What the National Tree Festival is
Most festivals in Villa de Leyva revolve around stages, fireworks, or kites. This one revolves around shovels and seedlings. The Festival Nacional del Árbol — the National Tree Festival — has been held for over a decade, typically in mid-October, and centers on tree-planting days, environmental education activities, and programming around the town's botanical garden and the restoration of the semi-desert ecosystem that surrounds it.
It is deliberately smaller than the marquee events like the Astronomy Festival or the Festival of Lights, and that is exactly its appeal: instead of watching from a crowd, you can actually take part, hands in the soil, planting something that will outlast your trip by decades.
Exact dates shift from year to year and the program is confirmed close to the event, so check the official channels of the Alcaldía de Villa de Leyva (the town hall) before locking in travel plans.
Why it matters: Villa de Leyva's fragile semi-desert
First-time visitors are often surprised by the landscape around town: ochre hills, cactus, scrubland, and visibly eroded slopes that look more like a desert film set than the green Andes. This is a fragile semi-desert ecosystem, shaped by centuries of deforestation and thin soils that wash away easily. Erosion is not an abstract concept here — you can see it from the road.
The festival exists to push back against that: reforesting with appropriate species, slowing erosion, and teaching visitors and local kids why a tree planted today reshapes the landscape a generation from now. Joining a planting day is a genuinely different way to experience the region — you understand the territory rather than just photographing it.
Timing: October's long weekend and school break
The festival usually lands near one of Colombia's October holidays. A quick note for international travelers: Colombia moves many public holidays to Mondays, creating three-day weekends called "puentes" — and there is one in October (in 2026, Monday, October 12). It often overlaps with the national school recess week (October 5–12 in 2026), which gives the festival a distinctly family feel.
That timing makes it easy to build a relaxed nature-focused trip around it:
- Nature that echoes the festival: Iguaque National Park shows what the healthy Andean ecosystem looks like — cloud forest and a sacred Muisca lagoon — while Pozos Azules shows the semi-desert at its most photogenic.
- Classics for kids: the Gondava dinosaur park, the Fossil Museum, and the Casa Terracota all work brilliantly with school-age children.
- A slow town day: Plaza Mayor — one of Latin America's largest cobblestone squares — plus markets, ice cream, and unhurried wandering.
Villa de Leyva is about a 3-hour drive (roughly 165 km) from Bogotá; our getting here guide covers driving and bus options. One caution: even though this festival is low-key, the October long weekend alone fills the town, so book lodging weeks ahead.
Practical tips for the planting days
- Wear clothes you can get dirty, closed shoes, and sunscreen — the high-altitude semi-desert sun is intense even when the air feels cool.
- Nights are chilly year-round in Villa de Leyva; pack a warm layer no matter how sunny the forecast looks.
- Meeting points, planting schedules, and botanical garden activities are announced through the Alcaldía's channels — check them a day or two before.
Where to stay for an eco-minded trip
If any event on the calendar calls for your lodging to match your reason for coming, it is this one. El Limonar is a private two-bedroom countryside cottage just outside Villa de Leyva's historic center — 5 to 10 minutes from Plaza Mayor — that runs on solar power and harvests rainwater. You can read exactly how on our sustainability page.
For a family coming to plant trees, the fit is natural: open countryside around the house, free parking, room for kids to roam, and a home that practices what the festival preaches. It is pet-friendly too, in case the trip includes the dog. See the full house on our accommodation page — and if you are extending the trip, the 3-day Villa de Leyva itinerary helps fill out the rest.