hey everybody my name is jonathan north today i’m going to talk to you about some things you need to know before you head to Medellin for your first time

the main airport there is uh i think it’s like sand san jose maria right that’s the main airport that you’re going to most likely fly into if you’re coming international the customs process is is usually never packed unless it’s you know spring break or something like that but even medellin doesn’t have a huge spring break so customs is always super super easy super smooth make sure you have your documents not a problem once you come into uh into that airport you’re gonna fly into a city called rio negro and rio negra is up in the clouds you know medellin is at 4 500 feet but rio negro is like a kind of a city right next to it’s really beautiful highly recommend spending some time in rio negro versus columbia versus medellin you’ll get a little bit cheaper prices in a a more laid-back lifestyle but well yeah put it on the list so once you land in the airport what i what i usually do is i go directly to an 8 atm and get some some colombian pesos so you’re going to get the best exchange rate usually from that atm and always decline that transaction sometimes they hit you with like a would you like to use our conversion fee i always decline that it always it charges you like any extra 18 or some ridiculous number so you get your colombian pesos out of an atm of which there’s plenty on the bottom floor and there’s like a bunch of coffee shops too if you go up in that airport is the the food court if you’re hungry you know you can go get a brosti or something like that uh up on the top floor really delicious fast food colombia does fast food very well so you’re hungry for the top floor but if you’re ready to roll just go to the bottom floor and get your stuff uh

get some colombian pesos and then find a taxi the yellow taxi service from the airport is is pretty decent never had a problem i i don’t know dozen times i’ve used that the yellow taxi from the airport you know those little two-door chevy sparks or four-door the tiny little compact cards no problem and expect to pay about 21 us dollars that’s that’s at 20 20 to 25 is what i usually pay coming from rio negro from that san jose maria airport something like this one of those names to uh into the city of medellin medellin is a big city and uh if i recall correctly you have to go like east yeah you have to go east through the city so if you’re like on the west side in lower alleys it’s going to cost maybe a few extra bucks yeah 50 20 20 25 it’s about right so you’re not getting uh ripped off and there’s not really like a huge ripoff culture in in uh in colombia i very very infrequently have i been gouged on a price but anyway there’s also uh tunnels and tolls and stuff so he’s gonna the taxi driver is gonna be paying for tolls so keep that in mind this is a beautiful ride by the way it’s one of them if you if you’re coming early in the morning or not or in the or you know evening which is like 5 30 p.m uh it’s going to be beautiful and you’re going to be very tempted to take a photo i wouldn’t hang my camera out the window of these cars because someone on a motorcycle will snatch it just as a matter of fact never hold a camera or anything out of the window of any taxi in columbia uh but but yeah it’s beautiful you’re gonna want to take some pictures it’s gonna take 45 minutes you know for 20 for a 45 minute taxi you’re not going to find it anywhere so once you get in the medellin it’s going to be like a long downhill and you’re going to have it this twisty downhill and that’s going to be uh lettres that’s like uh no not waitress excuse me that’s a palma los palmas uh and it’s gonna go kind of straight into el poblado area there’s like this nice beautiful area with all the hotels if you’re coming there for your first time and you have some some some pesos in your pocket you could go to the intercontinental hotel which is probably the nicest hotel in the entire country and i’ve stayed there before one of the best experiences of my whole life staying at that intercontinental hotel it’d be 95 a night you know that’s that’s so cheap but but if you want to go on airbnb or if you want to i if you’re coming there for a short period of time i wouldn’t recommend searching for an apartment on the ground like like asia style feats on the ground walking around no i don’t do that what you want to do is go on airbnb probably or booking.com and the first time i ever went to medellin my apartment was 100 and or no 385 a month all included and i stayed there for months so uh

so you can look on airbnb go on booking or you can just get like a you know in in el poblado there’s the hilltop there’s like really nice places to stay if that’s what you’re into uh so there are a few neighborhoods you can stay in i i like a more relaxed residential walk super walkable somewhat flat neighborhood poblado is hilly so you’re going to be walking you know walking up and down hills quite a bit but i stay in war allies every time i’m there i have a place or a guy that always has a place for me to stay i know i know the people locally i know the area very well i walk around at night without any problem through our allies and i just know the roads it has good good access to bike riding area you know areas uh but but really like villain you know there’s bajo i would say i wouldn’t go too far up north if i’m looking for a place once medellin is a big city you don’t want to be like big on the taxi rides um so i just stay in war alleys because it’s about as close as i want to be to el pollado and then on friday and saturday nights you can go to el poblado and you also have very close uh la setenta so tenta is like the 70. it’s a it’s a strip it’s like it’s like basically a walking a huge walking street it’s very fun yeah exactly what i said billet or Alex bellen those are our tourist-friendly flat Plano um areas where i think are very livable areas and there’s a lot of uh there’s some hostels and things like that in there uh so that’s nice i never stay right in uh el poblano because it’s just too high speed for me i like to rest and relax and i like to have the fun if it’s if it’s close uh food so there’s a exito exito is one of my favorite uh

