Colombia is a country full of gorgeous small towns, and Jardín stands out as one of the most gorgeous. It’s a town filled with buildings painted in rich, bright, tropical colors. A town where streets suddenly end at the edge of deep, green ravines. Where rough, forested mountains fill the horizon in all directions. Where you can still see horses wandering the streets.
The hills surrounding Jardín hide trails and dirt roads that rise from the center of town into the heart of those rough, forested mountains. It’s the sort of place where you can lose yourself in nature, surrounded by cloud forest and the songs of colorful, bright, tropical birds. Where you can hike until your legs give out and make it back in time for dinner.
Jardín was easily one of the highlights of Colombia. And that’s saying a lot, because Colombia has a lot of highlights.
How to Get to Jardín
Unlike some of Colombia’s other highlights, Jardín can be pretty easy to get to. Direct buses leave regularly from Medellín’s South Terminal. The trip only takes about three hours.
If you aren’t coming from Medellín, you’ll have a bit more of a hassle. Even from Salento, which doesn’t look that far on the map, you’ll have to plan on an all-day bus ride. You first make your way to Riosucio, and then on to Jardín. Coming from Bogotá or elsewhere, you’ll probably need to transfer in Armenia or Medellín, and you’ll definitely have to ask a local because I never took that route. Jardín is worth it, though.
Jardín doesn’t really have a bus station. Instead, there’s a sort of waiting room in the front of an adorable family-owned restaurant. Look for the green and yellow sign advertising “Cooperativa Central de Transportes de Riosucio” on Calle 8. They speak limited English, but will be very happy to arrange onward tickets to Salento. Show up early for the morning bus and get your breakfast there, too.
In and around Jardín, you’ll probably be using your own two feet to get around. The town itself is quite small. We were able to reach all the activities and walking trails we explored on foot. That’s part of what makes Jardín so great.
Where to Stay in Jardín
Jardín isn’t as popular as, say, Salento, but it’s still enough of a tourist destination that there’s no shortage of places to stay. You’ll find hotels, hostels and guesthouses sprinkled throughout the town and in the surrounding hills. Quality varies. We stayed in two places. One was awful, and the other was amazing.
Our first accommodation looked wonderful in the pictures. However, when we arrived, the cleaning lady who was working there had no idea we were coming. The place was empty and kind of eerie. On top of that, we had to trudge through a muddy construction site to get there. We decided to leave after one night.
Thank God we did, because the hotel we found was amazing. Casa Hotel Portón Campestre was just about everything we could want in terms of accommodations. This locally owned hotel is in an adorable colonial style building located on the edge of town. The rooms were comfortable but reasonably priced. The owner was super friendly and helpful, without being overbearing. It was great.
Although maybe we were just excited to see another human being after being stuck in the weird creepiness of the last place.
If you come to Jardín, don’t bother searching. Book your stay at Casa Hotel Portón Campestre. You won’t regret it. And, if you book using this link, you’ll help support this travel blog at no extra cost to you. You can’t go wrong.
On one of the most fun, but also most stressful, aspects of travel is finding and booking places to stay. These days you have options ranging from dirt cheap hostel dorms to luxurious White Lotus style resorts. Thankfully, the internet is here to make finding accommodation easier.
Hostelworld is the go to app for finding hostels. For everything else, there’s Booking.com. If you book through either of the previous links, I’ll gain a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Things to do in Jardín, Colombia
As welcoming as our accommodations were, we aren’t the sort of people to just lounge around in the hotel room all day. Thankfully, Jardín has a number of things to do that seem tailor made for someone like me.
The town is surrounded by beautiful hiking trails, all of which you can walk to easily from town. The town itself is also fun to wander around. The center is full of colorful buildings, some in the Spanish colonial style, others more modern but all begging to be photographed. The outskirts of town even have some interesting murals and graffiti.
The town also has a fair number of places to eat, considering its size. The area’s specialty is trout. I’m not sure if the trout is indigenous to Colombia or was introduced here, but either way it tastes pretty darn good. You can find trout in most restaurants, or visit the trout farms outside of town. Being at the edge of Colombia’s famous coffee region, you can also find a pretty good cup of coffee in Jardín, too.
I usually like to travel and do activities independently, but sometimes you want to relax and let someone else take over. For those times, I suggest using Get Your Guide. Prices are reasonable and they have numerous tours available. Click here to explore options in Colombia. Tours booked through these links help support this blog at no extra cost to you.
Go Birdwatching and See the Andean Cock of the Rock
Colombia has literally thousands of species of birds, and many of them pass through the lush green mountains around Jardín. Jardín is especially famous for being home to the rather outrageous looking (and outrageously named) Andean cock of the rock.
The cock of the rock’s vivid plumage contrasts starkly with the surrounding green leaves. It’s also a really weird looking bird, but also kind of pretty in its own way. The best place to see it is at Jardin’s Reserva Natural Jardín de Rocas.
The Jardín de Rocas natural reserve is located just south of town, a steep walk down the hill on Calle 9, right before the yellow hanging bridge. They’re open most afternoons. Male cocks of the rock come here to perform their mating display. Sightings are almost guaranteed, though the number of birds you’ll see varies depending on the season. The Reserva Natural Jardín de Rocas official website has more information for those that can read Spanish: https://www.jardinderocas.org/
Jardín has other birds, too. Tons of other birds. Your accommodation can probably help you arrange a birdwatching tour. Otherwise, you can just make sure to bring along your binoculars when you hit the trails. We saw mot mots, parrots and all sorts of tanagers.
