Fun Walks To Take in the Laureles Neighborhood

TLDR? There are some great leafy areas in Laureles where you can go for quiet walks.

Along with Poblado, the Laureles neighborhood has become one of the premier destinations in Medellin. It’s good for both tourists and residents alike to spend time when they’re gallivanting about the city.

The neighborhood is a nice mix of lively, cozy, quiet, and outspoken. You can get a mix of all of that depending on what corner of the neighborhood you find yourself in.

With its towering trees, pleasant streets and boulevards, and great people watching, Laureles is a great neighborhood for walking. Not to mention it’s relatively flat!

So, what we have here is a brief little guide for my recommended walks in the Laureles neighborhood!

Hitting Up Both Parques de Laureles

One of the prettier features of the Laureles neighborhood would have to be the two Parques de Laureles. They lie snugly fit within the looping inner streets of the area.

Both parks are quite petite but are centrally located in the neighborhood. So, using them as destinations allows you to familiarize yourself with much of the inner workings of the neighborhood.

The second park in particular has some very interesting design features. It almost acts as the centerpiece of a section of the neighborhood that features circular loops for streets.

Both parks are surrounded by many other things to do, and bars and restaurants dot the streets that line them. So you won’t be at a loss for things to check out while you take your walks.

There’s also ample seating at both locations that facilitates when you decide that it’s time for a little breather.

Walk Up La 70 Towards Parque Cerro El Volador

This walk was a neat one I discovered while staying at the Casacol property Factory Lofts. This hotel lies at the southern end of the very busy heart of the Laureles neighborhood known as La 70.

If you aren’t familiar, La 70 is perhaps the busiest nightlife zone in the city outside of Poblado. The entire boulevard is entirely stacked with dozens of bars, restaurants, and nightclubs.

Given that it’s such a busy area, a stroll of the entire length of La 70 will allow you to encounter many sights and sounds. Not to mention some killer people watching! This is true day or night, although the sentiments apply doubly for weekend nights.

The walk that I propose involves heading north on La 70 to make your way to the very beautiful natural area known as Parque Cerro El Volador. In my opinion, this is one of the best urban hikes in the area.

Taking the straight shot up La 70 towards the park should only take about 20 minutes or so before you make it to the natural area. From there, you can head up the hillside and take some walks that result in some fairly amazing views of the surrounding valley and mountain ranges. It’s also a great place to orient yourself to navigating the city!

If you’re into jogging, I tried this walk out as a jog, and it was equally fun. This is because the flat jog down La 70 acts as a nice warm-up for some of the higher elevation gains of taking off up the hilly Cerro El Volador.

Take A Stroll Down the Medellin River Tributaries

The Medellin River that runs through the center of the city is fed by several tributaries. These tributaries snake through various parts of the metropolitan area.

Many of these tributaries have some nice walkways, bike paths, and other features built up around them. Its features like these make them super nice places to take strolls.

You can follow the windings of the tributaries, which are usually decked in copious vegetation. They’re great places to kind of just space out and enjoy some of the beautiful scenery of Medellin. They also act as nice little walking and biking highways to other neighborhoods.

The two main tributary paths that I came across included one that crosses horizontally over the northern end of the Laureles neighborhood. There’s another that sort of snakes diagonally across the eastern edge of the neighborhood and brings you towards the Belen area.

In the case of the northern tributary path, this one also runs parallel to the B line of the Medellin metro. So if you get tired of walking and want to hop on the metro to get to a point further away in the city, you’ll find yourself in luck.

This tributary path is also a nice way to get to the Medellin football stadium. Both tributary paths pass through numerous city sections with tons of cafes, bars, and restaurants nearby.

So, if you’re walking on a hot day or something, there’s always an opportunity to take a load off and stop and have an espresso or a beer.

A bonus to these paths is that since they’re bedecked with foliage and near a water source, they act as great birdwatching spots. It’s quite fun to sit and try and scope out some of the common wildlife of the area.

I spent an afternoon observing the Ibis that seemed to be fond of the paths and saw many more birds just in the brief window that I was around.

If you’re not familiar with this fact already, Colombia has the world’s highest bird biodiversity, so acts as a veritable birder’s dreamland!

More Great Walks in The City of Eternal Spring

Medellin’s a great town for a walk, it’s true. The temperate climate and beautiful landscapes that abound in the city make for some very decent hoofing territory.

This article offers just a few of the walks that I identified as worth taking, and obviously, there’s much more to explore. And, if you want more, you can always check out the walks around Poblado on the other side of town!

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