Every October, Colombia hits pause. For the 19th year running, the country's schools are shutting for a full week of recess in the second semester — this year from Monday, 5 October to Friday, 8 October — and with 8.3 million students getting the week off, their families are heading straight for the airports and highways.

The policy dates back to 2007, when the government of President Álvaro Uribe Vélez issued Decree 1373, mandating five days of rest in the week before the October public holiday. What started as an anti-burnout measure for pupils — and planning time for teachers ahead of final exams — has quietly become a second national holiday season, comparable in scale to Holy Week.

The numbers this year are big. Colombia's Civil Aeronautics Authority (Aerocivil) projects 2,150,988 air passengers between 2 and 13 October, up 3.56% on the same window in 2025 — roughly 74,000 extra travellers. About 62.6% of that traffic (1.35 million people) is domestic, with the remaining 804,587 flying internationally, so nearly four in ten passengers are leaving the country altogether. The busiest day is expected to be Friday, 9 October, with 187,687 passengers, though traffic stays remarkably even across the whole fortnight — the quietest day still sees over 173,000 travellers.

The roads will be busier still. The Traffic and Transportation Directorate expects more than 11.1 million vehicles on Colombian highways, with nearly 2 million of those in Bogotá alone. Over 5,000 traffic officers are being deployed, with speed checks, drunk-driving controls (99 positive results from 13,801 tests last year), and extra attention on steep descents and motorcyclists under the Safe Motorcyclist Plan. Bogotá's main bus terminal is bracing for more than a million departures and arrivals on its own.

Hotels are counting on it. Cotelco, the national hotel association, projects average occupancy of 61.7% across the country for the week.

For travellers, this matters in two ways. If you're planning a trip to Colombia in early October, know that domestic flights, intercity buses and popular destinations get crowded and pricier — book ahead and expect busy airports like Bogotá's El Dorado. On the flip side, it's a lively time to be in the country: beach towns, coffee-region villages and family attractions are buzzing with an unmistakable festive, local energy, since you'll be travelling alongside Colombian families rather than the usual international crowd.