Magic Tour Colombia - Ciudad Perdida Santa Marta - Lost City Trek - Tayrona Park — Local services in Santa Marta

This was the most satisfying experience I have had in my 55 yrs. It was a physical challenge for me and unfortunately my knees wouldn't let me complete the walk back so I hired a mule for approx. $140,000 Colombian pesos. The food was very good and plentiful. The accommodations were also good. Here's a couple of suggestions, especially if you are not a trekker (which I now hope to become) PACK LIGHTLY!!!. If your backpack is heavier than 5 lbs empty it and start again. This was part of our 2 week holiday to Columbia. We were able to store our luggage at the starting point. It was returned just as we left it. Take a professional backpack as the one I used did not have a waist strap and it would have been beneficial. Bring 2 walking sticks if you are not an experienced European trekker. We don't have the terrain in Ontario that compares to what you will encounter on this trip and the walking sticks are helpful for pulling you up the hills. Expect to walk on sand, mud, clay and unstable rocks. Keep Going! You will be glad you did.

Now for a review on Magic Tours. They were terrific to deal with. We called to ask if we could push our start date back 1 day as my husband was ill. They said it would be no problem. There was no hassle and no extra charge. Wonderful! We got picked up as scheduled and met and Magic Tours in Santa Marta. We met our traveling group. There was 13 of us in our group. As I mentioned my husband and I are very inexperienced at trekking. I cannot say enough about the help that Jose Garcia and his assistant Brandon were to me. Brandon carried my backpack and Jose helped me down the stairs at the Lost City. If it were not for their personal assistance I don't think that I would have been able to make the trip. Jose and Brandon were very helpful! I can't say enough about their personal care and attention. I can't comment on the other tour operators but I can't imagine any other operator offering a service that would be more professional or accommodating than Magic Tours was for me. Jose and Brandon made sure that someone stayed with me even though it meant that I was 20-30 min later than the group. They were encouraging and took the time to explain the area to us. In some ways my husband and I think we had a better experience as we really got to feel a connection to the place. We think that some were participating in the trek as a physical accomplishment more than a sensory experience. We certainly had both! I'd be happy to communicate with anyone who might be interested in going but hesitant. I say whole heartedly, "GO"! it was a great experience and the Lost City is an incredible...

GREAT TREK - BAD GUIDES!!!

The trek is beautiful! The accommodation was lovely and the scenery is great! Would highly recommend the trek! Pack light and drink water and you'll be 100.

I would not however recommend Magic tours. Andrea at the office was lovely and super helpful however the guides were not good at all. We had a local guide Maron and a "translator" Jose. The local guide would give a lot of information in Spanish and then our translator Jose would talk in circles giving no real info for 5 minutes and then they would move on. This was not a case of poor English, Jose could speak good English, he just couldn't be bothered with translating all of the info given by Maron. Fortunately for me half our group were Colombian and they would share the information with me as unlike some of the others I actually wanted to know the history and general info. When Jose realised they were sharing info with me he got real territorial and would barge in and then give us the full story in English. It blows my mind that someone could take such a special trek (and his job) so lightly and then still hint at tips every single day. What made it worse was that when I asked questions both Jose and Amazon would get annoyed and frustrated, to the point that on the final night I walked out of the "information talk". Any questions asked on the track were answered with "I'll tell you tonight" which unfortunately never happened. I loved the views but can say I learned very very little about the flora and fauna of this beautiful area.

One of the girls injured her leg and really struggled on the last day, Jose said she should pay for a horse, however she really wanted to finish the trek, Jose wasn’t interested in helping her so I asked her if she wanted to hold my hand walking down the hill, Jose looked at her and said “you should take his hand” and then walked off and we didn’t see him for the next few hours. I walked with her for 3 hours and we finished the trek on schedule. If you don’t like your job get a new job or at least pretend to care about the people paying a lot of money for your product. And you better not ask for a tip at the end!

I would HIGHLY recommend the trek but sadly not with Magic tours or at least not with Jose and Maron. For the price you pay a bit of information is not a lot to ask for.

Sorry MTC, I hate to give bad feedback but for $400+USD I expect more than food and a place to sleep for 3 nights.

2 stars as the trek is great and Andrea was lovey and...

I had researched other tour companies providing the Lost City trek and Magic Tours seemed to be best, and I'm really glad we chose it. Our guides Nicolas, Jesus and Juan Carlos were always positive, enthusiastic, encouraging and light-hearted - nothing was a problem for them and they seemed to enjoy the experience and were chatty and engaging with the group participants the whole time. Nicolas was the local guide and very knowledgeable about the area, sharing some of his own story, and both he and Jesus, the translator, were passionate and knowledgeable about the area's history. We were so lucky to get great weather - overcast on the first day that has little shade, and at no point walking in the rain. We only had to do one river crossing and the bugs that everyone talks about were almost non-existent, though I do recommended treating clothes and gear with permethrin as we did, and using picaridin 20% bug repellent spray which is better for preventing ticks, as effective as DEET, and won't destroy your gear so you can use it on clothes. Our stuff dried out OK overnight... really, we were so lucky. Our group of 17 was good-humoured bunch from all over the world and everyone seemed to enjoy the experience. Food was great, water provided was great, sleeping was OK (couples had to share beds and some people had to take hammocks) but overall the experience really surpassed my expectations - I'd freaked myself out about it from reading blog posts by bloggers who are maybe trying to sound more hardcore? and reviews on here that made it sound incredibly tough. Honestly, I have a desk job and do only pilates as exercise in my day-to-day life and found it really doable - challenging but not so bad that I had to dig really deep mentally. (Of course the nice weather made a massive difference!) The one thing I wish we'd known: you can request to get collected from Tayrona National Park, instead of being collected from Santa Marta. And, you can go straight from the trek's beginning in El Mamey to Minca or Palomino etc - other places in the area - rather than go back to Santa Marta. SM is such a unpleasant place it is best to avoid at all costs in my opinion. I would recommend this tour company and trek to anyone with an average level of fitness and a good attitude. Thank you Nicolas, Jesus and Juan Carlos...