September 10, 2026
The Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá is a Catholic church carved 180 meters underground inside an old salt mine, an hour north of Bogotá, and it is the day trip almost everyone makes from the capital. The miners came first: they cut small altars into the rock to ask the Virgin for protection, the idea grew into a church, and the place now calls itself the First Wonder of Colombia. It is also a working attraction with three ticket tiers, a light show, a 3D film and a Tutankhamun museum, so it helps to know what is worth your time before you go down. We run private and shared day trips here from Bogotá, most of them with the sacred lake of Guatavita in the afternoon, so this is the practical version: what the cathedral is, what you see inside, what the tickets cost in 2026, how to get here by car, bus or train, and the day that works.
The short version
Zipaquirá is less than 50 kilometers north of Bogotá, an hour to an hour and a half by road depending on the traffic on the Autopista Norte. The cathedral opens every day from 9 in the morning, the last ticket is sold at 4:40 in the afternoon, and a visit takes about two hours. In 2026 the basic ticket is 125,000 pesos for a foreign adult and 75,000 for a Colombian, with an audio guide included. You can get here by car, by public bus from the Terminal Salitre or the Portal Norte, or on the weekend tourist train from Bogotá. Our private day trip combines the cathedral with an hour in the town and the hike to the Laguna de Guatavita, ten hours door to door with the entries and lunch included; the shared version costs less and skips lunch.
What the Salt Cathedral is
Zipaquirá sits on a salt deposit of roughly a square kilometer, by the cathedral’s own account, and people have mined it since before the Spanish arrived; under the colony the salt works were a source of income for the viceroyalty, and the town still calls itself the Villa de la Sal. As the mining industrialized and became more dangerous, the miners carved small altars in the tunnels to Nuestra Señora del Rosario de Guasá, asking for her protection. The idea of turning the great galleries into a church was taken up by the Banco de la República, which ran the salt works at the time, and the first cathedral was inaugurated in 1954. It was closed in September 1992 for structural faults, and the present cathedral, designed by the architect Roswell Garavito Pearl and opened in 1995, was carved 180 meters below the surface. It is a functioning Catholic church, with mass celebrated in the main nave and a full program of services in Holy Week.
What you see inside
The visit is a walk down through the mine. The first part is the Via Crucis, fourteen stations of the cross along 386 meters of tunnel, each one a cross cut from the salt rock and lit in changing colors; this is the part everyone photographs, and it is more moving than it sounds when the tunnels are quiet. Then comes the dome, carved by seven miners, eight meters high and eleven across, from which you look down on the cross the cathedral describes as the largest ever carved in salt, and on the three naves below it: the Nave of the Nativity, the Nave of Life and the Nave of Death and Resurrection. The pews and the altar of the main church stand in front of the great cross. Around them are the narthex, a mirror of water so still that it doubles the ceiling, a projection and light show, a 3D short film, a 4D brine experience and an archaeological museum. The standard and premium tickets add a Tutankhamun museum and a city tour, and the premium ticket adds the Ruta del Minero, where you go into the galleries in a helmet, chip salt from the wall and take it home. The floor is level and the walk is easy; it is cool below ground and the air is salty enough to taste.
Tickets and hours in 2026
Tickets are sold as passports, on the cathedral’s website or at the ticket office, and these are the 2026 prices. The Basic passport, which covers the cathedral, the audio guide, the Via Crucis, the naves, the dome, the mirror of water, the projection show, the 3D film, the brine experience, the archaeological museum and the exit train, costs 125,000 pesos for a foreign adult and 110,000 for a foreign child or senior; Colombians pay 75,000 and 60,000. The Standard passport adds the city tour and the Tutankhamun museum for 136,000 and 122,000 pesos, or 88,000 and 74,000 for Colombians. The Premium passport adds the Ruta del Minero and the climbing wall for 164,000 pesos, or 116,000 for Colombians, and has age limits. Children under four enter free; children are four to twelve, adults thirteen to fifty-nine and seniors sixty and over. A professional guide costs 110,000 pesos extra at the ticket office, parking 13,000 and a locker 7,000. The cathedral opens every day from 9:00 in the morning to 4:40 in the afternoon, when the last ticket is sold, with longer hours in Holy Week. Refunds are given only on tickets bought directly from the cathedral and only for force majeure, so buy for a day you are sure of.
Getting here from Bogotá
By car. Take the Autopista Norte out of the city, pass the Andes toll and continue on the Chía to Zipaquirá road; in Zipaquirá, the entrance to the cathedral is at the Parque Villaveces, at the top of the town. Count an hour to an hour and a half each way, more on a Sunday evening coming back.
By bus. Buses to Zipaquirá leave from the Terminal de Transporte in Salitre and from the TransMilenio Portal Norte; get off at the Parque de la Esperanza, on Carrera 15 with Calle 4, and take a taxi or walk about fifteen minutes uphill to the cathedral. The city of Bogotá put the fare at 8,000 to 13,000 pesos in 2024. It is the cheapest way, and it works if you have the time.
By train. The Tren Turístico de la Sabana runs to Zipaquirá on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays: it leaves the Gran Estación shopping center at 8:45, stops at Usaquén at 9:15 and arrives in Zipaquirá at 10:45; the return leaves at 3:15 in the afternoon and is back in Usaquén at 4:45 and at Gran Estación at 5:15. The station is about 1.7 kilometers from the cathedral, with a bus laid on. The operator’s 2025 fare was 96,000 pesos for an adult and 90,000 for children from three to twelve and for seniors, and it does not include the cathedral ticket or food. It is a slow eight and a half hours and a good day in itself; it is not the way to also see Guatavita.
