Bus from bogota to bucaramanga

Have you looked into taking a national flight from Bogotá to Bucaramanga?  They are usually pretty cheap.  Right now I see one  Bogotá a Bucaramanga $160.000 which at today's exchange rate is less than $50 USD.  You can probably find even cheaper, depending on when you book it.  If it were me I'd go for that, rather than the bus, which can take 8 hours or more. The prices I just looked at for the bus were $60.000 COP or not quite $20 USD.

You can look for 'vuelo nacional bogota bucaramanga" for planes,
'bus bogota a bucaramanga' for the bus.

Plane:  https://viajala.com.co/aerolineas/vuelos-con-avianca-AV

Bus:  http://www.berlinasdelfonce.com/index.p … ucaramanga

I am a man, physically larger than most Colombian men, and I speak fluent Spanish.  So I would not mind taking the bus although I would travel with just one bag.  I understand that you probably can't do that (although you can buy clothes in Colombia, why carry stuff you don't need to?).  But given that you are a young woman and would have 3-4 bags and plus no Spanish fluency, to be on the safe side I'd have to say DON'T TAKE THE BUS.

Even though you'd probably be all right, it would be much easier to take the plane and much safer.  And much less difficulty, once you deplane in Bogotá you'd have to go to the bus terminal, buy a ticket, wait for the bus, then 8 hours and maybe more to the Bucaramanga bus terminal...

Female and travelling alone and not speaking Spanish, I would take the second flight. You can get discount flights on many dates are not much more than the bus fares in much of Colombia. I believe some area south of Bucaramanga are a litle bit dicey but much better than it used to be. I have taken buses a bunch of times between Cartagna, Barranquilla, Santa Marta, Rio Hacha, and Maico. Those routes are usually safe. Once I travelled 24 hours by bus from Cali to Barranquilla a couple of years ago.

I have travelled this route numerous times by car and bus with my wife who is from Denmark and just simply love it. However, my recommendation would be to fly to Bucaramanga, get settled in, meet a friend or two, then go and take the bus to Bogota just for fun, go during the day, because the views are breathtaking, super beautiful and its actually very safe. But carrying 3 bags, not knowing the language, in a bus, not a good idea (place yourself in the same situation in any other country...e.g. Brasil, Morocco, Turkey, Greece, etc...). But it is a highly recommended road trip, have fun:)

Pay for extra flight.

TOM