Armenia, Colombia 🇨🇴 Gringo's Guide
Everything you MUST know about this small Colombian mountain city...
The city of Armenia is located right at the heart of Colombia’s fabled coffee-growing region. In fact, the whole city itself managed to get itself designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site!
Of course, the above reads a bit like a travel brochure. In fact, this is what my friend who runs a travel agency told me about the place.
In real life, all cities have their positives and negatives.
Armenia is definitely not for everyone, but you could also do a lot worse, inside and outside of Colombia.
We're going to do a thorough analysis of this small city, so you can make up your mind on whether it's worth a stay, be it a short one or a longer one. Read on to find out everything you ever wanted to do about Armenia.
Armenia, Colombia 🇨🇴
Population:
With a metro area population of just around half a million souls, Armenia is way too big to be a town, and is definitely classified as a small city.
Climate and Topography:
Armenia is at around 1480 up to 1550 or so meters of elevation, and is roughly west of Bogotá, at 4.3 degrees of latitude. Because of this, it enjoys extremely pleasant temperatures year-round. Temperatures during the afternoon usually peak at around 23 C or 73 F. 24-hour lows usually sit at around 16 C or 61 F.
The Achilles' heel of Armenia's weather is, of course, the rain.
Like its neighboring cities of Manizales and Pereira, it rains quite a bit in the city of Armenia. It's highly recommended to never leave your home base here without an umbrella. The more cold-blooded among you may want to also use a light jacket or sweater.
Also, because of the specific elevation of this place, it frequently finds itself in the middle of a fog belt. People of course also have mixed feelings about this, as the fog can be beautiful and romantic, especially with the right person at your side! Of course, it can also be hard to get around the fog. And, since you're literally in the middle of a cloud, many people find the humidity to be uncomfortable when this happens.
The city itself is very hilly, once again, as is every place in this part of Colombia. It's not as bad as Manizales, though, where almost every street in the city has steep ups and downs.
Getting to Armenia 🇨🇴
In short, Armenia is not the easiest place to get to in the world, or in Latin America, but it's far from the hardest place to get to.
Armenia is located right along the Panamerican highway between Bogotá, Cali, and points south of Cali. While the road is under constant construction, the vast majority of it is in good condition. There is also easy access by road to Medellín. Travel time from Bogotá or Medellín by road should be around 5-6 hours in most cases.
While Armenia's airport is an international airport, it doesn't have many flights to and from international places. You can, however, grab direct flights from FLL or PTY. Unfortunately, the FLL flight is with Spirit. Connecting flights from BOG and MDE are, of course, very frequent, but seem overpriced considering how short the flight is.
For more info on specific flight routes to Armenia, Colombia — click here.
Best Neighborhoods in Armenia 🇨🇴
The two fanciest neighborhoods in Armenia are called:
La Castellana
Laureles
Both of these neighborhoods, which run into each other, are located at the top of a massive hill, and have some really incredible city views.
In the Castellana/Laureles area, you will find some of Colombia’s finest cuisine.
Especially recommended are Osteria Bianco — definitely get a reservation; the place is small and extremely popular — and Zakani for some top-notch sushi.
The other fancy areas are to be found right near the city's international airport, in suburbs such as El Edén (which is the same name as the airport, actually) or La Tebaida, both boutique towns which are also incredibly popular with the city's growing tourist and expat population.
The previously-mentioned Osteria Bianco has also recently opened up a new branch right on the El Edén traffic circle.
Armenia also boasts of one of the prettiest urban parks in the country, called El Parque de la Vida.
You can go to this gorgeous place and really feel you are no longer in the city, it's an amazing way to get away from it all in Armenia. The park itself is located just north of downtown, on the way to Laureles.
It's remarkable how quickly the chaos and bustle of downtown Armenia disappears in this place. In fact, you can see the same rah-rah crowd from downtown come into the park, and they are like different people, so calm, so unlike their previous selves!
