Playa Inca Inca: The best beach in Santa Marta

A hidden paradise along Colombia’s Caribbean coastline, Playa Inca Inca, Santa Marta, should be top of your itinerary. If you’re looking for a relaxing day trip getaway, you should head to this wonderful beach and we’re going to tell you why.

In this guide, we’ll cover where the beach is, how to get there, why we think it’s the best beach in the area and more. 

Table of Contents

1. About Playa Inca Inca
2. Why Playa Inca Inca is the best beach in Santa Marta
3. How to get to Playa Inca Inca
   • Hiking
   • By boat
4. Tips for visiting Playa Inca Inca
5. Other beaches nearby Playa Inca Inca
6. Final thoughts on Playa Inca Inca

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About Playa Inca Inca

Playa Inca Inca is a strip of beautiful white sand surrounded by hills and trees. It’s only a small beach in comparison to others nearby, but what it lacks in size it makes up for with tranquility. 

Along the beach you’ll find large cabana-umbrellas made from grass to shade yourself from the sun for a small daily fee. In addition, there’s only one restaurant serving lunch and drinks, which is a positive thing, trust us!

As expected from the Caribbean, the water at Playa Inca Inca is spectacular. It’s incredibly tepid, so not to shock your system when you enter, and mesmerisingly blue. 

Why Playa Inca Inca is the best beach in Santa Marta

Whilst we only spent a short time on Playa Inca Inca, we will confidently sing its praises. We had the privilege of visiting a variety of beaches in and around Santa Marta, and this was our favourite one outside of Tayrona National Park.

So, why? Well, there are three main reasons.

No crowds

Playa Inca Inca is secluded. It’s sandwiched in between Playa El Rodadero and Playa Blanca, both of which are saturated with tourists. Which means, because you have to hike or bike to there, it makes it a lot less accessible.

As a result, it’s quiet. If you’re looking for a peaceful beach to relax on, you’ll have no trouble chilling out on Playa Inca Inca. Despite being small, we visited on a Saturday and there was so much free space on the beach. There were hardly any people in the ocean either!

No ugly tents

One thing we noticed about most beaches in Santa Marta is that they are covered in tents. These are set up by vendors which rent them out to tourists for about $8/day. Don’t get us wrong, they’re great if you want to escape the sun, but they’re ugly.

Instead, Playa Inca Inca offers natural looking cabana-like umbrellas made out of grass. At a similar rental rate, they give much more of a tropical paradise vibe than a ugly-camping in the desert vibe.

No annoying vendors

Finally, if you’ve been to a beach in South America or Asia, you’ll know how frustrating the vendors can be. Constantly coming up to you and harassing you to buy some knock-off sunglasses or a balloon or something.

Luckily, in Colombia the vendors do take no for an answer, which is a breath of fresh air after Asia. But there is still hoards of them, which is a lot of no’s. However, on Playa Inca Inca there’s almost none, another bonus to the relaxing atmosphere.

How to get to Playa Inca Inca

As we mentioned, Playa Inca Inca isn’t the most accessible beach. We’ll explain how we got there and how you can get there too.

If you’re in Santa Marta, you’ll need to take the public bus or a taxi to Rodadero. We opted to take a taxi which only cost about $3 for a 15-minute journey. The public bus leaves from Carrera 5 in central Santa Marta, it costs no more than $0.80 and takes about 20-minutes to get there. Just hop on the one that has ‘Rodadero’ signed at the front.

Hiking

The first option to get from Rodadero to Playa Inca Inca is to hike a trail. You can also bike it, but after seeing the state of the trail we wouldn’t recommend it. Here are the hiking stats: 

You can find the beginning of the trail here. It’s a simple one, but it can be a bit tiring if it’s a hot sunny day so make sure to bring water. The trail takes you up and over the mountains. 

At one point you’ll come to a fork with an amazing view over Playa Inca Inca. You’ll also see Rodadero aquarium and the Playa Blanca zip-line in the distance. At this fork, the left path will be the quickest to the beach but we decided it seemed a bit risky due to it being insanely steep. We opted for the right path and walked down a steady decline on a wide trail.

Both pathways will connect to the beach, just from different sides. If you follow the right trail like we did, you’ll enter the beach from the right side.

By boat

Alternatively, you can charter a boat from Playa El Rodadero. We didn’t see many boats arriving or leaving Playa Inca Inca so we are unsure whether there’s a public taxi-boat that runs there or not. But what we are sure of is that it wouldn’t be difficult to hire a private boat to get you there.

Tips for visiting Playa Inca Inca

Here is some advice we would give after our experience of visiting Playa Inca Inca:

• Wear sturdy footwear – the hike is easy enough, but there are a lot of loose rocks. Wear the right shoes to protect your soles and ankles.
• Bring plenty of sun cream – you’re going to be exposed to the sun a lot, especially while hiking. Make sure to put on enough sun cream to prevent burning!
• Have a stack of cash – we didn’t eat at the restaurant but it’s highly unlikely that they accept card payments. The umbrella renters definitely won’t.
• Go on a weekday – despite it being pretty empty on a Saturday, we think if you head on a weekday you’ll have the entire beach to yourself.
• Bring plenty of water – you can probably buy some at the restaurant, but it’s good to have enough water to last you the day just in case.

Other beaches nearby Playa Inca Inca

In Tayrona National Park, around an hour north of Rodadero, you can find stunning pristine beaches like Playa Cristal and Bahía Concha, but they’re quite far away. However, there are actually two beaches nearby to Playa Inca Inca that are super accessible and not too shabby.

Playa El Rodadero

Playa El Rodadero is the most accessible beach in Rodadero. However, between this one, Playa Inca Inca and Playa Blanca, it comes in at a solid third place. We spent a morning exploring Playa El Rodadero before heading to Playa Inca Inca and we also ate here when we came back from Playa Blanca. 

Playa El Rodadero is huge, roughly about 500m long. This means that there’s so much room for activities – Step Brother’s style. There’s a palm tree-lined promenade that runs parallel to the beach which is beautiful to take a stroll down and escape the sun.

We do have a few negative things to share when it comes to Playa El Rodadero. The beach is covered with ugly tents, the street vendors can be a pain, it’s busy and some areas in town feel a bit unsafe.

Playa Blanca

Taking second place on this pedestal of three beaches is Playa Blanca. This beach is only reachable via boat, but this slight inconvenience hasn’t made it any less busy. When we arrived, Playa Blanca was heaving with tourists – literally every inch of beach had someone on it. It’s also covered in ugly tents too.

Despite this, there is a level of natural beauty at Playa Blanca. It’s a gorgeous, long white sand beach with a ton of water activities to enjoy. There’s also a zip-line that runs from one side of the beach to the other, if that’s your thing! Restaurants can be found down the entire length of the beach so you’ll have plenty of food options.

Final thoughts on Playa Inca Inca Santa Marta

If you’re in the Santa Marta-Rodadero area, definitely take some time to visit Playa Inca Inca. It’s a small slice of paradise – perfect to relax on and catch a tan! The benefit of being away from the crowds also adds to the allure of this beach and we’re confident you’ll have a peaceful and amazing time.

If you’re on the hunt for more options on great beaches in the area, check out our Best Beaches in Santa Marta guide! Or alternatively if you want to discover more of Santa Marta, check out our 29+ Things to do in Santa Marta guide!