Colombia

Colombia has spent two decades becoming the continent's most exciting destination, and the momentum is visible everywhere. Cartagena is the jewel: a walled colonial city of bougainvillea balconies, horse-drawn evenings and rooftop bars where salsa spills into the streets below. Medellín, the city of eternal spring, tells one of the great urban transformation stories, best heard from locals in its flower-covered comunas. Coffee country folds green valleys around haciendas where you pick, roast and drink the world's smoothest cup on the veranda it grew beside. The Caribbean coast adds the Rosario Islands' turquoise and Tayrona's jungle-backed beaches. Music is everywhere, fruit you cannot name is everywhere, and the warmth of Colombians converts every visitor into an evangelist. Come now, while it still feels like a discovery.