Susie and I have checked Cartegena and Medellin off of our list of places to see in Colombia and Bogota is next Here is a great list of things to look over when we make our plans.
Bring a jacket. Weather in Colombia is not seasonal. It’s so close to the equator that every day is pretty much the same, and the weather is determined by altitude: the higher you go, the colder it gets. At 8,612 feet, Bogotá—which other Colombians like to call the Fridge—has mild daytime weather year-round, but it gets cool at night (around 48 degrees Fahrenheit). As a born-and-bred Bogotá native, whenever I’m back in the city I shift to jacket mode even when it’s sunny because the temperature can drop unexpectedly. Don’t make the tourist mistake of walking around in flip-flops.
Orient yourself with the mountains. Bogotá is flanked by mountain ranges to its west and east. You can see one of them, the Eastern Andes, from most places in the city, so they’re a good way to orient yourself. Most Bogotanos use these mountains as a reference point, which is why most maps of the city have east at the top instead of north. It’s also why in Bogotá, subir (“go up”) means “going east” and bajar (“go down”) means “going west.”