Why You Should Travel to MEDELLIN, COLOMBIA in 2024! | BEST Things To Do + GUATAPE Tour
Hello everybody and welcome to Medellin in Colombia! This is a city with a somewhat negative reputation especially because of things that happened in the past. It’s also a city that’s really trying to change its ways now in the present and has really come a long
Way in the last 20 years to the point where it’s now like a real hot spot for digital nomads and tourists come from all over the world. Really excited to explore! We’ve got a lot to show you today. We’re just going to be exploring the center of the city and
Also Comuna 13 which is a really interesting spot for number of reasons here in Medellin! We began the day in Plaza Cisneros in the heart of Medellin’s downtown La Candeleria district. This plaza is now more commonly known as Parque de las Luces because of the 300 pillars of light that rise up out of the square creating a sort of sci-fi artificial
Forest that has become a popular meeting point and a place to relax. We then made our way up towards Plaza Botero, stopping at the impressive National Palace Mall on the way, before arriving in the plaza named after Fernando Botero, one of Colombia’s most famous artists,
Where you can see the ornate Palace of Culture, some of Botero’s many sculptures and visit the Museo de Antioquia which houses plenty of famous artwork by Botero and others. Our next stop was Comuna 13, a community of closely stacked houses on the western
Slopes of the city. We took a free walking tour with Zippy Tours, whose local tour guides have lived within the community throughout their lives. We saw some incredible artwork on our way into the Comuna, as well as being given a special performance by a local dance group. Comuna 13 is now a lively bustling community and one of the most popular tourist hotspots in the city. As well as the incredible street art that you’ll find on every spare piece of wall, there are also countless shops selling everything from artwork
To ice creams and a very convenient escalator system that winds its way up through the community to save your legs on the very steep hills. Our tour finished with an invitation into our guide’s home where she explained a little more about the violent and troubled history of the community and how this dramatic change has come about. From her home we also got the most incredible views out over the community and the rest of Medellin. We rode the escalators back down to the metro station and then took the train to the north of the city to ride the gondola up to Parque Arvi, a huge and popular park for hiking and other activities. Unfortunately,
We only made it halfway up because the gondola to the park was closed for maintenance. It was still a cool experience though and one we recommend adding to your Medellin itinerary. So today we’ve come to the El Poblado district which is one of the wealthier districts here in Medellin. I think a lot of digital nomads, expats and even a lot of tourists stay in this area which is very nice. You have a lot of skyscrapers and greenery around,
A lot of shopping centers and things like that. Yeah very safe as well. And this castle behind us makes us feel like we’re not even in South America anymore. It makes us feel like we’re back in Europe somewhere seeing this kind of building! It’s called El Castillo
Museum and it’s a castle that was built around the 1930’s based on like French castles in the Loire Valley. I don’t know if I’m pronouncing that right! It’s just really surreal to see it here in the middle of Medellin! It makes you feel like you’re in a totally different country! We explored the small but beautiful gardens, meeting some cool characters along the way, and then were given a guided tour of the castle itself. We weren’t allowed to film inside but it was a lot like walking through a UK stately home so
Check out our UK Country Houses playlist if you’d like an idea of what to expect. The views from the castle balconies were also well worth the entry fee. You can also come a little bit just outside of the city center and there’s two really cool attractions right next to each other. One is the Botanical Garden which we’re in now, which is free to enter which is amazing! One of the first botanical gardens that has been
Free to enter. So we’re going to wander around here now and then a little bit later on we’re also going to go to the Parque Explora, which is a big interactive exhibition, almost like an interactive theme park, where you get lots of different exhibitions that you
Can experience. I’m excited about that one because every time we’ve been to something similar it was really a lot of fun. Yeah like a museum but for big kids and little kids. I think I already prefer this one to the one in Bogota I think that’s the one we’ve been to. Apart from the big greenhouse area the rest of the botanical garden there was a bit meh but this one is just so nice. Feels like we’re back in somewhere like Costa
