Minca Colombia with kids was exactly the kind of family travel stop we love: a small mountain town with coffee and cacao farms, waterfall swimming holes, jungle hikes and a good dose of adventure.
We added Minca to our Colombia itinerary with kids because it sounded like a great place to slow down with the kids while still having plenty to do. It’s close enough to Santa Marta to reach easily, but once you start driving into the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains, it feels like you’ve entered a completely different part of Colombia.
You can learn a lot about a place from the road signs leading into town. As we drove toward Minca, I couldn’t help but smile at the animal crossing signs for monkeys, iguanas, squirrels and at least one animal I couldn’t quite identify. Between the mountain views, the winding road and the promise of waterfalls and family-friendly hikes, we knew pretty quickly that Minca was going to be a fun stop with kids.
In this guide, I’ll share what we did in Minca with our kids, including visiting a coffee and cacao farm, swimming at Marinka Waterfalls, where we stayed and where we ate. Minca is a great option for families who enjoy nature, don’t mind some walking and want a quieter Colombia experience beyond the beach.
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Things to do in Minca with Kids
We visited Minca, Colombia in December with our two kids, aged 4 and 6. There are tons of fun things to do in Minca with kids. Here’s how we spent our three days:
Visit Finca La Candelaria Coffee and Cacao Farm
We love coffee, so we were naturally very excited to hear that Minca sits in a coffee-growing area of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. There are a few coffee plantations in the area which accept visitors and offer tours. We chose to visit Finca La Candelaria as it also offered cocoa farm tours, which we thought the kids would find more interesting than coffee.
How to Get to Finca La Candelaria
The most fun way to get to Finca La Calendaria is to hike up. Sure, you’ll see lots of backpackers taking the easier way up by taking a moto-taxi, but they are missing out on a huge part of the experience. Besides, if you have kids, you may not be comfortable riding up a super bumpy mountain dirt road with kids on the back of a motorcycle without a helmet.
The hike to Finca La Calendaria is so much fun. It starts at the street leading away from town at the police station. The path to Finca La Calendaria is well marked with signs; if you come to an intersection without a sign, simply go straight.
This Minca hike is just over 1.9 miles (3 km) long and it’s uphill the entire way with over 1,150 feet (350 m) of elevation gain. The jungle is quite thick, providing a decent amount of shade, but it’s not complete, so be sure to apply a strong sunscreen as well as insect repellent.
You’ll pass many beautiful patches of bamboo, many different types of orchids and tons of butterflies. We even saw a hummingbird, but it dashed off in a hurry. Along the way, you may be lucky enough to see baby ducks and turkeys at a small poultry farm.
If you know what to look for, kids will have a ton of fun finding ‘Sleeping Grass,’ the plants that seem to go to sleep when you touch the leaves..
Keep an eye out for large colonies of leaf-cutter ants. There’s an especially interesting colony across from the only waterfall you’ll pass on the way up. Look for them along the edge of the retaining wall and then follow their trail before and after this spot. You’ll be amazed at where they go!
Keep an eye out for breaks in the trees as the views are amazing. Sometimes the views are of the massive tree-covered peaks of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Other times, you’ll get a beautiful view of Santa Marta and the kid-friendly beach resort of Rodadero.
Always listen for the sound of motors as the moto-taxis can be driving pretty fast along this road. Most slowed down and moved over when they saw us, but it’s still worth paying attention.
Directions to Finca La Calendria
What to Expect on the Cacao Tour
The grounds of Finca La Calendria are beautifully landscaped. You’ll pass many coffee trees, with many interesting plants interspersed, including poinsettias.
Coffee tours are given twice a day at 9:30 and 2:00. We arrived at 11:30 (about as far from the coffee tours as you can get), so we sat on the back deck and ate our packed lunch while we waited for the next cocoa tour to begin (which begin more frequently). Tours cost 40,000 COP and kids are free.
