Couple of days in Medellin riding the cable cars

Nature
The wow factor for nature - does it show nature at its best? Doesn't need to be the wildebeest migration or diving with hundreds of hammerheads. Rather make you pause as you realise just how awesome the natural world can be
4
Culture
How much does this experience showcase some of the better and finer things that us humans can offer? Sure, it can be ancient ruins and renaissance churches, but it can also be festivals or soaking up some of the great modern cities of the world
7
Fun factor/activity
Very simple - was it fun? This is usually linked in with doing some kind of activity - i mean, walking along some cliffs is nice, but paragliding from them, now that is fun. Its a vastly underrated factor in a truly great experience
7
Avoid the crowds
Big tour groups and being surrounded by loud fellow tourists can sap the life out of even the greatest of travel experiences. This score is to reflect just how much you can avoid this. But. . . The score also takes into account if the crowds actually add to the experience, such as with a party town or a bustling local market
6
World famous
How world famous is the experience?
5
unique
How hard is it to have a similar experience in other places round the world?
8
Overall TE Score
The overall travel experiences score:  fun factor + avoid the crowds + (best of nature or culture) + (best of world famous or unique). Then convert into a score out of 100
70 *What the scores mean and where do they come from
RANKING
How this travel experience ranks compared to all the other experiences on this site, based on the travel experience (te) score
157th/454
Top 40%
continent
South America
country
Colombia
Length of time
1-2 days
Typical daily price
This gives you a rough idea of the daily price based on 2 people travelling where they can split costs like accommodation. It excludes travel there and back, and factors in inflation the numbers in brackets show the price range for the full time of the experience (so not necessarily daily). It is a range to reflect different budget vs higher end
$100 (typically $50 - $150)
Time of year visited
March
Primary Tags
Click on any of the tags to see all travel experiences with the same tag
Big city Cable cars Street Art
All Tags
Altitude Bustling restaurants Museums
Wow Factor
The wow factor reflects just how much you’re likely to say “wow”. As there’s a lot of experiences in the world, and a lot of wows, i’ve gone with a simple ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ to ⭐️ score, and a separate category for the truly "gash"
⭐⭐

Summary

Medellin has plenty of interesting things to do for a first-time visitor – the street art, the changing neighbourhoods, the museums, the great bar and restaurant scene – but my favourite thing to do was riding the extensive cable cars.  Not only over the various neighbourhoods clinging precariously to the steep sides, but also up over the city valley sides and into the lush green forests where the city is completely forgotten.

Good little set of adventures to see the contrasts not just in the rich poor areas, but also the dense city and the green forests.

Highlights

IMG_4169-aspect-ratio-900-675

#1 Walking through Comuna 13 to learn about how this once dangerous neighbourhood ransacked by the paramilitary and cartel violence, changed itself to a place of hope

IMG_4145-aspect-ratio-900-675

#2 Checking out some of the amazing street art that is spread all around Medellin

IMG_4184-aspect-ratio-675-900

#3 Taking the cablecars - super fun and get to show you all around the different landscapes of Medellin and its surrounding areas

Itinerary

Day 1:

  • Morning – Go with Comuna 13 Graffiti Tour and take the morning walking around Comuna 13 to learn of the history and be inspired by how the local people worked their way through the tough times to mould themselves a working, safe place to live
  • Afternoon – take the afternoon to go to the Museo Casa de la Memoria to learn about the shocking violence that hit the city so hard
  • Evening – eat in the El Pablado area

Day 2:

  • Give yourself the full day to head up to Parque Arvi – you could do in half a day, but no need to rush.

 

If you only have one day. . . I would suggest dropping the museum and spending the day on the cablecars combining the Comuna 13 district and Parque Arvi

Travel Tips

Stay in the El Poblado region –  which felt safer than other spots and had some great bars and restaurants.

Checking out the Comuna 13 district is a must – it gives you a view of some of the previously dangerous neighbourhoods that managed to transform themselves, lets you check out the awesome street art and actually chat with one of the locals from Comuna.

The museum – is good to get some first hand accounts of the violence, but if I’m being honest we were a little overwhelmed by the sheer amount of info and the layout of the museum.  If only have a day, I would suggest not going and enjoying instead the cable car trips.

