Comments on: How to get from Quito to Colombia (Ipiales, Pasto or Cali) By Bus (2018 update)

By: Gary

Gary — Thu, 27 Feb 2020 15:30:04 +0000

Hey,

first of all, thank you for the many tips and comments from you.
We crossed the border yesterday. This took about 15 minutes at all. We arrived at the border around 2:30 p.m. There where no lines or ques on both sides.

Regards from Cali,
Gary
Then we took a colective to Ipales and from there we took the bus to Cali. The price of the bus from Ipales to Cali was 50,000 pesos

By: Natalie

Natalie — Sat, 11 Jan 2020 22:05:11 +0000

I made this journey – indirect buses – yesterday but unfortunately ended up paying almost $50 total (at that point, I might advise just springing for a direct bus, as it wasn’t the most pleasant journey). I was traveling alone during apparently a low season, and encountered no one to share taxis with. I also couldn’t find any colectivos at any point, and after crossing the border, like another commenter, there was not a single yellow taxi to be found.

Taxi to Terminal Terrestre Carcelén: $10
Bus to Tulcán: $6
Taxi to border: $3.50
Border took about 45 mins, quick on Ecuador side but long line to enter Colombia. Not many migrants in lines at this time, but a lot of people hanging around the border.
Taxi from border to Ipiales terminal: $10,000 COP. Oops! I hailed what appeared to be the only yellow taxi headed this way, but I’m now doubting it was official, and was overcharged. I was too exhausted from the whole process to haggle, and didn’t feel super safe hanging around with my luggage, so I just got in.
Overnight bus to Cali: $70,000 COP. Way too much, it appears. I bought a ticket from the first booth I saw that said “Cali” – a company called Super Taxi. I’m fairly sure they charged me their normal rate, but it seems like it was way too high. I’m super bummed as it was not a particularly nice bus (and I’ve been on many throughout S. Amer.) Very windy and slow, bus stopped randomly for 30+ minutes at a time in the middle of nowhere… Took over 13 hours. Anyway, I’d only recommend doing this crossing alone to seasoned travelers/hagglers who have done their research thoroughly (so if you’re reading this and not scared off, you’re probably good to go).

By: John

John — Sun, 24 Mar 2019 00:04:56 +0000

It said on one site that the Columbia Ecuador boarder is one in the world you should never cross. I zoomed in to have a look at the road going through it on google maps and it does not look wartorn like some of the borders in the world otherwise at all and it was as easy to cross as many of the European ones

By: Mario

Mario — Mon, 11 Feb 2019 17:25:21 +0000

We did the trip as a couple yesterday to Cali.
Everything went well and we spend about 25 dollars per person. The buses are nice
Took from color house hostal at 8am the bus up to Carcelen bus terminal (0,25$).
There the bus at 9am to Tulcan (6,1$) arrived at 2pm.
Took a cab to the border with some locals (1$ per person).
Crossed the border and been at ipiales bus terminal at 3:30pm (2$ probably could have been cheaper as a collectivo with other travelers)
Booked a bus at 7pm bc didn’t want to arrive to early in cali (arrived at 6 am) (40000 pesos; two travelers we met paid 5 min. Before us 45000 pesos for the same bus company at a different counter) with them we took a cab to the sanctuary and back (5000 pesos per person could also have been cheaper).
All prices are per person.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Sun, 27 Jan 2019 22:09:44 +0000

Thanks for sharing your experience, Lee! This is very helpful.

By: claire o mahony

claire o mahony — Sat, 22 Sep 2018 04:01:56 +0000

Thank you Lee for the update. I was thinking of doing the crossing but there are no further updates to go on. Thank you for your insightful account. single, female traveller will avoid.

