For months before we flew to Colombia, surrogacy lived mostly in our inbox.
Contracts arrived as PDFs. Questions happened on video calls. Comparisons lived in a spreadsheet. Payments were numbers on a screen, not yet real transfers. The journey felt serious, but in a distant way-like planning a very complicated project we had not yet touched with our hands.
That changed on this trip.
This was the first moment surrogacy became real. Not because we signed everything on day one, and not because the trip was dramatic. Because we walked into a clinic, met people face to face, read documents in a room instead of on a laptop at midnight, and did medical steps that made the process tangible in a way no brochure had.
We are intended parents, not travel writers or clinic reviewers. This is not a guide to Bogotá, not a ranking of providers, and not advice on whether your route should include Colombia at all. It is simply what happened on our first trip, and what we wish we had understood before we boarded the plane.
We turned the trip into more than clinic appointments
We decided early that if we had to cross the ocean for medical appointments, we would not reduce the entire trip to three clinic visits and hotel rooms.
We blocked roughly one week in Bogotá. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday were reserved for clinic visits and samples. The days between were ours-to recover, to think, and to stretch the trip into a small break around the appointments. We saw a little of Colombia without forgetting why we were there. After Bogotá we spent a few days elsewhere in the country, then continued home via the United States rather than flying straight back to Spain.
That did not make the clinic part less serious. It gave the week some air. A fertility trip does not have to be only stress and appointments-but it is still a medical trip first, and we tried not to forget that when we were tempted to treat every evening like a celebration.
The first clinic visit changed the feeling of the process
Our first clinic visit in Bogotá was ordinary in the best sense.
We met agency staff in person for the first time-not as voices on a screen, but as people in a room who knew our names and our file. We met clinic personnel. We spoke directly with specialists and embryology staff about steps we had previously only heard described on calls.
Nothing magical happened. No cinematic moment. Just the quiet shift from reading about a process to standing inside it. Surrogacy had been abstract for a long time. Here, it had an address, a schedule, and people who would be part of the next chapters. Planning became doing.
The practical things that can derail the week
The operational side of the trip was less glamorous and more important than we expected.
We received contracts and supporting documents early in the week. We read them, read them again, asked questions, and did not sign immediately. There was no pressure to ink everything before we had slept on the language and compared sections to what we had been told on calls. Never feel obligated to sign the moment a document appears. Artificial urgency before you understand what you are committing to is information in itself.
Payments were another story. We knew large amounts were coming. We still underestimated how much advance work moving them would require.
We planned to use our AMEX where possible-for points and because a card felt simpler than wiring unfamiliar sums on arrival. Before travel we contacted our credit card provider to confirm limits and international authorization. That part mostly worked. What did not work was assuming every route we had at home would behave the same abroad.
We tested a local bank transfer and discovered fees that made the option impractical. We tried Wise, and transfers were rejected or blocked because the recipient entity name included the word “Surrogacy.” That was not something we would have learned from a brochure. Revolut ended up being the workable low-fee route for some of the payments we needed to make. The legal provider also required a payment around the same window-another line item easy to forget when everything still feels theoretical from your kitchen table.
The lesson, for us, was blunt: “We have the money” and “we can move the money on the day” are not the same thing. Test payment rails before deadlines, not when you are standing at a clinic reception desk trying to look calm.
This is our experience-not financial advice, and not a guarantee that Wise, Revolut, or any card will work the same way for your route. The pattern is what mattered: verify before you fly.
What we thought was ready was not always fully ready
We had completed blood work in Spain before departure. We assumed that box was largely checked. It was mostly checked-not completely.
Blood group information was missing from what the clinic needed. That forced additional testing we had not scheduled into our mental calendar. It was not a crisis. It was a reminder that “we already did labs at home” does not always mean “nothing repeats on the ground.” Bring copies of everything. Leave margin in your schedule for administrative surprises that are boring until they happen to you.
BioArray testing followed a similar pattern. We completed it before departure. Results took about three weeks. They arrived while we were already in Bogotá-on a clinic day, as it happened. The timing worked. Barely.
