With a huge Caribbean coastline, the potential for chilling out on Colombia’s beaches is immense. Here, beach loving backpackers will find a few suggestions if planning a trip to Colombia.

The beautiful colonial city of Cartagena a must for all backpackers to Colombia, and is undoubtedly one of South America's most romantic cities.  There's various cheap accommodation options in Cartagena in the Getsemani region of the beautiful old town. Cartagena has it’s share of beautiful cultural attractions, but it’s beaches are rather overcrowded, unrelaxing and the sea is not so clear.  Touts generally hassle all travellers on the city beaches, but nearby there are some wonderful, more relaxing beaches, such as Playa Blanca, which is a little out of town.  Playa Blanca has a few cheap backpacking accommodations. Better still are the beaches on the Rosario Islands, which is a short 90 minute boat trip from Cartagena. Islas del Rosario (as they are known locally) are an archipelago of dozens of beautiful coral islands, and the calm waters and peaceful, white sand beaches are perfect for relaxing. The Rosario Islands make a sharp contrast to the rather chaotic beaches of Cartagena - this is one place worth splashing out a little and chilling out for a few days.

Just a couple of hours East of Cartagena, Santa Marta is one of Colombia’s most popular beach resorts. Santa Marta is particularly popular with local tourists, and can get rather crowded in domestic tourism season.  The nightlife is great, and many a backpacker has fallen in love here, and never left the country. Rather than staying in Santa Marta, almost all backpackers choose to stay at the smaller, more peaceful fishing village of Taganga which is just outside of town.  Package tourists head to Santa Marta, while the backpackers, and "alternative crowd", are found in Taganga.  The beaches in both Taganaga and Santa Marta are good, but better beaches found a little further East. Santa Marta is the staging post of trips to the legendary Lost City (Ciudad Perdida) – there’s reasons other than the beaches, and nightlife, to visit.  Taganga is also one of South America's cheapest places to get a diving PADI.

An hour East of Santa Marta is Tayrona Park, where one finds some of Latin America’s most amazing beaches. It’s safe to say that all who visit Park Tayrona are truly amazed by the natural beauty, exquisite tropical beaches and lack of other tourists.  There’s dozens of beaches here, and with a little exploration one can find empty rainforest backed beaches it’s normally only possible to dream about. Park Tayrona is one of those legendary places where almost everyone has visited will tell you that you really must go there. Backpackers will delight at the fact that almost all the accommodation options consist of sleeping in hammocks, or camping - there's only one hotel (called Eco-Habs) in the Park - so you won't be seeing any frisbees on the beaches here.  A word of advice though - if possible don't visit during the peak tourism seasons of January to February, Semana Santa and mid July to mid August, as everything can get a little too busy considering the lack of amenities in the Park.

A little further East of Park Tayrona is La Guajira Peninsula, which is on the border with Venezuela.  La Guajira province is populated by indigenous Wayuu Indians. They’re friendly people, and a few have converted sections of their houses to accommodate non-fussy tourists and backpackers.  The amazing landscape consists almost entirely of deserts, and the beautiful beaches are huge, and free of anyone other than local fishermen.  The only problem for those travelling on a budget, is the lack of public transportation. By far the best way to travel around La Guajira is to organise a 4x4 driving package - if there's a lot of you, it can work out pretty good value. If you're travelling on your own, or as a couple, on a tight budget you won't get much further than Cabo de la Vela, to where there is public transportation.

West of Cartagena, the coastline is only really visited by the more adventurous travellers with plenty of time on their hands. Covenas and Tolu are small beach resorts that are often used as a gateway for travel to the idyllic islands of San Bernardo, while further West Capurgana has wonderful beaches close to the border with Panama. From Capurgana, it’s easy to arrange a local fisherman to take you to the nearby San Blas Islands in Panama.