The Best Areas in Medellín for Families
Updated for 2026 The quick version: For families, the answer is different from the usual tourist picks. Sabaneta is the best base: the safest part of the valley, quiet, leafy, and built around a lovely central park, with the trade-off that it is far from the main sights. Envigado is a close second with the […]
The Best Areas in Medellín for Digital Nomads
Updated for 2026 The quick version: For digital nomads, Laureles is the clear default: flat, walkable, packed with cafés and coworking spaces, with a real neighborhood feel and better value than El Poblado. El Poblado, and especially its calmer Manila pocket, is the runner-up for maximum English and infrastructure. Envigado is the quieter, slightly cheaper […]
Can You Drink the Tap Water in Medellín? (And What About the Altitude?)
Updated for 2026 The quick version: Yes, Medellín’s tap water is safe to drink, which makes it one of the few cities in Latin America where that is reliably true. Fill your bottle straight from the tap. The only caveats are very old buildings with aging pipes, which affect taste more than safety, and the […]
Your Ultimate Guide to Navigating Colombian Visa Applications
Getting a Colombian visa is the part of moving here that almost no one enjoys. I went through it for the first time in 2019 and the process did not love me back. The system sent me to Bogotá for an in-person interview, then promptly broke down and forced me to reschedule. On my next […]
Dating in Medellin Colombia
Medellín has become one of Latin America’s most popular destinations for tourists, expats, and digital nomads, and dating is one of the things people quickly ask about. The city has a real culture of going out, paisas tend to be friendly and open, and meeting people is genuinely easier here than in most places. There […]
Banks in Colombia
Most places in Colombia do not take foreign cash. A handful of tourist spots will accept US dollars at poor rates, but for daily life you want Colombian pesos, and the easiest way to get them is from an ATM. Cards are widely accepted in cities, but plenty of smaller and more traditional businesses still […]