Salt Cathedral of Zipaquira

Salt Cathedral of Zipaquira tickets: which one to buy

The basic ticket covers the guided route through the cathedral, which is the only way in; you cannot wander the mine alone. Guides work in Spanish and English and the commentary is included. Add-ons sold at the entrance cover the mining museum, a short 4D film and the brine pool, and none of them is essential. Getting there is the real choice. Zipaquira is about 50 kilometres north of Bogota, an hour and a half by road in normal traffic and considerably more on Sunday evenings.

Organised day trips from Bogota cost several times the entry fee and usually add Lake Guatavita, the crater lake behind the El Dorado legend, which makes a long but coherent day. Cheaper transport-only options drop you at the gate and leave you to buy the ticket. The tourist train from Bogota runs at weekends, takes longer than a car and is an outing in itself. If you drive, arrive before ten to park near the entrance rather than in the town.

Visiting Salt Cathedral of Zipaquira: what to see

Miners had cut salt here since before the Spanish arrived, and they carved a chapel underground for their own use in the 1930s. That first sanctuary was closed as unsafe and the present one was excavated 200 metres below the surface and opened in 1995. The route starts along a tunnel lined with fourteen stations of the cross, each a cross cut into the rock and lit from below, the carving growing more elaborate as you descend.

It opens into the three naves, which represent the birth, life and death of Christ, and then into the main chamber, where a cross sixteen metres high is carved in relief into the end wall and lit so that it appears to float. The rock is grey-veined halite, not white, and the lighting is coloured, which the photographs never quite prepare you for. It is a working church with Sunday services that draw thousands, though it has no bishop and so is not a cathedral in the formal sense. The full route takes about an hour.

Salt Cathedral of Zipaquira opening hours and the best time to go

The site is open daily, including Sundays, from mid-morning to early evening, with the last groups going down an hour before closing. Sunday is the busiest day by far, with local families and mass in the main chamber; Tuesday to Thursday are the quietest. Bogota's weather governs the journey rather than the visit, since underground conditions never change: about 15 degrees, humid, with a faint salt taste in the air.

Bring a light jacket even if the surface is warm. The descent is on a gentle ramp with handrails and no steps to speak of, so it suits most visitors, though the length of the walk is about a kilometre in total. Altitude is worth remembering: Zipaquira sits at 2,650 metres, higher than Bogota, and the walk back up feels it. Photography is allowed and tripods are not. Allow half a day from Bogota by car, a full day if you add Guatavita.