Go For a Hike
Jardín’s hiking trails are fantastic, both for birdwatching and just for walking. None of them are as famous as the hike in Salento, but still worth doing. I’d say the trails are mostly of moderate difficulty and can be done in half a day depending on how often you stop to take photos.
To be completely honest, most of the “trails” are just hikes along the nearby dirt roads. However, unlike some other places I could mention, Jardín doesn’t see very much traffic. You’ll likely have the road/trail to yourself along with some fantastic views.
Hikes aren’t marked, and your map app might not be 100% accurate here. Thankfully, since most of the hiking takes place uphill in the mountains, if you get lost just turn around and head downhill. Don’t go wandering off road, though, and be sure to be respectful of private property. If someone went through the trouble of putting up a fence, it probably means they don’t want you wandering around their yard.
Below are just a few of the hikes you can do in Jardín.
The Herrera Trail
This trail starts off of Carrera 6 at the south-east edge of town. You’ll wind your way past the Cascada de Amor (the “waterfall of love”), as well as a bat cave that looked cool, but was closed when we went. You wind your way uphill into the verdant, rural countryside, then loop back into Jardín via the yellow hanging bridge near the Jardín de Rocas reserve.
Halfway through, there’s a nice coffee shop with a great view overlooking the town. You can also take a rickety old cable car, known as “La Garrucha” up or down the hill, which is kind of fun, but a little scary.
La Escalera Waterfalls
La Cascada Escalera is a lovely set of waterfalls in the hills to the north of Jardín. The trail is a moderately uphill out and back trail, and it was probably our favorite. I think we did some variation of this hike about three times. As you walk out of town, you find yourself surrounded by trees, vegetation and farms and pastures. The scenery is beautiful. The waterfalls are nice, too, but to me the highlight is the hike itself rather than the end.
You can start at the end of either Calle 13 or Calle 16, depending on your mood. The road passes by Truchera Montemar, which is a good place to get some lunch and a beer on your way back.
The Cristo Rey Trail
If you don’t want to go all the way to the waterfall, you can hang a left a short-ways past Truchera Montemar (or further up near the Bosque Escondido Coffee shop) and make your way to the Cristo Rey hike. You’ll get excellent views of Jardín, and get to see the ubiquitous crucifix that seems to be on top of a hill in every town in Latin America.
The trail passes through some old banana plantations, and makes a steep decent back into town, crossing a cool old bridge. You could also do this hike in the opposite direction, starting at the end of Calle 11. It just depends on if you’d prefer to have the steep bit going up or going down.
There used to be a cable car going up this hill, but it’s been broken for probably years. However, it’s also kind of interesting to wander around the ruins of the old cable car station. Just try not to think too much about how easy it used to get up and down this particular hill.
Final Thoughts on Jardín, Colombia
Jardín was beautiful enough that I really didn’t mind tramping up or down steep hills. The town itself is pretty, but the trails and dirt roads that climb up into those rough, green mountains were absolutely stunning. I think Jardín might be one of the most beautiful places in Colombia, which is saying a lot because Colombia is a very beautiful country.
It’s a little strange Jardín isn’t more popular. It’s gorgeous, friendly and only a few hours from Medellín. It has enough tourism to have plenty of hotels and traveler’s amenities, but not so touristy that you feel like you’re in some sort of European settler colony. Maybe it’s a good thing Jardín isn’t more popular.
Looking back on my time in Jardín, though, I’m starting to feel like I don’t know why I ever left. Especially now that I’m back in my home city, a city that feels flat and grey. I find myself dreaming about Jardín and its lush green rugged hills.
Want to discover more beautiful places in Colombia? Click here for our country guide: Covering Ground in Colombia: A Travel Guide to One of the World’s Most Magical Countries
Useful Websites for Traveling Colombia
As much as we might long for the days when you could show up to a town with nothing more than a beat-up guidebook and a sense of adventure, today much of traveling involves being glued to our phones making bookings. I’ve compiled some helpful apps and websites below that at least help make those bookings more convenient so you can spend less time staring at your phone and more time exploring at your surroundings. Some of these sites are affiliate links that give me a small commission at no cost to you if you chose to book through them. All of them are sites I’ve used personally and have no problem recommending.
Just be sure to do your due diligence as much as possible. Only hire local guides and try as much as possible to stay in locally owned hotels and hostels so that your hard earned travel dollars actually go to support the local economies of the places you visit.
Booking.com is basically the world’s only hotel booking website. They have hotels, guesthouses and vacation rentals all over Colombia.
Hostelworld is the go-to site for booking hostels. If dorm rooms and shared bathrooms are your thing, you’ll find hostels all over Colombia.
Get Your Guide offers tours and activities all around the world. Unlike some other sites and apps that do the same thing, you can actually find some reasonably priced deals here.
Red Bus is a super useful resource for booking long distance buses throughout Colombia. If only you could use the app to turn down the air conditioning on the night buses…
Cabify is the best way to book a taxi in Colombia’s major cities. It works like Uber, but you get connected to a licensed, authorized, taxi instead of just some random weirdo.
