page_title: Bucaramanga
section_title: Tourism
hierarchical_section_title: Bucaramanga / Tourism
caption_attribution_description: Español: Cañón del chicamocha ubicado en el departamento de santander a 40 minutos de la ciudad de Bucaramanga, Colombia.
context_page_description: Bucaramanga is the capital and largest city of the department of Santander, Colombia. Bucaramanga has the fifth-largest economy by GDP in Colombia, has the highest GDP per capita in Colombia, has the lowest unemployment rate and has the ninth-largest population in the country, with 581,130 people. Bucaramanga has over 160 parks scattered throughout the city and has been given the nickname "La Ciudad de Los Parques" and "La Ciudad Bonita de Colombia".
  Bucaramanga has grown rapidly since the 1960s, mostly into neighboring locations within the metropolitan area. Floridablanca, Girón and Piedecuesta are inextricably linked geographically and commercially with Bucaramanga, and now all form together the Bucaramanga Metropolitan Area with 1,141,671 inhabitants.
  The city is the base of the Colombian Petroleum Institute, the research branch of the state oil company Ecopetrol.
context_section_description: A variety of tourism can be performed in Bucaramanga and its neighboring municipalities, such as ecological tourism through its parks, adventure tourism at the Ruitoque Plateau, and Paragliding at the "Voladero the Águilas", at just a 15 minutes drive away from the city. The downtown area boasts colonial buildings like the churches of San Laureano, and the Dolores Chapel, among some widely recognised colonial houses such as the house of Simon Bolivar, and the Louis Peru de Lacroix' house. Other colonial buildings are located in the neighboring municipalities of the city. Bucaramanga's tourism diversity earned it the title of being one of the seven national pride tourism destinations through a voting process convened by Colombia is Passion and Bavaria.
  Bucaramanga has wide hotel infrastructure composed by some of the best hotel chains in the country. Several areas of the city center are important restaurants and nightclubs.
caption: Chicamocha Canyon
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