The Best Things To Do in Medellin, Colombia
- Last Updated:
- By: Peter Orsel
Medellín is one of the best cities of South America and my personal favourite in Colombia. It’s the country’s second largest city, and thanks to a variety of Netflix series, its history and its beauty, more and more travellers make it part of their trip through South America. These are the best things to do in Medellín, Colombia.
In This Post
Useful information before visiting Medellín
If you’re visiting Medellín, it’s good to know some basic information. Even though safety has improved, it’s still important to be aware of your surroundings, your belongings, and your personal safety. People still get robbed in some places. Don’t let this discourage you, but it’s something you need to know. Make sure you don’t carry your belongings visibly on your body, or keep your phone in your hand longer than you need to.
The national currency is Colombian Peso and $1 USD is currently about 3,200 Pesos. This moves around, so please check the current charts for the updated conversion rate.
The best SIM card to get in Colombia and Medellin is Claro. Their coverage is the best and it won’t be too expensive. If you want to have your SIM working before you arrive, I can recommend Airalo. They have a variety of plans for the duration of your trip, and their service and coverage is very good. One reason I pick Airalo, is because they accept hotspots as well. Some E-SIM providers won’t let you create hotspots.
Discover Comuna 13
On top of your list should be a visit to Comuna 13. Once one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the world, now one of the most vibrant destinations. Perfectly safe for an independent stroll, but great for a tour as well.
Until about 20 years ago, the crime rate was incredibly high, and being lost in the narrow streets could be the end of your life. Now art rules the streets, sports rule the streets, and musicians can be found anywhere.
How to get to comuna 13?
As a first time visitor, I’d recommend to book a taxi from your accommodation to reach Comuna 13. It’s quite far from El Poblado, the typical area for tourists to stay. Another option would be taking the tram system, but you’d have to walk about 1,5km from San Javier Station to the streets of Comuna 13.
Doing a tour or going independent?
If you’re visiting for the first time, I’d really recommend a tour. The guides know a lot about the area, and you can actually combine the group trip with some independent time afterwards. The tour below can be booked through GetYourGuide and has so many good reviews that it would be hard to disappoint you.
What I like about GetYourGuide, is that you can always cancel up to 24 hours before the activity and you’ll get a full refund.
Powered by GetYourGuide
Day Trip to Guatape
One of the best things to do in Medellín is actually leaving the city for a day to go to Guatapé. You’ve probably seen photos of the big rock and the zigzag stairs already, that’s El Peñol Rock, and the view from the top is the reason most people make the trip out here.
Visit Guatape by Tour
The easiest way to visit Guatapé is by tour. For around $40 USD per person, you get a full day trip with breakfast, lunch and a boat tour. Just the entrance to the rock is not included. It’s great value for money, considering you get picked up at your hotel and everything will be taken care of, and it costs only a little more than arranging it yourself.
Powered by GetYourGuide
Visit Guatape by Yourself
The other option is to visit Guatapé on your own. In order to get there, you can take a bus. This will take you about 2 hours. Your food is not included yet, neither is an optional boat tour.
The price for a one way bus ticket will be about 20.000 Pesos, which is about $6 USD. The boat tour is about 25.000 Pesos or $8 USD and your food can be as expensive as you want. Extra costs to consider are getting from your hotel to the bus terminal in Medellin and back.
In the end it’s a choice between the adventure and freedom of doing the trip yourself, or the ease of a guided tour. In terms of value for money, I think the tour is worth it.
Join one of the walking tours
Frequent travellers usually end up joining a walking tour in every city they visit, and Medellín is no exception. Commonly known as a ‘free walking tour’, but in reality it’s always a paid one as the tip is kinda mandatory. Joining the walking tour led me to one of my best experiences in South America.
Downtown Tour
The tour I did was the Downtown Tour. We gathered in the heart of the city and walked through many amazing spots, including Plaza Botero (more on that below). It was great to hear more about the history of the city, and to hear the stories about the buildings located at El Centro. They also know the best spots to get some local food. Expect to tip around $10 USD.
Comuna 8: The less touristy option
Comuna 13 is by far the most visited comuna in Medellin, which also means it can get crowded. If you’d rather see a similar transformation story without the crowds, look into a tour of Comuna 8 (also known as La Sierra) instead. The tour also includes a visit to a coffee plantation.
It covers the same kind of history, art and community-led rebuilding, but with far fewer tourists and a slower pace. Several tours end at the Museo Casa de la Memoria, which adds useful context to what you’ve just seen.
