Guatapé is a small Colombian town located 79 km (49 miles) from Medellin. It is about 2 hours by bus, and pretty much everyone who visits Medellin does the day trip to Guatape. In this post, we’ll share with you how to get here, as well as all the things to do in Guatape.
Why is Guatapé so special? It’s a really colorful, picturesque town for sure. But the real reason everyone visits is to see ‘La Piedra del Penol’, an huge granite rock that is 200 meters high and can be climbed with a lot of steps leading to the top. La Piedra del Penol is the second largest monolithic rock in South America, behind Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio, Brazil. The views from the top of the surrounding lakes really are incredible and make for great pictures.
Once you get to Guatape you will realize there are a lot of really nice homes on the lake. Many famous Colombians have homes in Guatape including Karol G, J Balvin, James Rodriguez, and the deceased Pablo Escobar. If you choose to go to Guatape with a tour, you will surely see the former home of Pablo Escobar, ‘La Manuela’, from the lake on a boat tour.
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Complete Guide to Visiting Guatape Colombia – Things to Do in Guatape
Is Visiting Guatape with a tour worth it?
Normally I hate visiting places with a tour, but Guatape with a tour makes financial sense, based on my calculations. We recommend this tour on Viator which costs $35 and includes breakfast and lunch, a guided tour in English, a boat tour of Guatape and ruins of Pablo Escobar’s estate La Manuela, and pick up and drop off in El Poblado. You will also climb El Penol obviously, and have free time in the town to walk around.
To be honest, with all that’s included in this tour I think it’s a really good deal. Here’s my breakdown of how much it costs to do this without a tour.
| Uber to Metro (round trip) | $6 |
| Metro to bus station (round trip) | $4 |
| Getting there and back on your own | $10 |
| Climbing the rock | $5 |
| Tuk-Tuk to the town | $2 |
| Lunch in Town | $8 |
| Total | $35 |
Plus you get the boat tour, the breakfast, and pickup in El Poblado. PLUS a local guide to explain to you everything about Guatape and El Penol. Have I sold you yet?
Traveling to the bus station in Medellin, taking the bus to and from Guatape, and then back to your hotel in Medellin is a lot. A tour leaving from El Poblado would make this day a whole lot easier on yourself, plus it’s probably cheaper than doing it yourself anyway!
🚌 Book your tour to Guatape from Medellin here!
Getting to Guatape from Medellin
The bus to Guatapé leaves from ‘Terminal Norte’ and is literally right next to the ‘Caribe’ metro station. If you are staying in El Poblado, I recommend taking a cab or walking to the Metro, then riding it up North to ‘Caribe’. From there you will walk outside the station and see ‘Terminal Norte’, which is where the bus leaves from.
The buses leave pretty frequently to Guatape, so you can just buy your ticket once you get to the station at desk 14. Or you can buy it with Busbud here. When you walk into the station, you will need to go to the bottom floor. I bought my ticket online beforehand as sometimes the buses sell out and you have to wait for the next one. The ticket cost us 20,000 COP each. ($4.35 USD)
🚍 Book your bus to Guatape here!
You should know that the bus stops at La Piedra del Penol about 5 minutes before it gets to Guatape. If you want to climb the rock before exploring the town of Guatapé, you should get off here. You will have to walk up a small hill before arriving at the base of La Piedra del Penol (5 mins walk).
Once you are done climbing the rock, you can either get to Guatape by tuk-tuk or by bus at the place where you got off. When we went, the tuk-tuk driver wanted to charge us 10,000 COP each (20,000 total), so we went down and took the bus for 3,000 COP each (6,000 total).
6 Things to Do in Guatape
In all honesty, there’s isn’t much to do in the town of Guatapé besides walk around and take in the sights. It’s a very colorful and small town, so while some may call it “quaint” and “picturesque”, others may find it boring.
Also, if you are going with a tour you won’t have that much free time. So if you want a good amount of free time, come with public transport.
