September 16, 2025
Colombia’s police publish their own crime data, month by month, and it says two things at once that almost no guide puts together. Homicide is rising: 8,195 in the first seven months of 2026, the highest of the last five years. Theft from people is falling, and has been for three years: 156,116 over the same months, down a third from the 2023 peak. The first number is the reputation. The second is the one that could actually happen to you, and it is going the right way.
The short version
Colombia received 4,875,830 non-resident visitors between January and September 2025, 3,467,026 of them foreigners, by the trade ministry’s count. Bogotá, Medellín, Cartagena, Santa Marta and Cali absorb most of them, and the government’s own figures show the crime a traveler is most exposed to declining. What has not improved is the armed conflict in specific rural departments, and both the British and American governments name those places explicitly. The honest answer is not a yes or a no. It is: the cities are fine with ordinary care, several regions are not, and the two lists of which regions do not agree with each other.
Everything below is sourced. Where the number comes from the Colombian police, we say so and give the year. Where it comes from a foreign government, we quote the government. Where it comes from the press, we label it press.
What the numbers actually say
These come from the national police and the Ministry of Defence, published as open data and updated to 31 July 2026. We compare January to July against January to July so the comparison is like for like.
Homicides, January to July: 7,828 in 2022, 7,735 in 2023, 7,528 in 2024, 8,012 in 2025 and 8,195 in 2026. That is up 2.3 percent on last year and up 8.9 percent on 2024. Across the full years, 13,536 in 2022, 13,555 in 2023, 13,497 in 2024 and 14,038 in 2025.
Theft from people, January to July: 179,299 in 2022, 230,120 in 2023, 185,061 in 2024, 169,676 in 2025 and 156,116 in 2026. Down 8 percent on last year and down 32 percent on the 2023 peak. Full years: 351,680, 391,005, 316,216 and 289,374.
Those two lines move in opposite directions, and the reason matters more than either of them.
The 304 that matter more than the 8,195
The police record a presumed circumstance for every homicide. For the first seven months of 2026, nationally, the categories break down like this:
Sicariato, a contract killing, 4,191. Attacked by an organised armed group, 1,451. A fight, 1,385. Then the long tail: 161 still to be established, 125 clashes between organised crime groups, 121 with signs of torture, 92 domestic violence, and smaller categories down to single figures.
And atraco — a killing in the course of a robbery — 304.
Three hundred and four, in seven months, in the whole country. About forty-three a month. That is the category a visitor is actually exposed to, and it is 3.7 percent of the total. Contract killings alone are 51 percent, and contract killings plus organised-group attacks are 69 percent.
The categories sum exactly to 8,195, so nothing is hidden in a rounding gap. What the shape tells you is that Colombian homicide is overwhelmingly targeted, between people who know why it is happening. That does not make it acceptable and it is not a reason to relax. It is a reason to understand that the number driving Colombia’s reputation and the risk facing a traveler are not the same number.
Theft is the real risk, and it has been falling
The thing that does happen to visitors is theft, and there is a lot of it: 156,116 reports in seven months. It is the number to plan around.
The direction is genuinely good. Nationally the count has fallen in each of the last three years from the 2023 peak. In Bogotá, which has more of it than anywhere, the police data show 123,017 reports in 2025 and 66,574 in January to July 2026 against 76,842 in the same months of 2025, down 13.4 percent.
The practical advice is dull and it works. Carry one card and some cash, not everything. Keep the phone away on the street and in a crowd, and do not walk and navigate. Use a car at night rather than a shortcut on foot. Take money out inside a bank or a shopping centre in daylight, not from a street machine after dark. None of that is Colombia-specific; it is simply the behaviour that most of the 156,116 were not doing.
What the two governments say, and where they disagree
This is the part most guides get wrong, because they quote one government and stop.
The United States puts Colombia at Level 3, Reconsider Travel, in its advisory of 31 March 2026, and marks four places Level 4, Do Not Travel: Arauca, Cauca excluding Popayán, Valle del Cauca excluding Cali, and Norte de Santander. Note the two exclusions. Washington carves the cities of Popayán and Cali out of departments it otherwise tells you not to enter.
The United Kingdom, in advice updated 3 September 2026, advises against all travel only to Venezuela’s border regions, and against all but essential travel to a much longer list than the American one, including all of Norte de Santander and Arauca, the western part of Valle del Cauca including Buenaventura, the municipality of Jamundí, all of Cauca except Popayán, Chocó except Quibdó and the towns of Nuquí, Bahía Solano and Capurganá, the Urabá and Bajo Cauca regions of Antioquia, the southern part of Córdoba, the southern part of Bolívar, the South Pacific, Sanquianga and Telembí regions of Nariño, all of Guaviare except San José del Guaviare, six named municipalities in Caquetá, seven in Putumayo, the Ariari region of southern Meta except Caño Cristales, the municipality of Puerto Carreño in Vichada, and land within five kilometres of the borders with Venezuela and Ecuador.
