Medellin
Medellín is the city of eternal spring, a valley at fifteen hundred metres between seventeen and twenty-eight degrees every month, with the country's only metro, cable cars run as public transport and a hillside barrio that tells its own history on a guided walk. Three nights that become a month, El Poblado first and Laureles longer, and Escobar never led with.
Medellin in a nutshell
Medellin: what to expect
101,000+ stops in Colombia have been planned on Stippl. Here is what they say about Medellín.
Three nights in Medellín is the plan and four is the advice, and the city is the stickiest stop in the country. A Comuna 13 tour with a guide from the neighbourhood is the escalators, the murals and the history behind them, the Metrocable is the cheapest viewpoint in the city on a metro ticket, Guatapé is a painted village and seven hundred steps up a granite rock, Plaza Botero holds twenty-three bronzes outdoors, and the Casa de la Memoria is the city's own account of the conflict. Most travellers give Medellín 3 nights on Stippl.
Medellín is on more Colombian trips than any other city, and it holds people longest. The city sits on 72.58% of N of the Colombian trips planned on Stippl, more than the capital, 7.47% of its stops run a week or more, the highest long-stay share in the country, because the climate and the cost keep the nomads, and it opens only 10.1% of the trips it appears on, because the flight lands in Bogotá first.
Base in El Poblado first and Laureles longer, ride the metro and the cable lines on one ticket, book Comuna 13 with a guide from the neighbourhood, and take the bus to Guatapé. Skip El Centro after dark, since the rule is the same as Bogotá's old town, and skip leading with Escobar, because the name is a live wound and the city has its own way of telling the story.
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Digital nomads
The coworking density, the climate and the cost put it first anywhere in Latin America, and 7.47% of Stippl stops here run a week or more.
City-history travellers
Comuna 13, the Casa de la Memoria and the Botero collection are one continuous argument about what the city was and is.
Nightlife travellers
Parque Lleras and La 70 are two entirely different versions of a night out, and both are busy every weekend.
Long-stay travellers
The guides are full of people who came for four days and left after a month, and 64.66% of Stippl stops here run three nights or more.
People who found Bogotá cold
Eleven hundred metres lower and ten degrees warmer, which is the comparison everyone makes, and the flight is under an hour.
Day-trippers to Guatapé
The painted village and the rock are two hours by bus, and the day out is the reason for the fourth night.
Maybe not for you: the traveller looking for colonial Colombia, since Medellín is a modern city and the colonial architecture is in Cartagena and the small towns; and anyone who wants the city without the metro and the app taxi, because both are how it works after dark.
The best time to visit Medellín
The dry months
December to March and June to August
The recommendation, with two crowd carve-outs: the mid-December to mid-January holidays and the flower-festival week in August.
The wet months
April to May and September to November
Afternoon rain most days, with October the heaviest, and the eternal spring unchanged in temperature.
The Feria de las Flores
Early August
Ten days ending with the flower-carriers parading their arrangements through the city, and the rooms booked well ahead or planned around.
The lights
December
The river lit end to end for the Alumbrados, one of the largest Christmas light displays in South America, and the domestic peak with it.
- Most travellers give Medellín 3 nights on Stippl, and 64.66% of stops run three or more. Three covers Comuna 13, the cable car and the centre; four adds Guatapé properly.
- 7.47% of Medellín stops on Stippl run a week or more. The highest long-stay share in Colombia, because the climate, the cost and the coworking keep people who came for four days.
- The Feria de las Flores takes early August. Ten days ending with the silleteros carrying flower arrangements on their backs through the city, and the beds booked well ahead.
- The Alumbrados light the river in December. One of the largest Christmas light displays in South America, end to end along the river from early December.
- Semana Santa empties the city. Holy Week moves each year, the city empties and the surrounding towns fill, and Guatapé is the wrong day trip that week.
- Most travellers plan Medellín about 79 days ahead on Stippl, and 13.66% inside a fortnight. The Comuna 13 tour and the good hostels are the two things booked before landing.
