Moving to Cali in July 2026

Hello ACOD2026,

Welcome to Expat.com 😀

Please note that your thread is now on the Cali forum.

All the best,

Cheryl

Expat.com team

Why Cali? Work/business/vacation/etc.? Are you open to consider other cities in Colombia?

What kind of visa are you considering? Have you considered in the tax implications with staying over 183 days in Colombia?

How is your Spanish? How is your families Spanish?

Are you considering public or private (ie International) schools?

What are your expectations as to housing, living conditions, food, safety etc.?

Where do you live now? How adaptable is you family to culture shock, the heat/humidity, bad infrastructure and general trash on streets/alleys/rivers/parks everywhere?

Have you traveled before anywhere in Colombia even more so to Cali?

What is your general budget taking into consideration a family of 6?

I assume you are looking for a fully furnished apartment to house a large family of 6? This will come as a premium (ie Airbnb or the like for an extended period of time).

Lets get this conversation started!

@ACOD2026

No matter where you end up living in Cali, try to have everything close by home - your work, your kids' school(s), shopping, etc.  Traffic can be a nightmare.  "Pico y Placa" is in effect to try to minimize traffic, where you are banned from using your car one day a week depending on the last digit of your license plate.  For the stay of less than 1 year you probably will not want to buy a vehicle and can use taxis and even the bus system, the MIO, although it can be a pain.

Many people like central and north Cali - closer to the zoo which is world-class, closer to the vibrant downtown proper, lots of quaint neighborhoods and good restaurants, for instance in San Antonio.  Stay away from the east.  The south of Cali has quiet upscale neighborhoods like Ciudad Jardín and Pance, but there are many good estrato 4-5 neighborhoods in the south, too (estratos run from 1, the lowest to 6, the highest and have come to be used as a measure of a neighborhood's socioeconomic standing) .  You probably would not want to live in any neighborhood that is estrato 1, 2 , or 3, which will be poorer neighborhoods plagued by crime, dirty streets, potholes, and generally poor infrastructure.

There are regular water outages as they try to repair and upkeep the city's poor water system - the local paper will usually alert you to where and when planned outages are scheduled.  If they can people will install 400 to 1,000 liter water tanks in their homes upstairs or on the roof to deal with that eventuality.

For schools you can find many on the internet, you have to pick and choose the level of exposure to the language - but most private schools will teach some English as a part of the curriculum.  I always recommend maximum exposure to the language - many kids can become passably fluent in 6 months to 1 year and they will enjoy the culture more the more they understand.

Here is a short article about Colombia schools in general:

https://www.expatexchange.com/gdview/90 … ombia-like

Here are some other links to explore with the "best" schools in Cali:

https://world-schools.com/best-private-schools-in-cali/

https://nominis.es/blog/10-mejores-cole … ia-cali-3/

https://caliadventurer.com/best-private … -colombia/

I think the best way to find where to live is to walk around and look for "Se Alquila" or "En Arriendo" signs in the windows, with a phone number.  You can also offer a finder's fee to an apartment complex's security personnel, if they alert you to a suitable property and you end up renting or buying it.  You can also look at Locanto which has ads for housing by owners as well as agents:

https://www.locanto.com.co/cali/

Look under Inmobiliaria, then click on Apartamentos... or Casas... for rent (en arriendo) or for sale (en venta) as you desire.

I bet this is another " fly by" poster we will hear nothing  from again.

Moving a family of 6 to Cali of all places for 6 to 9 months?

Makes zero sense.

I worked as an expat my  whole life and if  it is a short work assignment, the company will transfer the father down on rotation with a flight back home every   2 weeks or 1 month  for several days and the company pays for everything. Maybe the employee would fly the wife up for a short spell on his own dime.

Nobody in their right mind would disrupt  childrens school and social life for a short 6 to 8 month stretch living in one of the most dangerous cities in Latín  América.

The whole idea is totally ridiculous .

This is another post   that begets the same response the KAOS  agents give to Maxwell Smart when he says" would you believe yhere are 20 Control agents and police special forces surrounding the place as we speak?"

Their response:

" I find that very hard to believe"