There’s a small selection of refreshments on offer on the back veranda including coffee brewed with their own beans. They also offer chocolate cake made with their own cocoa.
Finca La Calandaria is a small organic cocoa farm. It grows cocoa trees on 2 hectares and produces approximately 1 ton of seeds per year.
We really enjoyed our 1-hour cocoa tour. Our guide spoke very good English and was great with the kids. He walked us through the growing process for cocoa plants, the various types and where they like to grow.
We then moved inside to watch him take us step-by-step through the process of making cocoa. We got to try the product along each step of the way, from the unprocessed seeds, to a roasted seed, to using it in a freshly made hot chocolate.
You try it first without milk and sugar and marvel at the powerful flavours. You then add milk and sugar to get the more familiar flavour. It was great fun tasting how the flavour changed at every step.
We finished the tour by getting a mask of cocoa painted on our faces. The kids loved this and thought it was so funny!
Swim at Marinka Waterfalls (Cascadas de Marinka)
Swimming underneath a waterfall in a beautiful jungle setting is a must-do activity in Minca with kids. There are two main waterfall swimming spots near Minca: Pozo Azul and Cascadas de Marinka.
Pozo Azul is the more popular of the two with three layers of waterfalls to choose from. We don’t always enjoy crowded nature outings, so we elected to walk to the Marinka Waterfalls instead.
How to get to Marinka Waterfalls
It’s pretty easy to find Cascadas de Marinka. Walk south on the main road in town. If you pass the church and it’s on your left, you’re going the right way.
If you enjoy being in nature (and we assume you do if you are in Minca), it’s easy to walk there, although most people seem to take the easy way out and take a moto-taxi.
We love hiking and our kids were too small for a moto-taxi, so we walked the 2.8 miles (4.5 km) to the waterfall. It’s uphill most of the way there, but it’s a gentle incline with only 790 feet (240 m) in elevation gain.
This Minca hike is enjoyable, but it is along a road, so you’ll be dealing with the occasional motorbike or truck going past. The road is lined with dense trees most of the way so you’ll enjoy a decent amount of shade.
The road follows a beautiful river for the second half of the hike there, offering an additional layer of scenery to enjoy. You’ll also have to cross a small river via a series of about 10 stepping stones.
The road is muddy in spots and uneven in others. Despite being on your way to swim, we don’t recommend wearing flip flops on this hike. A good pair of hiking sandals is perfect for this outing.
When you reach a small cluster of restaurants and stores, you’ve nearly reached your destination. Turn left and you will need to hike a rather steep incline for about 10 more minutes before you reach the Cascadas de Marinka entrance.
Directions to Marinka Waterfalls
Visiting Marinka Waterfalls
Entrance to the waterfalls costs 10,000 COP. Our 4 -year old was free, but our 6-year old had to pay. There is a decent amount of services available to you in exchange for your nominal entrance fee.
There are changing rooms, bathrooms and a covered eating area. Attached to the eating area are several 5-person hammocks, where you can chill with your friends or family and enjoy views of these beautiful falls.
They created a small man-made dam downstream of the waterfall to create the swimming hole, so it’s not 100% natural. That said, they did a good job keeping a natural feel to it. Most people change then bring their stuff down and leave it on the rocks next to the swimming hole.
The water is much colder than you’d expect in tropical Colombia, so be prepared to scream as you enter the water. It can get up to 5 feet deep in spots, so you may need to hold little ones while in the water. The pool is about 30 feet long and you can walk right up to the base of the waterfall and enjoy the powerful spray.
How to Get to Minca from Santa Marta
Minca is close enough to Santa Marta that you can simply take a taxi there. It should cost roughly 60,000 COP.
We paid roughly 30,000 COP extra for a private transfer from Rodadero (next door to Santa Marta), which our vacation home rental host arranged for us. The benefit of a private transfer is that they’ll pick you up at your hotel and the ride will generally be in a nicer vehicle than a taxi.