Some preparation steps need to finish weeks before travel, not days. The agency helped us connect with a better-timed and significantly cheaper BioArray route than the one we had first found ourselves. The initial quotes were roughly one and a half times higher. We mention that only to show that preparation and routing matter, not to suggest everyone should expect the same result. The real point is timing: treat pre-travel medical prep like a timeline with dependencies, not a checklist you rush at the end.
The medical part was awkward, normal, and worth preparing for
Collection was awkward, strange, and stressful in the way unfamiliar medical steps often are. It was also a completely normal part of the process-one many intended parents go through, rarely discussed in the glossy version of surrogacy storytelling. We will keep this respectful and factual because it deserves to be normalized rather than whispered about. The awkwardness does not mean something is wrong with you or your journey.
The health guidance around it was not abstract either. Rest matters. Sleep matters. Alcohol is not a great idea in the days before a step you cannot easily reschedule. Do not arrive destroyed from a long flight and treat the next morning like a casual appointment. We learned to respect the medical part of the trip even when we were also trying to enjoy being in a new country. That balance was not always elegant. It was necessary.
Legal questions, the hospital visit, and a future that felt less abstract
Two moments from the week changed how we imagined what we were building-not dramatically, but in a way that stayed with us.
We met with the legal team connected to our route. That gave us a chance to ask difficult questions in person rather than by email with a twelve-hour delay. One concern we raised openly: how can intended parents trust that legal advisors are protecting their interests rather than simply supporting agencies and clinics? We did not want a slogan. We wanted to see whether the answer was thoughtful, specific, and grounded in how the firm actually works with intended parents. That conversation increased our confidence-not because every fear vanished, but because hard questions were allowed.
The delivery hospital visit
Separately, we visited the hospital where delivery would happen someday. The clinic handling embryo work was not the same place. We were guided through the delivery hospital by the doctor who would later be responsible for our surrogates’ care-not named here, but present in a way that made “future birth” less abstract than any timeline on a screen. It was not sentimental in a cinematic sense. It was grounding. Surrogacy is not only labs and contracts. At some point, if things go well, it becomes birth and paperwork and a child. Seeing one of those future rooms made the long arc harder to dismiss as a distant hypothetical.
Coordination mattered without replacing our own judgment
We want to be balanced about the agency role, because this article is about our experience, not a sales pitch.
What helped was practical coordination: a clear schedule before we landed, accompaniment to project-related steps, translation when needed, contract review support to make sure what we signed matched what had been discussed, and a liaison between us and the clinic when questions crossed languages or specialties.
The value was not magic. It was coordination. Having someone hold the moving pieces reduced stress when we were already managing jet lag, medical steps, and large financial decisions in the same week. That may not be what every intended parent needs. For us, on this trip, it mattered.
Even small logistics added up. Traffic in Bogotá could be awful-five kilometers could take an hour. Rideshare services felt more predictable than hailing taxis in unfamiliar areas. We are not writing a transportation guide, but schedule buffer matters when clinics run late and documents take longer to review than expected.
What we carried home
We left with more than completed steps. We left with faces, places, and a sense that the process had crossed from planning into reality.
Before Colombia, surrogacy was mostly paperwork, calls, contracts, spreadsheets, and video meetings. After Colombia, we had done things we had previously only planned-signed after reading, not after pressure; moved money through routes we had tested; repeated a lab we thought was finished; stood in rooms that made the future feel closer.
If you are approaching a first trip of your own, we hope the honest version is more useful than a polished travel blog or a provider brochure. Our agency comparison-the months of calls and contracts before this trip-is in our article on how we chose our surrogacy agency, and why price alone was not enough. If you are still earlier in the journey, our piece on what we wish we had tracked from day one may help with the organizational side.
Disclaimer
MySurrogacy does not provide medical, legal, tax, immigration, or financial advice. This article reflects intended-parent experience and is meant for general planning support only. Routes, clinics, and legal frameworks vary; qualified professionals who know your situation should review your plan.