TIME VISITED: November 2017 BUSY ? Weekends Yes Weekdays NO
WEATHER: Mid 70s⛅️ REASON FOR VISIT: Cocora Valley/Town
WHERE TO STAY: El Viajero Hostel EXPENSIVE?: $
Most people visit Salento to see the Cocora Valley(just 20 minutes outside of town), if you are going to do that check out my blog post about hiking the valley, HERE. Although visiting the valley is a great reason to visit, definitely give yourself a day to enjoy the town as well. There are many great restaurants, things to do and see and the people and culture in Salento are wonderful.
GETTING THERE
We flew from Bogota→Armenia and the next morning took the bus to Salento. The bus from Armenia was just over a $1 US and took about 45 minutes. We stayed at Wanderlust Hostel in Armenia and it was only a 3 minutes walk to the bus stop. This is the type of bus you will take, we were the only two tourists on this bus and the locals were super friendly and gave us some recommendations for what to do in town. Once we arrived in the square of Salento we walked five minutes to our hostel.
WHERE TO STAY
We absolutely loved our stay for three nights at El Viajero Hostel this hostel is located in one of the first houses built in Salento, they have completely renovated it and it is absolutely stunning!
POSITIVES OF EL VAJERO HOSTEL
- Beautiful view of the mountains
- Free Breakfast
- Extremely friendly staff
- Great prices
- Awesome bar/hangout area
- Large hostel (90 beds) but cozy feel
- $1 beers
- Bonfire
- Free Yoga Classes
- Free Salsa Classes
We decided to book a private room because it was one of the cheapest prices for a private room we have seen at a hostel, we got lucky and they upgraded us to a premium room with a balcony, they even cleaned our room and made our bed each day!
WHAT TO DO
WALK AROUND TOWN
There are many colorful houses and business’ scattered around the town so take an hour to walk around and see them, I loved that most houses had a balcony.
PLAY THE LOCAL SPORT: TEJO
Tejo reminds me a lot of the game Bags or Cornhole but add heavier throwing objects and explosions, this game is a ton of fun but a lot harder than it looks. You throw a heavy metal piece at the red clay and your goal is to hit one of the small white triangles (gun powder) pictured, if not at least get the piece on the board/red clay. As you can imagine, this game is EXTREMELY loud and most bars won’t let you play past 10 PM so keep that in mind when you head out to play, we played at Beta Town. We walked up to see how to play and I happened to run into my friend Ezra I met in Montana three years ago, who I didn’t even know was visiting Salento. You never know who you might run into while traveling!
CARRERA 4 SHOPS
My friend Greg was kind enough to let me use this awesome picture he took of the shops lined up and down Carrera 4, there are tons of souvenirs here at amazing prices so do your shopping here!
MIRADOR DE SALENTO
Walk up 225 steps to look over the beautiful town of Salento.
WHERE TO EAT
BREAKFAST
We had breakfast, lunch and dinner here throughout our stay in Salento, but our favorite meal was breakfast. This is the backpacker favorite in Salento and once you try it you will see why. The portions are huge, the staff extremely friendly and the food is delicious. I had a moment to speak with the owner Jeff and he was excited to share that they are renovating the building next door and will soon have a brand new restaurant(hopefully by June 2018). Brunch’s Diner is the perfect place for a meal after you hike the Cocora Valley or to enjoy a delicious and filling breakfast before the eight hour bus to Medellin.
Try the omelettes, huevos rancheros, orgazmic blueberry pancakes for breakfast- they are all great. We also enjoyed their packed lunches on our hike and their fish and chips, chili and burrito for dinner.
LUNCH
This was our favorite lunch in Salento- the owner was extremely sweet and served us their lunch special which included; a wonderful curry quiche, salad and soup, we ate every last bite! (lunch is vegetarian)We aren’t coffee drinkers but while we enjoyed our lunch the table next to us ordered multiple drinks and seemed to love them all.
DINNER
This was my favorite meal in Salento and I know I will be dreaming of this meal for the rest of my life! The food was extremely flavorful and gourmet, the restaurant had a wonderful ambiance, and the prices were incredible; I couldn’t recommend this restaurant more! It is also an adorable coffee shop upstairs and you will find the restaurant downstairs.
I started with the mushroom and cheese bread and had the bacon wrapped filet mignon with blackberry and coffee reduction sauce. HOLY SHIT SOOOOO GOOD. Lotti tried the cheesy potato dish and our friend Greg had the filet medallions. We all had multiple lemonades, I loved the rosemary lemonade, and our tab totaled a wopping $30 USD.
DRINK
Limonada De Coco (a drink only found in Colombia, most restaurants will offer it)
What was your favorite thing to do in Salento? Did you enjoy the food , people and culture? Comment below!
Interested in traveling to Colombia, check out my other blog posts HERE!
