City Rating: Medellin

Population: 2,500,000

Date of visit: December 2018

Attractions & sights: 4/5
Nightlife: 5/5
Safety: 3/5
Infrastructure: 3/5
Low budget factor: 4/5
Total: 👍 👍👍 👍/5

The city in a nutshell:

Medellin is the best city in Latin America I have been to yet. It’s a beautiful and also quite modern city (in the city center at least) with some cool things to do, excellent restaurants and superb nightlife. If I had to describe Medellin in two colors, my answer would be red and green. “The City of the Eternal Spring” is surrounded by green hills, and almost all houses are colored in red or have a red roof at least. That makes the appearance of the city very unique.

Where to stay:

El Poblado, no discussion. This is the tourist district of the city, it’s safe to walk around at night, and it’s less hectic than other areas. You also have a good selection of restaurants, shops, malls and cafés in this neighborhood, plus the main nightlife district is here as well.

The Good:

Medellin is a city that offers enough activities for a few days. There is the mandatory cable car ride that connects the city center with the surrounding barrios and gets you up to Arvi Park. Another must is a day trip to Guatapé, which is available for about 25 Dollars.

Other things to do are visiting the numerous parks in the city, going out in El Poblado and having dinner in the outstanding restaurants. The activity I liked the most was the free graffiti tour in Comuna 13. This tour is more than a graffiti tour, it’s a history lesson about the city that used to have the notorious nickname of “most dangerous city in the world” a few years ago.

Adventure seekers can go paragliding over the green hills of Medellin. And people, who are interested in the history about Pablo Escobar, can join an Escobar-tour as well.

Nightlife is among the best in the world. The main nightlife district is around Parque Lleras. It’s a bit a gringo land, but Colombians go there too. We went there on a Tuesday and on a Friday and the streets were crowded on both nights. There are plenty of bars and nightclubs around Parque Lleras, and they are open until late.

What’s good is that Medellin is a budget-friendly destination. A 20-minute Uber ride costs 5-6 Dollars, food and drinks are cheap as well, and accommodation doesn’t cost a fortune either.

All in all, Medellin is an outstanding city that should meet the needs of every traveler.

The Bad & The Ugly:

There are only two little things that prevent me from giving Medellin an overall of 5/5:

The first one is obvious. Although Medellin is considered safe nowadays, it’s still South America, and you shouldn’t roam around without knowing where you go. El Poblado is a safe neighborhood and walking around alone at night is not a problem. However, there are other neighborhoods that are definitely less safe.

What really bothered me though was the infrastructure. The streets are good and you even have a metro, but the streets are full of vehicles in the late afternoon and a 4km journey can last longer than 45 minutes. Getting around in Medellin is a real pain in the ass between 5PM and 8PM. The metros are an efficient way to get from one point to another, but there are as many people in the wagons as in Tokyo’s subway at 8AM. Claustrophobic people won’t enjoy the ride.

Find other City Ratings here.