Colombia to Ecuador by bus (complete border crossing guide)
- Jordan & Emily
- Jul 5, 2023
- 6 min read
Updated: Aug 13, 2023
What this Colombia to Ecuador by bus guide includes:
How to get to the border town of Ipiales
Why you need to see Ipiales
Exiting Colombia
Border crossing things to know (Safety, Check mig, Currency exchange)
Entering Ecuador (Including Yellow fever vaccine details)
How to get to Quito
OKAY! let's go to Ecuador!
Step one: Get yourself to the border town of Ipiales
Unfortauntely there are no longer direct buses that will take you from major cities in Colombia to another city in Ecuador. This aparently used to be the case but since the Covid-19 protocals came into efect they seem to have ceased completely and getting from Colombia to Ecuador by bus has become a little bit more difficult. (This actually isn't a bad thing, and I'll tell you why later)
Ipiales is known as the safest border between Colombia and Ecuador and as such there is a vast network of buses connecting the town to the rest of Colombia. For the size of the town the bus terminal is decently big. Most people making their way to Ipiales will be coming from Cali as it's the closest of the big cities that are typically on the well-trodden tourist path. There are two choices to get from Cali to Ipiales the bus we took Boliviarno and another dedicated route called Transipiales If your using Busbud.com or Bookaway.com be warned that all the buses might not show up on the website until a few days before departure, especially the Transipiales. We booked the 10 hour 10 pm departure Boliviarno bus and it was unfortunately the worst nights sleep we had on a bus!
Step two: Stay in Ipiales overnight (Optional)
The bus arrived in Ipiales on time at roughly 8am in the morning. This meant that if you were wanting to continue through straight into Ecuador it was certainly possible. however this does mean getting to the border after 9 or 10am (And that's IF your overnight bus was on time) We strongly suggest instead spending a night (or two) in Ipiales.
We spent two nights in the San Jose Hotel which is located right next to the bus terminal and let us check in straight away! We decided on two nights because we werent in a rush and we wanted desperately to see the biggest attraction in Ipiales. It's not often a border town has something so magnificaent but we HAD to check out Las Lajas sanctuary and we HIGHLY recommend you do the same. We woke up early the following day in order to try to see the cathedral with minimal people and ti was definitely worth it.
Step Three: Exiting Colombia
When you've explore Ipiales (or not) you need to make your way to the Ecuador-Colombia border at Rumichaca bridge. A taxi will set you back 12,000 pesos or you can catch a collectivo from the bus terminal for around 4,000 pesos per person. We highly recommend getting a taxi because you can get straight there and don't have to wait for a collectivo to fill up! (San Jose Hotel front desk can call you a taxi)
The taxi should drop you off on the Colombian side. You'll note there is nothing physically stopping you from just crossing the bridge into Ecuador and sometimes the taxi will drop you off on the Ecuador side of the bridge. it's imperative you line up to get an exit stamp from Colombia before trying to enter Ecuador, otherwise you'll be stuck in lines for hours longer than you need to be. The exit line might be BEHIND where the Taxi drops you off.
The line moves pretty slowly and we had about 20 people in front of us when we arrived at 7:30am. Colombian locals are prioritised and continuously pulled out of the line and pushed to a different office, don't be alarmed! It took us 50 minutes to be seen but when we left the office at the line had grown to easily 50 people. The border is open 24/7 so if we we're to do the crossing again we'd aim to reach the checkpoint before 7am.
Things to know about the border:
Check Mig - The check mig immigration form is required to enter Colombia and exit Colombia. You'll see that written all over various blog posts and official websites. When we tried to do ours the website and app would not let us select border crossing at all. Only air travel was available for us so we pretty anxious when approaching the desk. Although we couldn't confirm verbally, it seems as if the check mig is not a requirement if you are leaving via a land border anymore. Even though there were signs and tv's showcasing the check mig process we werent asked at all and we were in and out of the office in less than 2 minutes!
Money exchange - At the border you'll see upwards of 10 people standing around with big wads of USD in their hands offering you to exchange your Pesos. From everything we read, it's best to avoid doing this at the border as the rate can be horrific.
Safety at the border - We spent a month in Colombia in and out of cities with bad reputations. We never felt as uncomfortable as we did at the border. Nothing happened and we were never directly intimidated or threatened but there was a big fight near the shops down the side eventually having outnumbered police drawing their guns. We had also read to avoid buying anything at the border due to the risk of being robbed and even poisoned. Like I said, we directly had no trouble and it was the local shop keepers fighting amongst themselves so bottom line, put your head down, be smart and don't go to the shops. You'll be fine.
Step Four: Entering Ecuador
Once you've got your exit stamp you can leave Colombia by walking accross the famous Rumichaca bridge. There is a walk way I what feels like the middle of the road. You'll pass all the way to the end and turn right. (Unfortunately we don't have photos of this bit because there were multiple people out the front of the immigration desk and I didn't want to look like I was taking their photo! sorry) On your right hand side there is a big building that wasn't that well signed but keep walking through and eventually you'll enter the immigration office where there will be people lining up. With any luck there will be people in front of you that you can follow to this point!
Again, you'll read online on blogs and official websites that if you've been in Colombia you will NEED a yellow fever vaccine to enter the Ecuador. We were super sillly and simply forgot to get ours while we were in Colombia so had no vaccine or any certificates. Fortunately the only things we were asked when we were trying to enter Ecuador was what our occupation was! (it's a lot easier to just say our old jobs of real estate and banking than trying to explain YouTube!) We managed to get a completely free vaccine while we were in Quito and if you havent got yours yet read THIS post to find out how!
Step Five: Getting to Quito
We've been in Quito for 2 days now and it is stunning. The architecture in the old centre is insane and the people are SO nice. We highly recommend getting here. That said, there are a couple of options to get to Quito from the Colombian/Ecuador border. Every so often there is apparently a big bus that leaves the border and can take you the 5-6 hours to Quito. However it's more common and available all day to get a bus from the Ecuadorian border town of Tulcan. This means jumping in a taxi to Tulcan which will cost 4 USD or 20,000 COP (Great way to get rid of your excess pesos) Once in Tulcan be prepared to be harassed like you've never been harrassed before. As soon as the cab pulls in people are opening your door trying to take your luggage and get you on their bus. It was a great anger management test for me as I pretty much ended up shouting 'No Gracias' and pushing through the crowd. When we finally got our bearings (We had to move accross the car park from the bus terminal just to get away from the yelling and grabbing) We got some cash out from the ATM there and picked a bus company that was leaving in the next two minutes. The bus ticket cost us $7USD per person and it was a pretty comfortable ride. We made it to the Quito bus station at around 3pm and caught a $10 USD taxi to our air bnb.
I got no photos of the Tulcan bus experience but I WAS filming the entire border crossing day so if your reading this a few weeks in the future we probably have a video about the full border crossing on our YouTube channel!
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