There’s no city like Medellin in Colombia. The sheer amount of buildings and its impressive infrastructure make Medellin and its metropolitan area unique and friendly. There’s so much to get to know. The tourism in Medellin is awesome. Some people prefer to do less well-known, local activities, but there are so many tourist activities that are worth it. This is a list of the activities I believe are worth it: what to do in Medellin, Tourist Edition!
Note: you can see the locations of all these places in the map at the end of this blog post!
Click here to see the map of Medellin’s metro system.
What to do in Medellin, Tourist Edition
Go to the Casa de la Memoria (Memory House)
This museum is impacting. It’s a house to remember Colombia’s violent history, with an emphasis on the violence that Medellin and the department of Antioquia experienced. The creativity with which the museum shows its content, along with the truth of the stories they tell makes you feel like you’re in the shoes of the people about which you’re learning. This museum is worth visiting because of how much you learn and how you leave the place with new eyes. That’s why it’s first on “what to do in Medellin, tourist edition”.
The Memory House Museum is on Calle 51 #36-66 Parque Bicentenario. To get there, take the metro to the San Antonio station. Once you get there, go down to street level and enter the tramway on the side. Get off at the Bicentenario station and walk 2 blocks north towards downtown (or ask around and people will point you in the right direction).
There’s an app for a museum audio-guide. I recommend you download because it has a guide in English. Entry to the museum is free. The schedule is Tuesday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Weekends and Holidays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It’s closed on Mondays, but if Monday is a holiday, it will be closed that Tuesday.
Have a Blast at the Botanical Garden and at Parque Explora
Medellin’s Botanical Garden (Jardín Botánico in Spanish) and Parque Explora are both right outside the Universidad metro station. The Botanical Garden is beautiful. It’s a great place to walk or jog and feel like you’re in the wild, when you’re truly in the middle of the city. What I liked most were the close encounters with iguanas, who are really friendly because they’re used to being fed. The Botanical Garden’s schedule is from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. every day, and entry is free.
The Parque Explora (Explore Park) is a science and technology park, an aquarium and a planetarium all in one! It’s a place to have fun and learn with super interactive activities at one of Latin America’s best science museums. It’s very much worth going, especially with kids… although, I’m not a kid and I would go alone.
Journey the Downtown Route
One way to get to know a bunch of tourist destinations in one morning or afternoon is to walk along what I call the Downtown Route. You can see the entire Route in the map below – I’ll just explain the spots here! Begin the journey by getting to the Alpujarra Metro Station and walking to the Barefoot Park (or Parque de los Pies Descalzos). It has water spouts and sand, and is great to visit as a family. From there, walk to a Monument to all the Races (Monumento a la Raza), which is a gigantic, beautiful, elaborate, and actually a little bizarre sculpture. You have to go see it! Across the street you’ll find the Parque de las Luces (Park of Lights), which is also the Plaza Cisneros. Try going there at night, since the forest of light posts turns on beautifully then.
From the Parque de las Luces, I really enjoyed walking down Avenida Carabobo, or Carrera 52, where you can eat grilled corn and some succulent chicken kebabs. The most important thing you have to try is Guarapo. In Medellin, Guarapo is literally squeezed sugar cane juice with lime. It’s even better if you can see it being made. When we bought guarapo, we asked the guy for some and he made it right then and there, squeezing the sugar cane and limes all together in a special machine. Look for a stand in the street – it’s so worth it!
Walking down this road, Carrera 52, you’ll get straight to Plaza Botero, the last stop on our Downtown Route. Botero is a famous Colombian artist who is known for painting and sculpting large, exaggerated (fat) things. Really, he can make a fork look fat! You can take some pictures with Botero’s fat sculptures at the Plaza. Then, walk under the metro, which runs alongside Plaza Botero, to either side towards the San Antonio or Prado station and head home, to your hotel or to your next destination.
Visit Pueblito Paisa
Pueblito Paisa (or Paisa Town – a Paisa is a person from northwest Colombia) is a very popular tourist attraction. It is a town built on Nutibara Hill, which sprouts right out of the ground in the middle of Medellin. Now, Pueblito Paisa is not that amazing, but there are some great things about it! First, if you go up the stairs from Pueblito Paisa, you’ll get to a lookout point from where you get a beautiful panoramic view of the city. Second, and this is my favorite, is that Pueblito Paisa is built on the very top of the Nutibara Hill. The rest of the hill is green nature, and it has walkways and bike paths for mountain-biking. You can also go on an Art trail that goes around the hill. In my opinion, Pueblito Paisa is worth visiting because of the Nutibara Hill’s natural beauty, not Pueblito Paisa itself.
To get to Pueblito Paisa, head over to the Industriales metro station and exit to the left, or towards Nutibara Hill, which you’ll see without a problem. Cross the long bridge, staying on it where it turns right over a second main road. Once you get off the bridge, walk to the right and take the first right turn on Carrera 53. Then, take a left and walk until you see a street that goes up the hill with a big sign that says “Cerro Nutibara.”
Get Awed at Guatapé
Well, of course Guatape has to be on this list! You may have head of the place. It’s an area in Antioquia, only 2 hours from Medellin, that’s known for its beautiful, quaint town, and its photogenic dam. But most of all, it’s know for the Peñol Rock, which is a 220 meter (720 feet) granite monolith. After going up a seemingly eternal staircase, there is a lookout point on top of the rock for viewing the gorgeous landscape. Another option is to rock climb up el Peñol!
Honestly, climbing it might be a good idea, because this place can get really full of people, which make sense… it’s a gigantic rock with a lookout point at its summit, in the middle of a spectacular landscape! But this is my warning: it’s a VERY touristy place. So much so that going up the stairs can take a long while because people get very tired.
Get to Know the Santo Domingo Metro Cable and Arvi Park
Getting to know the Metro and Metrocable in Medellin, especially for us Colombians who aren’t used to infrastructures like Medellin’s, is a must. To do so, I recommend killing three bird with one stone. Ride the metrocable, get to know the Santo Domingo neighborhood, and hike around Arvi Park (Parque Arví). Medellin’s metrocable is complementary to the Metro and provides transportation to the informal neighborhoods on Medellin’s steep valley slopes. To get there, get on the Metro and head to the Acevedo Station. From there, get on line K of the metrocable towards the Santo Domingo station.
In Santo Domingo, you can get to know the neighborhood and it’s street art, eat local food and visit the Parque Biblioteca España (Spain Library Park). This neighborhood, which was once known as Medellin’s most dangerous area is now known as a tourist destination. Even so, don’t take any risks!
From that same metrocable station, you can travel to Arvi Park on the Cable Arvi. Where the line ends, there are buses that will take you to the park. This cable operates 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Monday to Saturday and from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Sundays and Holidays, but does not open on the first business day of the month. This park is a great place to get out in nature while you’re close to Medellin.
I hope this helped you know what to do as a tourist in Medellin! I wrote it from my own experiences.
For some local tips on what to do in Bogota, click here!
