15 Amazing Things To Do in Medellin

Nestled in a green valley, Medellin is a city of three million people that is blessed with a consistently pleasant climate all year round. 

The city, which was once the most violent in the world, has flourished in recent years. It is now a safe and popular destination for tourists. Should you wish to visit Medellin, you will likely be welcomed by warm-hearted locals who are keen to show you why Medellin is often considered the finest city in Colombia.

Best Things Do Do in Medellin

Here we share our top 15 favourite things to do in Medellin. We weren’t sure about the city at first but by the end of our two weeks there, we loved it. Medellin has some of the best activities in Colombia, so don’t miss it.

1. Join a Medellin Free Walking Tour

Real City Tour offer “free” walking tours in Medellin. We’d recommend doing this first thing when you arrive in Medellin as it helps you get your bearings, understand the culture and history, and our guide shared many great local recommendations. They’ll also let you know how Colombians feel about Pablo Escobar and Escobar tourism (generally not thought well of) so you can be sure to be respectful of Colombian history and culture on your trip.

Book your walking tour online before you go and meet your tour guide at Poblado Metro Station. The recommended donation is 20k per person. There are both English and Spanish tours available and the tour lasts about three and a half hours with breaks for food and coffee.

2. Plaza de Botero

3. Shop in La Hueca

La Hueca (the hollow) is a shopping district with poorly defined border which spills out from the southwest to northeast corners of Plaza de Botero. Expect counterfeit versions of well known brands, plus completely unheard of local Colombian brands. Prices are very cheap, so while you might be able to get a 15% discount with some haggling, you might also take the first price offered if it seems reasonable to you. If you do plan to barter, you’ll do better with a smile.

La Hueca is a little rough around the edges, so take the precautions you normally would to avoid being targeted by pickpockets. You should also hold your phone with two hands and keep an eye on it! As with elsewhere in the city, you may have people approach and try and sell you something. A simple “no gracias” and a smile is enough to deter 99% of chancers.

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4. Parque Arvi

Parque Arvi is a pine forest on the edge of the city with hiking trails and spots for camping and picnics. To get to Arvi, take the cable car from Santa Domingo (6k). The cable car is easy to reach from the metro (you can change for Santa Domingo at Acevedo). We’ve been told that while Santa Domingo metro station is safe, tourists shouldn’t stray more than a couple of blocks from the station.

After stopping for coffee and strawberries at the top of the cable car, we walked the blue trail, which was a fairly easy loop. We stopped for lunch at Restaurante el Patacon. The vegetarian option was 15k and included lentil soup, tostado with salsa, toasted corn, avocado, beetroot and rice.

5. Medellin Botanical Gardens

Medellin’s botanical gardens are free and easily accessible via the Universidad metro station. There are two restaurants inside the botanical gardens — both are designed so that you can enjoy your meal and the scenery at the same time. Del Bosque Cafeserves local and international food for about 15k per plate. Limited vegetarian and vegan options are available.

Restaurante IN SITU is more upmarket, with a main course and a glass of wine costing about 45k per person, including a tip. We ‘splurged’ (45k Colombian pesos is only $13!) at the fancy place and ate sitting in the open-door side of the restaurant that made it feel like we were sitting right in the botanical garden. We ate ravioli with ricotta, poached egg, spinach from Bogota, mushrooms and asparagus. It was delicious but rich.

6. Casa de la Memoria

This is a museum dedicated to the victims of the Colombian conflict. There’s an emphasis on allowing the survivors of the conflict to tell their own story. Entrance is free and while the museum is small, there’s a lot of content.

The museum is easily accessible via public transport. Take the metro to San Antonio then take the tram for about three stops to Bicentenial. The museum is roughly three blocks from the tram stop.

7. Ride Medellin’s famous cable cars

Various cable cars, known as the Metro Cable, connect the outer parts of Medellin to the main metro line. In most cases, you can use a single metro ticket to use both the main metro line and a cable car (provided that you don’t leave the station).

Tourists often taken the cable car to Santa Domingo, from where they can take another cable car (6k) to Parque Arvi. The cable car from San Javier metro station is close to the famous Communa 13 district.

8. Paragliding at San Felix

Paragliding was our favourite thing to do in Medellin! Take-offs are from San Felix, up in the hills just outside of Medellin. You’ll flight will give you views across the city of Medellin and it’s glorious.

Paragliding costs 150k per person for 15 minutes in the air, which is a bargain compared to the cost in other countries. You can arrange transport from La Aurora metro station for an additional 24k. However, our prearranged transport never showed up, so you may be better of arranging transport yourself! You can take a yellow taxi cab from La Aurora metro station to the meeting point at Restaurante de Voladero for 15k. Yellow taxi cabs have a meter.

Depending on the wind conditions, you’ll either land back where you started near Restaurante de Voladero or you’ll land closer to Medellin. We landed closer to Medellin and it’s normal for your paragliding instructor to pay for your taxi to the nearest metro station if this happens (but confirm during the booking).

