Comuna 13 Graffiti Tour with Street Food in Medellín

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Free cancellationTravelers' pick

1/13

Duration3h

GroupUp to 40

LanguagesEN · ES

Mobile ticketAccepted

Graffiti walls, mango ice cream in a local kitchen, electric stairs climbing the mountainside

A three-hour guided tour of Comuna 13, Medellín's most-visited neighborhood, led by a local guide in Spanish or English. You walk through the district with the most graffiti in the city, learning the history behind the murals; taste street food including empanadas, patacón with hogao, sausages and mango ice cream with salt and lemon; ride the electric escalators to a viewpoint overlooking all of Medellín; and visit an art gallery and Independencia 2, where the guide explains the neighborhood's transformation and its difficult past.

Step-by-step itinerary

Explore Comuna 13 graffiti and history

Meet in July 20 neighborhood
Visit Independence 1 graffiti area
Taste mango ice cream at grandmother’s house
Learn about Commune 13’s past and stories
Ride electric stairs to city viewpoint
Visit Independence 2 graffiti and history site
Discuss electric stairs and community transformation

The Experience

You meet in the July 20 neighborhood and climb Independencia 1 on foot, the mountainside covered in graffiti. Your guide, who is from Comuna 13, explains the story behind many of the murals as you walk. The neighborhood has a painful history—it was the site of the largest urban mass grave in the world—and the guide shares both personal stories and the accounts of locals who lived through it, grounding the visual history in real experience.

Partway through, you stop at the guide's grandmother's house to taste mango ice cream with salt and lemon, a local specialty included in the tour. From there, you take the electric escalators—an innovative public transport system built into the mountainside—up to a viewpoint where you can see the entire city of Medellín spread below. The escalators themselves are part of the story: the guide explains why they were built and how they transformed a neighborhood of more than 150,000 people. You then move to Independencia 2 to see the second part of the graffiti narrative and learn more about the neighborhood's present-day renewal.

Along the way, you taste street food: delicious empanadas, patacón with hogao, and sausages. You visit an art gallery and watch artistic performances. If the group is large, the guide uses a speaker to make sure everyone can hear the commentary clearly. The whole experience takes three hours and covers the neighborhood's transformation from a place marked by violence to one of Medellín's most visited cultural destinations.

What’s included

The tour includes a local guide fluent in Spanish or English.
street food tastings of empanadas, patacón with hogao, sausages and mango ice cream with salt and lemon.
access to the electric escalators and a city viewpoint.
an art gallery visit.
and artistic performances throughout the neighborhood.

Good to know

Easy physical levelStroller friendlyInfant seats availablePets welcomePublic transport nearby

Operated by Visit Medellin Tours

Is this one for you?Choose a Spanish-language guide if you speak Spanish fluently and want the most detailed local commentary; pick English if you need the tour explained in English, and know that your guide is still a lifelong resident of Comuna 13 who will answer questions about the neighborhood's history and present.