3 Best Travel Destinations for City Lovers

Colombia is a country that offers a wide range of attractions to every type of traveller. In this post I am going tell you which are the best cities to visit in Colombia.

For most travellers, Colombia is a very appealing destination because it offers a great variety of scenes, attractions, cultures and landscapes. What gives Colombia its full potential to attract foreign tourists, is fact that in just one trip you get to discover a mix of cities, jungle, mountains, deserts, islands, towns, archaeology, beaches and more.

However, there are plenty of travellers who would prefer not to have a trip with too many destinations and transportation times. Travellers who enjoy choosing just a couple of destinations and get to know them really well.

There are also some travellers who are not attracted by the concept of spending time at the beach or discovering remote jungle areas. These travellers are usually more interested in the cultural aspects of a country and enjoy witnessing how locals live and interact in day-to-day activities such as markets.

These are also the type of travellers who love visiting museums, learning about the history of each destination and exploring local restaurants.

These are the travellers who we call City Lovers. If you consider yourself to be a City Lover, even if just partly, then this post is ideal for you. It will solve your question of where to go in Colombia as it describes the best cities to visit in Colombia that you must include in your itinerary, and what are the main activities to do in each of them.

The following are the top 3 of the best cities to visit in Colombia:

1.Bogota

Bogota is the capital city of Colombia and also its largest one. It is a huge metropolis of more than 9 million inhabitants located in a valley surrounded by gorgeous green mountains. It seats at an altitude of 2.600 meters above sea level and offers a pleasant weather of around 20 degrees Celsius all year round.

Many of its inhabitants are originally from other parts of the country and have brought with them many aspects of their own culture and traditions. As you can imagine, this mix of people from different origins, has shaped Bogota into a very interesting and culturally diverse city.

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As most of the capital cities in Latin America, Bogota is a chaotic city that grew faster in population than in infrastructure. Traffic jams, air pollution and even safety have been common issues during the last years.

However, despite all of its challenges, Bogota is an amazing travel destination. Especially for City Lovers.

This city offers some of the best restaurants of the Americas at very low prices. It has also plenty of charming local markets, great museums, gorgeous colonial architecture and exhilarating activities.

– What to do?

The following are my recommended attractions in this city:

– Take a walking tour in the old colonial town of La Candelaria

– Visit the Monserrate hill on a clear day to get the best views over the city.

– Check locals selling and buying fresh produce in the Paloquemado Market.

– Visit the Gold and Botero museums, perhaps the best museums of Colombia.

– Take a Bike tour to discover more than just the touristic places of this city.

– Go for dinner, drinks, party and a great atmosphere in Andres DC restaurant.

– Take a graffiti tour and discover some of the best street art of the country.

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– How long should I stay?

To be able to do all these highlights, plan to spend at least 2 full days. If you don’t want to rush too much, or if you would like to get to know this city even better, I would advise you to spend 3 full days.

– Where should I stay?

Being such a big city, it is not always easy to know which is the best neighbourhood to stay. My recommendation is to take a hotel right in the old colonial neighbourhood of La Candelaria.

By staying there, you would be able to walk to almost all the top attractions of the city. This will save you hours being stuck in Bogota’s infamous traffic jams.

There are plenty of hotels in La Candelaria. My recommendations are:

– Middle Upper Class: Hotel Casa Deco or Hotel Casa de la Vega.

– Higher Class: The Orchids Hotel or Hotel de la Opera.

2.Medellin

Without a doubt, Medellin is one of the best cities to visit in Colombia. It is the second biggest city in Colombia and the best example of how a city managed to recover from the violent times into a modern and innovative city.

Nicknamed “The Mountains’ Capital”, this city is completely surrounded by impressive mountains. It seats at an altitude of 1500 meters above sea level and has one of the nicest temperatures of any city in the world: around 25 degrees all year-round. The weather is so pleasant that some people call it the city of the eternal spring.

Unlike Bogota, Medellin doesn’t have and old colonial neighbourhood and most tourists opt to stay in the modern and fancy neighbourhood of El Poblado.

Even though the main attractions are not located in this neighbourhood, it does offer great hotels, restaurants, bars and clubs.

Additionally, traffic in Medellin is a lot better than in Bogotá, so it isn’t a problem to have to take some sort of transport to visit an attraction.

Moreover, Medellin has the best public transport network of all Colombia so you can easily reach many attractions by metro, bus, tram or cable cars.

One of the main reasons to visit Medellin is to witness one of the most impressive city transformations you could ever imagine.

Walking around the fancy, modern and well-organized avenues of this city, you won’t even believe that Medellin was once the most dangerous city in the world.

Colombia has managed to leave its dark and violent times behind, but the place where you see this more clearly, is Medellin.

If you are a city lover, Medellin shouldn’t be left out of your Colombia Itinerary.

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