Medellin in 2 Days on a Budget (With Daily Costs)
Two days in Medellin, the budget version
Two days is enough for the two things that matter most: Comuna 13’s free transformation story and a Guatape day trip done the cheap way, by public bus instead of a guided tour. It skips Metrocable/Parque Arvi and the coffee finca, both worth adding on a longer trip; see the 5-day , 6-day , or 7-day plans for those. Full guide: Medellin on a budget .
Book these before you go:
- Comuna 13 guided graffiti tour : roughly 80,000-120,000 COP for 3-4 hours; the escalators and streets themselves stay free either way.
- Your Medellin hotel : Laureles runs cheaper than El Poblado for a comparable room.
- Guatape guided day tour : the paid alternative to the DIY bus below, useful if two hours each way on public transit isn’t your idea of a vacation.
| Day | Focus | Travel time | Rough cost (solo) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Comuna 13 (guided) + Plaza Botero/Centro | Metro both ways, under 30 min each leg | 100,000-160,000 COP |
| Day 2 | Guatape/El Penol day trip, DIY bus | ~2h each way from Terminal del Norte | 130,000-180,000 COP |
Day 1: Comuna 13 in the morning, Centro in the afternoon
Take the metro to San Javier station and join a guided Comuna 13 tour while it’s cooler and less crowded, roughly 80,000-120,000 COP for 3-4 hours covering the escalators, commissioned murals, and the neighborhood’s real history. The escalators and streets themselves are free public infrastructure; the fee buys context and funds the community. Metro back toward Centro in the early afternoon for Plaza Botero, free and open 24/7, and the Museo de Antioquia next door if you want the indoor Botero collection (roughly 18,000 COP international, 12,000 COP national). Eat the day’s cheapest meal here: a menu del dia lunch nearby runs about 21,460 COP. Base yourself in Laureles or El Poblado; either connects to San Javier and Centro by metro without a transfer headache.
Day 2: Guatape and El Penol, the DIY way
Catch a public bus from Terminal del Norte, roughly 40,000-44,000 COP round trip, for the roughly 2-hour ride each way to Guatape. Climb the granite rock’s roughly 700-740 step staircase (entrance about 35,000-40,000 COP) for the reservoir panorama, then walk the zocalo-covered streets of Guatape town itself, the rock technically sits in the separate municipality of El Penol, a real local rivalry worth knowing before you assume they’re the same place. Grab lunch by the water before the bus back; buses run from early morning into the early evening, so build in a buffer for the return trip rather than cutting it close.
Is 2 days enough time for Medellin?
It covers the two things most visitors actually came for: Comuna 13 and Guatape. What it skips is real, Metrocable/Parque Arvi’s cable-car ride into the hillside comunas, and any coffee finca day, both genuinely worth the extra time. If either matters to you, budget at least 5 days rather than trying to wedge a third stop into 2.
How much does 2 days in Medellin actually cost on a budget?
Figure roughly 230,000-340,000 COP total for a solo budget traveler: a guided Comuna 13 tour, metro fares both days, the DIY Guatape bus and rock entrance, and two menu del dia lunches plus one proper dinner. Skip the guided Comuna 13 tour and walk it solo, and that number drops closer to 150,000-220,000 COP, though the guide’s context and the money it puts into the neighborhood are worth keeping in the budget if you can.
Bring cash in small denominations for the Guatape bus counter and the Comuna 13 tour; neither transaction reliably takes a card.