What's on in Villa de Leyva, Colombia through the year

Busy — Year-end holidays in Colombia, school holidays in 4 of the markets that fill it

Nothing new starts in January.

Shoulder season — school holidays in 3 of the markets that fill it, an ordinary month

Nothing new starts in February.

Peak crowds — Festival de Astronomia, Semana Santa

• Festival

  Festival de Astronomia

  20–22 MarDark-sky seasonCrowded

  Telescopes fill the enormous cobbled plaza for a long weekend in March, with talks, a guest country and a town that turns its lights down for it. The nights up here are genuinely dark. Source ↗

• Holiday

  Semana Santa

  29 Mar – 5 AprEaster & Holy WeekCrowdedBook early

  Processions round the plaza on the Thursday and Friday, and every hotel in a colonial town of five thousand taken by Bogota. The road in from Tunja crawls on the Wednesday. Source ↗

Peak crowds — Semana Santa, Semana Santa recess in Colombia

• Season

  First rainy season

  1 Apr – 31 May · usuallyMonsoon

  The dry valley greens up for a few weeks and the afternoon storms come over the ridge; it is the quietest stretch of the year and the guest houses discount for it.

Still on: Semana Santa (29 Mar – 5 Apr)

Quiet — one of its worst months for weather

Nothing new starts in May.

Still on: First rainy season (1 Apr – 31 May (usually))

Busy — Mid-year recess in Colombia, school holidays in 2 of the markets that fill it

Nothing new starts in June.

Busy — Mid-year recess in Colombia, school holidays in 4 of the markets that fill it

Nothing new starts in July.

Busy — Festival del Viento y las Cometas

• Festival

  Festival del Viento y las Cometas

  14–17 AugMajor festivalCrowdedBook early

  The plaza has been given over to kites in the middle of August since the 1970s, because that is when the wind on this plateau is reliable. Everything in town is booked out for the weekend. Source ↗

Shoulder season — school holidays in 2 of the markets that fill it, an ordinary month

Nothing new starts in September.

Busy — October recess week in Colombia

• Season

  Second rainy season

  1 Oct – 30 Nov · usuallyMonsoon

  The second and wetter of the two rainy spells, with cloud sitting on the hills and the tracks out to the fossil museums turning to mud. Cold at night at 2,100 metres.

Busy — Year-end holidays in Colombia

Nothing new starts in November.

Still on: Second rainy season (1 Oct – 30 Nov (usually))

Peak crowds — Festival de Luces, Year-end holidays in Colombia

• Festival

  Festival de Luces

  5–7 DecChristmas & New YearCrowdedBook early

  Fireworks and lit displays over the plaza for three nights at the start of December, the traditional opening of Christmas in Boyaca. The town closes the centre to cars and fills anyway. Source ↗