By: CraigAbroad

CraigAbroad — Fri, 14 Sep 2018 13:10:17 +0000

UPDATE: This was our experience on Sept 12, 2018 which we wanted to pass along as our experience was relatively easy (except the extortion attempt, lol). We were staying in La Ronda area of Old Town Quito. Took a yellow taxi around 9:15am from there to the North bus terminal as others have suggested, $12.14 USD. Booked “Express Bus” to Tulcan through Velatax, for $5USD each. Trust me there is no such thing as an Express bus, this one too stopped everywhere and for everyone all along the way. The bus left half hour late a South American standard and arrived around 3:30pm. We caught a taxi to the border as advertised around the same price others have quoted. At Tulcan (Ecuador) border at least 6 windows open, no line outside, we were in and out in 20 minutes! Walk across bridge to Colombia immigration, also no line outside and only 3 windows open. They say we can’t take luggage in with us (bullshit) so my girlfriend goes first (British). She is in and out in 10 minutes, holy shit. I go next and know I will be longer as I am Canadian and have to pay 199,000 COD or $80 CDN tax for entry. Go through normal lines and then immigration official tells me I have to go to the supervisor line which of course had a Venezuelan in front of me who looks like she is going to cry. No official at the window so it takes forever, then a woman opens the window and tries to extort 1 million pesos out of me to enter as a Canadian. She says the tax goes up annually and this is the new fee. I tell her it is not my first day in South America, that works out to about $460 CDN and there is no way a 90 day entry in any country Costa that much. I start yelling Corrupción and drop a few f bombs. She says the supervisor went home and tells me to wait. I wait about 20mins and then she hands me a phone. He says fee has gone up to 210,000 COD and I say ok but she is corrupt saying 1,000,000 COD and that I should report to the Canadian embassy. Then she pulls out a pre-printed ticket that says “210,00” so again I say you her “Corrupción” and ask her how she got 1,000,000 COD then? She just stamps my passport and says welcome to Colombia. We take 2 cabs to Ipiales bus station because the taxis are small and they won’t accept more that 2 suitcases and at Ipiakes we get a bus there to Cali. No need to take a bus to Pasto of going to Cali or Medellin as they have the buses right there at stop at Pasto as well. Don’t know if the stupid long border waits are a thing of the past or we just hit a lucky day.

By: Lee

Lee — Fri, 19 Jan 2018 20:28:30 +0000

This blog and comments were great and got me from Quito to Pasto. I had hoped to get further but there’s serious issue with the border here at the moment so am writing to warn you all.

I met a guy my hostel in Quito who told me that it had taken him 8hrs to cross the border at Tulcan/Ipiales 2 weeks earlier. It had been the Pasto festival, but also mentioned the Venezuelan influx. I was just leaving so set off anyway. As per the above a taxi to the Carcelen terminal. $6.25 on the 10:10am bus to Tulcan. All good. Arrived 3:05pm. At Tulcan a taxi to the border, $3.25 (I did this 3 times all the same). At the border I went to Migracion and saw a long line. I went to an official and asked if this was the same line for both entry and exit and he confirmed it was. I followed the line around the building. It stretched 200m to a corner. I got to the corner, another 100m, then another 100m. It was 4 – 5 people wide. Not sure how many people, but hundreds. I waited in line for more than an hour and went less than 100m. My rough estimate was that I would get my stamp around 8pm and I knew the border shut in the evening, so the likelihood was I would have to go back to Tulcan.

So I gave up, got a taxi back to Tulcan, stayed in a cheap hotel and at 6.45am headed back. I should have gone at 6am or earlier. The queue on the Ecuador side was inside the building. Yay! That line took about 30 – 40 minutes. I got my exit stamp and headed over to Colombia. There was a line of around 150 people. It was 7.45am. They were exiting Colombia. There is one line for Colombians and one for everyone else. Everyone else was a few backpackers and Venezuelans. After an hour in this line, many more Colombians showed up. The guard alternated opening the gate for the Colombians and every one else. Nothing unexpected here, there are these segregations for nationals and non-nationals at many borders.

