Tour the trendy city of Medellin and its surrounding areas. Bike through the traditional colonial town of Santa Fe de Antioquia and onto the backroads to encounter native flora and fauna and banana and coffee plantations. Then embark on a thrilling whitewater rafting trip down the Rio Buey. Cap off this tour with a trip up the cable car the ARVI nature reserve for panoramic views of the city and scenic trails.
Highlights
Bike the back roads on your way to Cordova through vast framland
Raft down the Rio Buey, plunging through class III-IV rapids
Take a cable car up to ARVI nature reserve for panoramic views
Moderately active but not overly strenuous. This level includes activities like casual cycling, yoga, or excursions/activities that typically last 3-5 hours total each day.
Founded in 1541, Colombia’s Santa Fe de Antioquia, is a beautiful example of a traditional colonial town. Dotted with squares, streets, plazas and churches. This morning starts with a drive to the top of a ridge where you get the chance to personalize yourself with the dual suspension bikes. The adventure begins along a highland paramo ecosystem with endemic flora and fauna, including bright purple flowers and unique birds. As you descend on the narrow single lane road, peddle through lush cloud forest with open views to the Cauca River valley. The Cauca is Colombia's second most important river, flowing from the mountains all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. Your ride continues into tropical lowlands and landscapes overflowing with bananas, mangoes and coffee, cacao and yucca plantations. This afternoon, the ride ends in the small village of Cordova where you continue on to Santa Fe de Antioquia for a short city tour before returning to Medellin for the evening.
Total distance: 6.2 miles (10 km)
Elevation gain: 520 feet (158 m)
Max. altitude: 8,094 feet (2467 m)
Continue north along Cauca River Valley. This area is distinguished by traditional towns, thriving agriculture and the Andes’ Farallones peaks. Today’s destination is the Rio Buey, which offers thrilling class III-IV white-water rafting through cloud forest and isolated farmland. The run ends at the convergence with the Armas River. In the evening, settle in at your hotel and enjoy views of Cauca River gorge.
Rafting distance: 15 miles (24 km)
Max. altitude: 2,766 feet (843 m)
Day 4: Explore Medellin and the Arvi Nature Reserve
1 Breakfast, 1 Lunch
Surrounded by mountains, the locals call Medellin the “City of Eternal Spring” due to its pleasant year round temperatures. Your tour of this bustling city begins with a visit to Plaza Botero, a space designed to honor Colombia’s famous artist of the same name. Continue to the Antioquia Museum and the botanical gardens, which act as a wildlife refuge and research center. From the gardens, you’ll ride up on a cable car to ARVI, the city’s most important park and nature reserve. Enjoy panoramic views of the city. In the park, hike along incredible scenic trails, visit a lake and go birding. Take the aerial tram back to Medellin in the afternoon. The day ends with private transfer to the airport to continue your travels.
Apologies for the inconvenience. Prices for not yet published. Below per person rate based on previous season. Contact us to confirm upcoming season pricing.
Prices for are estimated based on inflation. Contact us to confirm pricing and availability for your desired departure date.
Initial deposit is $400, and most travelers will call our office and pay the deposit with a credit card.
Final payment is due 70 days (10 weeks) prior to departure by bank transfer, check or credit card. All final payments by credit card may be subject to a surcharge and maximum of $20,000 charge
Our guide and driver were very good with their knowledge and were very helpful with our questions. It was a very pleasant visit that would have been impossible to do on our own. Hotels and restaurants were fantastic. The special places we got to go to, like the kitchens, were great. Enjoyed the entire trip!
Meyer Smolen
TrustScore 4.8 | 176 reviews
TrustScore 4.8 of 5
Based on 176 reviews on
9 hours ago
Adventure Life is always an excellent choice when planning complicated, extreme, or exotic vacations or expeditions. They provide friendly professional services and advice and are enthusiastic and encouraging in helping us to prepare and thoroughly enjoy our trip. They handle all the details which greatly reduces the stress of planning a difficult trip. I'm very impressed with Adventure Life and definitely recommend them to friends and family.
Scott Trochim
2 days ago
The response from Adventure Life to my first inquiry was prompt and promising. I worked with Jamie Broeckel, Trip Planner, via text, email, and phone calls- always extremely responsive and thorough with information and explaining the process to arrange a private tour for me to Malaysia Borneo. Within about week, the booking was complete and I made decisions because of Jamie's great customer service , friendly manner, and overall competence on behalf of the company's travel expertise. Now I have an itinerary, additional Trip Planner Assistants, several links for vital information for traveling to Maylasia, etc. Still many details for Sept. trip, but now the heavy lifting is done and I can enjoy the rest of the anticipation and research!! Thanks Jamie- you are amazing!!!!
Susan Campo
4 days ago
The trip was not only memorable for the amount of animals we saw but also for the people and accommodations at the two camps where we stayed. Our first guide, BK, was a wealth of information about the animals, landscape and down to the plants and what they were used for. Everyday out was a learning experience with him. All the people at the camps were gracious and the food was excellent.
Our second camp in the Okavanga was just as good as the first as far as the staff, accommodations, food and animals. After our experience at the first camp we amazed that the high quality remained the same. Our guide, G, made sure we were able to enjoy every experience including a rush through the bush to witness a cheetah and an ensuing hunt that he heard over his radio.
In both camps there were enough guides out that if they saw something the other guides were informed which helped in seeing as much as possible. It was also nice that the concessions were large enough that we did not have vehicles following each other throughout the day.
Normally there is always something in a trip of this length that we think could be improved upon but this is the rare case where we cannot think of anything. From the time we left the States to when we returned it was one of the most hassle free vacations we took.
Perhaps emphasizing the use of the laundry facilities at the camps would be useful because of the luggage restrictions would be the only thing I can think of as an improvement to future clients.
Kenneth Dropek
5 days ago
Mary was so pleasant and professional. She made sure all of our questions were answered.