Rica or something or in the Amazon jungle! It’s nice. It’s pretty. Especially for free! Seems like every botanical garden here has some kind of central structure which is like the centerpiece. This one has this awesome like roof. I don’t know how to describe it. It’s cool yeah like canopy. Next we headed across the road to the Parque Explora museum. This fun, interactive space is filled with different exhibitions that play with your senses and make you feel like a big kid. We started our tour in the aquarium which was full of some beautiful and unique fish and amphibians. There was a small dinosaur exhibit outside with some impressive specimens and spaces dedicated to sound… …optical illusions… …and movie making, where you could even create your own movies with hilarious results! Overall Parque Explora is definitely a fun thing to do, especially on a rainy day in the city. So today we have come to the Piedra de Penal. So it’s just behind the camera right now but you can already see behind us that the view is going to be unbelievable from up there! Yeah we just
Can’t wait to climb it! I mean there’s 700 steps all the way to the top so we’ll see how that will go. I’m sure we’ll be fine but I remember the first time I’ve seen photos of it on Instagram
And I genuinely thought this was Photoshopped because it just looked so unreal that this thing existed! And now I’m right here so it’s just unbelievable! There it is. Let’s go climb it! After an exhausting climb up many, many steps we finally made it to the top and were treated to some of the best views in all of Colombia! After soaking up as much of the incredible view as we could we began our descent. I love that they have numbers on your way down too. Should be easier! But it’s not quite 700 steps, it’s a little bit less unless you go to the top. Wow what an amazing experience! I know it was crazy! I mean the 700 steps were quite steep but we went up very quickly actually. We didn’t even feel it. I’m sure I will feel my legs tomorrow! Maybe. So it’s a good workout but if you’re not used to steps or hiking a lot
Then I think you might struggle a little bit. Well just take your time, the view is amazing, every step is worth the effort! Like the view just gets better and better the higher you go. That’s actually not included in the price of the tour so you have to pay an extra 20,000
Pesos per person to go up but I think it’s worth every little penny. It’s easily one of the best views we’ve seen in Colombia and probably one of the best views we’ve seen on this entire trip. The landscape here is just incredible! Bucket list bucket list ticked. Our tour is going to continue
Soon. We’re going to head to the town of Guatape which is the closest town to here. Really colorful and pretty town. Excited about that! We’re going to have an explore around there and then the final thing is the boat ride later on which we’re also really excited about. Looking at this landscape
It’s going to be so cool to be out on the water. It just gives you a different perspective. So Guatape was supposedly voted the second most colorful city in the world about four years ago and you can see why. It is very colorful. I love it here it’s really beautiful! But it’s very it’s also different to like other colorful cities I think and towns we’ve seen
Here in South America. Like the style is just a little bit different a little bit unique. Like the patterns on the side of the buildings. It’s beautiful. We’re going to have a good wander around here show you as much color and artwork as we can. Take lots of picky’s! We could have walked around Guatape for hours. Every street and every corner seemed to have something new and colorful to see and in hindsight we definitely would have liked to spend a night there. But after a quick lunch in town we hopped back in the bus
And drove a short distance to the dock where we boarded our boat out onto the waterways The boat ride gave us a chance to see Piedra del Penal from a different perspective and highlighted even further the beauty of this place. It was no wonder that we also spotted countless huge mansions dotting the shores and some very
Luxurious looking boats on the water. We also got to see Finca la Manuela, Pablo Escobar’s old lake house, which is now closed to the public for obvious reasons. A visit to Guatape was the icing on the cake of what was already an incredible experience in Medellin. This place quickly became one of our favorite cities in the world and there was still
So much that we didn’t get to see or do properly whilst were there. We can see why it has become so popular with tourists, expats and digital nomads alike and can definitely see ourselves spending some more time here in the future! Thanks for watching and see you on our next adventure.
Hey everyone! Happy New Year!! Here’s why you should travel to Medellin, Colombia in 2024! We’ll show you some of the best things to do in the city as well as taking you on a tour of nearby Guatape – one of the most beautiful areas in Colombia!
Colombia should be on everyone’s radar in 2024 and Medellin is by far one of its most attractive cities for tourists, expats and digital nomads. We spent a week there and it quickly became one of our favorite cities in the world!
