For us, San Andres was often just a stopover for trips to Isla de Providencia , so it was only on our third visit when we stayed for 5 nights that we felt we knew enough to write an unbeatable travel guide to San Andres. Et voila! Here it is: everything you could possibly need to know about things to do on San Andres, where to stay on the island, where to eat, and how to go about renting a buggy on San Andres.
There have been on-going disputes with Nicaragua about ownership, but for now the island legally belongs to Colombia. The main difference between San Andres and Providencia is the vibe on the islands, with the latter being more chilled, more exclusive-feeling and more expensive. Quality of accommodation and restaurants on San Andres island is inclined to be higher because it caters more to Colombians who want an easy resort holiday to unwind in the day and go shopping at night sort of like Marbella is for Brits , but this can leave it feeling a little tacky in places.
That being said, in the South of San Andres, it becomes far more remote and more along the lines of what you can expect from Providencia. The locals on Providencia seem to relate more to being Caribbean than Colombian, whereas the feeling we got on San Andres was that it was the other way around. In terms of languages on San Andres and Providencia, a lot more Creole and English are spoken on Providencia, with Spanish seemingly the go-to on San Andres though most locals can at least understand if not speak English, too.
In our experience, safety on San Andres island is generally fine, but you need to exercise caution. This is the same in any area where tourism has built up a shiny, swanky centre that attracts rich mainland holidaymakers but the rest of the island still lives in ramshackle houses with poor infrastructure.
The same goes for the rest of travel in Colombia. Most of the island is absolutely fine though, if not downright charming. Though each time we visit it gets better and better, WiFi on San Andres is still very slow. We found it very difficult to video call on Whatsapp, etc, or download anything, though regular browsing is ok if you have the patience. On the plus side, 4G now works fairly well throughout the island! Yes, quite a few. However, the September visit was the wettest, and we had 2 warm but heavy showers that lasted an hour or so then returned to brilliant sunshine.