1 – Climb El Penol – The Whole Reason you came to Guatape
Climbing the rock cost us 25,000 COP each ($6.35 USD). There are 740 steps to the very top, and it will take you about 15-20 minutes. We did it in 11 minutes walking at a normal pace without stopping. There are plenty of people selling water and fruit at the bottom of the rock if you want to buy some before you start your walk.
After you climb the rock, there are plenty of drivers waiting to take you into town. (Probably 10,000 COP each)
➡️ Read: Top 9 Things to Do in Medellin 🇨🇴
2 – Visit the Plaza del Zocalo – The Most Colorful Square in Guatapé
Enjoy the vibrant colors, get some ice cream or coffee, people watch and enjoy the vibes with the rolling green hills of Guatape in the background.
🏨 Check out your hotel options in Guatape here!
3 – Have Lunch at Casa Cuba
Guatape has some great food. We ate at Casa Cuba – This restaurant is about 10 minutes walking from the main square, and was fantastic. The staff were very friendly and welcoming, and the food was delicious. This is probably the best food we had in Colombia. (even though its Cuban Food) If you’re not sure about coming here, checkout the reviews on Google.
➡️ Read: Ultimate 2 Week Colombia Itinerary 🇨🇴
4 – Drink some Colombian Coffee
Some of the highest quality beans in the world are grown on the outskirts of Guatapé. Mitos Casa de Café is a great option if you want to enjoy a calm sit down coffee in an aesthetic and well-decorated space. If you want a coffee to-go, there is Black Cafe which is small coffee cart along the dock and has plenty of options and very good quality coffee. Other great options are 1811 Cafe and Café La Manchuria. You can’t go wrong with any of these choices!
☕️ Check out the best coffee tours in Salento here!
5 – Day Trip to San Rafael, about 17 miles from Guatape
If you have the time, you should take a visit to San Rafael as a day trip from Guatape. Here you can visit Cascada La Samaria Waterfall, La Cazuela Natural Pool, or tour a Cacao Farm. This one is mainly for people sleeping over in Guatape!
6 – Get Out on the Laguna
If you have time, or are staying overnight, Guatapé is an awesome place to do a bunch of outdoor activities on the lake.
👉 You can checkout everything Guatape has to offer here.
Weather in Guatape
The weather in Guatape is very similar to that of Medellin. Hot during the day, cools down at night. I recommend you bring a rain jacket or poncho as mid day rain could really dampen your mood if you’re not prepared. Also, it is going to be hot and you are going to be sweating while hiking ‘El Penon’, so maybe bring a change of shirt for afterwards.
SEE 👉 Top 8 Things to Do in Salento
Where to Stay in Guatape
🏨 Hotel: Hotel Los Recuerdos – 4 Star Hotel starting at $137 per night
🏨 Hostel: Lake View Hostel – 2 minute walk to the main plaza, they offer all the water sports you could ever want to do. Great breakfast and bar, plus a Thai restaurant on the third floor.
👉 Book your stay in Guatape here!
Things to Do in Guatape – Summary
Guatape is a wonderful place to visit as a day trip from Medellin. It’s safe, close by, and very impressive. (El Penol is impressive, and the town of Guatape is decent) If you are looking for the best deal financially, we recommend you go with a tour. It will be cheaper overall, and will save you hassle. We did not go with a tour as we really value doing things ourselves and not being in big groups of tourists. It all depends on what you’re looking for!
💡 Checkout out our 2 Week and 3 Week Colombia Itineraries to help you with your trip! We spent over a month in Colombia and travelled around pretty much everywhere! 🇨🇴
We hope you enjoy your trip to Guatape & El Penol!
Thank you for the information, your site has been very useful!
Do you recall seeing if you can rent lockers or leave bags somewhere in town in Guatape? We’ll be staying at a place outside of town and it would be way easier to just have our bags with us the day we leave than to go back and forth to the hotel, but also don’t want to carry them around, either!
I would recommend asking a hostel in town if you can leave your bags. For a small fee, or maybe even for free – I bet they’d let you leave your bags there!