Where to stay in Medellin? What area is the best to stay in Medellín?
If you ask me I will tell you that without a doubt the Town. The center and Laureles can also be good options but if you can stay in the town you will not find a better area.
Colombia is growing from the tourist point of view and one of the cities that contributes the most to this dynamism is Medellín, with two and a half million inhabitants. It is true that for decades the city had dangerous areas and a bad reputation, but much has been improved in that regard, especially in the tourist neighborhoods.
It is also important to note that the options to stay in Medellín have increased considerably both in quantity and quality.
Among the options that you will find to sleep in Medellín, we must highlight the hotels: more than 50% of the total accommodation. Then you have a good offer of apartments and hostels, and highlight the more than 80 hostels in the city.
This makes the average prices to stay in Medellín low and ideal for getaways with family or friends.
If we talk about the best places to sleep in Medellín and take advantage of your stay, the most interesting are the downtown area, El Poblado and Parque Lleras – where you can enjoy the best entertainment in the city.
And as for prices, it is possible to stay in Medellín for less than 20 euros in three-star hostels right in the center.
El Poblado, the best area to stay in Medellín
If you are looking for a modern, luxurious and safe place, El Poblado is the ideal area. In addition, with more than 400,000 inhabitants, it is the most populated commune. It is south of Candelaria, east of the river and, although the average prices are still low, you will find the most expensive hotels to stay in Medellín. It is also a residential area where tall buildings predominate.
As for the main attractions, we must highlight the El Castillo History Museum located in a large Gothic-style mansion with its towers and everything. It was built in 1930 and today it is publicly accessible. In addition, it has beautiful gardens around it and a lake in front of the entrance.
In this great district there is also another peculiar and increasingly visited place: the Pablo Escobar Museum, in one of the houses where the head of the Medellín Cartel lived.
You can have the best panoramic views of the city from the Miradores de Las Palmas.
But if El Poblado is famous for something, it is for its shops and shopping centers. The number of shops and department stores is endless.
To highlight the most important ones, we recommend the Golden Mile, with several shopping centers, among which the Oviedo Shopping Center stands out. To the north you also have the Santa Fé Shopping Center available, and to the East El Tesoro Parque Comercial.
If you want to continue tasting the tasty Medellin cuisine, then don’t forget to stop by the Clandestino Lounge to the north, or La Provincia Restaurant on the Golden Mile.
And to enjoy the evening, you can start by visiting the Cervecería Libre, north of the commune and on the border with Candelaria. They serve craft beer that they make themselves and the atmosphere is very youthful.
And to go out at night and be in a leisure area with more options, then you have to visit Parque Lleras, within the commune.
The best prices
Parque Lleras, nightlife and restaurants
If the Golden Mile is the place with the highest density of shops and shopping centers, Parque Llenas stands out for its many pubs, discos and restaurants.
If you choose this area to sleep in Medellín, you will be surrounded by young people, accommodation that is somewhat cheaper than in the most exclusive area of the neighborhood, and you will have good communications with the rest of the city.
During the day one of the busiest places is Parque El Poblado, where you will find groups of young people who spend the whole day. In this park is also the most important temple in the city: the Church of San José del Poblado.
Not far away, in the middle of the leisure area, there is a dance academy called Dancefree. In it you can take free salsa and bachata classes. They also organize language exchanges if you want to meet people from other places.
As we told you before, the highlight of Parque Lleras is its leisure sites. As for restaurants, a good place to try the typical dishes of Medellín is the Mondongo Restaurant, with the soup of the same name that we have already recommended.
Another restaurant, this time specializing in grill, is 37 Park Medellín. There are also Cuban, Spanish, hamburger and Asian restaurants. You only have to walk between 10A street, to the north, and the Parque Lineal La Presidenta and enjoy the gastronomic offer.
Don’t miss the night at Parque Lleras either, without a doubt the most dynamic and very youthful. There are special places like SkyBar Medellín, the classic pub like Patricks or rock pub like Lleras, with live concerts. Although you always have to take precautions, it is a safe area to go out at night.
Great Price
Laureles, a good alternative to sleep in Medellín
On the west bank of the Medellín River there are also places of interest such as the commune of Los Laureles. Like El Poblado, it has a population with high purchasing power and most of the commune is recently built (beginning of the 20th century) on farmland.
