Where to Stay in Medellin

The wealthy district on the eastern hillside, green and wooded, where the international restaurants, rooftop bars and most of the city's hotels are. Parque Lleras is the nightlife centre, the metro runs along the valley floor below, and English is widely spoken.

Good to know: The comfortable choice and the least Colombian-feeling part of the city, which is the honest trade. It is also hilly, so the walk back up from the metro is real work. Streets immediately around Parque Lleras are loud until late and are where the problems with drink spiking concentrate, so book a few blocks away.

A planned residential district west of the river, laid out around circular roads with mature trees, low-rise apartment blocks and neighbourhood bakeries. La 70 is its main strip of bars and restaurants, and it is where a large share of the city's young professionals live.

Good to know: The pick most repeat visitors make: flat and properly walkable, which El Poblado is not, cheaper for both rooms and meals, and it feels like a real neighbourhood rather than a visitor enclave. Less English spoken and fewer international restaurants. La 70 itself gets loud at weekends.

Technically its own municipality south of El Poblado, with a proper town square, a church, an old market and a settled residential feel. It has its own metro station and a growing number of good local restaurants without any of the visitor infrastructure.

Good to know: Quiet, cheap and the most ordinary place on this list in the best sense, which is why long-stay visitors gravitate here. It is further out, so expect twenty to thirty minutes to reach El Poblado's restaurants. Very little English. Best for a week or more rather than a short trip.

The next municipality south again, smaller and lower-key than Envigado, built around a pretty central plaza where people actually sit in the evening. It has a metro station, cheap and good local food, and almost no visitors.

Good to know: The cheapest reasonable option with a metro connection, and the most local experience on the list. It is also a long way from anything a short-trip visitor wants to do, at roughly forty minutes to El Poblado. Take it for a long stay or a tight budget, not for three nights.

A large residential district south-west of Laureles, ordinary and unglamorous, with everyday prices, local bakeries and the small in-city airport for domestic flights on its edge.

Good to know: Cheap and safe in its central parts, and useful if you have an early domestic flight. It is not on the metro line, so you rely on buses or taxis, and there is nothing here a visitor would travel to see. A practical choice rather than a good one.

A small pocket of El Poblado just north of Parque Lleras, with low-rise houses converted into cafes, wine bars and small restaurants along a few tree-lined streets. Walkable, contained and much calmer than the nightlife blocks.

Good to know: The best of both for a lot of people: inside El Poblado with all its convenience, but far enough from Parque Lleras to sleep. It is small, so there are only a handful of places to stay and they book up. Still hilly, like everywhere in Poblado.

The historic and commercial core on the valley floor, with Plaza Botero and its sculptures, the Museo de Antioquia, the old cathedral and a dense, loud, crowded street market atmosphere during working hours.

Good to know: Absolutely worth a half day, and the plainest advice in this guide is not to stay here. The centre empties of ordinary business after dark and becomes genuinely unsafe for visitors in a way the rest of the city is not. Go in daylight, ideally on a walking tour, and go back to your neighbourhood in the evening.