Playa Blanca: A guide to Santa Marta’s hidden beach
Visitors flock to Playa Blanca in droves on hot summer’s days to enjoy its soft sand and crystal waters. A popular tourist hotspot in Santa Marta Colombia, along the Caribbean Sea, there’s no end to the activities you can take part in.
But is it all that it’s cracked up to be? In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about Playa Blanca if you’re planning the perfect day trip. By the end of the article, you’ll know how to get there, things to do in the area and we’ll spill some of the negative opinions we have about this beautiful but crowded beach.
Spoiler: there’s actually a much nicer beach close-by!
Table of Contents
- About Playa Blanca
- How to get to Playa Blanca
- Things to do at Playa Blanca
- Negative sides to Playa Blanca
- Other beaches near Playa Blanca
- Is Playa Blanca worth visiting?
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About Playa Blanca
Playa Blanca is one of the most in-demand beaches around the Santa Marta area. It’s actually close to Rodadero, which is a booming area for local tourism in Colombia. Because Santa Marta Beach isn’t particularly nice, most people head to the beaches in the Rodadero area for a day out.
Playa Blanca itself is a long stretch of sand that butts right up against the Sierra Nevada mountain range. This creates a ‘closed-off’ feeling to the beach as it’s walled in on three sides by cliffs with the fourth side being the ocean.
How to get to Playa Blanca?
The only way to access Playa Blanca is by boat. We actually tried to hike there from Playa El Rodadero but, despite the maps saying otherwise, there’s no accessible trail down to the beach.
Regular taxi boats run between Playa Blanca, Rodadero aquarium and Playa El Rodadero roughly every 15-minutes. They’re easy to spot as they’re bright yellow – like an NYC taxi!
We found the boat journey to be pretty smooth sailing (pun intended) and easy to navigate. Just turn up to the dock, at the north end of Playa El Rodadero or the north end of Playa Blanca, and hop on. If boarding from Playa El Rodadero you’ll need to pay for a daily pass and get yourself a wristband.
However, our journey went from the aquarium to Playa Blanca, and then from Playa Blanca to Playa El Rodadero, and nobody asked us to pay. We have to apologise that we can’t inform you of the cost, but we can’t imagine it’s any more than about 20,000 COP ($4.98).
Alternatively, there are private companies up and down Playa El Rodadero also offering boat services to Playa Blanca.
Things to do at Playa Blanca
There’s a range of activities that you can take part in at Playa Blanca, some more unique than others!
Sunbathing
Find yourself a nice little corner of the beach to spread your towel on the soft sand and lay down to soak up the sun. Playa Blanca is a very open beach, so as long as you can avoid the shadow from the many tents along its stretch, you should be exposed to UV rays all day!
Kayaking
There’ll be plenty of people asking if you want to rent a kayak. Look for the guys paddling around aimlessly in the shallows. Then take your kayak and go and explore the Caribbean sea!
There’s not much in terms of cliffs or caves to explore, but you can still enjoy a leisurely paddle up and down the beach.
Jet Skiing
Now we start getting into more of the adrenaline fueled activities. We’re sure at some point everyone has had incredible fun on a jet ski. Now with the open ocean calling you, it’s time to bring back that childlike joy once again.
Banana Boat
Fun for the entire group, banana boats are more of a game than anything. Get yourself four other friends and see who can hold on the longest while you’re dragged up and down Playa Blanca!
If it’s not your cup of tea, we also enjoyed just watching the boats take insanely tight circles to force the riders off.
Zip-lining
The most unique thing to do on Playa Blanca, take to the skies as you zip line over unsuspecting onlookers. A zip line runs from one side of the beach to the other, making it roughly about 400m long.
To access the zip-line, you’ll need to take a taxi-boat to Rodadero aquarium and then head up a few stairs to the tower. You’ll dismount the zip-line back on Playa Blanca.
Rodadero Aquarium
We actually don’t recommend visiting Rodadero aquarium, but wanted to add it to the list to let you know. We accidentally ended up here when we tried to hike over to Playa Blanca and witnessed some questionable things.
You’ll find that you can swim with dolphins here, but the dolphins are captive and only have access to small pools. Also, there were some pretty big fish in some very small tanks. We like a good aquarium, but we do have to question the low ethical standards of this particular one.