Plaza Botero and Plaza Cisneros
Downtown Medellín has two squares worth combining into one walk: Plaza Botero, with its bronze sculptures, and Plaza Cisneros, better known for its 300 illuminated light poles. These stops will be included in your Downtown Walking Tour. If you’d rather travel independently, it’s perfectly doable to visit the city center on your own. Always be careful for your belongings.
Plaza Botero
You can’t walk through downtown Medellín without running into the work of Fernando Botero, the city’s most famous artist. Plaza Botero is an open-air square in the heart of El Centro with 23 of his bronze sculptures, the same rounded, oversized figures he’s known for worldwide.
It’s free, open 24 hours, and takes about 20 to 30 minutes to walk through. Right next to it is Museo de Antioquia, which holds more of Botero’s work indoors alongside other Colombian artists, worth the extra hour if you liked what you saw outside.
Palacio Nacional
Only a couple of minutes from Plaza Botero, you’ll find the Palacio Nacional. It was built in the 1920s as a government building, now restored and turned into a shopping centre with over 400 stores.
This is not the reason you want to go inside, but because of the building itself. The architecture make it feel more like a museum than a mall. It’s free to walk into and worth 15 to 20 minutes even if you don’t buy anything.
Plaza Cisneros / Parque de las Luces
A short walk from Plaza Botero is Plaza Cisneros, also called Parque de las Luces because of its 300 tall light poles. During the day it’s a fairly plain public square, but it lights up at night and is one of the more photogenic spots downtown once the sun goes down.
A word of caution
El Centro is one of the more chaotic parts of the city and pickpocketing happens here more than in El Poblado. Go during the day, keep your phone in your pocket, and if you’re staying for the lights at Plaza Cisneros after dark, go with others rather than alone. If you’re hesitant, visit these spots with a tour instead of independently.
I personally went both with the tour and on my own, both times during daytime. I did not feel unsafe, but I was cautious all the time.
Learn about Pablo Escobar's Medellin
The next thing to do in Medellin is to learn about Pablo Escobar’s impact on this city. You can’t really understand modern Medellín without understanding what the city went through during the Escobar years. This is a sensitive topic for a lot of locals, so approach it with some tact, but it’s also one of the most searched topics by anyone planning a trip here.
There’s a variety of tours available, telling you the story including the neighborhood he built for the poor, the rooftop where he was killed, and the cemetery where he’s buried. To get the full picture, I recommend to carefully pick a tour with good reviews, to get a better understanding of the history of this city. Some tours add a stop at La Catedral, the luxury prison he built for himself. If I were about to do a tour, I would book this one with the best ratings and most reviews.
Attend a Football Match in Medellín
South American football culture is an experience unlike anywhere else in the world, and Medellín is a great city to experience it. Even if you’re not a football/soccer fan, attending a match will be one of the highlights of your trip.
On the days that one of the teams is playing, you will notice it on the streets of El Poblado. Local salesmen will walk around with replica jerseys and many tourists make their way to the stadium to attend one of the matches.
While staying at my hostel, I heard other travellers talk about the matches they’d been to, and I knew right away I wanted to do the same.
Popular football teams
There are two famous teams in Medellín. The first one is called Independiente Medellín (DIM), while the other one is called Atlético Nacional. Even though I’m big on football, I didn’t know these teams beforehand. Both teams play in the same stadium, and you can travel to the metro stop Estadio to get there.
Getting Tickets
Even though my hostel was offering a full tour, I checked if I could arrange the tickets myself. This was way easier than expected. For Independiente Medellín, I downloaded the DIM+ app (iOS) and I followed the steps. The tickets I got were around 40.000 Colombian Pesos, or $12 USD.
Worth knowing: the app can require a Colombian ID and a local payment method, which rules out some international visitors, so have a backup plan (like your hostel’s tour) if it doesn’t work for you.
For the games of Independiente Medellín, you want to be at the North side of the stadium. This is where the ultras are located. It can get pretty intense though. During the games of Nacional, the ultras are seated at the South side of the stadium.
An important side note is to take a print screen of your ticket before visiting the stadium. Internet coverage is limited due to the amount of people, and we had a hard time to show the tickets due to lack of internet coverage.
Attending the match
When you have your ticket, it’s time to head to the match. Make sure you arrive at the stadium at least 1,5 hours before kickoff. The bars around it fill up early and are part of the experience. Grab some food, have a drink and enjoy Colombian football culture. Enter the stadium 30 minutes beforehand and you’re good to go.
Don’t worry about your drinks as soon as you enter the stands, as there will be vendors walking around with drinks and snacks.