——————————————————————
BUY US A COFFEE:
https://buymeacoffee.com/kittiandjon
BEST TRAVEL INSURANCE FOR DIGITAL NOMADS:
https://safetywing.com/nomad-insurance/?referenceID=Kittiaroundtheworld&utm_source=Kittiaroundtheworld&utm_medium=Ambassador
83% OFF SURFSHARK – BEST VPN ON THE MARKET:
Stay safe online, protect your privacy and access content not available in your region! Join using the below link to get 83% off Surfshark for 12 months + 3 months free:
https://get.surfshark.net/aff_c?offer_id=6&aff_id=11834
EPIDEMIC SOUND – BEST COPYRIGHT FREE MUSIC: https://www.epidemicsound.com/referral/dfpt68
—————————————————————–
CAMERA GEAR:
Go Pro Hero 8 Black: https://amzn.to/3DEiTRN
DJI Mavic Mini 2: https://amzn.to/3fFE65X
Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark IV: https://amzn.to/3T65JTF
————————————————————-
WHERE TO FIND US:
BLOG:
Our Blog: https://kittiaroundtheworld.com/
INSTAGRAM:
Kitti’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kitti.aroundtheworld/
Jon’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jon_bradley1993/
PINTEREST:
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/KittiAroundtheWorld/
——————————————————–
MUSIC:
The Best Copyright Free Music: https://www.epidemicsound.com/referral/dfpt68
SONGS USED IN THIS VIDEO:
La Fusion – Bassio
Etiqueta – Bassio
Que (Instrumental Version) – Lu-Ni
Calle Ocho – El Equipo del Norte
It’ll Be Alright (Instrumental Version) – Cody Francis
Best Kept Secret (Instrumental Version) – Roots and Recognition
Video Knights – spring gang
Big Feast – Toby Tranter
El Amorcito – El Equipo del Norte
——————————————————–
ATTRIBUTIONS:
Maps –
Map Source: Google Maps “Map data ©2023” via https://www.google.co.uk/maps
——————————————————–
ABOUT US:
Hi! We are Kitti and Jon! We are a multinational (Hungarian and British) couple living in Manchester, England and we love to travel, hike and explore both in the UK and abroad! We definitely have the travel bug and have explored many countries on and off together in the 7 years since we met (when our jobs have allowed it!). We decided to finally start filming our adventures and sharing them with you guys!
Please Like and Subscribe 🙂
This post contains affiliate links, which means we may receive a small commission if you click a link and make a purchase. Clicking these links won’t cost you anything, but it will help us to keep this channel going!
00:00 – Intro
00:25 – Welcome to Medellin!
00:55 – Exploring El Centro
01:57 – Comuna 13 Tour (Must Do in Medellin!)
04:02 – Gondola to Parque Arvi (FAIL)
04:41 – El Poblado District (Museo El Castillo)
06:16 – Medellin’s Botanical Garden (Free Entry!)
07:55 – Parque Explora
09:41 – Guatape Day Tour (Must Do in Medellin!)
14:45 – Outro
8 Comments
Good video 👍🏼 thank you🙏🏽 going there in May🥰
Columbia looks Awesome!! Thanks for opening our eyes to the possibilities!😍
After 4 weeks of holiday in Bello, Envigado, el Poblado, Medellin, I got out of Colombia. What a crazy place not all but many people are out to find ways to scam you out of as many pesos as possible. Tried the airbnb in 3 different locations one infested with cockroach the other was threaten by the host son in the next apt for complaining about the music at 3am 5-6 nights a week and the last was a total scam listed an address for a decent location apt. in Envigado but was brought to a completely different address at the time of checking in. Not to mention being ripped off by almost all the taxi drivers (not everyone has Uber on their phones) and short changed by many vendors. Sept. 12, 2023 to mid Oct. 2023. I also met these 2 guys from France in El Poblado at a money exchange place (I'm bilingual French, English and some Spanish from Canada) who told me just the day before got both their cell phone stolen at knife point in El Poblado by 2 local thugs in broad daylight on a busy street and no one had the courtesy to even call the police, not that it would have even made a difference.
Why you should NOT travel to Medellin, you people must be really ignorant of what its really like out there!
Medellín is a beautiful city to get drugged, kidnapped and murdered in. The weather is great and it is a relaxing place to rest in peace. Keep your head on a swivel out there, tourists have been dropping like flies
How about explaining your research methodology that led you to the conclusion that Medellin is a safe and great place for a holiday/vacation spot. I just can't wait to hear this!
I have reservations for next month for 19 days, I am having second thoughts with all I have been reading about it..
I going there in February, nice video… I see a lot of videos where there is a lot of risk for trouble if you are not aware and have eyes wide open …