Librería Nacional was founded in Barranquilla in September 1941 and pioneered self-service bookselling in Colombia. It now runs 31 branches in Bogotá, Cali, Medellín, Barranquilla, Cartagena and Pereira, with cafés and ice cream parlours inside the Cali shops. More than 60,000 titles are supplied by some 250 publishers in Spanish and English.
Best for Colombia’s bookselling house since 1941
The Librería Nacional de Colombia was founded in Barranquilla in September 1941. It was a pioneer in the country of self-service bookselling and of the sale and distribution of magazines. The house also stands out for bringing ice cream parlours and cafés inside its bookshops, a feature of the Cali branches in particular. Today it counts 31 branches across the country, with bookshops in six cities, Bogotá, Cali, Medellín, Barranquilla, Cartagena and Pereira, placed in the main shopping centres of each. An online shop at librerianacional.com reaches customers anywhere in the world. The catalogue runs to more than 60,000 titles across every subject, supplied by some 250 publishers and distributors in Spanish and English. Around 500 new titles arrive each month, and the international bestsellers are put out first. The company describes its calling cards as tradition and a pleasant setting, together with a wide and varied stock and personal attention for anyone in search of a book. Institutional buyers and schools are served through a dedicated purchasing desk, and customer service answers from Cali. The house presents itself plainly as a place to buy books from the comfort of home or in one of its shops.
4 Elementos is a small coffee finca in Minca, in the mountains above Santa Marta, growing organic single-origin coffee. Visitors can take farm tours and join tastings and roasting on site.
Best for Organic single-origin coffee; farm tour & tasting
An independent bookshop-café spread over three floors of a heritage English-style house on Calle 71, stocking Colombian, Latin American and international literature plus graphic novels and art titles. It runs a reading club, book exchange and workshops alongside its 300-square-metre bookshop.
Best for Three floors of Colombian and Latin American literature, graphic novels
Alex Griffith started Vívolo Café as a tribute to his mother, and built it into an operation that spans the full chain — roasting, exporting, and teaching — while working directly with growers scattered across Colombia's mountain regions.
Best for Reserve Select coffee, Sierra Nevada single origins and cascara infusions
Alex Griffith started Vívolo Café as a tribute to his mother, and built it into an operation that spans the full chain — roasting, exporting, and teaching — while working directly with growers scattered across Colombia's mountain regions. The house pours its sourcing discipline into two flagship lines: SCA-graded Reserve Select and a Sierra Nevada single-origin, both built around direct relationships rather than blind lots bought at auction.
Alongside the roasted bags, Vívolo sells cascara infusions made from the dried husk of the coffee cherry — the part most roasters discard — turning a byproduct into its own drink. The education side isn't an afterthought: Vívolo runs its own tasting and training courses, treating customers as students of the coffee rather than passive buyers.
It's a small but complete supply chain in miniature — grower relationship, export logistics, roast, and classroom — built around one founder's original, personal reason for starting it.
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