During my time in Medellin, I attended two matches and absolutely had the best time.
Take a Coffee Farm Tour
Colombia and coffee are a perfect match. You’ll find Colombian coffee all over the world, but here you get to see how it’s made. Several farms close to Medellín, like the ones around San Sebastián de Palmitas, are less than an hour away and run half day tours. I’d highly suggest visiting one, unless you’re visiting the coffee region itself on your Colombia trip as well.
What to expect
You’ll walk through the farm to see the coffee plants, learn how coffee goes from bean to cup, and end with a tasting. Most tours include hotel pickup and last around 4 hours. You can book a coffee tour on GetYourGuide.
Worth knowing
If you’re also planning to visit the Coffee Triangle (for example Salento) later in your trip, you can skip this one, the farms there are bigger and the region is built entirely around the coffee experience.
If Medellín is the only stop on your Colombia trip, this is a good way to get the coffee experience in without an extra multi-day detour.
Take the cable cars in Medellín
A great activity in Medellín is taking the cable cars up to the mountains. This is a common form of public transportation in Medellín, just like it is in La Paz, Bolivia. You can travel by metro to the starting point and head on the cable cars from there.
Escape the city, enjoy nature in Parque Arví
When I was checking potential destinations by cable car, I read about visiting a natural park high up in the mountains: Parque Arví. It immediately got my attention and I went for that. To get to the park, navigate to this station and Google Maps will tell you exactly how to get there. Keep in mind that this cable car is closed every Monday. If Monday is a public holiday, it’s closed on Tuesday.
Even though I visited, I didn’t capture too many things. For a detailed guide on Parque Arví, head to this this blog post by Jaywalktheworld. He describes all the steps and pricing very well.
Go Paragliding in San Felix
If you want a view of Medellín that most tourists never see, this is it. San Felix, about 40 minutes north of the city, is one of the more popular paragliding spots in the country and tandem flights don’t require any experience. It’s also one of the cheapest places to go for paragliding.
Booking and Pricing
This is an activity that I would book beforehand. Booking the tour saves you from the headache of arranging transportation, insurance and everything else yourself.
The tour below costs $125 USD all in, has a 4.9 rating, the best I could find, and is a full package including return transport, GoPro package, and life insurance, so you don’t need to sort out the shuttle or bus separately, or wonder what’s covered if something goes wrong.
Powered by GetYourGuide
Getting there
If you’re on a backpacker budget or try to make the most of your money, you can get there yourself as well. Take a bus from Terminal del Norte toward San Pedro and ask to be dropped near the San Félix viewpoint.
One thing to plan around: Uber won’t pick you up from San Felix since it’s outside city limits, so arrange your way back the same way you got there.
Day Trip to Santa Fe de Antioquia
Where Guatapé is the popular choice, Santa Fe de Antioquia is the quieter one. It’s a colonial town about 90 minutes from Medellín, known for its colorful streets, colonial architecture, and a noticeably hotter climate than the city. Don’t forget to bring your sun protection.
The town itself is small enough to explore on foot in a few hours: the main plaza, the cathedral, and the Puente de Occidente, a 19th century suspension bridge just outside town that’s worth the short trip.
Getting there
Buses leave from Terminal del Norte roughly every 30 minutes and take about 75 to 90 minutes each way. A one-way ticket costs around $6 USD. Guided day tours are also available if you’d rather not sort out the terminal yourself. The best way to book a tour to Santa Fe de Antioquia is through GetYourGuide.
Add-On Activities During Your Medellín Trip
Not every day in Medellín needs to be adventurous. These two are easy half-day additions if you want a break from tours, have some time to kill or when you’re around anyway.
Jardín Botánico
Even without understanding Spanish, I’m sure you guessed the meaning of Jardín Botánico. Medellín’s botanical garden is free to enter and open Tuesday to Sunday from 9am to 4pm. It’s right next to the Universidad metro station, so it’s an easy add-on if you’re already using the metro that day. The butterfly house is the highlight for most visitors. There’s a 10,000 COP (~ $3 USD) entry fee, which is totally worth it.
Pueblito Paisa
Even without understanding Spanish, I’m sure you guessed the meaning of Jardín Botánico. Medellín’s botanical garden is free to enter and open Tuesday to Sunday from 9am to 4pm. It’s right next to the Universidad metro station, so it’s an easy add-on if you’re already using the metro that day. The butterfly house is the highlight for most visitors. There’s a 10,000 COP (~ $3 USD) entry fee, which is totally worth it.