With us. Our private day trip picks you up at your hotel in Bogotá, drives you north in sixty to ninety minutes, gives you two hours inside the cathedral with your guide and an hour in the town, and then goes on to Guatavita for the afternoon, ten hours door to door. If you want the cathedral alone, we do that too, and the shared version leaves with a minimum of two people.
Zipaquirá, the town
Most visitors see the mine and leave, which is a pity, because the town has a large main square, the Plaza de los Comuneros, with the diocesan cathedral that took from 1805 to 1916 to build, cafés and artisan shops in the streets around it. An hour is enough: a coffee on the square, a walk through the old center and, if you are hungry, lunch near the plaza before or after the mine. Our day includes that hour with the guide, who knows which streets to take.
Add Guatavita in the afternoon
The Laguna de Guatavita, the crater lake where the Muisca chief covered himself in gold dust and gave the world the legend of El Dorado, is an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half east of Zipaquirá through the highlands, past the Tominé reservoir and the rebuilt town of Guatavita. The hike to the rim of the crater takes about ninety minutes at 3,100 meters, with a park guide, and it is the reason the day is ten hours. The lake is closed on Mondays, or on the Tuesday when the Monday is a holiday, so if your only free day is a Monday, the cathedral with the town is the plan. The two together are the day we recommend to almost everyone with a single free day in Bogotá. The lake itself, with the 2026 tickets and the legend, is in our Lake Guatavita guide.
Or go on to Villa de Leyva
The cathedral is also the first stop of our two-day tour to Villa de Leyva: the mine in the morning, the Sisga dam and the Puente de Boyacá on the road north, a night in the colonial town, and its fossils, Pozos Azules and Ráquira the next day. If you have two days and want the highlands rather than a second city, it is the better use of them; the town is in our Villa de Leyva guide.
When to go
The cathedral is open every day of the year and the temperature underground does not change with the weather, so the only question is the crowd. Weekends and Colombian long weekends are the busiest, Holy Week is the most crowded and the most atmospheric, with processions and services in the naves, and a weekday morning is the quietest. Whatever the day, arrive early: the road north is slow once the city is awake, and the last ticket goes at 4:40.
A day that works
The private day we run most: pickup at your hotel in Bogotá in the morning, the drive north as the city thins into pasture, two hours underground with your guide, the Via Crucis first, then the dome and the naves; an hour in Zipaquirá for the square and a coffee; lunch on the way; the drive east to Guatavita with a stop for the view over the Tominé reservoir; the rebuilt town; the climb to the crater rim with the park guide, about ninety minutes; and the drive back to Bogotá as the light goes, home by evening. With small children, with older travelers or with a flight the next morning, we leave out Guatavita and give the town the afternoon instead.
What it costs, and what is included
Our private Salt Cathedral and Guatavita day is 217 US dollars per person for two travelers, with discounts for larger groups, and includes the private English-speaking guide, private round-trip transport from your hotel in Bogotá, the entrance to the cathedral and to the Guatavita park, the menu of the day at a local restaurant and insurance; breakfast, extra drinks, souvenirs and tips are not included. The shared version, with hotel pickup in a shared vehicle, is 143 US dollars per person, includes the entrances and the insurance but not food, and needs a minimum of two people to run. The two-day tour to Villa de Leyva that starts here is 367 US dollars per person with a night in a hotel and breakfast. On your own, the 2026 arithmetic for a foreign adult is a 125,000-peso basic ticket plus 16,000 to 26,000 pesos in buses at the city’s 2024 fares, or 96,000 on the train, plus lunch.
What we do differently
We do not hand you a ticket at the door. The guide walks the mine with you and tells you what the miners were doing here before it was a church, why the first cathedral had to close and how the second one was cut, and then gets you out of the tunnels and into the town, which most tours skip. The vehicle is yours for the day, so the stops move with you, and the Guatavita half of the day is timed for the afternoon light over the lake. If you would rather not hike at 3,100 meters, say so and we build the day around the cathedral and the town.
Questions travelers ask
How deep is the Salt Cathedral?
180 meters below the surface, by the cathedral’s own figure, inside the old salt mine of Zipaquirá.
How long does the visit take?
About two hours for the basic passport at a normal pace, longer with the Ruta del Minero or the museums.
How much are tickets in 2026?
125,000 pesos for a foreign adult on the basic passport, 110,000 for a foreign child or senior, 75,000 and 60,000 for Colombians; the standard and premium passports cost more and add the museums, the city tour and the miner’s route.
Can I visit on my own from Bogotá?
Yes: by bus from the Terminal Salitre or the Portal Norte for a few thousand pesos, or on the tourist train on weekends and holidays. Neither gets you to Guatavita the same day.
Is the Salt Cathedral worth it?
Yes, for the Via Crucis and the main nave, which are unlike anything else in Colombia; skip the add-ons if your time is short, and combine it with Guatavita or the town so the day is more than a mine.
Is it a problem for claustrophobia or for children?
The galleries are wide and high and the floor is level, and most people who worry about it are fine. Children like the miner’s route and the lights, and strollers can be rented at the entrance.
What should I wear?
Closed shoes with grip and a light jacket; it is cool underground and the floor can be damp. Bring cash or a card for the extras, and an ID, since the tariff is different for Colombians and foreigners.
Plan it with us
Every day trip we run to Zipaquirá is guided, with pickup at your hotel in Bogotá, private or shared. Write to us on WhatsApp with your date, or start with our Bogotá tours page.