supermarkets but then on the other hand you have street food and you have little markets tiny little markets are like 400 square feet total maybe all over bellin and lore allies that’s why i like those places it’s real like homey you can just run to the store and grab get a coffee or whatever you need the essentials are right at your fingertips so and then in front of those stores what usually happens is they open up a uh like a food stamp like you in the mornings you can get a pastel decarni in a in a coffee you know and it really helps you break up the day if you’re working remotely um you know just nine am you know go out and get uh some some meat and chicken or something like that or an arepa and then you know want to you know get a coffee and then come back at noon just it’s very smooth out your day is what i’m saying so and then for for more larger food stops there’s excitos all over the place excito is like walmart but like i want to say they have better selection it’s more it’s more like a it’s it’s less like a big box store it’s more carriable stuff but they have electronics if you need it it’s really good you can buy a motorcycle there uh getting around you know you have a couple of ways to get around you could literally just go to that exit though and buy a motorcycle but if you’re going to be there for an extended amount of time i recommend this is going to sound crazy once you see the traffic but you get used to it just go buy a motorcycle i bought a i’ve owned multiple motorcycles in colombia and uh you know 125s 300s it’s it’s easy it’s easy to get around on a motorcycle gases is so cheap even in these days colombian gas i don’t know why it’s just very cheap it’s it’s an oil-rich country um so and and you get to see so much you know if you bought a motorcycle you will you’re you’ll probably get 10 times the value for your money in your colombian trip than if you just use taxis i mean you can see you could see these places like the orient of antioquia you know which is like the santa elena around the the east side of the of the country in the this of medellin and you can uh look over the you know see like a beautiful mirador and watch this sunset you could go south there’s all there’s like there’s just hours and hours and hours of beautiful countryside south of medellin that nobody knows about i have a video of me riding through that countryside in the uh i’ll link in the description below um but if not your thing um yeah you could just use taxis or find somebody who’s got a motorcycle

and you can either rent it or buy it i just buy them and sell it when i’m done you only lose a couple hundred bucks and if you’re gonna be there for a month or six months or something like that you just buy it and sell it

um and you can do it with a passport you don’t in most departments i think i don’t want to get too deep into this but like there’s some some inter-fighting between the departments like of caldes and rizzarel or i’ve called us yeah and rizzarelda but that’s like more of a historical dispute colombians are very uh there’s there’s a history there so anyway uh if you’re a single guy dating there will be very easy but you know no no pain no gain sort of thing dating there is going to be uh hit or miss it’s you’re gonna take some time to learn a new culture and and yeah you have to just treat those people you’d meet on a dating site no different than anybody else you would meet you know there are i don’t want to go too deep into this but there are people you should not invite into your homes you know if that’s if you’re thinking about going out and meeting a girl and bringing her back home i would just put that up put that aside not you know or just vet the person very well uh malls so what they call a mall in colombia is a centro commercio so you have like centro commercio santa fe which is a beautiful mall it’s like six stories um you’re not gonna there’s no uh translation from all just central commercial and and all the people will know you know how to get you uh you know a taxi driver will know how to get you straight there say central commercial los molinos they’ll take you straight there very easy um and these malls are gonna have everything you need everything uh you need you know things some things might be more expensive like shoes for whatever reason so colombia has bata bata it’s like a shoe company that is made domestically and then they tax all the imports of shoes like if you want new balancer nikes they’re going to be through the roof but the local batas are going to be like next to nothing so uh if you need shoes just you know and they’re somewhat disposable just go just try and find like a national brand of shoes like bata

and what about other towns around around Medellin there’s so many beautiful places to see um the problem is problem is the closest thing to Medellin is is like well you have Rio negro that’s there but the closest like big-city capital city is monteza and that’s eight hours on bus or 100 miles about like 100 miles or eight hours because you go down you go south and it’s just curves and the roads washed out and there’s constructions and you’re riding or driving alongside the Rio Rio calca right and Rio calca is a huge ripping roaring river that’s constantly washing the roads out and and they’re rebuilding the roads but it’s the only way to get through because everything else is like mountains on on both sides

so so keep that in mind that’s why i was going to mention oleja earlier so oeha airport is the original airport and it will take you if you want to go to pereira uh which i recommend taking medes yeah medellin to pereira and then bus up to manis alleys rather than going medellin to uh manny’s alleys directly because that airport that the man is airport’s horrible but yeah you want to go to bogota cartagena even in antioquia in that department there’s a there’s some beach you could get to very easily so so check those out and there’s also bus terminals all over medellin if you if you really want to travel cheaply but i just don’t recommend it because land bus transport through columbia is tough like you’re going to be it’s just all high speed turns it’s not a comfortable thing and you could go 250 miles away 300 miles away and i might look close on a map but it’s a 19 hour bus ride like it’s just crazy how with some of the but some of the things that people put up with in columbia i don’t know how anyway yeah the food is very oh man so that’s it that’s that should get you through you know your first trip to medellin and you’re just gonna just gonna keep your head on a swivel you’re in latin america you have to take certain precautions the moment you let your guard down is the moment something bad happens so don’t let your guard down thanks for watching and hit the like if you made it this far please hit the like button hit the subscribe button uh it really helps me make more of these videos thanks