Both are current. They do not match. Britain names places Washington does not, and the departments where they overlap are described differently. Neither is wrong; they are different governments assessing the same country with different thresholds.
Why this matters for money rather than safety. If your travel insurance is British, or is written against the FCDO’s advice, a claim from inside an all-but-essential area may not be covered. Read the policy before you book anything on that list, because many policies do not. If your insurer follows the American advisory, the list is shorter.
The places the advisories agree on
Strip out the disagreements and four areas survive that both governments flag, and those are the ones to plan around: Arauca, Norte de Santander, Cauca outside Popayán, and the Valle del Cauca away from Cali.
Britain then adds a longer list Washington does not: Chocó outside its named towns, the Urabá and Bajo Cauca of Antioquia, southern Córdoba, southern Bolívar, the Pacific of Nariño, most of Guaviare, parts of Caquetá and Putumayo, southern Meta’s Ariari, Puerto Carreño, and both border strips. Those are the FCDO’s alone, which is exactly why the insurance question above matters.
Almost none of that is on a normal itinerary. Bogotá, Medellín, the Coffee Region, Cartagena, Santa Marta, Tayrona, the Guajira as far as Uribia, Villa de Leyva, San Gil, Barichara, the Amazon around Leticia, San Andrés and Providencia sit outside every line either government draws. The places that do collide are specific: the whale-watching sail from Buenaventura, the San Cipriano reserve, and the road to Popayán through Jamundí. Capurganá, on the Panama side of Chocó, is one of the three towns the British advisory explicitly excepts from its Chocó warning — but the department around it is not.
Scopolamine, and the dating apps
This is the risk that is genuinely different in Colombia, and it is worth more of your attention than the homicide statistics.
The US Embassy’s security alert of 9 June 2023 names scopolamine, known locally as burundanga — odourless, tasteless, able to leave a person unconscious for more than a day — along with benzodiazepines and zolpidem, delivered in liquid, spray or powder form in food and drink, in Medellín, Cartagena and Bogotá. Its advice, which we repeat as its own: do not go to bars or nightclubs alone or leave with strangers, do not leave food or drinks unattended, do not accept food or drinks from strangers.
The Embassy’s alert of 10 January 2024 is more specific and more serious. It reported eight suspicious deaths of private US citizens in Medellín between 1 November and 31 December 2023, involving involuntary drugging, overdose or suspected homicide, several of them linked to meetings arranged through dating applications. It also reported thefts against foreign visitors up 200 percent in the third quarter of 2023, and violent deaths of foreign visitors up 29 percent. Its advice: tell someone who you are meeting, where, and the account details.
Bogotá’s own city government published figures in early 2025: 53 thefts by toxic substances reported that year to early March, with Chapinero, Teusaquillo and Suba accounting for 57 percent, and 11 percent of victims having met the offenders through a dating application. The city runs a campaign on it and publishes a line, 165, alongside the general emergency number 123.
The pattern in every one of these is the same: a stranger, a drink, and a move to a second location. Break that chain and the risk largely goes away.
What is specific to 2026
Three things are true this year that were not true when most guides to Colombian safety were written.
The earthquake of 10 August 2026. Magnitude 7.4, about a hundred kilometres deep, epicentre at San José del Palmar in Chocó. The national risk agency’s count, as carried in the Colombian press, was more than three hundred dead by late August. The damage is concentrated in Cali, Pereira, Manizales and Armenia, with heritage buildings and hotels affected across the Coffee Region and the Valle del Cauca. Ask any hotel in those cities whether it is open and whether it has been inspected since 10 August, and expect some museums and churches to still be closed.
Volcán Puracé. On alert through this year, with ash on Popayán and the city’s airport suspended more than once. If any part of your trip touches Popayán, check the Servicio Geológico Colombiano’s bulletin on the day.
El Niño. IDEAM’s release of 10 September 2026 gives a probability above 90 percent of a very strong event through the fourth quarter of 2026 and the first quarter of 2027, and a 75 percent probability of the most intense since 1950. In practice: less rain in the Pacific, Andean and Caribbean regions, higher temperatures, low rivers, and a higher fire and dengue risk. It affects what your trip looks like more than whether it is safe.
Health, which is the part people skip
Yellow fever. Colombia declared a national sanitary emergency by Resolución 691 de 2025, of 16 April 2025. Travellers aged nine months and over going to municipalities classified as high or very high risk must be vaccinated at least ten days before arriving. That includes the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, the Amazon and the Orinoquía. The vaccine is free at public points in Colombia, but ten days before means before you fly, not on arrival. Carry the certificate.
Altitude. Bogotá sits at about 2,640 metres. The CDC’s 2026 Yellow Book puts the risk of altitude illness from a sleeping altitude of 2,450 metres, and describes a low-risk profile below 2,750 on the first day. The city’s own health authority advises one to two days to adapt, rest, water, no excess alcohol or tobacco, and six to eight hours of sleep. Arriving from sea level and going straight up Monserrate at 3,152 metres on the first afternoon is the standard mistake.
