Jardín with Kids: David and Lisa's Story from Texas

We almost did not bring the kids. Let us get that out of the way first.

When we started planning a family trip to Colombia, everyone — and we mean everyone — had an opinion. Lisa's mother thought we were insane. David's coworkers suggested Cancún instead. The internet was a mixed bag of "Colombia is amazing for families!" and "Why would you take children there?" Our pediatrician asked if we had researched altitude sickness, which we had not, and that sent us into a two-day Google spiral that almost ended the trip before it began.

But we had spent eight years taking our kids — Emma, now eleven, and Jake, eight — to the same beach rental in Galveston, and we wanted to show them something different. Not a resort different. Actually different. A place where the language was different, the food was different, the landscape was different, and the daily rhythm of life was different. We wanted them to be a little uncomfortable and a lot amazed.

Jardín delivered on both counts.

Getting there with kids

The bus ride from Medellín was the first test, and the kids passed it with flying colors — which surprised us, because Jake gets carsick on the drive to Grandma's house in San Antonio. Something about the mountain scenery kept both of them glued to the windows. Emma, who has recently decided she wants to be a photographer (inspired by approximately seven thousand TikToks), shot videos on her phone the entire time. Jake counted tunnels. There were eleven.

Four hours later, we pulled into Jardín, and the first thing Jake said was, "It looks like a movie." He was not wrong. The town square, the colored buildings, the church rising above everything — it is the kind of place that does not look quite real until you step into it and realize it is more real than most places you have been.

We loaded into a colectivo up to Isla de Pascua hostel, and the moment the kids saw the pool, all remaining travel fatigue evaporated. Within ten minutes they were in the water, and they stayed there for two hours. The pool has views of the mountains that we — the adults — appreciated aesthetically, while the kids appreciated the pool for what it is: a pool. A really good pool. With mountains.

The pool situation

We need to talk about the pool because from a parenting perspective, it changed our trip. When you travel with kids, you need a home base — a place they can relax, burn energy, and feel comfortable while you decompress from the logistical intensity of family travel. The pool at Isla de Pascua was that place.

Every afternoon, after our morning activities, we came back to the hostel and the kids went straight to the pool. They made friends with other travelers' children — a Danish boy around Jake's age and two Colombian sisters who taught Emma approximately four hundred new Spanish words over four days. The kids splashed and played while we sat on the terrace with cold drinks, watching the mountains change color as the afternoon light shifted.

It sounds simple because it is simple. But simple is what family travel needs. A safe, beautiful place for kids to be kids while parents remember they are also people.

Horseback riding through paradise

The highlight of the trip — for all four of us, unanimously — was the horseback riding excursion. The hostel staff helped us arrange a family-friendly ride through the countryside surrounding Jardín, and it was, without exaggeration, one of the best experiences we have had as a family.

The horses were calm and well-trained — important when your eight-year-old's primary equestrian experience consists of pony rides at the Texas State Fair. Jake's horse was a gentle mare named Canela who seemed to understand intuitively that her rider was small and nervous. Within fifteen minutes, Jake was grinning and pretending to be a cowboy, which, being from Texas, he considers his birthright.

The route took us through coffee farms, along ridge lines with panoramic views, through patches of forest where the canopy closed overhead and the light turned green. Emma kept asking us to stop so she could take photos, and for once we did not mind the delays — every angle was worth photographing. Lisa, who grew up riding horses in East Texas, was in her element. David, who had not been on a horse since a disastrous dude ranch trip in 2015, survived.

The guide pointed out birds, explained the coffee growing process, and let the kids feed the horses afterward. When we got back to the hostel, Jake declared it "the best day of his whole life," which he says approximately once a month but this time seemed genuine.

What the kids actually ate

Fellow parents, listen: your kids will eat in Jardín. We know this is a concern because our kids are what you might generously call "particular" about food. Emma has a list of acceptable foods that fits on an index card. Jake would eat exclusively chicken nuggets if we allowed it.

But something happened in Jardín. Maybe it was the altitude. Maybe it was the novelty. Maybe it was peer pressure from the Danish kid who ate everything. Whatever the cause, our kids ate arepas with cheese for breakfast and loved them. They ate rice and beans without complaint. They tried patacones and asked for more. Jake ate trucha — actual fish, with bones — and said it was "pretty good," which from Jake is equivalent to a Michelin star.

The restaurants around the plaza were uniformly welcoming to kids. Servers were patient, portions were adjustable, and prices were so reasonable that we did not have the usual parental anxiety of ordering food the kids might reject. We ate as a family at actual restaurants for every meal, which is something we rarely manage at home.

The plaza as playground

The town square became our family living room. Every evening after dinner, we walked to the plaza and the kids ran loose. Not unsafely loose — Jardín is a remarkably safe town where families are out at all hours — but free-range in a way that our suburban Texas neighborhood does not really allow.

Emma and Jake played with local kids on the grass. They did not share a language, but it turns out you do not need one for tag or for kicking a ball around. Jake befriended a Colombian boy his age through the universal medium of showing each other things on their phones, and they played together for three evenings straight without exchanging a single comprehensible sentence.

Lisa and I sat on the painted chairs and watched, and we both felt something we had not felt in a long time — the particular peace of knowing your kids are safe, happy, and having an experience that is expanding their understanding of the world. Emma came back to our chairs at one point and said, "Mom, everyone here is so nice," and Lisa cried a little, which she will deny if asked.

What we learned as parents

Here is what we want to tell other families considering a trip like this: do it. Your kids are more adaptable than you think. The world is more welcoming than the news suggests. And the discomfort you fear — different food, different language, different rhythms — is actually the whole point. That discomfort is what creates growth, empathy, and the kind of memories that shape who your children become.

Jake learned to say "gracias" and "por favor" and used them constantly, even after we got home. Emma started a photo project about Jardín for her school's art class. Both of them have asked repeatedly when we are going back, which is the highest endorsement any destination can receive from children who have Disney World as a competitor.

We spent four nights at Isla de Pascua, and the total cost — including accommodation, all meals, activities, and the horseback riding — was less than a long weekend at the beach rental in Galveston. For an experience that was approximately one thousand times more meaningful.

Jardín is not a kids' destination in the theme-park sense. There are no zip-line courses or water slides or organized kids' clubs. What there is, is better: a real town with real people living real lives, set in some of the most beautiful landscape on the planet, where your kids can swim in a pool with mountain views, ride horses through coffee farms, eat food grown on the hillside above them, and play with children from the other side of the world.

That is the vacation our kids deserved. We just did not know it until we gave it to them.

David and Lisa Johnson are from Austin, Texas. They visited Jardín with their children Emma (11) and Jake (8) in July 2025. Jake still talks about Canela the horse.