You can also take a collectivo or shared taxi from Santa Marta, but these are geared towards single travellers. You won’t save a ton of money as a family using these more inconvenient methods of transport.
If you don’t have time for an overnight stay in Minca, you can book one of the many Minca day tours from Santa Marta.
Where to Stay in Minca with Kids
Minca is still reasonably new on the tourist trail, so accommodations can still be quite rustic. We opted to rent a house around 0.3 miles (0.5 km) outside of town, we picked it because it had three bedrooms, even though it didn’t have air conditioning.
We were quite unhappy with the house we rented in Minca, so we won’t recommend it to you here. Luckily there are still plenty of alternate family-friendly Minca accommodations on VRBO and Booking.
Where to Eat in Minca with Kids
Casa Cristi Restaurante
Casa Cristi Restaurante sits at the south end of Carrera 5a. It’s a cute little steakhouse with an outdoor patio. We noticed they had a few kid-friendly options and a decent Google rating, so we decided to give it a shot.
The kids were overjoyed that they had a small pile of toys for them to play with. Celine ordered the Mediterranean burger, while I ordered the Argentina burger – both were quite good, although they were a bit chintzy on the fries. The kids devoured the chicken nuggets, while the kids’ burger went basically untouched.
Arabesca
We were intrigued to find a Middle Eastern food restaurant in Minca. We’re suckers for hummus and chicken shawarma, so we had to give it a try.
The tables at Arabesca are set in a beautiful little garden facing a side street, creating a rather peaceful setting. The kids enjoyed their falafel and hummus, while Celine and I split orders of hummus and bread, chicken shawarma and a falafel wrap. It was all very good and we left quite full.
Smoothies Restaurante
Sometimes when we travel to new countries, we are unsure whether the kids are getting enough food they like, so we like to give them a regular dose of pizza just to make sure.
Smoothies Restaurant is a bright and colourful restaurant near the major intersection in town (yup – there’s only one main intersection here). They specialize in smoothies, but they also serve pizza, burritos, sandwiches, etc.
As usual, the kids devoured their Hawaiian pizza, while I enjoyed my Mexican burrito (which strangely came with French fries). Of course, we had to try their smoothies, so we ordered a few different kinds. The kids loved the banana, mango and cocoa smoothie, while my strawberry, mango, blueberry was excellent.
Tips for Minca with Kids
Bugs, Road Safety and Walking Around Town
Despite being high up in the mountains, there were still plenty of biting bugs. In the five minutes between getting out of our transfer and getting into our rental house, our legs were covered in bites. We don’t think they were mosquitoes, but tiny black flies that bite. Be sure to use insect repellent religiously here.
Should You Use Moto-Taxis with Kids?
Minca is a small town which hasn’t caught up with its sudden popularity. There are tons of mototaxis, car taxis and trucks flying up and down the few streets in town. There are not many sidewalks to be found, so you’ll need to hold onto your kids’ hands as you walk through town.
If your kids are too small for moto-taxis, you will likely find yourself walking everywhere. The car taxis here are tiny, and many can’t navigate the dirt roads around town.
We walked everywhere with our kids and it wasn’t a hardship at all; in fact we loved the slow walks through nature enjoying the many amazing things it offers here.
Playground and Downtime in Minca
There is a nice playground in front of the church where your kids can play side-by-side with local kids. We got lucky and got to listen to a choir of local kids sing songs through the open doors of the church next door.
Final Thoughts on Visiting Minca Colombia with Kids
We loved spending a few days exploring the Sierra Nevada mountains around Minca with our kids. From Minca, we traveled to Cartagena with our kids for a few days before heading to Isla Mucura for Christmas.
Our Travel Journal for Kids
Based on our family travels, our kids helped us design this Travel Journal for Active Kids! This engaging travel journal encourages kids to document their adventures, spark creativity, and stay entertained on the go – grab yours now on Amazon!
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