Villa de Leyva walking tour & city guide

The town

Whitewashed houses with green doors line cobbled streets. The Plaza Mayor fills with festivals, including a kite festival in August and lights at Christmas.

Around

The area has fossils, including a giant kronosaurus at El Fósil museum, the Pozos Azules blue pools and the Terracotta House, a house made entirely of clay.

A day in Villa de Leyva

Walk across the enormous cobbled Plaza Mayor, one of the largest in South America, and through the whitewashed colonial streets.

Visit the fossil museum and the Terracotta House.

Good to know

Villa de Leyva is about three hours from Bogotá. The kite festival in August is fun.

Weekends are busy with visitors from Bogotá.

Why it is special

Villa de Leyva, founded in 1572, is one of the best-preserved colonial towns in Colombia, with whitewashed houses, wooden balconies and cobbled streets, all built in a strict style that the town still protects. Its huge main square is paved with rough stones and surrounded by low buildings, with the mountains of Boyacá in the background, giving it a timeless atmosphere.

The surrounding desert-like valley was once under the sea, and fossils are everywhere: El Fósil museum displays an almost complete skeleton of a kronosaurus, a giant marine reptile. Nearby, the Pozos Azules are small turquoise pools, and the Iguaque Sanctuary has hiking trails to a sacred lake of the Muisca people.