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Things to do in Medellín
Photo by Mateo Arbelaez via Pexels
Photo by Milo Miloezger via Unsplash
Photo by Carlos Martinez via UnsplashA Comuna 13 tour with a local guide
The escalators, the murals and the history they were painted about, led by people who lived through it, on a tip-based or fixed-price walk.
The Metrocable up the valley wall
The cheapest viewpoint in the city, on a metro ticket, riding the gondola built as public transport for the hillside barrios.
Guatapé and El Peñol
A painted village, a reservoir and seven-hundred-odd steps up a granite monolith, two hours by bus from the northern terminal.
Plaza Botero and the Museo de Antioquia
Twenty-three of the sculptor's bronzes outdoors in the centre, and his paintings inside, visited in daylight.
Parque Arví
Cloud forest at the top of the cable line, with walking trails and a market, reached on the same ticket as the metro.
The Museo Casa de la Memoria
The city's own account of the conflict, free, and the counterweight to the tour circuit.
The neighbourhoods of Medellín
El Poblado
The visitor district
Hotels, rooftops, coworking and steep green streets around Parque Lleras, where everything is easy and every visitor is. For a first stay.
Everything is here and everything is easy, which is also the criticism.
Laureles
The flat, leafy grid
Residential and walkable with the bar street of La 70, real neighbourhood life at two-thirds the price. For staying longer.
Real neighbourhood life for less on a grid you can walk, though a metro ride to the nightlife.
Envigado
The town inside the city
A separate town swallowed by the city south of El Poblado, with paisa food, a real plaza and almost nobody from abroad. For getting away from visitors.
Paisa food and a real plaza with no visitors, but a taxi to everything else.
Sabaneta
The village plaza
A southern town with a village square and a metro station, twenty minutes from the centre. For a slower stay.
Village Sunday life on the metro line, though nothing to do after the plaza.
Comuna 13
The guided half-day
A hillside barrio of murals, escalators and viewpoints on the western valley wall, visited on a tour and not slept in. For the history.
The city's history told by the people it happened to, and not a place to wander alone.
El Centro
The old commercial core
Botero Plaza, the museums and the markets in the commercial centre below the hills, walked in daylight only. For the sights.
The Botero sculptures and the museum are here and nowhere else, and the rule is daylight.
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Where to stay in Medellín
El Poblado for a first stay and Laureles for a longer one, and the reasoning is convenience against value and local life: the visitor district has everything at the door and the grid has the city itself at two-thirds the price. Most travellers give Medellín 3 nights on Stippl, and the monthly rates are what keep people.
El Poblado
€30–120
Hostels, boutique hotels and apartments around Parque Lleras, €30 to €120 a night.
Laureles
€20–70
Guesthouses and apartments on the grid, €20 to €70 a night.
Envigado
€18–60
Apartments and a few guesthouses in the old town, €20 to €60 a night.
Sabaneta
€18–55
Budget rooms and apartments by the plaza, €15 to €50 a night.
Comuna 13
visit only
A homestay or two by arrangement, €15 to €40 a night.
El Centro
€12–40
Budget hotels and hostels, €10 to €40 a night, and not after dark.
What to eat in Medellín
The regional plate: beans, rice, chicharrón, chorizo, egg, avocado, arepa and more
Thin, plain, grilled, eaten with butter and cheese rather than stuffed
The lunch set that runs the country
The city has one of the two real coffee scenes in Colombia
Cheese breads eaten at breakfast and around Christmas
Tripe soup, a paisa Sunday dish
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Medellín customs and what not to do
Paisa pride is real
People from Antioquia identify as paisas first and Colombians second, and they will tell you so warmly.
The metro has its manners
No eating, no drinking and no feet on the seats, and the locals enforce it socially because the system is civic property.
Do not lead with Escobar
The name is a live wound, the tours built on it are contested locally, and Comuna 13 and the Casa de la Memoria are the city's own way of telling it.
The rest is national
Usted, con mucho gusto and no dar papaya apply here as everywhere, and the shorts read as tourist.
Dress down
In Medellín the shorts and the flashy watch read as visitor, and the locals dress for the city rather than the beach.
Do
- Book Comuna 13 with a guide from the neighbourhood
- Ride the metro and the cable lines on one ticket; they are the city's pride
- Take the bus to Guatapé for the rock and the painted village
- Sit in Laureles for the city rather than the visitor version
Don't
- Walk El Centro after dark; the rule is the same as Bogotá's old town
- Lead with Escobar, or book a tour branded on him
- Walk between El Poblado and anywhere at night; take an app taxi
What a Medellín trip costs
Budget
€25–50
A hostel or a budget room in Laureles, set lunches, the metro and the cable lines and a Comuna 13 tour.
Mid-range
€60–120
A private room or an apartment in El Poblado, restaurant dinners, a Guatapé day trip and a coworking day pass.
High-end
€155+
A top hotel in El Poblado, a private guide and fine dining in Manila.
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Fun facts about Medellín
Medellín has the only metro in Colombia, opened in 1995. It is treated as civic property, with no eating on board and the locals enforcing it socially.
Cable cars in Medellín run as public transport lines up to the hillside barrios. Not as an attraction, and the Metrocable ride costs the same as a metro ticket.
Comuna 13 in Medellín is reached by a set of outdoor public escalators. Built into the hillside, and the murals along them were painted about the history the guides tell.
Plaza Botero in Medellín holds 23 of the sculptor's bronzes outdoors. Donated by him to his home city, and the paintings are inside the museum beside them.
El Peñol at Guatapé is a 220-metre granite monolith. Climbed by a staircase built into a crack in it, two hours from Medellín by bus.
7.47% of stops in Medellín on Stippl run a week or more. The highest long-stay share in Colombia, on a city that sits on 72.58% of N of the country's trips.
Local tips for Medellín
One ticket, the whole system
Two metro lines, six cable lines and a tram on one ticket system, cheap and punctual, reaching the hillside neighbourhoods that taxis do not.
The airport bus is the answer
About three euros against twenty by taxi, running frequently and taking about the same time down from the plateau.
The app, not the street
Ride-hailing apps rather than hailed taxis, cheap enough that the walk between El Poblado and anywhere at night is never worth it.
El Centro in daylight only
The same rule as Bogotá's old town and equally unanimous, with the Botero plaza done in the morning.
Comuna 13 with a guide
The tour is safe and the neighbourhood outside the tour route is not a wander, so the guide from the barrio is the whole point.
Three nights, and a month
64.66% of Stippl stops here run three nights or more and only 10.1% of trips start here, because the flight lands in Bogotá and the city keeps people after.
Medellín questions, answered
Three is the plan and four is the advice: most travellers give Medellín 3 nights on Stippl, 64.66% of stops run three or more, and four covers Guatapé properly. The guides are full of people who came for four days and left after a month.
With the daylight rule for El Centro, an app taxi at night and a guide in Comuna 13, yes, and the guides are consistent on all three. The metro and the cable lines are safe and civic, the visitor districts are patrolled, and the phone stays in the pocket in the centre.
El Poblado if it is your first stay and short, Laureles if it is longer or you want the city rather than the visitor version, at two-thirds the price on a grid you can walk. Put the district into Stippl before the room, then ask people in subreddits like r/medellin which side of the river they would pick again.
The distinction is sharp: neighbourhood-led tours are how residents earn from the story and are the city's own way of telling it, and the Escobar-branded tours are the contested ones. A guide from the barrio, a tip at the end and the Casa de la Memoria afterwards is the version the city itself runs.
Most people do both: Medellín sits on 72.58% of N of the Colombian trips planned on Stippl, more than the capital, and opens only 10.1% of them, because the flight lands in Bogotá and the eternal spring is the second stop rather than the first.
It is the first answer to that question anywhere in Latin America: the coworking density, the climate and the cost put it first, and 7.47% of Medellín stops on Stippl run a week or more, the highest long-stay share in Colombia.
Every guide is written by the Stippl editors and checked against the trips our travellers actually plan. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
Plan Medellin in Stippl
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