---
type: Video
title: "Sleeping on the Beach In Colombia 🇨🇴"
description: A three-hour walk into Tayrona to the beach nobody goes to, an $8 hammock on the sand, no phone signal, and the best night Harry has in Colombia.
tags: [colombia, tayrona, playa-brava, hiking, camping, hammocks, off-grid, beaches]
timestamp: 2026-08-07T12:10:00Z
resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vy2ZMxjBMKc
video_id: vy2ZMxjBMKc
upload_date: 2022-02-01
duration: 1534
---

# Sleeping on the Beach In Colombia 🇨🇴

Harry walks into [Tayrona National Park](/places/tayrona-national-park.md) with
three people he met at his hostel the night before and sleeps in a hammock on
[Playa Brava](/places/playa-brava.md), a beach reachable only on foot. He calls
it the best experience he has had in [Colombia](/countries/colombia.md).

**Almost every decision in the video was made by other travellers.** Which
entrance to use, which of the park's two beaches to sleep at, and what the
difference between them actually is — all of it came from people walking the
other way, including the detail that decided it: a hundred-plus people sharing
four toilets at the popular beach. It is the second sighting of that habit and
the one that promoted it to a page —
[ask travellers coming the other way](/tips/ask-travellers-coming-the-other-way.md).

The beach is quiet because you are not allowed to swim there. Harry looks at the
red flag, says he doesn't personally think the waves are that big, and obeys it —
and then spends the video explaining why the restriction is the best thing about
the place.

There is one thing he deliberately doesn't show. The village on the trail let
him film but not for social media, so he filmed nothing.

## Key moments

- [00:00] The plan: a two-to-three hour hike in, sleeping on the beach, leaving
  at 7 a.m.
- [00:30] Checks out and leaves his main bag at the hostel; a bus or motor-taxi
  to the entrance.
- [01:39] The park fee: 70,000 pesos, about £15 or $18.
- [02:09] The group — from California, Poland and Paris — met at the hostel.
- [02:09] What you are supposed to bring: a passport and a yellow-fever
  certificate. One passport between four was enough, and he hadn't had the
  vaccine.
- [03:10] Why the Calabazo entrance: quieter, slightly longer, and the main one
  is full of tourists.
- [03:41] A monkey.
- [04:11] Leafcutter ants routing a column under the path rather than along it.
- [05:12] A ten-minute climb to a viewpoint a family living on the trail told
  them about, with someone camped on top of it.
- [06:16] Fresh juice at a farm — he calls it lemonade, it turns out to be
  orange, naturally sweetened.
- [08:45] The Dutch traveller walking out who had slept at both beaches: over a
  hundred people and four toilets at Cabo San Juan, and Playa Brava better.
- [08:45] And why it's quiet — you can't swim there.
- [10:48] A coconut on the trail.
- [11:27] An indigenous village on the route; a tour for 10,000 pesos each,
  filming allowed but not for social media, so he films none of it.
- [13:34] Down to the beach, and the red flag.
- [14:09] The current is too strong; he says the waves don't look that big to
  him and follows the rule regardless.
- [15:11] Accommodation: tents cheapest, hammocks, or private cabins. He takes a
  hammock and is steered to the enclosed kind because it gets cold.
- [16:13] No signal at all, which he likes — a forced detox.
- [16:43] Cabins are $50, the same as he had been paying, and he chooses the
  hammock on purpose so he can tell people what it's like.
- [17:46] Moving out from under the coconut palms.
- [18:46] A waterfall ten minutes away, 10–20 metres, into a cold freshwater
  pool.
- [21:14] Nothing booked for tomorrow and no idea where he's going.
- [21:45] The habit stated outright: travellers have done the things you're
  about to do, so keep staying where you meet them.
- [22:15] The morning verdict — woke four or five times to the waves, slept like
  a baby, would do it again.
- [24:18] The camp: pool, volleyball, a fire, a restaurant; horses 80,000 pesos
  each way.
- [24:48] Next: Cabo San Juan, then Minca.

## Extracted pages

- [Colombia](/countries/colombia.md)
- [Playa Brava](/places/playa-brava.md)
- [Tayrona National Park](/places/tayrona-national-park.md)
- [Ask travellers coming the other way](/tips/ask-travellers-coming-the-other-way.md)
- [Ride out past the tourist strip](/tips/ride-out-past-the-tourist-strip.md)