After 2hrs I got into the building. There were three lines inside. One for Colombians, one for people needing special assistance and one for everyone else. The Colombian line had 2 counters servicing it. The everyone else line had a single counter. And the special assistance line had a single counter. However, the single counter for everyone else alternated the special assistance line too. My line of around 30 people took another hour.

The real kicker for me was the scams going on. There were shady operators in collusion with the border police bringing people in and putting them at the front of the “every one” else line. I watched them pointing down to people that the border guards let straight in. Other guys were lining up in the special assistance line over and over again with other peoples’ passports (and being seen by the single counter for everyone else). And then there were two more counters with officials that were “closed”, but occasionally opened their window to receive black plastic bags of 10s of passports from the shady operators. There are “express” buses and I guess that this is how they manage to get bus loads of people through quickly.

Once at the desk, the official was good, spoke to me in English, asked me where I was going and how long I would be in Colombia. I said Medellin and I don’t know can I have the maximum visa. He wrote 90 days in there and that was that. There was a sign saying you should have your Yellow Fever vaccination card but wasn’t asked for mine.

From there I grabbed a collectivo for 2000COP to the bus terminal in Ipiales. Had a lovely chat with an Ecuadorian and then in the terminal decided I couldn’t face 10hrs to Cali arriving late at night and so took a bus to Pasto where I write this from.

This is my 8th South America land border and a country mile worse than anything else. It certainly isn’t the fault of the Venezuelans! And perhaps the border control is understaffed to deal with this influx…but then perhaps not have 2 officials just working for the bus companies and stop the shady goings ons!

Best till last…the special assistance line included a pregnant women. A man and his pregnant partner queued, got to the counter and an official who seemed to be a supervisor came up to him and told him he couldn’t be seen with her it was only for pregnant women and that he had to go to the back of the queue. This is of course is the guy who is allowing all the corrupt goings ons and of course getting a fat kick back.

So my advice is to avoid this border at all costs. I don’t know if the other Colombia land borders are this bad…check!

Best,
Lee

By: Benjamin Daniel M Jamorabo

Benjamin Daniel M Jamorabo — Thu, 17 Aug 2017 21:09:59 +0000

Good day.
Went the same route on the way back, having tried the same route from Colombia.
Quito to Carcelen Terminal. Went to Marin Terminal at Pichincha Ave and Olmedo, went north to Ofelia Station. Fare =25 cents
At Ofelia Station, transferred to bus going to Carcelen Bajo. Fare=25cents, maybe free if you don’t go out the terminal.
Carcelen to Tulcan by bus. Fare=US$6.50
Tulcan to border, taxi fare=US$3.50
Crossed border. 3-4pm at the immigration lines of both countries
At the Colombian side, taxi fare from Border to Ipiales Terminal =COP8,000.
Ipiales to Cali Bus Fare =COP48,000. Started trip from Ipiales at 6pm. Arrived in Cali 4am following morning. Recommend Bolivariano bus.
Took this trip on Aug 14-15, 2017. Started in Quito at 8am Aug 14. Arrived in Cali 4am Aug 15.

Cheers!

By: Tassie Steve

Tassie Steve — Tue, 11 Apr 2017 14:14:53 +0000

Hi Paddy

Thanks for this super-helpful guide. I did the crossing yesterday, and it might be worth noting that there wasn’t a yellow taxi to be seen. Admittedly that area is undergoing some serious roadworks at the moment, so that might be a contributing factor.

Thus I was relegated to taking an unofficial taxi. When I asked “¿Cuánto cuesta?” the driver pointed to sign high up in front of the immigration office that stated 9.000 COP as the going rate. This is a fairly steep rise from the price you stated in your guide, and it has to be said that the sign looked like it had been recently altered by someone with a texta (and a big ladder). Of course the taxi driver found other ways to part me from my money, but I bear full responsibility for that (oh, and 2 and half hours waiting in line for immigration at the Ecuador side… avoid lunch times people!)

Cheers
Steve