Medellin to Cartagena by bus

Typical ride 13h 00m over 640 km. Starting fares around $30 ($30–60). Compare operators - we don't sell tickets.

Route snapshot

Duration

13h 00m

Distance

640 km

Typical price

$30–60

Tip

Services leave from Terminal del Norte and descend from the Andes to the Caribbean plain, so expect cold air conditioning and a hot arrival. Overnight trips are most common.

Over 640 km the starting fare works out at $4.69 per 100 km - cheaper per kilometre than 161 of the 475 $-priced routes we track. See the bus fare index. Fares are editorial starting prices, not live quotes.

Trip plannerEstimates

Medellin to Cartagena: bus, train, flight or drive?

We compared the ways to travel for Tue 3 Nov 2026 and 1 traveller. Bus figures come from our route data; train, flight and drive are our estimates, not live prices. We don’t sell tickets - the real fares are with the operators below.

Best overall

Train

Strong on cost and CO2. Scores 73/100 on our weighted mix of time, cost, comfort and CO2.

Score weights: time 35% · cost 30% · comfort 20% · CO₂ 15%

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Door to door: 9h 30m8h 40m on the move
Estimated fare: $21–60per person
Carbon: 26 kgCO₂e per traveller

Cheapest

Train

$21–60

About 9% less than the next cheapest option (bus), counting typical fares.

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Quickest

Flight

4h 40m door to door

Door to door about 4h 40m - 4h 50m quicker than the next fastest (train).

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Greenest

Bus

19 kg CO₂e each

About 19 kg CO2e per traveller, roughly 82% less than drive.

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Door-to-door time

The real trip, not just the ride: getting to the station or airport, check-in and waiting all count.

Estimated cost

Typical cheap-to-flexible range. The dot marks the middle of the range. Not live prices.

Scorecard

Each way scored 0-100 on four things. A bigger shape means a better balance.

Bus 62 out of 100
Train 73 out of 100
Flight 65 out of 100
Drive 37 out of 100

Train: step by step

73/100

Leave your door for the station20 min
Security-free boarding buffer15 min
Train ride8h 40m
Station to your final stop15 min

Door to door9h 30m

Time weight 35%49 out of 100

Cost weight 30%100 out of 100

Comfort weight 20%66 out of 100

Green weight 15%84 out of 100

Rough estimate - assumes a direct intercity rail service exists; check timetables.

Our estimate

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The night-bus idea

At about 13h on the road, this is a ride worth doing overnight. Our route notes say night services run here. Sleep on the coach and you skip a hotel night, roughly $45–95 for one traveller (1 room at a typical budget rate).

Trade-off: coach sleep is lighter than a bed, and you arrive early with a day ahead of you - a left-luggage locker helps. Hotel saving is an estimate.

Split the cost

Per person, a shared car beats the typical bus fare once 3 people share it (✓).

Per-person figures use the middle of each estimate. The low end of the car range assumes your own car (fuel and tolls); the high end adds a one-day hire car.

See the numbers (table)

Estimated comparison of ways to travel from Medellin to Cartagena
Way	Door to door	On the move	Fare	CO₂e each	Score
Train*	9h 30m	8h 40m	$21–60	26 kg	73/100
Flight*	4h 40m	1h 25m	$70–170	87 kg	65/100
Bus	13h 55m	13h	$30–60	19 kg	62/100
Drive*	10h 10m	9h 45m	$60–175	109 kg	37/100

* Our estimate, not a quote. Bus: duration, distance and fare range from our route data.

How we estimate

Bus uses the duration, distance and typical fare range in our route data (editorial figures, not live quotes).
Train, flight and drive are estimated from the 640 km road distance (with fixed average speeds and per-kilometre price bands, scaled to this route’s own bus fare level). A straight-line distance of about 80% of the road distance is used for flights.
Door to door adds the time that is not travelling: about 55 min for a coach (to the station, boarding, onward), 50 min for a train, 195 min for a flight (to the airport, check-in and security, baggage, into town) and 25 min for a car (loading, parking).
Cost is a cheap-to-flexible range per person; flights include airport transfers; cars are priced per car (fuel and tolls at the low end, plus a one-day hire car at the high end) and split between up to four people.
CO₂e per traveller uses typical factors per passenger-km: coach 0.03 kg, train 0.04 kg (0.015 kg on electric high-speed lines), short-haul flight 0.14-0.23 kg without radiative forcing, car 0.17 kg per vehicle-km shared between the people in it.
Scores run 0-100: time (fastest door to door = 100), cost (cheapest typical total = 100), comfort (our editorial rating, lower for very long rides) and green (lower emissions per km = higher). Best overall weights them time 35%, cost 30%, comfort 20%, CO₂ 15%.
Not every corridor has a direct train or airport service, and car journeys may involve ferries or tolls we do not know about. Treat everything except the bus figures as a starting point and check the operators.

The cheapest way from Medellin to Cartagena is the train (about $21–60 per person); the quickest is the flight (about 4h 40m door to door); the best overall balance is the train; the lowest-carbon choice is the bus (about 19 kg CO2e per traveller). The bus takes about 13h on the road over roughly 640 km. Bus figures come from our route data; train, flight and drive figures are our own estimates, not live prices.

Fares and times other than the bus figures are estimates for planning only - they are not offers or live prices. We don’t sell tickets; compare live prices with the providers further down this page.