Laureles, the Best Place to Live in Medellín and Learn Spanish in Colombia

Almost every foreigner who arrives in Medellín lands in El Poblado first. It is comfortable, it is full of people who speak English, and for that exact reason it is the worst possible place to be if you came here to learn Spanish. Laureles sits on the other side of the city and works the other way round: fewer tourists, more neighborhood life, and streets where Spanish is not optional.

Where Laureles is, and why it feels different

Laureles lies in the west of Medellín and, together with the Estadio sector, makes up comuna 11. The first thing anyone notices on arrival is that the ground is flat. The second is that nearly every street has mature trees. By the third day they discover that the layout is not a grid but a system of circular and transversal streets that confuses even taxi drivers.

That design has a date. The neighborhood was laid out in 1943 under Pedro Nel Gómez, with the collaboration of Austrian architect Karl Brunner, following the European garden city idea: wide avenues, roundabouts and parks instead of the usual Spanish grid. Eighty years later, that same layout is what makes the place so pleasant to walk.

In October 2023, Time Out put Laureles at the top of its annual list of the coolest neighborhoods in the world. The news travelled fast and brought the predictable consequences: more short-term rentals, more specialty coffee shops and a lot more people asking where it is.

A neighborhood you can walk

You feel the difference with El Poblado in your legs. Over there, every trip involves climbing a hill. Here you can walk to almost everything. It sounds like a small thing and it changes your whole routine: you shop on foot, you go to the gym on foot, and you can go out at night without depending on a ride-hailing app.