If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (USD197.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
Living like a local reaches luxury heights at Casa Yahri in Barichara, a refined boutique stay of just four rooms that’s also available for exclusive use. Overlooking the town and surrounding countryside, all the way to the Chicamocha National Park, this period casa sits on a series of terraces and is an indoor-outdoor idyll of sun decks, vista-backed pools and rustic-luxe interiors. Everything from days out to dinner can be tailored to your wishes, ensuring an immersive break where the luxury is in the finely-tuned detail. Its wild whereabouts, too, in the Colombian Andes, add to the casa’s ravishing, remote appeal.
Smith Extra
Get this when you book through us:
Personalised soap gift and a basket of seasonal fruit. Each GoldSmith booking also comes with one 45-minute in-room massage treatment
Noon. Earliest check-in, 3pm. Both are flexible, subject to availability and an extra fee.
Prices
Double rooms from £157.75 ($197).
More details
Rates include a buffet-style breakfast of fresh bread, arepas, cereals, fruit, eggs, and avo on toast.
Also
The historic nature of the casa and its terraced layout, linked by stairs, make it inaccessible for wheelchair users and – combined with Barichara’s cobbles – mean you’ll need a reasonable level of fitness for this one-of-a-kind stay.
Please note
All activities needs to be booked at least 15 days in advance of your arrival.
Exposed brickwork, gnarled ceiling beams and flagstone floors are the simple backdrop for antique furniture, carved headboards and flashes of bright color throughout the casa. There are no favorites here – which you prefer will depend on the company. For couples, either of the suites, Aratoca and Chicamocha, come with oodles of space, indoors and out, and are distinguished by the plunge pool at Chicamocha, and the vast terrace and outdoor shower at Aratoca. For families, the neighbouring Guane rooms that share a terrace are ideal.
Poolside
When you overlook acres of rolling Colombian forest, with mountains looming on the horizon, only an infinity-edged pool will do – and in the case of Casa Yahri, the chlorinated lap pool stretches the breadth of the communal salon at the entrance to the house. There are sunloungers for basking, woven tables and chairs for time out in the shade, and a neat square of a spa pool to one side for when you prefer your panoramas with bubbles.
Spa
There’s no spa at Casa Yahri but staff can arrange a Tibetan sound therapy or yoga session, as well as your Smith Extra relaxation therapy.
Packing tips
Be inspired by the artisanal charms of your surroundings to bring embroidered, hand-dyed or embellished dresses and tops, as well as room-to-pool slides, and walking boots for exploring the region’s abundance of hiking trails.
Also
WiFi at Casa Yahri can be unreliable, so this is not a stay you want to depend on for remote working.
Children
Welcome. The adjacent Guane rooms are ideal for families, although this is a stay suited to older children able to navigate the casa’s many stairs and unfenced terraces.
Sustainability efforts
Casa Yahri’s supply chain is strictly Colombian and local where possible, and you won’t find any single-use plastic at the hotel.
The dining table in the poolside salon is a convivial spot with the casa’s finest views at any time of day.
Dress Code
Home rules apply: there’s no need for formality.
Hotel restaurant
Casa Yahri’s far too casual and intimate to have anything as formal as a restaurant, but Doña Blanca presides each morning over a breakfast of fresh bread, arepas, cereals, fruit, eggs, and avo on toast, served with coffee or hot chocolate. For dinner, you can either ask the concierge to book you a table in town, or arrange for a chef to prepare a special menu a casa.
Hotel bar
Unlimited soft drinks are included with your stay, you only pay extra for alcohol, and as well as a selection of wine, beer and spirits stocked in the poolside salon, there are beers in each minibar.
Last orders
Dining times are decided in collaboration between guests and staff.
Room service
By day, staff are happy to bring drinks, snacks and more substantial plates to your room or suite, as required.
In the coveted neighborhood of La Loma, Casa Yahri overlooks the town of Barichara in Colombia’s Santander region, amid the dramatic scenery of the Chicamocha National Park.
Planes
Palonegro Airport in Bucaramanga is the nearest international hub, a three-and-a-half-hour drive from the hotel. Staff can arrange a private transfer including a stop at a coffee farm, lunch, and a cable-car trip over the mountain canyon (price on enquiry).
Automobiles
There’s no private carpark at the house, but street parking in town is available a five- to 10-minute walk from your lodgings.
Other
Aeropuerto Los Pozos in San Gil is 35 minutes by road from Casa Yahri, and has domestic connections from Bogotá and Medellín, as well as private charters and helicopter transfers. The hotel can arrange transfers from $52 each-way with a driver, or $127 with a bilingual guide.
Worth getting out of bed for
Casa Yahri’s staff excel in curating tours and experiences that’ll immerse you in the local scenery and culture. Learn about Colombian cuisine with a cookery class (and lunch), or try your hand at local artisanal crafts, such as ceramics, clay painting, weaving or adobe construction, with a private workshop. Guided tours are on offer around Barichara, to a coffee farm, or the archeological museum at Guane. For bird’s-eye views of the canyon, take a cable car across it, or sign up for paragliding its thermals. Hiking itineraries vary in difficulty and duration but range from a four-hour stomp along the Camino Real to Guane, to a full day on the trail from Villanueva to Jordan featuring rafting on the Chichamocha and a picnic lunch. A guided horseback trek through stunning countryside is yours to saddle up for. And if ‘four legs bad, two wheels good’, mountain biking trips can be organised, too. A casa, make time for yoga sessions or massage therapies.
Local restaurants
Staff at Casa Yahri arrange all meals, whether they’re at the casa itself, sharing food with a local family, or dining out at a restaurant. Please enquire ahead of arrival.
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this sultry Santander stay in the wilds of Colombia and unpacked their Colombian tiples and coffee, a full account of their South American adventures will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Casa Yahri in Barichara…
Allow us to introduce one of Colombia’s lesser-known outposts – the scenic terracotta-topped town of Barichara (although its period architecture did inspire the producers of Disney’s Encanto on their research trip). In a wild corner of Santander, Barichara is a gateway to the dramatic landscapes of the Chicamocha canyon. Its other gift to gadabout hotel lovers is the pared-back beauty and peace that is Casa Yahri. This antique casa of just four rooms, set on a series of terraces, is in Barichara’s upscale neighborhood, La Loma. It’s a villa-style stay you can book by the room or reserve exclusively: it comes with an infinity pool beside a shaded lounge terrace; staff on hand to arrange adventurous forays into the countryside, as well as cultural tours, cookery classes or yoga sessions. And there’s a resident chef, too, to whip up breakfast and snacks. The casa’s interiors are rustic charmers (exposed ceiling beams, flagstone floors, ornately carved cabinetry) that are all about lo-fi loveliness rather than modcons. Luxurious touches are in the level of personal service, the deftly curated tours and experiences on offer, and the clever sense of place delivered in everything from the views, to the food, to the only-a-stroll-from-town setting.