Unlike El Poblado, the type of housing in Laureles is more residential and not so many tall buildings. Communications are good with several avenues that cross the commune, surface metro line and train, and cheap prices in hotels to stay in Medellín, especially in the area surrounding the Pontifical University of Medellín.
Precisely the great university complex of the Pontificia de Medellín can be an interesting place to visit and see to get to know the academic environment of the city and of the country itself.
To the north of the commune, there is also another large complex, in this case for sports fans: the Alfonso Galvis Athletics stadium, the Atanasoi Girardot Soccer stadium or the Baseball Field.
Even if you don’t like bullfights, don’t miss the city square, today more a place to organize events such as concerts and actually called La Macarena Show Center.
In this great commune there are also places to shop such as malls. Highlight the Unicentro Commercial Citadel, to the south; the Viva Laureles, to the west, or the Diamante, in the sports area.
The gastronomic offer, however, is more concentrated and you will find it around the Primer and Segundo Parque de Laureles.
To the south of the second you can try Medellin-style meats at Bárbaro Cocina Primitiva; Italian cuisine at Il Forno Casa Laureles; Argentinian in the Pampa Cuban grill in La Bodeguita.
To have a beer or go out at night things are more blurred. On Avenida 33 you have a few pubs and discos like Ping Pong Drinks or you can extend the night at Jennylao Discoteca, near the Pontificia area or at Viva Discoteca, to the north of the Atanasio Girardot sports area.
I would place Laureless as the option to consider where to stay in Medellín if you can’t find something interesting in El Poblado or La Candelaria.
Good locatons
Belén, if you are looking for a totally local atmosphere
To the south of Laureles is the Commune of Belén, more humble than its neighbor. Even so, it is a place worth visiting, with a mostly young population and good communications, since to the south is the Olaya Herrera International Airport.
However, the options to stay in Medellín are not the best, at least in density. Only to the north of the commune, already on the border with Laureles, is there a reasonable offer. The prices, yes, are quite affordable.
A place that you cannot miss is a visit to Pueblito Paisa, which is on Cerro Nutibara, to the east of the neighborhood. The place is made up of a hill on top of which there is a typical Antioquia neighborhood and which has a very interesting tourist offer.
You will find the Museum of the City, a park with an interesting collection of sculptures, shops where you can buy handicrafts and the streets themselves, typical of “paisa” culture.
Back in the downtown area of the commune, you can also visit the Parque de Belén, which is very crowded, or do some shopping and spend the day at the Los Molinos Shopping Center.
It is precisely around these two places that you will find the largest number of restaurants. Of those in Parque de Belén, we recommend Guadalupe or Los Alpinos Restaurant, specialized in Colombian food.
Surrounding the shopping center, visit Crepes & Waffles or Asados a los 80, with magnificent meats.
Quiet neighborhood
Envigado, a quiet, elegant and residential area on the outskirts of Medellín
The last area of Medellín to recommend is Envigado, which is not a commune but a municipality. As you can imagine, the atmosphere in the place is much quieter and more residential than the center of Medellín.
Even so, it is well connected with the rest of the city and there are hostels, apartments and hotels scattered here and there to sleep in Medellín.
Envigado is also an area with numerous attractions. One of them is the Niña María Church, to the north.
You can also learn about the history of the area in the Atraparte Museum, relax in La Guayacana Park or in the Envigado Principal Park, take the children to the Envigado Inder Recreational Park or venture on a hiking route with some difficulty towards the Chorro de las Campañas and the Salto del Ángel Waterfall.
There is also no shortage of shopping centers in the area, such as Viva Envigado and a wide variety of restaurants such as Patatas A Cielo Abierto, Pedacito de Amor, Submarino Express or La Gloria de Gloria. And to spend the night, two areas: Calle 38ª Sur and Diagonal 40.
A place to relax
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[…] Have you find the flight that you were looking, I hope you did, now its time to look for the right place to stay, the most tourist towns in Medellin are el Poblado y Laureles and that’s why the prices are most expensives in this places, I have a post with where to stay in medellin. […]