The Parque Arvi – is great for the contrast between the city and the lush forests just over the valley sides.  Even if the weather isn’t great, its still worth it for flying through the forests and getting that contrast.

The cable cars can be a little vertigo inducing at times.

For getting around, Uber is easiest and pretty cheap.

Accommodation – we stayed in El Poblado and would recommend the Medellin Vibes Hostel.  Its not a must stay-encapsulates-Medellin kind of place, but we’d been travelling for quite a while when we arrived so loved the closed off pool and general vibe.

Book recommendations to get the Colombia context:

  • One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is the traditional must read literature.  At times it can be a little slow going, but it created its own genre (magic realism . . . obviously) and very much tells the story in a round about way of many of the difficulties faced by Colombia.
  • To give a perspective of just what it must have been like for the American civilisations before the Spanish arrived, I highly recommend 1491 by Charles Mann.  It will change your view from what is likely to be that of basic jungle tribes / Indians hunting the buffalo on the plains to what they really were – in many ways equally sophisticated civilisations to those of Eurasia.
  • For a broad, often quite opinionated, overview of modern South America, I also recommend Viva South America Oliver Balch.

Broader Colombia – for how Bogota can fit into a bigger 3 week trip to see the highlights of Colombia, see 3 weeks in Colombia for itinerary and tips

Colombia has some real wow experiences.  For a first time visitor it can be a little overwhelming as to what to prioritise and simply because the country takes such a long times to travel around. See the 3 week itinerary for Colombia for how to do this, but if time is restricted the below is how I would think about priorities and how Tayrona National Park fits in:

 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Hiking the Lost City Trek
A challenging multi-day trek through dense Colombian jungle, but rewarded by insane mountain views and majestic levels of remote ruins of Ciudad Perdida. Adventure and isolation and a mega wow. Hiking the Lost City Trek.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Salento and the Valley de Cocora 
Mountainous coffee country with picture-perfect colourful hilltop towns and a wonderful walk through a valley with the world’s tallest palm trees. Walking the Valley de Cocora, visiting the humming birds and soaking up Salento.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Cartegena
One of the best old towns in all of Latin America with incredible bar and restaurant scene.  Crowds take the shine off a little but still a country highlight. Soaking up the Cartagena Old Town.

 

⭐️⭐️ Medellin
The street art, the changing neighbourhoods, the museums, the great bar and restaurant scene – all worth seeing, but the highlight is the cable cars.  Not just over the differing neighbourhoods clinging precariously to the steep sides, but also up over the city valley sides and into the lush green forests where the city is completely forgotten.

⭐️⭐️ Tayrona National Park 
Small flat walks through jungle and boulders to find stunning beaches.  We found the the chilled out beach hotels just the the east end of the park so nice we extended by 4 nights. Tayrona National Park and staying in a bit of paradise nearby.

 

⭐️ The Guatape Lakes 
Nice day trip to take from Medellin – views from the top of the 220m (720 feet) tall La Piedra are amazing and the walk around the colourful town of Guatape is nice.  But I’d challenge a lot I’ve read about this being a “must see”.  Guatape Lakes outside of Medellin.

⭐️ Bogota 
I wasn’t the biggest fan of Bogota – there are better places to spend your time and we never really felt 100% safe. High chance though you’ll fly in and so do a half day cycling tour, play Tejo and to head up on the cable car to Monserrate.  Cycling and taking the cable car in Bogota.

Experiences nearby

The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences

Similar Big Latino City Experiences

3 days for Buenos Aires
⭐⭐⭐⭐

Cycling and taking the cable car in Bogota
⭐

Nights out and soaking up Havana
⭐⭐⭐

Panama City and the Panama Canal
⭐⭐⭐

2 days stopover in Quito
⭐

Segwaying through Barcelona’s highlights
⭐⭐

Markets, graveyards and stunning views in Santiago
⭐⭐

Score Detail

The scores above are the real point of this site.

Over 20+ years and 100+ countries, I’ve tried to rank the world’s best travel experiences — from genuinely mind-blowing ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to the properly gash.

Every one of the 500+ places on this site has both a Wow Factor rating and a more analytical Travel Experience (TE) score based on the things that actually make travel memorable.

If you're curious about the thinking behind it, head to the About page.

Otherwise, explore the map above or on the Home page and see which places truly deliver maximum wow.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *