I’ll be honest: I was nervous about Medellín. Not because of anything rational — every traveller I’d spoken to raved about it — but because the city’s past casts a long shadow, and some part of my brain was still stuck in a 1990s documentary. That anxiety lasted about forty-five minutes. By the time my taxi climbed into the Aburrá Valley and I saw Medellín spread out below — a carpet of terracotta roofs and white towers surrounded by green mountains — my nerves had been replaced by something closer to awe.
Medellín, Colombia
Famous for: Comuna 13, Guatapé, Botero sculptures, Metrocable, coffee culture, eternal spring climate
My driver dropped me at my boutique hotel in El Poblado, a leafy neighbourhood on the valley’s southern slope where most visitors base themselves. The streets were lined with flowering trees, the restaurants were spilling onto pavements, and the evening air — Medellín sits at 1,500 metres, so it’s spring-like year-round — was soft and warm. I ordered a fresh mango juice from a street vendor, sat on a park bench, and decided I was going to like this city very much. I was right.
Day 1: El Poblado to Downtown — Two Medellíns
I spent the morning exploring El Poblado on foot. Parque Lleras is the social hub — packed with cafés and restaurants, buzzing even at breakfast. I walked south along tree-lined streets toward the Manila district, which has a quieter, more residential feel, and stopped for a Colombian breakfast of calentado (refried beans, rice, chorizo, and a fried egg) at a neighbourhood joint where I was the only foreigner.
After breakfast, I took the Metro downtown. Medellín’s Metro is a point of civic pride — clean, efficient, and cheap — and the ride from El Poblado to the city centre takes about fifteen minutes. I emerged at Parque Berrío, the beating heart of downtown, where street vendors shout over cumbia music and businesspeople dodge lottery-ticket sellers.
The main draw here is Plaza Botero, an open square filled with 23 bronze sculptures by Fernando Botero, Medellín’s most famous son. The voluptuous figures — a rotund bird, an oversized hand, a plump reclining woman — are instantly recognisable and oddly moving. Inside the adjacent Museo de Antioquia, I bought museum tickets and spent an hour with Botero’s paintings and a strong collection of Colombian contemporary art.
I walked from there to the old Coltejer building, the Catedral Metropolitana, and the Palacio de la Cultura — all within a few blocks. Downtown Medellín is gritty and chaotic, a world away from El Poblado’s polish, but that contrast is part of the city’s story. I returned to my hotel via the Metro, feeling like I’d visited two different cities in one day.
Day 2: Comuna 13 and Street Art
No trip to Medellín is complete without visiting Comuna 13. This hillside neighbourhood was once the most dangerous part of the city; today it’s a vibrant, colour-saturated showcase of community transformation, with outdoor escalators, street art on every wall, and hip-hop blasting from corner speakers. I booked a street art and history tour of Comuna 13 led by a local guide who grew up there, and it was the most impactful experience of the trip.
The murals tell stories of displacement, violence, resilience, and hope. Our guide showed us pieces by local artists — many of whom lost family members during the conflict — and explained how art and music became tools of reclamation. We stopped for fresh juice, watched breakdancers perform on the escalator landings, and climbed to a viewpoint where the whole valley spread out below. I left shaken and inspired in equal measure.
In the afternoon I walked through the Botanical Garden, a peaceful oasis in the north of the city with a striking wooden orchid house. Then I headed to Laureles, El Poblado’s more local counterpart, for dinner at a parrilla where the steak was enormous, tender, and cost less than a sandwich back home. The neighbourhood felt authentically Colombian — families out for evening walks, abuelas chatting on balconies, kids kicking footballs in side streets.
Day 3: Guatapé — The Rock and the Reservoir
Today was day-trip day. I caught a bus to Guatapé from Terminal del Norte — a two-hour ride through rolling green countryside. Guatapé is famous for two things: a massive rock (La Piedra del Peñol) that rises 200 metres from the ground, and a stunningly photogenic town of brightly painted zócalos (decorative baseboards) on every building.
