The history of Divanga Hostel in Taganga

started 17 years ago, offering the best service in hostel, bar and restaurant in Taganga Colombia.

Behind this magnificient place is the story of a French woman named Lucie.  With her efforts and dedication, she has made “Divanga Hostel” the wonderful place it is today. Here, hundreds of tourists are amazed not only by the good service, but by the variety of options available every day.

 Before the history of Divanga

In 1998, Lucie and her family came from France to the picturesque town of Taganga in order to manage a diving center. The diving center, named Diva, was quite popular and successful in its time. Even then, it offered additional services to diving courses such as accommodation. She already created a guest house for people interested in diving. “Diva Guest House” was born, located in the actual Divanga Hostel.

By 2000, This Guest House was referenced in the guide Lonely Planet for Colombia. But in this year, it became very dangerous to travel by road in Colombia. The reason was an influx of groups which operated outside the law, also known as “guerrilla.” This obviously affected tourism from all over the country, including Taganga. Therefore, Lucie and her family were forced to return to their native France.

On reaching her country and knowing the possibilities of tourism that Taganga provided, Lucie decided to begin a Master in Business Administration. Her emphasis in Sustainable Development would later serve her and all her projects that would develop back in Colombia.

In 2005, after the crisis in Colombia began to simmer down, the situation started to improve. Lucie returned to Taganga with the idea of opening a guest house again. From then, started the creation of DIVANGA. The name was chosen to combine the name of the dive center, DIVA, and the town where it is located, “Taganga”.

The history of Divanga Hostel started

The real history of Divanga Hostel Taganga begun when the Hostel started to operate on April 1st 2006 at the previous location of “Diva Guest House”. Lucie bought the old property. She decided to launch the hostel as the administrator of the new hostel. With a master it was possible she could teach classes at the University of Magdalena to support her project.

This lasted until 2008 when she decided to focus her time fully as hospitality manager. Since then, Divanga Hostel have worked closely with Hostelworld, and have always remained at the top of the list, along with TripAdvisor.

First hostel with swimming pool in Taganga

The greatest improvement of Divanga Hostel was in December 2007 when it became the first hostel of the area to have a swimming pool, which attracted a lot of guests and led to Divanga Hostel the best hostels in the town. Since then other hostels offered a swimming pool but none achieved the amazing quality and variety of Divanga’s services.

From 2011, Taganga became more of a tourist town for foreign guests, while the percentage of visiting Colombian dropped noticeably. Even today there are more visitors from around the world who are amazed by the wonders which Taganga has to offer.

History of Divanga: Always improving

Between 2014 and 2019, Lucie improved the building of the hostel always focused on fulfilling traveler’s needs. The accommodation was increased to 40 guests and 13 rooms.

In 2020, Covid dark time obliged to close the operation for 6 months without income. Nevertheless, alone with her last daughter Lola, Lucie could overcome the crisis receiving for help to former guests. Both together, they maintained the place to keep it ready for tourism return.

Divanga Hostel nowadays

2022 and 2023 were the best years of Divanga Hostel, with big renovations to improve its quality. Diving was always the preferred activity in Taganga. It is mor than ever promoted by Divanga Hostel, through its integrated agency: Diving Taganga. Nowadays, Diving Taganga offers diving course with instructor in English and French.

For 17 years, Divanga Hostel has been offering accommodation for the budget travelers. Lucie is continually searching for ways to improve its services to the public. Lucie’s efforts implementing additional services provide a complete option for visitors. It makes of Divanga Hostel a one-stop-shop for whatever Travelers may need, all in one place with the main ingredient: Love! 🥰