Colombia’s June Holiday Mondays: An Expat Planner

Colombia · Expat Living

If your June in Colombia feels stop-start, there is a reason: the country takes three holiday Mondays this month. Here is your guide to Colombia's June holidays — when everything closes, why it happens, and how an expat can turn each long weekend into a win rather than a wasted errand.

Three Mondays, one rhythm

June is Colombia’s busiest month for public holidays, and all three land on a Monday. Corpus Christi falls today, June 8; the Sacred Heart (Sagrado Corazón) follows on June 15; and Saints Peter and Paul (San Pedro y San Pablo) closes the month on June 29.

Each one creates a puente — a three-day long weekend that reshapes how the country works and travels.

Why Colombia moves its holidays

The reason is a 1983 law, the Ley Emiliani, which shifts many religious feast days to the nearest Monday. The aim is simple: build long weekends that encourage domestic travel without scattering days off across the working week.

So even though Corpus Christi is traditionally a Thursday, Colombians take the Monday — and the country plans its Junes around the puentes.

What closes, and what to do before

On a festivo, banks and government offices shut, and many businesses run holiday hours or close entirely. That matters most if you are mid-process on residency or a visa, because Migración Colombia offices do not open on holidays.

The fix is to treat the three Mondays as dead days for officialdom: book appointments and run bank or notary errands on regular weekdays, and never count on a festivo for anything time-sensitive.

How to use the long weekends

The flip side is that these are some of the best travel windows of the year. Cartagena, the coffee region and the fincas around Medellín fill up fast, so book flights and stays a couple of weeks ahead.

Prices climb on the puentes too: a Bogotá–Cartagena hop that costs around 120,000 pesos (about US$30) midweek can jump past 400,000 pesos (about US$110) on a holiday weekend. This first long weekend also opens Medellín’s International Tango Festival, which runs June 8 to 14.

The newcomer’s June calendar

Keep it simple and you will glide through the month. Mark June 8, 15 and 29 as closed days, push paperwork to the weekdays between them, and pick one puente for a trip you book early.

And clear your June 17 afternoon: Colombia makes its World Cup debut against Uzbekistan, and offices empty and bars fill across the country.

Frequently Asked Questions

Read More from The Rio Times

• How a Quiet Film About a Failed Poet Put Colombian Cinema on the Map
• Escobar Cocaine Hippos – Billionaire Offers to Save Them From Cull
• Colombia’s Colcap Falls 1.58% to 2,193 as Oil Drags the Index Lower