We didn’t take any photos in the air for fear of dropping our phone/camera, but you can opt to rent a Go Pro for an additional 40k. Wear something warm while paragliding, keep your legs covered and wear closed shoes.

9. Watch Football in Medellin

Medellin has two football teams and an army of die hard supporters. You can arrange a “football tour” via a travel agency or you can buy your own tickets. Matches are usually on the weekend or Wednesday evening. The stadium is right next to Estadio metro station.

When we turned up on the day of a game, the ticket booths had sold out of tickets, but we were able to buy a ticket for 30k from a tout. The same ticket would’ve cost 20k had we bought it from a ticket booth. We checked with a policeman who said the tickets from the touts were legit he thought, though he wasn’t 100% sure. We risked it and the one we bought was!

One of Medellin’s teams, Atletico Nactional, is arguably the country’s best. We see them play and it was intense. Be warned that the south stand (Sur) is very, very rowdy. Expect the crowd to be on its feet and in full voice, drums banging and guys jumping for the whole 90 minutes. Charlie gained major girlfriend points for joining me at this match.

10. Dance Salsa in Medellin

On Wednesday nights at Son Havana, 8pm – 9pm, you can attend free salsa classes. Theoretically these classes are aimed at beginners, but the other members of the class looked fairly advanced to me! The lessons are in Spanish and mostly attended by locals, there were maybe two or three other tourists there when we went. Son Havana has salsa on Friday and Saturday nights as well, though there may be a charge. Son Havana isn’t far from Estadio metro station in Laureles.

11. Take a Cooking Class in Medellin

Colombia has fresh fruit and vegetables in abundance, but sadly this side of the local cuisine is frequently overshadowed by deep-fried specialities. Vía Cocina is a social project which teaches Colombians in lower economic neighbourhoods in Medellin to cook healthier food with their local ingredients. The project also supports locals to start their own food carts, cafes and restaurants.⁠
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Vía Cocina’s Head Chef Brian runs cooking classes for tourists to help fund food education for local low income families. In the class class, we learned how to cook local dishes such as coconut rice and tried local ingredients such as yuca and several exotic fruits. Vegetarians and vegans can be catered for.

12. Drink Colombian Coffee in the Best Cafes

One of our favourite things to do in Medellin was sample Colombian coffee. Medellin has some excellent cafes, the best of which we thought was Cafe Pergamino in Poblado. It’s a trendy cafe with friendly staff. Coffee is sourced from local fincas. They export coffee to the United States, but as a point of pride they serve the same coffee that they export to local customers. Visit in the morning for a more peaceful experience as the neighbouring bar plays obnoxiously loud music when it opens in the afternoon.

Other excellent cafes in Medellin are Laboratory Cafe overlooking the Plaza de Botero. Coffee here is served in many different styles by skilful baristas.Cafe de los Andes is a cooperative owned by and for local coffee growers. Delicious coffee and decent pastries. For food with your coffee, we recommend Urbania Cafe. Try their mantequilla con cafe (butter mixed with house coffee) on toast.

13. Eat Local Colombian Cuisine

Get stuck in to empanadas right away. If street food isn’t something you like to risk, we can highly recommend lunch at Hacienda, a traditional restaurant not far from the Plaza de Botero. We had patacones (deep-fried plantain chips) and empanaditas de iglesia (little empanadas stuffed with potato) with guacamole and salsa. For our main, we enjoyed the cazuela de frijoles made vegetarian (a bean stew with potato, sweetcorn and plantain). For all these dishes, plus two drinks, we paid 50k.

For cheaper local dishes not bought on the street, look out for arepas! We loved these corn pockets stuffed with either meat or veggies. Our favourite place for arepas was the clean and lovely Arepitas Pa’ Mamá in Poblado. You can get an arepa for 6k and it’ll fill you up. My favourite was tomato, basil and mozzarella, but Charlie loved the avocado, mushroom and sweetcorn combo.

14. Cowork in Medellin

Semilla Cafe Coworking is a leafy and comfortable coworking space in Laureles. You can work in their downstairs area for up to four hours if you buy lunch or a coffee. If you’d like to work for longer or you’d like access to the better office seating or a conference room, you can pay a daily rate (35k) or a weekly rate (160k) and use the dedicated coworking space upstairs.

15. Take a Day Trip to Guatupe

Guatupe is a charming town that’s an easy day trip from Medellin. Guatupe’s largest tourist attraction is “la piedra”. It’s 700+ steps to the top of the rock, from which point you can see nearby lakes and rivers (if it isn’t too cloudy). Entry to the rock is 18k. If you plan to climb the rock, get off the bus at the stop before Guatupe. Once you’re finished, you can easily take a tuk-tuk into town for 10k.

To get to Guatupe, take the metro to Caribe station. The bus station is very close to the metro station. Buy a bus ticket to Guatupe at kiosk 14. A one way ticket is 15k. Buses leave every 20 minutes and start early in the morning.

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Have you been to Medellin? What was your favourite thing to do there?