Enjoy cocktails and food at Playa Blanca
Along the entire stretch of Playa Blanca you’ll find numerous bars and restaurants. Why not head to one and grab a beer or a cocktail to enjoy in the sun? We noticed that’s what most of the locals were doing, so when in Rome, right?
This area of Colombia is also well known for its seafood. So grab some fried fish and an Aguila original to wash it down.
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Negative sides to Playa Blanca
Overall, Playa Blanca is a fantastic beach, but there were two negative points we have to mention if you’re planning to travel there.
The first is that it’s busy… very busy. Admittedly we did go on a Saturday afternoon so this may skew our experience but, from one side to the other, the beach was packed. We struggled to find somewhere to put our towels down to chill out due to the lack of space. Even walking from one end to the other resembled more of a festival experience than beach experience.
The second downside are the tents. Vendors have set up these ugly blue tents that run along the entire beach. Then they try to sell them to you. The tents can be great if you want to get out of the sun and are willing to spend about $10/day to do so. However, they could do this with some nice umbrellas or something. They also take up a lot of space where people could lay in the sun, exacerbating our previous point.
Other beaches nearby to Playa Blanca
Besides Playa Blanca, you’ll probably see a few other beaches in the area. We’re going to give you a brief rundown on which ones you should visit and which ones you shouldn’t.
It’s worth noting there are some amazing beaches in Tayrona National Park, like Playa Cristal or Bahía Concha, but we’ll cover them in another article.
Playa Inca Inca
Playa Inca Inca is definitely a beach you should visit. In fact, we view Playa Inca Inca as the best beach in the Santa Marta area outside of Tayrona National Park!
It’s a small beach between Playa Blanca and Playa El Rodadero, but the only way to get there is via a 45-minute hiking trail. This inaccessibility means that, even when we went on a Saturday, Playa Inca Inca remains a quiet paradise with few visitors.
Check out our full guide to Playa Inca Inca!
Playa El Rodadero
Mentioned a few times in this article, Playa El Rodadero, or Rodadero Beach, is probably the main beach in the area. Rodadero itself is popular with tourists and full of huge hotels and resorts.
The beach is massive and insanely wide, so you’re never left without space. The downside is it can get quite busy and the vendors and touts can get quite annoying when trying to push their products on you. However, we do think that Playa El Rodadero is a viable day out, but not the best beach in the area.
Check out our full guide to Playa Rodadero!
Playa Grande
Playa Grande would be our second-pick beach after Playa Inca Inca. It’s not situated in Rodadero or Santa Marta, but instead is accessible from the small fishing village of Taganga.
It’s a smaller beach when compared to Playa Blanca, but its size kind of adds to a more secluded feel. It sits in a small bay surrounded by cliffs which are crazy fun to explore on kayaks. Also, there’s snorkelling in this area!
Read our full guide to Playa Grande!
Playa Taganga
Playa Taganga is the main beach of the aforementioned village of Taganga. We would advise you to avoid this beach at all costs. It’s dirty, it’s full of fishing boats and the touts and vendors are frustrating to no end.
We actually published a full article on why we think you shouldn’t visit Playa Taganga, so if you want to know more, take a look!
Santa Marta Beach
You would think that, with Santa Marta being the biggest city in this region, Santa Marta Beach would be an oasis for beach-goers. Think again.
The beach in Santa Marta is tiny, it’s got a small pond of stagnant salt water on it and again, tents. The saving grace to Santa Marta beach is the neighbouring macelon, or walkway, which is relatively modern in comparison to the rest of the town.
Is Playa Blanca worth visiting?
We definitely think that Playa Blanca is worth visiting, but don’t get your hopes up for a pristine Caribbean beach. It’s busy, a bit dirty and full of tents taking up all the sunbathing space.
Also, try to avoid weekends if you’re able to and plan your visits for a weekday to avoid the crowds. This could make the entire experience way more enjoyable, but would also mean the vendors could get a tad more annoying.
If you’re on the look out for even more great beach options, check out our guide to the Best Beaches in Santa Marta! Alternatively, if you want to discover more of Santa Marta then check out our 29+ Things to do in Santa Marta guide!
