mlgb

I hope to be returning to Colombia in December, how many days would be suggested around Medellin? I need to book my award flights!

crellston

Medellin was pleasant enough but, as far as cities are concerned, I preferred Bogotá. I think we spent 4 nights there but felt that 3 would have been enough, as for the surrounding area I would allow a min of 4-5 days for the zona cafetera. Loved Jardin and Saltento. Just typing this has got me hankering for a return

mlgb

Thanks crellston.

molly4669

Medellin was just okay to me. Totally did not like the downtown area. I stayed out in Poblado, and it was fine. Excellent public transportation. Did go to the restaurant area of Poblado, and did go at xmas time which made the lights on the river super cool, but eh, there's other places. Honestly, we went to Jardin which was a 3.5 hr drive, and boy is it ever gorgeous, coffee plantations, mountains, rivers, horseback riding, plus the town is so darn cute. I'd go there instead.

mlgb

Thanks Molly, I saw your posting on your driver also. I'll be getting out into the countryside again also. May add several more days for the coffee zone. The art and the cable car sounded interesting to me.

crellston

Sound like a plan. The coffee zone is well worth a few extra days. I am just about to post a brief entry about our time in Medellin on our blog (your quest made me realise I had written, but not posted it!) . I will post here when it is done. The Cabke car is definitely worth a visit and I would strongly recommend one of the city tours on arrival to gain an understanding of the city and how to get around.

mlgb

great thanks as usual hope you are enjoying SE Asia.

I had a good time in Indonesia, really liked Flores, despite the mosquitos!

crellston

Loving SEA thanks. Currently ensconced in Ms Yang's Homestay, our home from home in Saigon. The Giang sisters have kindly been whizzing us around the streets of the city in search of new and exciting eating places!

Just vacillating on where to go in Indonesia - Bali and Flores or Sulawesi?? I read your piece re mozzies in Flores. Yet another dose of Malaria is not something I need!

Anyway back to Colombia. I have now uploaded the blog entry for Medellin @ https://accidentalnomads.com/2016/06...s-in-medellin/

The tour we used was http://www.realcitytours.com

mlgb

Thanks for the links they will be very helpful.

I don't know enough about the remainder of Flores. Ruteng was pleasant and in the uplands. I liked Ubud, despite the high density of tourists. I think you can tour to Flores possibly by boat from either Bali or Lombok. Or just fly DPS to the new airport in LBJ, Flores. We had great views of some of the calderas and still smoking volcanoes on that flight. There are a lot of dive shops and travel agents in Flores. We stayed in Ruteng at Hotel Sindha, a basic modern hotel with quite a good restaurant. They might provide drivers and touring services from Ruteng. They have a facebook page as well as being on booking.com

I would have liked to check out Wae Rebo and the spider rice fields.

http://discoveryourindonesia.com/wae-rebo/

Komodo was fairly dry and not too bad, it was really the swampy coastline at Labuan Bajo that was mosquito ridden. I took the malaria prophylaxis anyways to cover the weeks in Borneo and Flores, and don't mind being swathed in DEET but these swamp mosquitos bite through clothing!

Fred2017

Hi there, like molly, I also agree that the downtown area of Medellin is to be avoided. It is so congested and hot. that said, the rest of the city is very pleasent, green neighborhoods like poblado, envigado , with a great metro. The positive side to medellin is that it is an ideal base for day trips around surrounding the city. Unlike bogota, it doesn't take hours (in traffic) to get out to the really authentic, colomian towns like Jardin (I agree it is gorgeous, and i recently read an interesting article in the new york times about the coffee history of this town).

I stayed for a week & did something different every day. I visited Fredonia,closer to the city, and stayed at a coffee farm with traditional architecture, swimming pool, chef, the works. I also went to jungle resort near Rio Clara & rafted. I went to this mountain village called Belmira, very colonial high altitude village, the start to a desert hike. Honestly, I had a lot of insider tips... I planned my trip with Expedition Colombia (a local operator based in Medellin). Overall, I was pleasently surprised by the range of options from Medellim. I also highly reccomend Cartagena & the bird aviary . If you like birds, Colombia is your country. I saw so many in the rainforest & the Andean Condor in the high altitude mountains.

mlgb

Hi Fred2017, we'll be heading from Medellin to Rio Claro at the La Romero Reserve..Unfotunately it turns out that the best award flight I could get give me only two free nights and then I have to be back in Medellin. So I need to decide whether to head for Jardin or another coffee zone or stick to the city.. Actually I like most cites.. I even like Lima and Bogota.

Fred2017

Hi mlgb,

If you only have 2 more days, I don't think you'll want to drive so far to go to Jardin. Jardin is in opposite direction -- you'd have to get back to Medellin (2 1/2 hours ) and then take a bus to jardin (3 1/2 hours). If I had 3 days, I'd visit Jardin.

If you have 2 days from Rio Claro, there's an ovenright raft trip on the Samana River, about 20 min away from the Rio Claro reserve. We did this & loved being in the rainforest. This is defidently not a city option, though, we camped overnight in hammocks with tarps at a jungle camp!

If rafting's not your thing, I'd say if you like cities go back to Medellin (we did cafe & city tours here: https://expeditioncolombia.com/tours/cultural/) . We also heard Zooming Tours has some interesting city tours, but we didn't go them.

mlgb

Thanks Fred. The culutural tour of Medellin looks good. I've been to coffee plantation tours a few times in Costa Rica, so I'll probably focus on the city.