Downtown Armenia, Colombia
Most of downtown Armenia is laid out on a super-logical grid, which underwent a major facelift out of necessity because of the 1999 earthquake — see below for more info.
You will find downtown Armenia to be very clean and well-kept, but it's definitely not the upscale part of the city. The north of the city, or some outlying areas (also described below) are much better bets for most people.
However, for the intrepid or the budget-minded, staying downtown in Armenia is definitely an option if you don't mind the noise. All in all, I'd say downtown Armenia is very much like a mini version of downtown Medellín, where I have also stayed more than once with no problems, except for the noise!
You can stay right in the city's historic center, but it's not that historic anymore, it's more expensive than staying in the nicer areas, and you still have the drawbacks of staying anywhere else downtown.
The 1999 Earthquake and it's long-term effect on Armenia…
Colombia, like Japan and some other countries, is a very mountainous place. This means it's blessed with amazing views and hot springs. Of course, this also has its downside. The country is very prone to landslides, tremors, and sometimes a big earthquake hits.
The earthquake that struck Armenia on January 25th of the year 1999 had its epicenter just south and slightly west of the city, mere kilometers from its downtown core. The quake registered as a 6.2, but the location of its epicenter combined with the amount of older buildings in the city spelled disaster. According to most accounts, approximately half of the structures within Armenia were heavily damaged or destroyed.
I wouldn't normally include information like this in a city guide, but, in this case, the earthquake had such an impact on Armenia's infrastructure, look and feel, it's worth a mention here.
Before the earthquake happened, Armenia was famous for its beautiful historical center full of colonial buildings. Some say that Armenia's central plazas were the most beautiful and well-preserved in the whole country. Most of these didn't survive the disaster, however, unfortunately.
The definite positive point of this is that Armenia now has a very modern infrastructure throughout most of its urban area, meaning that things like it's electrical grid have been recently upgraded in a way that never would have been possible otherwise. We can call this a sort of silver lining to a very tragic event.
Naturally, the character of those buildings can never be replaced in the modern age. Because of this, most of Armenia has a very clean, sleek modern vibe and look to it.
Some people may love this; others may be a bit disappointed by it, as the new buildings are just like new buildings anywhere else in the world: boxy, and devoid of detail and what some would call "character".
It definitely almost seems like it's not a Colombian or Latin American city as we might know it.
Accommodations in Armenia 🇨🇴
As a general note, even the cheap hotels in Colombia are usually clean and safe, much cleaner especially than their North American or European counterparts would be.
As for hotels, if you want to go for all the luxury, there's the best option:
It will run you just shy of $100USD at the exchange rates of the time of this writing, and includes a gorgeous pool and great in-house dining. However, it’s a bit outside the city.
You can also go right down to around 50,000 pesos ($18USD or so) for just a basic room in a basic neighborhood. Most basic hotels in good areas are in the 80,000 to 120,000 COP range. Nicer places start at 200,000COP.
It's important to note that these rates are for two people, and that hotels in Colombia typically charge more for each additional person staying in the room. If you are flying solo, it could be even cheaper!
Some decent recommendations in the best areas include:
Airbnb costs range from a low of around 50,000 COP to just under 300,000 COP per night.
In real money, we are talking $10-70 USD per night.
For example, this incredible apartment rents out for about $750 USD per month.
Suffice to say, living in Armenia is damn cheap
Cost of Living in Armenia, Colombia 🇨🇴
As you can probably already see, things are cheap in Armenia.
The good news is that this extends beyond hotels to just about every aspect of living in Armenia — or Colombia in general, in most cases. There are a few exceptions, like, I have never figured out why things like shampoo are so damn expensive. But in most cases, you will be paying pennies on the dollar compared to US prices.
You can still get a regular lunch in a local neighborhood joint for around 8000-9000 COP. That's actually under $2 in USD still! Fancier dining will obviously be more expensive, but it's still a great deal for people bringing that green money. A nice dinner at a top-notch spot in Armenia will still run you around 50,000 COP per plate.
So, a fancy dinner date for two with drinks etc. will run around $40USD, tops.
Let's run two scenarios here.
First, we will look at people who want to do Armenia on a shoestring. This would look something like this, for a month:
Accommodations: $300
Groceries: $150
Eating out: $200
Gym: $12
Cell Data: $15
Social: $200
This leaves us with a total of under $900USD a month. Now, if you want to live high off the hog in every way in Armenia:
Accommodations: $1200
Groceries: $300
Eating out: $500
Gym: $12
Cell Data: $15
Social: $500
So, even if you splurge in Armenia, you can still get it all done in style for around $2500USD a month, getting the best of everything.
Nightlife in Armenia, Colombia 🇨🇴
Armenia's nightlife is concentrated mainly in the downtown area, between Parque Cafetero and Parque Sucre, bordered on the west side by Carrera 20.
Unlike many other Colombian towns, there is no real concentration of bars and nightclubs exclusively on any particular block, although many of the more popular bars and clubs are clustered around the city's Plaza Bolivar.
I'm going to be honest here…
For restaurants, Armenia hits way above its weight as a small city. The same, however, is not true for its nightlife. Its nightlife is typical for a Colombian city of the population it has.
Aka this is NOT Bogota! Nightlife here is marginal at best.
Maybe I'm being a little harsh here, because Armenia's nightlife may be OK by other standards. But I feel that we are in Colombia here — one of the world's great party destinations and the bar needs to be a little higher because of this.
This is especially true because Pereira, for example, is less than an hour's drive away on a very good road, and Pereira’s nightlife is legendary, for example!
Even Ibague has preferable nightlife.
For those of you who are big nightlife people, Armenia may not be the best place in Colombia for you. Others may feel the relative tranquility of the city makes up for it, or may not care about the nightlife at all anyways.
As far as culture in general goes, honestly, things like live music and theater are also a little bit deficient in Armenia, once again, especially when you compare it to other Colombian cities. Ibagué and Pereira as well as Manizales all have more going on in this area. Having said that, there are some places that feature things such as live music on a semi-regular basis.
Dating in Armenia
Armenia, while not a hive of thriving nightlife, is still a great place to meet people, including Colombia girls for dating. This is due to two main factors:
People in Armenia are very friendly
The women also gorgeous
The only big caveat here is that, aside from the really upscale places, people really speak next to no English, or no English at all. If you are coming here and planning on dating or working, or meeting new people in general, fluent Spanish is an absolute must, no ifs ands or buts about it!
P.S: Here’s how to learn Spanish!
As long as your Spanish is up to snuff, however, you will find yourself surrounded by extremely warm and friendly people and will probably be organically introduced to new people at a rate that will make your head spin!
As with any place in Colombia, I strongly recommend that newcomers take it slow and get to know the culture before getting into serious relationships with anybody.
You will find that, as your knowledge of the local culture grows, you will start to discover more and more who is who, and you will have a much better time on the dating scene. In the meantime, you will probably have tons of fun, naturally!
Since this is literally among the easiest places to make new friends on planet Earth, I'm not going to recommend specific places for meeting new people; it's literally absolutely everywhere!
And yes, as a traveling gringo, you will have success using dating apps here ;)
Getting Around Armenia, Colombia
Armenia's logical layout and small size mean that Armenia is a very easy city to get around.
If you want to stay in the downtown area, it's very walkable and generally, it's safe to do so. Of course, the usual precautions apply: don't go out stumbling around the streets outside drunk and alone with money hanging out of your pocket! At any rate, outside of downtown, walking gets a lot more difficult, many just because of the steep hills you would have to traverse.
As a smaller city, Armenia doesn't have a very advanced public transportation system. It does have a very serviceable bus network though, with 37 different routes neatly covering the whole area. Most expats will probably avoid this service. It's far from luxurious, but it can get you where you're going for a mere 2400.
Taxis are also widely available, and many of them work off of their own apps or on platforms like Cabify. The minimum fare in Armenia is 5000 COP, and an average fare would be around 10-12000 COP. I absolutely do not recommend taxis in Bogotá, but in cities like Armenia, they seem to work just fine. Vehicles seem to be cleaner and in better condition, and the same applies for the drivers.
Uber, InDriver and Picap are all also currently in operation in Armenia, and are definitely a viable option to get around as well.
The city's transport terminal is fairly centrally located in Armenia — it's close to downtown. Here you can find buses to a huge variety of other Colombian cities, and to the areas around Armenia. Many of these shorter trips are well worth taking, as described below.
Armenia's Surrounding Areas
While Armenia is the capital of Quindío , it is also the hub and business center for the surrounding plethora of beautiful towns and fincas, many of them classed as world-class tourist destinations. If you're staying any length of time at all in Armenia, it's highly recommended that you visit a couple of them. I'm going to list a few of them below, so you can get an idea of what the area in general is like.:
Calarcá — the “hidden gem”
In all my time in Colombia, I have heard of Calarcá from time to time. For some reason, people often don't have good things to say about it. This includes more than one person who was born and raised there.
I have to say though that, in my honest opinion, it's quite a nice little town, based on my own experience. The town center has, incredibly, preserved many of its colonial buildings. Even at night, things seemed very amicable and peaceful every time I passed through there, and the people have the same human warmth you can find in the rest of the region. Ther town itself is also very clean and kept up properly; people's sense of civic pride is very obvious in Calarcá.
The city's main square is shown in the above picture. One feature that's pretty unique to Calarcá, however, is that the church always found in these main plazas is much more modern than you would expect. This is because the old town church, unfortunately, also didn't survive the 1999 earthquake, and had to be rebuilt. The result is some 1960's-looking thing; I'm personally not much of a fan of it.
Calarcá is located right at the foot of the Central Andes Range, and, as such, the moment you leave town heading east, you will be entering La Linea. This is a famous mountain road that takes you to the other side of the mountains, leading to Cajamarca, and then Ibagué, Girardot etc. on the way to Bogotá. The road itself has recently received a major update, and is now a divided highway both ways, supported by an impressive array of tunnels and viaducts. The drive itself is highly recommended just for the views!
Salento and the Parque del Café
Salento is a quaint little town which in itself is quite touristy. It's also a draw, however, because it's right next to the picturesque Cocora Valley and the famous Parque del Café.
Personally, I feel Salento is a little overrated, and expensive for what you get. The Parque del Café is actually very cool, but they do charge appreciably more for foreigners to go, so keep that in mind. Also keep in mind that it's actually an amusement park, with ferris wheels, go-karts, roller coasters etc. so it's not a good destination for people who want peace and quiet. It does also have two museums on the park's grounds though, for when you're tired of the rides.
Filandia
Filandia is a city around an hour and a bit north of Armenia. It's known colloquially by people in the area as a town frozen in time, or the town that time forgot. It's a great place to go to see lots of amazing colonial architecture and eat simple but delicious local food. Bring your jacket for sure, because it's quite a bit further up in elevation than Armenia.
Armenia, Colombia 🇨🇴 Overall
That about does it! Everything a red-blooded male would want to know before visiting the stunning mountain town of Armenia, Colombia.
Overall…
Armenia does a few things very well:
Stunning nature all around
Cheap as hell
Cute girls
No gringos around
However, the place isn’t a MUST visit when checking out Colombia by any stretch. The nightlife sucks, the city is fairly small, and if you’re not working online — you will get bored here if you stay too long.
As well, when comparing these four cities:
Armenia
Ibague
Pereira
Manizales
Well, Armenia may well come in last place.
However, it’s solid overall and well worth a week or three of your time when you want to get off-the-beaten-path in the interior of Colombia.
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