Five Days in Medellín: The City That Refuses to Be Defined by Its Past
Colombia · 5 days · Food, Culture & Nightlife
Medellín gets into your bloodstream fast.
It might be the weather — a city sitting at 1,500 metres in the Andes, blessed with what locals call la ciudad de la eterna primavera: the city of eternal spring. It’s 24°C and sunny almost every day of the year, with a cool evening breeze that makes the nights perfect. Or it might be the people — Paisas, as Medellín locals call themselves, with a warmth and directness that feels genuine rather than performed for tourists. Or it might be the pace: busy enough to feel alive, slow enough to actually enjoy.
I arrived not entirely sure what to expect. I left five days later already planning a return.
Here’s what I found.
A Brief Word on the History
You can’t visit Medellín without some awareness of what it was. The city that was once the most dangerous in the world — the center of the Escobar cartel, a place where violence was embedded in daily life — has undergone one of the most remarkable urban transformations of the last 30 years. Cable cars connect formerly isolated hilltop comunas to the city center. Libraries and escalators were built in the barrios. Murder rates have dropped by over 95% since the early 1990s.
The city is proud of this transformation — and rightly so. What I’d gently say is: be a thoughtful visitor around the history. There’s a narco-tourism industry that has grown up around Escobar specifically, and many Medellinenses find it deeply uncomfortable. The people who lived through that era lost family members and neighbors. Consuming their trauma as entertainment is worth thinking twice about. I chose to understand the transformation through the city itself — its architecture, its public spaces, its art — rather than through tour operators offering “Escobar experiences.”
That framing made the trip much richer.
How I Structured Five Days
- Day 1: El Poblado — arrive, orient, eat, explore
- Day 2: El Centro and Laureles
- Day 3: Comuna 13 and the escaleras
- Day 4: Envigado and Parque Arví
- Day 5: Slow morning, El Hueco market, evening in Parque Lleras
Where I Stayed
Dann Carlton Medellín (El Poblado) — A well-run, comfortable hotel with a rooftop pool and reliable everything. El Poblado is where most visitors base themselves: the safest, most international neighborhood, with the highest concentration of restaurants and bars. It’s also the most expensive by local standards and, in places, feels like it could be Miami. I liked having a reliable home base here while spending my days in other parts of the city.
Hotel Boutique Raurica (Laureles) — For two nights I moved to Laureles, a quieter residential neighborhood west of the river. This felt more like actual Medellín — tree-lined streets, neighborhood cafés, families on bikes, fewer English menus. The hotel is small, beautifully designed, and run by people who genuinely love the city and will give you recommendations no guidebook has.
What I’d skip: The party hostels around Parque Lleras are exactly what they sound like. Fine if that’s your objective. Less fine if you want to sleep before 4am or experience the city as anything other than a nightlife venue.
Where I Ate
Colombian food is underrated internationally — in Medellín, it’s treated with real seriousness.
Mondongos (multiple locations, the Laureles branch is best) — A Medellín institution. The bandeja paisa is the essential dish: a platter of red beans, white rice, ground meat, chicharrón (fried pork belly), chorizo, fried egg, arepa, and avocado. It is a meal designed for someone who has been working in the mountains since 4am. I was not that person and I finished it anyway. Incredible, extremely affordable, and the real thing.
El Cielo (El Poblado) — Chef Juan Manuel Barrientos’s flagship, one of the best restaurants in Colombia. A multi-course tasting menu that plays with Colombian ingredients and techniques in inventive ways — edible soil, deconstructed arepas, chocolate from Tumaco presented as a full sensory experience. Expensive by local standards (reasonable by any other), and worth every peso for a special evening.
Carmen (El Poblado) — More accessible than El Cielo but equally serious about Colombian produce. The ceviche de camarón with coconut leche de tigre was one of the best things I ate on the trip. Great cocktail list using local spirits.
Herbario — A newer restaurant in El Poblado focusing on local and foraged ingredients. The menu changes based on what’s available. I had a mushroom dish with herbs I couldn’t name and a corn preparation that tasted like a deep memory of something. It sounds opaque; it was wonderful.
Pergamino Café (El Poblado) — The best coffee I had in the city, which is saying something given Colombia’s credentials. Pergamino sources directly from small farms in the region, roasts carefully, and makes a flat white that will recalibrate your expectations. I went every morning.
Mercado del Río — A covered food market in the Macarena neighborhood with around 40 food stalls and a lively bar area. Not a traditional market — more of a curated food hall — but the quality across stalls is genuinely high. Good for an evening of grazing and drinks if you can’t commit to one restaurant.
Street arepas: Find the women with carts on street corners in Laureles and El Centro selling arepas con queso (corn cakes with cheese) for a few hundred pesos. Eat them hot. This is breakfast.
