great but
  workable, says he doubts anything better exists locally, and notes it beats his
  hostel.

See
[book for the wi-fi when you work on the road](/tips/book-for-the-wifi-when-you-work-on-the-road.md) —
this is the version of that problem solved by working ahead rather than by
booking around it.

## Practical facts

- **A barber shop**: a fade and a full shave for **25,000 pesos**, which he puts
  at about £5–6 (from video – unverified) and calls very good value. He didn't
  ask the price first. He asks for the fade not to be taken too high and it is
  anyway — his read is that the instruction was lost in translation, and he
  likes the result regardless. The barber is **Venezuelan**, one of the few
  direct signs in the cluster of Venezuelan migration into the Colombian coast.
- **A meal of fish with potatoes and vegetables: $7** (from video – unverified),
  which he calls substantial and good value.
- **Cash**: he withdraws 300,000 pesos, and says he prefers **BBVA** cash
  machines as reliable with a good exchange rate. He warns that the denominations
  run high enough to catch you out.
- **A taxi to the Tayrona park area**: **120,000 pesos, about $30**
  (from video – unverified), for a journey of roughly 45–50 minutes. He is clear
  a bus would be far cheaper and that he paid for the flexibility of leaving when
  he wanted after a day's work.
- **A sun hat** bought in the street before heading for the jungle.

## How he books

He names the tools he uses in Colombia: **Hostelworld** for hostels,
**hotels.com** for hotels, and **Airbnb**. He picks by trip shape rather than by
price — a hostel here because he wants to be near the park at dawn.

*Obs: he also links a fourth Airbnb-booking site in the description and
recommends it on camera, stating it is not sponsored. It is not named here — the
bundle doesn't name a business the creator directs viewers to through a link,
whatever the arrangement behind it.*

## Harry's tips

- **Front-load the work before you go off-grid.** Four videos scheduled bought
  him four days without having to think about wi-fi.
- **A private room in a hostel is the compromise worth paying for.** He wanted
  the sociability of a hostel and somewhere secure for a laptop and camera, and
  says he'll do more of this for the rest of Colombia.
- **Other travellers are the best source on what to do next.** See the
  [Tayrona](/places/tayrona-national-park.md) page — an evening with people
  arriving from and returning to the park got him the entrances, the campsites
  and the routes.
- **Don't work on your bed with the drives on the mattress.** He knocked a hard
  drive onto the floor and lost a lot of unbacked-up footage — the second drive
  he has broken in a few months, and he says both were his own fault.

## Source videos

- [A Day In My Life Living In COLOMBIA 🇨🇴](/videos/EuJASkbvem4.md) —
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuJASkbvem4