Don't be a tourist, be a traveler, world in motion
EnglishUSDNewsletterWimup Videos ↗
Medellín, Colombia, top 10 things to do (Wimup travel guide)
▶ Video · Best of Medellín
Video guide · 15:59
▶ Watch the guide
Top 10South AmericaColombia

Top 10 Things To Do in Medellín

Country
Colombia
Best months
Dec · Jan · Feb · Jul
Population
2.5M
Language
Spanish
Budget / day
$40–90
Quick answer

Give the first morning to the centre on foot: the Museo de Antioquia and the 23 Botero bronzes outside it, then Parque Bolívar and the brick cathedral. Spend the afternoon on the cable cars, which are public transport rather than a ride. Day two is Comuna 13 in the morning and the Casa de la Memoria after lunch. Keep a third day for the botanical garden and Parque Explora, and a fourth for Guatapé.

Best of Medellín

▶ Video guide

Medellín sits at 1,495 metres in a narrow Andean valley, which holds the average temperature near 22.5°C all year and earned it the name city of eternal spring. The valley floor is the old industrial city and the hillsides are the barrios; what connects them is Colombia's only metro, with cable cars strung off it since 2004.

The 10 best things to do in Medellín

Comuna 13 and its outdoor escalators, Medellín, Colombia
1

Comuna 13 and its outdoor escalators

Neighborhood· Las Independencias, Comuna 13 San Javier, Medellín

Six flights of outdoor escalators run up a hillside the army fought a pitched urban battle over in 2002. They replaced 350 concrete steps, and the point was never tourism: they cut a twenty-minute climb to six for the people who live at the top. Come with a guide from the neighbourhood. The murals are captions to a story the paint alone does not tell.

Time3 hours
CostFree to walk
Best atMorning
TipTake Metro Line B to San Javier and continue by the feeder bus or an official moto-taxi
↗ Medellín.TravelMap
Museo de Antioquia and Plaza Botero, Medellín, Colombia
2

Museo de Antioquia and Plaza Botero

Museum· Carrera 52 #52-43, La Candelaria, Medellín

Fernando Botero was born in Medellín and gave his home city the collection that anchors this museum, along with the 23 oversized bronzes in the square outside. The holdings run from pre-Hispanic work through the Antioquian modernists to a contemporary floor. The square is the better half: the sculptures are unfenced and people sit on them.

Time2 hours
CostTicketed, see the museum site
Best atWeekday mornings
TipParque Berrío station puts you at the door
↗ Museo de AntioquiaMap
Parque Arví, reached by cable car, Medellín, Colombia
3

Parque Arví, reached by cable car

Park· Corregimiento de Santa Elena, Medellín

Line L of the Metrocable leaves Santo Domingo and climbs over the lip of the valley, and the city drops out of sight for twenty minutes of cloud forest. At the far end is a reserve of more than 16,000 hectares with over 54 kilometres of marked trail. Take a jacket: you gain enough altitude that the cloud closes in most afternoons.

TimeHalf a day
CostMetro fare plus a separate Line L fare
Best atLate morning
TipThe park closes Mondays and so does Line L
↗ Parque ArvíMap
4

Jardín Botánico Joaquín Antonio Uribe

Park· Calle 73 #51D-14, Medellín

Fourteen hectares of free public garden in the north of the city, founded in 1972. The orchid house under the Orquideorama, a canopy of honeycomb timber flowers, is the set piece. Around it are a palm collection, a lagoon, a butterfly house and 139 recorded bird species, startling for a garden with a metro station at its gate.

Time1.5 hours
CostFree
Best atEarly
TipUniversidad station is a few steps from the pedestrian entrance
↗ Jardín BotánicoMap
Museo Casa de la Memoria, Medellín, Colombia
5

Museo Casa de la Memoria

Museum· Calle 51 #36-66, Parque Bicentenario, Medellín

Opened in 2012 to hold the record of Colombia's armed conflict as Medellín lived it, and to give the people who survived it somewhere to say so. The permanent exhibition is built on testimony rather than artefacts. Go after Comuna 13: the murals celebrate what came next, and this is the accounting of what they came after.

Time1.5 hours
CostFree
Best atAny weekday afternoon
TipTuesday to Friday 09:00 to 18:00
↗ Museo Casa de la MemoriaMap
Parque Explora and its aquarium, Medellín, Colombia
6

Parque Explora and its aquarium

Museum· Carrera 52 #73-75, Medellín

Four red boxes on stilts north of the centre, open since 2008, holding more than 300 hands-on exhibits, a vivarium of Colombian snakes and frogs, and the largest freshwater aquarium in South America. The Amazon tanks are the reason to come even without children. The planetarium and the garden are two minutes away.

Time3 hours
CostTicketed, see the park site
Best atWeekday mornings
TipTuesday to Friday 08:30 to 17:30 and weekends and holidays 10:00 to 18:30
↗ Parque ExploraMap
7

Cerro Nutibara and Pueblito Paisa

Landmark· Calle 30A #55-64, Medellín

A wooded hill in the middle of the valley with a replica nineteenth-century Antioquian village on top: whitewashed walls, a small church, a fountain. Take it for what it is, a stage set, and then turn around. The 360-degree read of the valley makes the geography of everything else in this guide obvious in a minute.

Time1 hour
CostFree
Best atAn hour before sunset
TipOpen daily from 05:00 to 23:00
↗ Medellín.TravelMap
Catedral Metropolitana on Parque Bolívar, Medellín, Colombia
8

Catedral Metropolitana on Parque Bolívar

Landmark· Carrera 48 #56-33, Parque Bolívar, Medellín

Built between 1875 and 1931 from roughly 1,120,000 fired bricks, which makes it the largest church in the world built entirely in brick. The interior is cooler and plainer than the facade suggests, with German stained glass and a Walcker organ. The park in front is the working centre of the old city.

Time45 minutes
CostFree
Best atLate morning
TipThis is a functioning cathedral
↗ Medellín.TravelMap
9

Cerro de las Tres Cruces

Outdoors· Calle 8 #84F-25, Altavista, Medellín

The city's morning ritual: a steep 30 to 45 minute climb up a hill on the western side of the valley, done by hundreds of paisas before work, with an outdoor gym and three crosses at the top. A genuine workout on loose ground with almost no shade, and free. Go early, because the company is half the reason.

Time2 hours
CostFree
Best atSunrise to about 08:00
TipCarry water and go with other walkers rather than alone
Map
Guatapé and the Piedra del Peñol, Medellín, Colombia
10

Guatapé and the Piedra del Peñol

Day trip· Guatapé, Antioquia, 74 km east of Medellín

A 220-metre granite monolith with 700-odd steps zigzagging up a fissure in its face, standing over a reservoir that flooded the valley in the 1970s. The climb takes about twenty minutes. The town below is the other half: every house carries a zócalo, a painted panel showing the trade of whoever lives there.

TimeFull day
CostAround COP 20
Best atA weekday
TipBuses run from the Terminal del Norte and take about two hours
Map

7 of the 10, mapped

Medellín · 7 spots
AllLandmarksMuseumsFoodFree

Medellín travel FAQ

How many days do you need in Medellín?+
Four. One for the centre and its museums, one for Comuna 13 and the Casa de la Memoria, one for the cable cars and Parque Arví, and one for Guatapé. Three works if you drop the day trip, and a week is easy if you use the city as a base for the coffee towns of the southwest.
When is the best time to visit Medellín?+
The temperature barely moves across the year, so plan around rain and events instead. The drier stretches are December to March and July to August. Late July into early August brings the Feria de las Flores and the highest room rates of the year, and December brings the EPM light displays.
Is Medellín safe for visitors?+
The city has changed beyond recognition, and it still asks for ordinary urban caution. Keep your phone out of sight in the street, use the metro by day and taxis or an app at night, avoid the centre and Parque Lleras late, and take drinks only from the bar. The local phrase is no dar papaya: do not hand anyone the opportunity.
How do you get from the airport into Medellín?+
José María Córdova is 30 km east at Rionegro, and the road takes 45 minutes to an hour. Use the official taxi desk, a shared van, or the Combuses coach service into the city. Olaya Herrera, the regional airport, is inside the city and about 15 minutes from El Poblado.
Will the altitude affect you in Medellín?+
No. At 1,495 metres the city is high enough to be temperate and far too low for altitude sickness. Bogotá, at 2,640 metres, is the Colombian city where people feel it, so a flight between the two is worth noting if you are sensitive.
Where to eat

Best restaurants in Medellín

Seven kitchens, from a Latin America 50 Best dining room to the bandeja paisa the city measures itself by.
All 7 restaurants →
CarmenEl Poblado

Carmen

Contemporary Colombian · Carrera 36 #10A-27

Carmen Ángel and Rob Pevitts opened this in 2008 and it has stayed the benchmark for contemporary Colombian cooking in the city. On the Latin America 50 Best list.

↗ WebsiteMap
El Poblado

El Cielo

Tasting menu · Carrera 40 #10A-22

Juan Manuel Barrientos serves a menu built as a sequence of moments rather than courses, some eaten with your hands. The most theatrical meal in Medellín.

↗ WebsiteMap
El Poblado

Herbario

Modern Colombian · Carrera 43D #10-30

A converted warehouse with a bar downstairs and a balcony above, where Rodrigo Isaza cooks ingredients from across Colombia. The room is loud and the cooking is not.

Map
El Poblado

Alambique

Colombian · Cocktails and live music

Behind an unmarked door in El Poblado, a low-lit room doing high-end Colombian plates and long cocktails, with live music most nights.

Map
Centro and Las Palmas

Hatoviejo

Traditional Antioquian · Several locations

Trading since 1982 and now across several locations, this is where paisa families take visitors for the bandeja paisa, the ajiaco and the sancocho.

↗ WebsiteMap
El Poblado and Laureles

Mondongo's

Traditional Antioquian · Calle 10 #38-38

Named for the tripe soup it has been serving since 1995, with rooms in El Poblado and Laureles. The mondongo and the bandeja are the order.

Map
Norte

In Situ

Colombian · Inside the Jardín Botánico

The botanical garden runs its own restaurant among the trees inside the grounds, which makes lunch here the quietest table in the north of the city.

↗ WebsiteMap
Coffee

Best cafes and coffee in Medellín

Five roasters and cafés in the city that Colombian coffee passes through on its way out.
All 5 cafes and coffee →
Pergamino CaféEl Poblado

Pergamino Café

Specialty roaster · Carrera 37 #8A-37

The Vía Primavera flagship of a roaster that buys directly from growers. The single-origin filters are the point, and the staff will tell you the farm unasked.

↗ WebsiteMap
Café VelvetEl Poblado

Café Velvet

Espresso and cake · Carrera 37 #8A-46

A Belgian-owned coffee bar a few doors from Pergamino, doing careful espresso and cake in a small room that fills with people working.

Map
Rituales, compañía de caféLaureles

Rituales, compañía de café

Roastery · Circular 74A #39B-22

Roasting on site in Laureles since 2017, with beans bought from families on the eastern hillside. A working roastery with a counter attached.

Map
Manila

Hija Mía

Roaster and brunch · Calle 11A #43B-9

Opened in Manila in 2015, before Manila was the neighbourhood everyone recommends, and still the best breakfast counter in it. Roasts its own.

↗ WebsiteMap
Laureles and El Poblado

Al Alma

Café and brunch · Several locations

A Medellín-born café that grew into a chain without losing the cooking, with branches in Laureles and Provenza. Good coffee, better brunch.

Map
After dark

Best bars and nightlife in Medellín

Five rooms, from a brewery on the old industrial edge to the reggaeton floors of Provenza.
All 5 bars and nightlife →
Envy RooftopEl Poblado

Envy Rooftop

Rooftop · Calle 9A #37-16

Two floors on top of the Charlee hotel, seventeen storeys up, with a pool and a 180-degree read of the valley. Come as the lights come on.

↗ WebsiteMap
Barrio Colombia

Cervecería 3 Cordilleras

Brewery · Calle 30 #44-176

Medellín's original craft brewery, in a warehouse on Calle 30, running tours and tastings on the nights it opens. A beer hall rather than a bar.

Map
El Poblado

Salón Amador

Electronic · Calle 10 #40-30

The city's serious electronic room, built around its sound system, with a booking policy that brings in international names.

Map
El Poblado

Perro Negro

Reggaeton · Calle 10 with Carrera 36

Reggaeton, loud and unapologetic, on the corner of Calle 10 and Carrera 36. Where the sound the city exported is played to the people who made it.

Map
Provenza

Vintrash

Club · Carrera 35 #8A-39

Three floors, three different sets of music, three hundred metres from Parque Lleras. The pragmatic choice when a group cannot agree on a genre.

Map
Art and history

Best museums and galleries in Medellín

Six collections, including a cemetery that was declared a national monument.
All 6 museums and galleries →
Museo de AntioquiaLa Candelaria

Museo de Antioquia

Carrera 52 #52-43

The Botero donation, the Antioquian modernists and a contemporary floor, with 23 bronzes in the square outside. The anchor of the old centre.

↗ WebsiteMap
Museo de Arte Moderno de MedellínCiudad del Río

Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellín

Carrera 44 #19A-100

The modern art museum occupies a converted steel mill in Ciudad del Río with a black extension bolted on, plus a cinema and a rooftop.

↗ WebsiteMap
Museo Casa de la MemoriaParque Bicentenario

Museo Casa de la Memoria

Calle 51 #36-66

The record of the armed conflict as Medellín and Antioquia lived it, built on testimony rather than objects. Run by the city, free to enter, closed Mondays.

↗ WebsiteMap
Museo El CastilloEl Poblado

Museo El Castillo

Calle 9 Sur #32-269

A 1930 house built in the manner of a Loire château, with the family's porcelain and furniture inside and formal gardens around it.

↗ WebsiteMap
Cementerio Museo San PedroSevilla

Cementerio Museo San Pedro

Carrera 51 #68-68

Opened in 1842, made a museum in 1998 and a national monument in 1999. The mausoleums are a catalogue of who built the city.

↗ WebsiteMap
Casa Museo Pedro Nel GómezAranjuez

Casa Museo Pedro Nel Gómez

Carrera 51B #85-24

The muralist lived here from 1936 and the house became a museum in 1975. It holds the largest collection of his work, in the rooms he painted it for.

Map
Where to base yourself

Best neighborhoods in Medellín

Five districts, and the trade-off between the tourist infrastructure and the city itself.
All 5 neighborhoods →
El PobladoComuna 14

El Poblado

Hotels, restaurants and nightlife

The hotel district, built up the eastern hillside around Provenza and Parque Lleras. Convenient and expensive, and the least representative address in Medellín.

Map
Comuna 11

Laureles

Residential, walkable, La 70

Wide tree-lined streets on a grid, sidewalk cafés, bakeries on every corner and the bars of La 70. Increasingly where returning visitors stay.

Map
ManilaEl Poblado

Manila

Cafés and small restaurants

A few quiet blocks of low houses between El Poblado’s main avenues, turned over to coffee roasters, small kitchens and design shops. The best breakfast walk in the city.

Map
EnvigadoSouth of the city

Envigado

Its own town square and market

A municipality in its own right at the southern end of the valley, with its own park, church and market. Two metro stations from El Poblado and a different city.

Map
North of the centre

Prado Centro

Heritage mansions, tango bars

The mansions the coffee and textile money built in the 1920s and 1930s, now a protected heritage district with art schools and tango bars among the houses.

Map
Outdoors

Best parks and outdoors in Medellín

Six places to be outside in a valley that is warm every month of the year.
All 6 parks and outdoors →
Norte

Jardín Botánico Joaquín Antonio Uribe

Free · Calle 73 #51D-14

Fourteen free hectares in the north with an orchid house under a honeycomb timber canopy, a lagoon and 139 recorded bird species. Universidad station is at the gate.

↗ WebsiteMap
Santa Elena

Parque Arví

Cable car access · Santa Elena

More than 16,000 hectares of cloud forest above the valley with over 54 kilometres of trail, reached by Line L of the Metrocable from Santo Domingo. Closed Mondays.

↗ WebsiteMap
Cerro El VoladorLaureles-Estadio

Cerro El Volador

Free · Carrera 65 #33-23

The largest natural park inside the city at roughly 106 hectares, with a pre-Hispanic burial site on top and a 20-minute climb to reach it.

Map
Altavista

Cerro de las Tres Cruces

Free · Calle 8 #84F-25

A steep 30 to 45 minute climb on the western side of the valley that hundreds of paisas do before work, with an outdoor gym at the top and the whole city below.

Map
Parque de los Pies DescalzosCentro

Parque de los Pies Descalzos

Free · Carrera 58 with Calle 42A

Built by EPM between 1998 and 2000 next to its headquarters: bamboo, a sand pit and a field of fountains, all of it designed to be walked barefoot. Closed Sundays.

Map
Parque de los DeseosNorte

Parque de los Deseos

Free · Avenida del Ferrocarril

An open square on the old railway avenue, flanked by the planetarium and the Casa de la Música, with free outdoor screenings and concerts.

↗ WebsiteMap
Beyond the valley

Best day trips in Medellín

Five trips out of Medellín, from two hours away to the edge of the Magdalena valley.
All 5 day trips →
Guatapé and the Piedra del PeñolOriente

Guatapé and the Piedra del Peñol

74 km east · 2 hours

A 220-metre monolith with about 700 steps up its face, over a reservoir of islands, and a town below where every house carries a painted zócalo.

Map
Santa Fe de AntioquiaOccidente

Santa Fe de Antioquia

80 km northwest · 1.5 hours

Founded in 1541 and the capital of Antioquia until 1826, a whitewashed colonial town an hour and a half northwest, with a suspension bridge outside it.

Map
Suroeste

Jardín

130 km south · 3 hours

A coffee town three hours south with a painted main square, wooden balconies and a cable car up the hillside. Better as an overnight than a day trip.

Map
Suroeste

Jericó

105 km south · 3.5 hours

Another southwestern coffee town, birthplace of Colombia's first saint, with a viewpoint above the roofs and workshops making the carriel satchel.

Map
Magdalena Medio

Cañón del Río Claro

152 km east · 2.5 hours

A marble canyon on the road to Bogotá, two and a half hours east, with a clear river to swim, caves full of oilbirds and cabins open to the forest.

Map
What's on

Festivals & annual events in Medellín (2026)

Time your trip around the city's biggest dates.
January

Colombiatex de las Américas

Inexmoda opens the year with its textile and apparel fair at Plaza Mayor, which fills the city's hotels for a week.

3 to 8 June 2026

Festival Internacional de Tango

The city's tango festival, with milongas, street tangovías and gala nights. Medellín kept tango after Gardel died here in 1935.

4 to 11 July 2026

Festival Internacional de Poesía de Medellín

The poetry festival brings poets from around the world for readings and workshops, most of them free and many in parks.

25 to 31 July 2026

Colombiamoda

Latin America's largest fashion week, run by Inexmoda with the main days at Plaza Mayor. Runway shows and trade floors.

