Jericó: colonial Antioquia without the crowds, if you can handle the hill

Jericó is what people hope Guatapé will be and increasingly is not: an authentic colonial town where the visitors are mostly Colombian, the plaza is full of locals rather than tour groups, and nothing has been repainted for Instagram.

It sits on a hillside in southwest Antioquia with long views across the Cauca valley and the surrounding peaks. The centre is colonial, colourful and well preserved, and the town has a strong artisan tradition and a serious coffee-growing hinterland.

Getting there

Buses leave from Terminal del Sur — the terminal serving southern and southwestern Antioquia — and take about two and a half hours. Departures are less frequent than on the Guatapé or Santa Fe routes, so check the schedule rather than turning up hopefully.

Five hours of round-trip road for a day in town is a real ask. It is manageable as a day trip in a way Jardín is not, but if you find yourself enjoying the place by mid-afternoon you will wish you had booked a room. Jericó is a good candidate for the same overnight treatment.

The hill is the thing to plan around

Jericó is built into a slope. The main plaza is level and the immediate streets around it are manageable, but the town falls away from there and the viewpoints — which are the reason for the views everyone talks about — involve climbing.

This is a different kind of difficulty from Guatapé's staircase. There is no single 740-step commitment; there are simply a lot of streets that go up. You can set your own pace and stop whenever you like, which makes it more forgiving for most people than the rock. But it accumulates, and it is warm work.

Cobblestones apply here as everywhere in colonial Antioquia. Proper shoes.

What to do

The plaza. Large, colourful, and the centre of the town's social life. As in Jardín, sitting in it for an hour is a legitimate activity rather than a waste of one.

The churches. Jericó is a significant religious destination for Colombians and draws pilgrims during festivals. The ecclesiastical architecture is a large part of what there is to see.

The artisans. The town has a substantial craft tradition, particularly in leatherwork, and the workshops around the centre are working ones rather than gift shops.

The coffee farms. Several fincas in the surrounding hills receive visitors, and the setting — coffee terraces above a canyon — is the best version of that experience near Medellín.

The views. The Cauca canyon from above is the thing people remember. The best viewpoints require the climb described above.

Practical notes

• Bring a jacket. Jericó is higher and cooler than Medellín and gets cold in the evening.
• Weekdays are quiet; festivals are not. Religious festivals fill the town with Colombian visitors and the accommodation with them. That is either the best time to visit or the worst, depending on what you want.
• Less English than anywhere else in this cluster. Jericó has almost no foreign tourism infrastructure. Functional Spanish is not optional here in the way it is optional in Guatapé.
• Cash. As everywhere outside the cities.

Jericó or Santa Fe?