I climbed the rock first — 740 steps up a crack in its face, with the wind whipping harder at every level. At the top, the view is staggering: an impossibly blue reservoir dotted with green islands, stretching to the horizon in every direction. I stood there for twenty minutes, not wanting to leave. I’d bought a skip-the-line ticket for La Piedra in advance, which saved time at the base.
After descending on jelly legs, I spent the afternoon in Guatapé town, wandering the colourful streets and eating trout fresh from the reservoir at a lakeside restaurant. The town has the cheerful, unhurried atmosphere of a place that knows it’s beautiful and doesn’t feel the need to prove it. I caught the last bus back to Medellín, arriving just in time for a late dinner of bandeja paisa — Medellín’s signature dish, a mountain of beans, rice, chicharrón, plantain, avocado, and arepa that could feed a small family.
Day 4: Coffee, Cable Cars, and Neighbourhood Flavours
Medellín is at the heart of Colombia’s coffee country, so I started the morning with a coffee tasting workshop in El Poblado. We cupped beans from different regions, learned about altitude and processing methods, and brewed our own pour-overs. I’d been drinking Colombian coffee for years without understanding it; after this session, I could taste the difference between a Huila and a Nariño.
After lunch, I rode the Metrocable — Medellín’s network of gondola lifts that connect hillside communities to the Metro system. The Metrocable was built as public transport, not tourism, and riding it feels like being welcomed into the city’s living rooms: you float over tin-roofed houses, school playgrounds, and tiny gardens clinging to steep slopes. I took the line to Parque Arví, a cloud forest reserve on the mountain above the city, and spent a couple of hours hiking easy trails through misty forest. The contrast with the city below was startling — birdsong instead of traffic, cool air instead of exhaust.
The evening was the culinary highlight: a Colombian street food tour through the Prado and downtown areas. We ate empanadas stuffed with potato and meat, arepas de choclo (sweet corn cakes with cheese), obleas (wafer sandwiches with arequipe caramel), and washed it all down with lulada, a slushy drink made from lulo fruit that tastes like nothing else on earth.
Day 5: Jardín and the Valley Beyond
For my last day I ventured further afield, joining a day trip to Jardín, a colonial village about three hours southwest of Medellín. The drive wound through coffee plantations and cloud forest, and the village itself was postcard-perfect: a central plaza ringed by colonial buildings, a neo-Gothic church, and locals playing tejo (a traditional game involving gunpowder targets) in a side-street bar.
We visited a coffee farm where I picked cherries, watched the beans being washed and dried, and drank the freshest cup of coffee of my life — sweet, bright, with a citrus finish that lingered for minutes. After lunch in the plaza (trout again — it’s excellent in this region), we took a cable car up to a viewpoint above the valley, where the green was so vivid it looked digital.
I returned to Medellín in the early evening, showered, and went out for a final drink on a rooftop bar in El Poblado. The city glittered below, the mountains dark shapes against a deepening sky. A group at the next table invited me to join them — Colombians do this all the time — and I spent my last hours in Medellín laughing with strangers, drinking aguardiente, and feeling the particular sadness of knowing I’d be on a plane in twelve hours.
Practical Tips & Budget
- Getting around: The Metro and Metrocable are excellent for getting around the valley. Taxis and ride-hailing apps are cheap and reliable. For day trips, buses from Terminal del Norte are comfortable and affordable.
- Budget: Medellín is very affordable. Street food costs €1-3, a restaurant meal €5-12, a hostel €10-15 per night, a mid-range hotel €30-60. My five-day total was about €550 including all tours and day trips.
- Safety: Use common sense. Stick to well-known neighbourhoods at night (El Poblado, Laureles, Envigado), don’t flash expensive phones, and take taxis or rideshares after dark. I felt safe throughout my trip.
- When to go: Medellín’s “eternal spring” climate means any time works. December-March and June-September are drier. I visited in March and had mostly sunshine with brief afternoon showers.
- Don’t skip: The Comuna 13 tour (book with a local guide), the Guatapé day trip, and at least one food tour. These made the trip.
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