Once considered one of the world’s most dangerous cities, Medellin has since shed its bad reputation and is now more commonly referred to as “The City of Eternal Spring”, treating residents and visitors to consistently warm temperatures. Medellin is located in Aburra Valley and surrounded by seven hills that provide excellent views of the city. Back in town, visitors can experience the work of world-famous artists such as Fernando Botero in local parks and plazas, wonder at the beautiful display of Christmas lights during the festive season, and celebrate as the city is overrun with colour during the 10-day Feast of Flowers festival.
Armenia, the capital of the Department of Quindío in the Andino region of Colombia, is a relatively small, slow-paced city with a certain quirky, ramshackle charm. The city makes an excellent base for exploring a territory that UNESCO declared a World Heritage Site in 2011: the Coffee Culture Landscape of Colombia. This region is famed for its coffee and banana plantations, its quaint terracotta-roofed farm houses, and its picturesque mountainous landscapes dotted with an impressive array of cultural attractions as well as an abundance of fascinating plant and animal life. The city itself is of course a coffee lover’s paradise with some lovely coffee shops and a number of theme parks and estates designed to educate visitors about coffee culture. Other popular tourist highlights include an excellent museum housing an impressive collection of artifacts from the pre-columbian Quimbaya civilization and some wonderful botanical gardens.