31 July to 9 August 2026

Feria de las Flores

Ten days of parades, open-air stages, flower markets and vintage-car processions. Book beds and internal flights well ahead.

9 August 2026

Desfile de Silleteros

The Feria closes with 530 growers from Santa Elena carrying flower arrangements on wooden frames on their backs.

11 to 20 September 2026

Fiesta del Libro y la Cultura

The book festival, staged around the Jardín Botánico and Parque Explora. Free entry, and the best week to be in that quarter.

Late November to mid-January

Alumbrados navideños

EPM lights dozens of points across the city and along the river for about six weeks. It has run for more than fifty years.

Getting around

Medellín transport & airports

How to arrive and move around the city.
MDE

José María Córdova International Airport

The international airport sits at Rionegro, 30 km east and 700 metres higher, so the transfer runs 45 minutes to an hour. Olaya Herrera, inside the city, handles regional flights.

↗ AerocivilMap
Metro

Metro, Metrocable and tram

Two rail lines up and across the valley, six cable-car lines off them, a tram and the busways, all on one Cívica card. Line L to Arví is charged separately and closes Mondays.

↗ Metro de MedellínMap
Bus

Terminal del Norte and Terminal del Sur

Intercity buses leave from two terminals, both on the metro. The northern one serves Guatapé, the coast and Bogotá; the southern one serves the southwest. Buy at the counter.

Map
Taxi

Taxis and ride apps

Metered yellow taxis are everywhere and cheap by international standards, and the apps are what most residents use at night. Take one after dark rather than walking.

Traditional food

Must-try dishes in Medellín, Colombia

The classics to order before you leave.

Bandeja paisa

Beans, rice, minced beef, chorizo, chicharrón, plantain, a fried egg and half an avocado on one platter.

Mondongo

Tripe simmered for hours with potato, yuca, carrot and coriander into a thick soup.

Arepa de chócolo con quesito

Young corn ground and griddled into a thick, faintly sweet arepa, folded around fresh white quesito.

Sancocho antioqueño

A one-pot stew of meat, plantain, yuca, potato and corn, cooked over wood and eaten outdoors.

Chicharrón

A slab of pork belly fried until the skin shatters. Its size is how paisas judge the plate.

Buñuelo

A ball of cheese-and-cornflour dough deep-fried until hollow and golden. Best ten minutes out of the fryer.

Natilla

A set custard of milk, panela and cornstarch that appears everywhere in December, always beside the buñuelos.

Mazamorra paisa

Whole white corn kernels simmered soft and served cold in milk with panela on the side. It closes the meal.

Medellín fact sheet

Medellín at a glance

The essentials worth knowing before you go.
Country
Colombia
Region
Aburrá Valley · Antioquia Department
Population
2,528,343 in the municipality (2025 DANE projection)
Founded
1616 as San Lorenzo de Aburrá, chartered as a town in 1675
Nickname
La ciudad de la eterna primavera
Language
Spanish
Currency
Colombian peso (COP)
Time zone
UTC-5, no daylight saving
Calling code
+57 604
Airports
MDE · EOH
Power
110V · Type A & B
Emergency
123, the single national number
Ideal length
4 days
Getting around
Metro, Metrocable & taxis
Tourism board
Official site

Interesting facts

  • The city sits at 1,495 metres in a valley in the Andes, which holds the annual average near 22.5°C and gives it its name.
  • The Medellín Metro opened on 30 November 1995 and is still the only metro system in Colombia.
  • Line K of the Metrocable opened in 2004 and was the first aerial cable car built into a city's public transport network.
  • The Catedral Metropolitana used roughly 1,120,000 bricks, making it the largest church in the world built entirely in fired brick.
  • In 2013 the Urban Land Institute and Citi named Medellín Innovative City of the Year, ahead of New York and Tel Aviv.

Headed to Medellín?

Get our one-page Medellín cheat sheet plus a fresh destination every Thursday.