Want tips on how to see street art in Bogotá? You’ve come to the right place.
So, of course, seeing Graffiti in passing, discovering them at random, is nice, but knowing the story behind the works, knowing the artists who painted them, and learning more about the street art movement in Bogotá is even better!
In this post we tell you about a great Graffiti Tour that speaks of transformation, memory and justice, and gives a voice to the voiceless (like La Comuna 13 or Ciudad Bolivar).
Disclaimer: we apologize in advance for any grammatical or syntactic errors, as our native language is not English (we're a Colombian-French couple), so we hope you'll forgive us and still enjoy the information we share with you! Please note that all the information on our blog is based on our own experience, and is checked and updated regularly.
Summary
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General information about Bogotá
- Name: Bogotá
- People: Bogotanos
- Population: approx. 7 million
- Founded: 1538
- Region: Andes
- County: Cundinamarca
- Altitude: 2640m
- Climate: cold tropical mountain
- Average temperature: between 7°C and 19°C
- Dry season: Dec. to March/June to August
- Rainy season: March to May/Sept. to Nov. (peaks in April and October)
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BogotArt Graffiti Tour : Street art tour in english
The best Graffiti Tour in Bogota
There are several Graffiti Tours in Bogotá, but from our point of view, the one we took is well worth the detour!
Our local partner already offers a historical guided tour of Bogotá, which we also recommend. So when we heard they were offering a new street art tour, we had no hesitation in testing it out and recommending it to you.
What is the BogotArt Graffiti Tour?
First of all, the Bogota Graffiti Tour team is top-notch!
It’s a team of young university students, most of them passionate about their work, who offer guided tours far removed from clichés, to help you better understand Bogotá and Colombia.
For this Graffiti tour, the agency got in touch with artists from the BogotArt collective, Colombia’s largest community of graffiti and street artists, to create a guided tour that captures the essence of street art in Bogotá.
As with the historic guided tour of La Candelaria, part of the team speaks english, and the Graffiti Tour is offered in english!
Which locations are visited?
On this tour, we visit La Candelaria, home to the capital’s oldest graffiti . We get to the heart of Bogotá’s street art history, and hear how graffiti has evolved from vandalism to an art form recognized as a cultural expression contributing to the city’s transformation.
But don’t go away, we’ll tell you all about our experience in detail in the rest of the post!
Street art at Candelaria
Graffiti tour in Bogota
It’s often said that Candelaria is an open-air museum, except that here the walls speak for Colombian society. Artists and graffiti artists have always used the walls of the capital’s historic district to express their views on the country’s social and political conflicts.
Take a stroll through the streets and you’ll see that street art is everywhere. To tell you the truth, we often come to La Candelaria, so when we did the Bogota Graffiti Tour we said to ourselves, “It’s okay, we know it, we’re not going to learn anything”… MOUAHAHA!
But in the end, we realized that when you wander around La Candelaria, you rarely go into all the nooks and crannies of the neighborhood, the streets on the bangs, and so on. So we can tell you one thing: we really rediscovered the neighborhood !
The next part of the tour deals with the social issues surrounding street art in Bogotá. And it’s obviously very interesting.
Honestly, nothing will let you see as many works and know what you’re looking at as taking the guided tour. And the cool thing is that,after the tour, you’ll be able to recognize the style of the works and the artists who created them.
The Bogota Graffiti Tour even introduced us to corners of La Candelaria we’d never been to before. It’s a great opportunity to get off the beaten track, while discovering some great artists!
Why choose the BogotArt Graffiti Tour?
Street art in Bogotá
To conclude on our experience, we can’t recommend this guided tour enough, not only for street art fans but for anyone who likes to get off the beaten track! We discovered, we learned, we were surprised, in short… we loved it!
The guides are top-notch and superbly documented (as they are for their historical tours, by the way). You can tell they love what they do, and have trained themselves to know the history of street art in Bogotá from an intimate point of view, thanks in particular to their close ties with the BogotArt artist collective. Information on the graffiti was gathered directly from the artists, with whom the guides are in constant contact.
Responsible tourism
We liked the way the tour managed to blend the history of street art with the history of Colombia in general. The tour highlights the voice of the street, to understand that street art constantly poses and reposes the question of freedom to express oneself, act and interact with public space.
It’s like their “Rising Peace tour“, a tour that makes you smarter and opens your eyes to make you a more conscious traveller! That’s what responsible tourism is all about.
Get in touch with a local guide
Best Graffiti Tour in Bogota
Responsible tourism
Martin offers city tours to discover the history of Colombia, understand the country’s social and political struggles, and gain a better understanding of the country you’re visiting. A more aware traveler is a responsible traveler! The “Rising Peace” tour will giving you an understanding of the armed conflict in Colombia through a walk through Bogota’s historic district.
Practical information to visit Bogota
For all practical information on Bogota, please visit our general post and our dedicated posts:
