A Quick Guide To The Nicest Parks In Medellin

TLDR? Medellin, or the City of Eternal Spring as it is so affectionately called, is one of the most beautiful urban areas in the western hemisphere.

The entire layout of Medellín is completely ergonomic and attractive. It’s tucked into a valley with gorgeous weather, flanked by the towering tropical Andes Mountains.

One of the things that makes a beautiful city beautiful is the presence of some beautiful city parks! Luckily for the visitor and permanent resident alike, Medellin has some very attractive options just waiting to be explored.

Here is a quick guide to some of the nicest parks in the city.

Parque Natural Cerro El Volador

This city park has a lot of sections, as it’s a quite sizable natural style hill that is quite noticeable protruding from the center of the city.

The park features tons of walking trails along dirt paths and paved roads. The paved roads can be utilized for both cycling up the mountain, as well as for jogging.

There’s a café that serves snacks and juices towards the top, with plenty of places to sit. Numerous informative plaques tell you about the ecology and plant and wildlife that lives within the park.

There is also a community garden and environmental education center in the park. It’s a place where local kids can go and learn about the processes of growing fruits and vegetables.

Once summited, the hill offers some pretty spectacular views of the surrounding Antioquian mountains and the city of Medellin itself. The summit also has some benches and tables to sit on and take a breather.

El Primer Parque de Laureles & El Segundo Parque de Laureles

These attractive parks lie in the heart of the equally attractive Laureles neighborhood. Laureles is considered one of the friendlier neighborhoods for foreign stays.

Both parks feature impressive tree life and handsome sculpting, making them very nice to take walks in. This is especially since they are both surrounded by numerous bars, restaurants, and cafes. It ensures that there’s plenty to do while you walk around admiring the greenery and scenery.

These parks take my vote for the best places in town to grab a coffee, take your notepad or laptop, and consider the profundities of life.

Also, if you want to continue the inspirational vibes, there are plenty of coworking spaces in the immediate vicinity! The second park also has some very nice sculpture work that honors the region’s indigenous peoples. So, there’s a touch of cultural investigation to engage in.

Cerro Nutibara and Pueblito Paisa

Cerro Nutibara is another beautiful forested hill park in Medellin that lies in the middle of the urban center. The hill is most well known for the fascinating Pueblito Paisa, a recreated historic Paisa village serving as an educational center at the top.

Besides the Pueblito Paisa, numerous other attractions make this park worth going to. First and foremost are the beautiful vegetation and the killer views of the city that you get if you make it to the top!

After that, a small auditorium in the park occasionally hosts concerts. The setting of the park makes for a very beautiful location to view events.

There’s also a sculpture park on location, the Parque Scupltura Nutibara Hill. This park contains numerous sculptures by Colombian artists to check out.

Parque Belen

Parque Belen is cool because it feels a little bit like a classic city park. You can see tons of residents engaging in various activities that make for a very lively and engaging atmosphere.

The park has a ton of facilities if you’re interested in breaking a sweat and getting a workout in, including:

• A full lap pool that’s open to the public
• Tennis courts
• A soccer field
• An outdoor gym perfect for pumping some iron

Even if you’re not particularly interested in a workout, the park has some nice places to sit and observe some of the sporting activities. You can also just kick your feet back and enjoy the ambiance of a beautiful Medellin afternoon.

The neighborhood of Belen also has some good cafes and restaurants in the vicinity of the park. So there’s plenty to do if you decide to take a visit.

La Ladera Library Park

The star attraction of this park is the nominal La Ladera library complex. This library features some very interesting architecturally designed buildings. The libraries are free and open to the public and make for some very cool study and work zones if you’ve got some things to take care of.

Asides from the libraries, this park also has a public swimming pool and other sporting facilities. These features make it a fun choice if you’ve got some calories to burn.

The park is located up on a ridge above the central section of the city. So you are offered some pretty great views of the valley below from the vantage point of the libraries.

La Ladera is also close to one of the more notable city UVAS, the UVA de Imaginacion. If you’re not familiar with the UVA’s and the purposes they serve, you can read more about them here.

Parque Arvi

What kind of list about the parks of Medellin would be complete without mentioning the widely admired, much written about (like in this article) Parque Arvi?

Parque Arvi is an extensive natural park that lies just outside of Medellin proper in the surrounding mountains. There are countless outdoor activities to do within its boundaries. On top of all that, the park offers some pretty irreplaceable top-down views of Medellin.

Another great part of Parque Arvi is that it’s accessible via one of Medellin’s very nifty cable cars. These cars serve the purpose of connecting the residents of the city to the green space that surrounds them.

If you’re not up for a cable car, you can access Parque Arvi either by hiking up by one of the local city trailheads or by accessing the park from behind. This puts you close to many of the cool rural towns that surround Medellin, like Santa Elena.

Parque Boston

Parque Boston gets an honorable mention in my book for being a lively and entertaining slice of authentic urban life in Medellin. A little bit grittier than many of the other places in this post, Parque Boston nevertheless has plenty of charm and a lot to offer. This is true even if you’re just in town for the glossier sides of Medellin.

Many street vendors set up in the park selling delicious street food that offers up a taste of authentic Antioquian cuisine. Additionally, there are street performers singing songs, performing circus tricks, or sometimes even reading fortunes with tarot cards

There is a statue nicely put together of Latin American hero Jose Maria Cordova. A stately church nearby casts its shadow over the park, lending the area a bit of colonial architecture class.

All in all, it serves to create a vivacious and healthy urban park atmosphere. This is true despite (or because of) the sometimes chaotic tendencies of downtown Medellin.

The surrounding neighborhood is a nice little slice of Medellin urbanity. It’s not far from the quite entertaining downtown arts district, which I describe in this post.

Park Yourself Over Here

Medellin is a city that’s blessed with abundant green space. This is true both within the boundaries of the city and well beyond into the beautiful Antoiquian wilderness.

Asides from the parks listed on this post, there are dozens and dozens more just waiting for an errant visitor to come and soak in their verdant beauty and lively adjacent communities. So, maybe that could mean you!

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