Water. Tap water is drinkable in the major cities — Medellín’s utility, for one, publishes a water risk index of 1.06 percent for 2024 against a national threshold of five. It is not a national guarantee, and we would not drink it in a rural vereda without asking.
Protests, and what they actually do to a trip
Colombia protests, roads close, and both foreign offices mention it. What it means in practice is almost never danger and almost always time. A blockade on the Panamericana or the road to the Coffee Region turns a four-hour drive into a nine-hour one or cancels it. The risk is to the plan, not usually to the person.
The two rules we run on: do not walk into a demonstration to look at it, and build the day so that a closed road costs you an afternoon rather than a flight.
City by city, in one line each
We are not going to summarise five cities badly here when each has its own guide built on its own police figures.
Bogotá has the most theft in the country and the least of everything else that worries people — is Bogotá safe. Medellín is the city where the drugging and dating-app alerts are concentrated, which is a very different problem from street crime — is Medellín safe. Cartagena is pickpocketing, overcharging and the beach hustle rather than violence, and the police recorded a sharp fall in the Old City this year — is Cartagena safe. Santa Marta is about which road you are on and when — is Santa Marta safe. Cali is the one with the real caveats, sitting next to the areas both advisories name, and it is also carved out of the American one by name — is Cali safe.
The part of the day where care actually matters
Most of what goes wrong on a trip to Colombia goes wrong in transit: the ride from the airport, the road after dark, the taxi flagged on the street at one in the morning. Book the drive and that category is closed.
Every route we run, with its tolls and the current state of the road, is on Safe Transfers.
What we do differently
We will tell you not to go somewhere. If a leg of your trip is inside an area one of the two advisories names, we say which advisory, what it says, and that your insurance may not cover it — and then we let you decide, rather than quietly selling it.
We move people by private car with our own drivers, because transit is where the exposure is. We check the road and, where it matters, the volcano bulletin on the morning you travel. And we update these pages against the police’s own data rather than against last year’s reputation.
Questions travelers ask
Is Colombia safe in 2026? For the cities and regions on a normal itinerary, with ordinary urban care, yes. For the specific departments both governments name, no, and we will not take you there. The police figures show theft — the crime you are actually exposed to — down 32 percent from its 2023 peak, and homicide, which is 69 percent contract killings and organised-group attacks, up 2.3 percent.
What is the single most useful precaution? Do not accept a drink from a stranger and do not leave with one. Both foreign governments and Bogotá’s city government have published alerts about exactly that.
Do I need a yellow fever vaccine? If you are going to the Sierra Nevada, the Amazon or the Orinoquía, yes, and at least ten days before you travel. Colombia has been under a national sanitary emergency for it since April 2025.
Is it safe to take a taxi? Order one rather than flagging one, from inside the venue or through an app or your hotel. The risk in a hailed street taxi at night is the reason the paseo millonario has a name.
Which is the safest city for a first trip? We would not rank them, because the risks are different rather than larger and smaller: Bogotá’s is theft, Medellín’s is drugging, Cartagena’s is the hustle. Read the city guide for wherever you are going.
Was Colombia affected by the August 2026 earthquake? Yes, seriously, in Cali, Pereira, Manizales and Armenia. Ask your hotel whether it is open and whether it has been inspected, and expect closures at museums and churches in those cities.
Plan it with us
Tell us where you are going and we will tell you, before you book, whether any part of it sits inside an advisory area, what the current conditions are on the roads you would use, and what we would change. The drives themselves are on Safe Transfers, with the tolls and the road conditions kept current there. If you already know roughly where you are going, the tours are grouped by city: Bogotá, Medellín, Cartagena, Santa Marta, Cali, the coffee region, La Guajira and the Amazon.
Sources
Policía Nacional de Colombia and Ministerio de Defensa, open data published at datos.gov.co: homicides (dataset m8fd-ahd9) and theft from persons (dataset 4rxi-8m8d), both read on 14 September 2026 with records to 31 July 2026; the annual, January-to-July and presumed-circumstance totals are the datasets’ own server-side sums. UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Colombia travel advice, updated 3 September 2026. US Department of State, Colombia Travel Advisory, 31 March 2026. US Embassy Bogotá, security alert of 9 June 2023 on sedatives and security alert of 10 January 2024 on dating applications. Alcaldía Mayor de Bogotá, figures on thefts by toxic substances and the Gaula campaign. Ministerio de Salud y Protección Social, Resolución 691 de 2025 and its yellow fever guidance. CDC Yellow Book 2026 on altitude. Secretaría Distrital de Salud de Bogotá on acclimatisation. Servicio Geológico Colombiano for the earthquake parameters and the Puracé bulletins. IDEAM, release of 10 September 2026, on El Niño. Ministerio de Comercio, Industria y Turismo for visitor arrivals. The national death toll from the August 2026 earthquake is the national risk agency’s count as carried in the Colombian press, and is labelled press for that reason.