[INFOGRAPHIC] Medellin Travel Cost

Our first stop on our trip around the world was Medellin, Colombia, where we spent 19 days and nights. We picked this city because our friends and fellow backpackers alike raved about how much it had to offer, but also because of how far our dollar could go. Let’s take a look at at the Medellin travel cost and how much it costs for two people to travel to Medellin for 19 days. (You can also check out our Medellin highlight video here.)

Medellin Travel Cost Overview

This post isn’t done in the straightforward “per night” for every item. For some of metrics, it makes more sense to talk about “per visit” (such as trips to bars and meals out) or just give a single price (such as for a tour). The table at the below breaks down the major categories per night and total.

Prices in US dollars.

Daily Living Expenses | $62.54 per night (COP 187, 536)

I grouped these five categories (lodging, transit, coffee, food, and alcohol) together as Daily Living Expenses — because they are the necessary (or “necessary” for coffee and alcohol) regular expenses of a trip. If you’re in Medellin for less time, you might spend more on these categories because you’ll eat out more, cook at home less, and party harder. Altogether, these five categories totaled $62.54 per day (COP 187,536 per day). Or, in per person terms, $31.27 per person per day (COP 94,000 per person per day).

Lodging | $39.26 per night (COP 118,000 per night)

We booked an Airbnb in El Poblado for $746 dollars, or $39.26 per night, or $19.63 per person per night. For comparison, Round the World Couple spent roughly the same—$42 per night—for a different Airbnb in El Poblado. You can find Airbnbs in good areas as low as the $20-$30 range or good dorm beds in hostels from around $10 per person.

Transit | $1.03 per night (COP 3,000 per night)

Other than walking, the Metro train was our exclusive mode of transportation around Medellin. It was $0.77 (COP 2,300) per person, per one-way trip. You can reduce this by 15% by getting a Civica card, which we didn’t do.

Coffee, Food, and Alcohol | $22.25 per night (COP 67,000 per night)

We had coffee 19 times, averaging $3.84 per visit (COP 12,000 per visit). We went to nicer coffee shops where we were spending about $3  (COP 5,000 to 6,000) on each of our drinks. You could easily get a small black coffee (“tinto”) for less than $0.50 (COP 500 – 1,000) from a street vender. Keep in mind a small is probably about 4 to 6 ounces.

We had alcohol 20 times (where each time is a single stop in a night), averaging $4.98 per stop (COP 15,000 per stop). This was between 1 and 2 beers per person, usually. The most we paid was $3 (COP 9,000) per beer, and this was for craft beers or the popular domestic beers at an expensive place. You could get a bottle of Pilsen (a cheap beer popular in Medellin) for $0.57 (COP 1,700) if you knew where to look.

For meals, we ate a combination of homemade meals we cooked at our Airbnb, street food and meals out at restaurants. It’s tough to categorize these precisely, but I’ve gotten pretty close.

We had 9 meals at restaurants that averaged $16.18 (COP 49,000). It’s worth noting that we’re not big eaters—a hungry couple could easily double that. Our meals usually included two beers and two entrées. Bigger meals, with appetizers and desserts, came out around $22 (COP 66,000).

We ate street food (or drank street beverages) 14 times, averaging $1.69 (COP 5,000). Typically this was something like two cups of guarapo (sugarcane and lime juice drink) for $0.50 (COP 1,500) each or two empanadas for $1.17 (COP 3,500) each.

We spent $80.72 (COP 242,000) on groceries. We’re more two or two-and-a-half meal, not three meal people. This was probably about 30 meals, so about $2.70 (COP 8,000) per meal, or $1.35 (COP 4,000) per person per meal.

Activities | $13.19 per night (COP 40,000 per night)

Our activities mostly consisted of three day-trips, scaling El Penol, tours and a day at Parque Explora. We spent a total of $250.62 (COP 752,000) on activities. Per day (for what that’s worth), that’s $13.19 (COP 40,000).

Miscellaneous |$1.20 per night (COP 3,605 per night)

I hate miscellaneous as a category, and I’m sorry that we included it here. This included things like small souvenirs and the fee to have our Airbnb cleaned mid-trip (because our host suggested/requested it, not because we’re high maintenance).

Travel Expenses | $577.70 one-way for two (COP 1732,450 one-way for two)

It’s important to note starting off here that how much you spend on getting to Medellin can vary greatly. Roundtrip from Chicago, flights are available for as low as $363. From Fort Lauderdale, as low as $209. Copa, Avianca, and American are major airlines that fly to Medellin, so you could consider using points for your flights as well. (NOTE: For the sake of the infographic above, I used $864 which was the average cost for two people from LA, Chicago and NY over the next three months.

On this trip, we flew one-way from Orlando International Airport and paid $270.35 per person flying on Copa via Panama City.  (This was only a one-way ticket because of our round-the-world itinerary, but in my experience Copa and Avianca often charge almost as much for one-way as round-trip—sometimes more!)

We also paid $37 for a ride from the airport to our Airbnb in El Poblado. That was about the going rate for an Uber, and a little higher than a taxi would have cost, but we wanted everything to be taken care of when we arrived.

Ready to Plan Your Trip?

Are you planning a trip to Medellin? That’s awesome and we’re jealous! Our Medellin travel guide has everything you need to plan your trip. We’ve got you covered on everything from our perfect 1-4 day Medellin Itinerary to our Medellin Coffee Guide for all things coffee. Be sure to check out our favorite things to eat, drink and do in Medellin plus a video of our Top 10 Medellin experiences.

Have you be to Medellin? What were your Medellin travel costs?