Eat a Bandeja Paisa
Bandeja Paisa is the most famous local dish and you’ll see it on almost every menu. It’s a single plate loaded with rice, beans, ground beef, chorizo, fried egg, avocado, plantain and a piece of pork crackling. That’s a lot of food and yes, I couldn’t finish mine either, but I’d still order it again.
You don’t need to search hard for it, most local restaurants (as opposed to the international places in El Poblado) serve their own version. Ask your accommodation for the spot locals usually go to, and it should lead you to the better bandeja paisa than the ones aimed at tourists.
Play Tejo
Tejo is Colombia’s national sport. A sport that you probably never heard of if you haven’t been to Colombia, but one you love after leaving the country. You throw a metal disc at a clay-filled board lined with small gunpowder packets (mechas). If you hit one, it explodes.
I played Tejo in Salento, but it’s just as easy to find in Medellín. It’s really an evening activity that you do with a beer in your hand. It’s loud, a bit chaotic, and more about the group and the beer than about actually being good at it. This is a great group activity, not the best on your own unless you’re real good at making friends in a bar.
Where to stay in Medellín?
Medellín is a big city and can still be dangerous, that’s why it’s best to stay in a safe neighbourhood. By far the most popular destination for travellers is El Poblado. This area offers lots of different accommodations, great restaurants and also many bars for those who’d like to party. I didn’t feel unsafe at any time and would surely go here again on my next trip to Medellín.
During my time, I was on a backpacking trip and stayed at Viajero Hostel. A great hostel chain with a lot of privacy, even in the dorms. It turned out to be one of my favourite hostels in South America.
There’s a big rooftop and lots of common spaces. They even have a dedicated area for co-working and it’s great to meet other travellers.
Looking for a private room? Viajero has privates as well. You get the perks of meeting people and common spaces to hang out, but with the comfort of your own room. Expect to pay around $75 USD per night.
If you’re looking for a good hotel without breaking the bank, Hotel Selis is a great option. For around $80USD a night, you get a top rated hotel in the heart of the El Poblado.
Medellín has something in every price range, so expect a proper 5* experience as well. For $150 USD a night, it’s still not that expensive. Marquee Hotel Medellin has to be the best option in this price range. It’s luxurious, has great reviews and offers great views on the city.
Frequently Asked Questions About The Best Things To Do in Medellin
Is Medellín safe for tourists?
Medellín is safe for tourists if you stick to the well-travelled areas like El Poblado and Laureles, and stay aware of your surroundings the same way you would in any big city. Keep your phone out of sight when you don’t need it, don’t carry visible valuables, and take a taxi or Uber instead of walking at night in unfamiliar areas. I never felt unsafe during my time there.
How many days do you need in Medellín?
Four to five days is enough to cover the highlights in this guide, including one day trip. If you want to add a second day trip, like Santa Fe de Antioquia on top of Guatapé, plan for six or seven days.
What's the best area to stay in Medellín?
El Poblado, for the reasons covered above: it’s the safest, has the most accommodation options, and is close to restaurants and the metro. Stick to El Poblado unless you have a specific reason not to, it’s the easiest area for first-time visitors to get right.
How do I get from the airport to Medellín?
José María Córdova International Airport (MDE) is about 45 minutes to an hour outside the city, longer during afternoon rush hour (3-7pm). The official airport shuttle bus is the cheapest option at around $2-3 USD, taking 45 to 75 minutes. A taxi or Uber costs roughly $20-30 USD and is faster and easier if you have luggage.
What's the best time of year to visit Medellín?
Medellín’s weather stays fairly consistent year-round thanks to its altitude, which is where the “City of Eternal Spring” nickname comes from. That said, December to February and June to August are the driest months, better for the views at Guatapé and the hiking trails around Parque Arví. April, May, October and November are rainier, usually a short afternoon downpour rather than a full day washed out. Accommodation prices will be lower and there will be less tourists.
How much does a trip to Medellín cost?
Based on the prices throughout this guide, a backpacker budget of around $40-50 USD a day covers a hostel dorm, meals, local transport and a couple of drinks. Double this if you’re traveling as a couple.
On top of that, add the cost of whatever tours or day trips you do that day. These range from about $30 USD for a shared Pablo Escobar tour to over $100 USD for paragliding, so your daily budget will vary a lot depending on how many activities you pack in.
Read more about South America
About Me
Peter Orsel is a Dutch travel photographer based in Bali, specialized in drone and landscape photography. He has visited over 40 countries and writes detailed, no-nonsense guides based on firsthand experience.