Any impressions on Old Providence?

[Drew Sailbum]

Satena website is returning results today...

Flights from San Andres to Providencia run daily with departures at 0730 or 1545 for a scheduled half hour flight. Return flights depart 0825 or 1640, again a half hour flight.

Their fare chart is not entirely clear to me. If I am reading things correctly (by adding two one-way fares) the San Andres to Providencia round trip runs 293,150 COP to 443,150 COP. At today's mid-market exchange rate of US$1=1,993.32 COP that makes for a fare range of about US$147.07 to US$222.32 round trip from San Andres to Old Providencia. I may be reading the fare grid wrong. I may be reading round trip fares as one-way fares, and thus the numbers may be about double the actual fare.

You can connect to San Andres from Panama City or any of the major Colombian international gateways (Medellin, Cali, Bogota, or Cartagena). Avianca, Satena, Taca, Copa, and Aerorepublica all serve San Andres.

Getting these will probably require an overnight each way or else red eye flights from Houston to Bogota. With the red eye down or an overnight on the way down in Panama you can easily arrive in San Andres by 11:35am or 12:33pm. That is plenty of time to connect with the flight to Providencia at 3:45pm.

Get out of the airport in San Andres during your layover. It is an open air terminal which becomes uncomfortably hot when there is no breeze blowing through. It is a very short cab ride to the beach. Grab lunch at one of the small cafes along the waterfront. Be sure you have Colombian Pesos to pay with as they do not readily accept US in cafes. There are plenty of ATMS in San Andres.


Sample itinerary with red eye flights
depart MSP 7:00pm arrive IAH 9:50pm Continental 2917
depart IAH 11:59pm arrive BOG 6:06am Continental 884 red eye
depart BOG 9:30am arrive ADZ 11:35am Copa 7540 (operated by Aerorepublica?)
depart ADZ 3:45pm arrive PVA 4:15pm Satena

depart PVA 8:25am arrive ADZ 8:55am Satena
depart ADZ 2:39pm arrive BOG 4:39pm Copa 7543 (Aerorepublica?)
depart BOG 11:59pm arrive IAH 5:07am Continental 885 red eye
depart IAH 11:15am arrive MSP 2:02pm Continental 1816

MSP - Minneapolis- St Paul
IAH - Houston
BOG - Bogota
ADZ - San Andres
PVA - Providencia

 

[WOODMAN]

Most interesting, Drew. Anything available with either American Airlines or Delta/Northwest? That's where my FF accounts are, and this is too long a trip to pass up those miles, if possible. Many thanks for your help. Woody

 

[Drew Sailbum]

American or Delta can get you to Bogota but are not partnered with an airline that serves San Andres.

American offers flights conncting in ORD to MIA to BOG. Overnight in BOG and then morning flights to ADZ to PVA.

Delta offers a flight via JFK with a red eye to BOG with early morning arrival. That would allow for a morning flight to ADZ and onward to PVA.

Satena is the only regularly scheduled airline flying to PVA. You could then pick them up in BOG and fly to ADZ with onward connection to PVA.

 

[Maus]

hello woodman,

your travel agent should contact Satena, satena.com Satena es Colombia
The big problem you will have is the luggage, as i remember only 10kg are allowed because it is a small plane. as long you don´t come in high season flights should´n be a big problem.
Flying in few options depending on price:
Fly into Cartagena from fort lauterdale with Spirit connect to San Andres + Providencia
Fly into Colombia with Jet Blue ( Medellin or Bogota ) and connect
Fly into Panama and connect
There are 3 or 4 dive shops, Sonny, felipes place or Oldprovidencereefdiving, should fine mail and web on .padi. dive center locator colombia
TEC Diving is also available on one of them
Diving is great, good vis, mostly deep dives so be prepared for some deco if you are trained too.
Important: As of my knowlegde no changing of U$ in the bank only in a shop bad rate, no cash machines ( May be it changed ) no travellers chques, so be prepared to get money in San Andres or whereever you enter Colombia, check out details with shop owners.
Hope this helps
have fun there
Maus

 

[Yukon Jack]

Most interesting, Drew. Anything available with either American Airlines or Delta/Northwest? That's where my FF accounts are, and this is too long a trip to pass up those miles, if possible. Many thanks for your help. Woody

Hi Woodman:

We just booked flights from the Twin Cities to San Andres for March 2010. We also have FF accounts on NW. The best I could find for us were NW flights to MCO or MIA, then Copa through PTY and on to San Andres. So we couldn't go too far on the NW/DL network but at least the flights were cheap. We paid $360 to MCO and then $488 for Copa, and it should save a bit of air time in comparison to flying through the Colombian mainland. We attempted a few other NW-Copa connections -- for example, connecting in San Juan, San Jose, Mexico City and Cancun, but those were more expensive for our dates. The Copa "Promo" fares made it worthwhile.

Although CO and Copa will leave the NW alliance on October 24, you can still use NW miles to buy flights on Copa until October 24th even though your flights are later. In my case, I priced out the Copa flights (they were 45K NW miles RT) and decided to spend the money instead.

Good luck and enjoy your trip.

 

[tadeotadeo]

Hey Woody

 

[WOODMAN]

Hey Tad- Are you there? I am looking forward to your comments on this situation. Woody

 

[tadeotadeo]

Hey Woddy
Sorry about the previous post. Too much happening here and I was traveling. I am here in Boca del Toro for a few and have a good internet connection so I should respond quicker. Anyway there is a lot of good information posted above. Yes there is a boat that goes to OPI from SAI, it cost $120,000 pasos for a round trip about the same as a one way flight. The problem is it does not go everyday, I was going to take it and made a reservation and they cancelled on me. I tried to get some information on why, what there schedule was, how many people they needed to make the trip. I got no where with them, the best I could figure is they did not have enough people to make the trip. I will also say this is the second boat that has tried this business and it looks like they are both going to fail. I would not depend on the boat if you can get if great but be prepared to take the flight.
There are two airline traveling from SAI to OPI Sentena is usually a few dollars cheeper,$140,000 to $120,000 pasos one way depending on the flight time, 2 or 3 flight a day depending on the season. Dec-Feb is one of there seasons, I don’t have the name of the other airline, I will try to get it for you.
I think you said you were thinking to go Jan-Mar. Jan and Feb are the coolest months but also it brings the northerly winds and it can put a damper on the diving, I would try to go as later the months you are looking to go. I am putting a trip together in Late Feb or March if you want to join us let me know, we are flexible on the dates but I have to get back to the states to confirm them us with my two buddy’s.
Well I think I covered everything if not let me know and I will comment on it for you.
Ciao
Tad

 

[WOODMAN]

Tad, I have sent you a personal email at the address mentioned on your web site. I am most interested in pursuing this trip. but questions keep arising. I am advised above that the diving is mostly deep here, and this tends to turn me off. I have never been a fan of deep diving, and wonder what is available in more moderate depths. Also, you give partial information on your web site about a charter(?) plane out of Fort Meyers that directly serves Old Providence. Any details on this? (Getting all my luggage through Copa and then Satena:shocked2:scares me) Again, we would like details on how you do all this. So you are planning a trip in early Marchish? Might work. We are also certainly flexible at this point, and the travel details are what are hanging us up. I will talk with you more. Woody

 

[tadeotadeo]

Hey Woody
Not sure what happened but I did not get a e-mail from you.
tadeo@diveoldprovidence.com
I am getting other emails from there. Not sure what happened to yours???
Anyway you can PM me here with your e-mail and I will send you a e-mail.
Ciao
Tad