What I’d skip: The tourist-facing restaurants around Parque Lleras with rooftop terraces and English menus — fine food, inflated prices, and the atmosphere is more Dublin hen party than Colombia. Walk two blocks in any direction and eat better for half the price.
What to Do
Comuna 13: Fifteen years ago this was one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the city. Today it’s a remarkable open-air gallery — murals covering entire building faces, hip-hop culture, outdoor escalators that connect the steep hillside barrios to the city below, a community that has turned its story into art. Go with a local guide or a small group tour run by community members rather than external operators — the difference in what you learn and where the money goes matters. The views over the city from the top are extraordinary.
Metrocable and Parque Arví: Take the Metro (clean, safe, efficient — a source of genuine civic pride) to the cable car stations and ride up to Parque Arví, a nature reserve in the mountains above the city. Butterflies, hiking trails, market stalls selling local produce and crafts. The journey itself — watching the city give way to green hillsides, passing over comunas that were inaccessible before the cable cars came — is part of the experience.
El Centro and Plaza Botero: The city center is loud, busy, and alive in a way that El Poblado isn’t. Plaza Botero contains 23 bronze sculptures by Fernando Botero — the Medellín-born artist famous for his voluminous, rounded figures — arranged on a public plaza where families picnic and vendors sell fruit. The adjacent Museo de Antioquia holds Botero’s paintings and is excellent. Wander El Hueco, the vast informal market district, just to experience the scale and energy.
Laureles on a Sunday: The neighborhood comes alive on Sundays. Families cycle the closed streets (the ciclovía), cafés spill onto pavements, the Parque Laureles fills up. This is Medellín at its most local and most relaxed. Spend a morning here and you’ll understand why people who come for a week end up staying for months.
Nightlife in El Poblado and Parque Lleras: I’ll be honest — Medellín’s nightlife has a complicated reputation and parts of it deserve that reputation. The area around Parque Lleras can get very messy very late, and solo travelers — particularly solo women — should be aware of their surroundings, particularly around drink-spiking risks that are real and documented. That said, the bar and club scene is genuinely good. Calle 9+1 is the main strip with a range of bars from reggaeton heavy-hitters to more relaxed terraces. I had several excellent evenings starting at Envy Rooftop for sunset drinks and ending at a salsa bar where I was patiently and repeatedly corrected by strangers who meant well.
Salsa: Take a class. Seriously. Even one hour gives you enough to not embarrass yourself on a dance floor and Colombians will absolutely get you on a dance floor. Ask your hotel for recommendations for local instructors rather than the tourist-facing dance schools.
Safety: The Honest Version
Medellín is safer than its history and safer than many major cities. It is not without risk, and pretending otherwise doesn’t serve you.
El Poblado and Laureles: very safe for tourists, day and night with normal awareness. El Centro: fine during the day, use your judgment at night. The comunas (including Comuna 13 during the day with a guide): safe. Venturing into unfamiliar areas at night alone: use taxis or the app-based services (InDriver and Cabify both work well — avoid unmarked taxis).
Don’t flash expensive cameras and phones. Don’t get visibly drunk on the street. Use the same urban intelligence you’d apply in any large city and you’ll be absolutely fine.
Practical Notes
Currency: Colombian pesos. ATMs are widely available; Bancolombia machines are most reliable for foreign cards. Have cash for street food, markets, and smaller restaurants.
Getting around: The Metro system is excellent and covers the main north-south spine of the city. Metrocable lines extend into the hillside neighborhoods. For east-west travel between El Poblado and Laureles, use InDriver or Cabify — cheap, trackable, and much safer than hailing a taxi.
Language: Spanish only, outside tourist-facing businesses in El Poblado. Download a translation app and learn the basics. Paisas are patient and encouraging with Spanish learners; making the effort goes a long way.
Budget: Medellín is excellent value. A full bandeja paisa at a local place: under £3. A long, excellent dinner with drinks at a mid-range restaurant: £20–30 per person. A cocktail in El Poblado: £4–6. Budget £50–70/day and eat and drink very well.
When to go: Year-round spring means there’s no bad time. December sees the famous Feria de las Flores and Alumbrados (Christmas light installations) — the city is spectacular but crowded and prices rise. February and March are quieter and equally lovely.
The Honest Summary
Medellín surprised me in the best way — not because my expectations were low, but because the city exceeded the specific thing I came for and then kept going. The food was better than I’d read. The neighborhoods had more personality than I’d been told. The people were warmer than any description prepared me for.
It is a city in the middle of becoming something. That energy — optimistic, creative, not yet finished — is palpable in the street art and the new restaurants and the young Colombians who’ve chosen to stay and build here. It’s infectious.
Five days was enough to fall for it. It wasn’t enough to understand it. Go, and give it more time than you think you need.
Article by Just a Lion · March 2025
