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Neiva is the hot and sweaty capital of the Huila department and sits along the Río Magdalena. The only real reason for a tourist to visit Neiva is to pass through on the way to the Tatacoa Desert.
Getting There
Neiva is easily reached from Bogotá and is on the main road to the border with Ecuador. Cootranshuila, Coomotor, and Bolivariano are the major bus companies that serve the city. We traveled to Pereira with Cootranshuila.
Neiva apparently has some decent restaurants and hotels, apparently because it’s an important business destination. We narrowed down our choices carefully since we only had two nights there.
Nagasaki
For our dinner in Neiva, we ate at a distastefully named Japanese restaurant called Nagasaki. It billed itself as “oriental fussion” (fusion). The wonderful decor (minus the bar decorated in imperial flags) didn’t match with the food. Our sushi was mediocre at best and the lo mein lacked flavor. The meal was saved with the banana tempura and a lychee lemonade. Service was abysmal.
GHL Style
The best part of Neiva was our hotel, GHL Style. This boutique hotel was extremely comfortable, spotless clean, had good wifi and air conditioning, and a friendly and helpful staff. It’s a little out of the way as far as the city center or bus terminal go, but it’s near the airport and attached to a decent shopping mall. It’s a little expensive by Colombian standards but was well worth the splurge. The only negative was the breakfast. Many items were cold or not prepared to standard.
