Things to do in and around Salento

Located right in the centre of Colombia’s coffee triangle, Salento is not only worth visiting to try delicious coffee, but also is a great spot to explore rural Colombia and wander through the highest palm trees in the world.

The small town with around 7,000 inhabitants lies around a 7 hour bus ride south of Medellín and about a 9 hour bus ride west of Bogotá. 

With its colourful painted houses, a lot of good coffee, lush green valleys and many other things to do in and around Salento, you shouldn’t miss it on your trip to Colombia. 

1. Marvel at the World’s Tallest Palm Trees

As mentioned, Salento is right next to Cocora Valley, famous for being home to the tallest palm trees in the world. These wax palms grow on lush green hills and can reach a height of up to 60 metres. 

From Salento you take one of the Willies on the main square. They leave every hour and if you are in for an adventure, instead of sitting inside you can also stand outside, holding on to the car and take in the scenic view during the 20 minute ride to the valley. 

From where you arrive it is about a 30 minute walk to the palm trees. If you don’t have that much time, you can easily visit the palm trees in the morning and be back for a delicious lunch in Salento. 

Make sure to check the weather forecast as sometimes the afternoons can be a bit foggy. 

2. Visit the Acaime Hummingbird Reserve

If you have a bit more time on your hands, you can combine your visit to the wax palms with a little hike to the Acaime Hummingbird Reserve. The hike is a 6 hour circuit and can be started with visiting the palm trees or seeing the Hummingbirds first. Best check the weather forecast and make sure that you save the sunny part of the hike for the palm trees.

You will hardly get lost on your hike, but if you want to make sure, download the map of the area either on Google or maps.me, so you can find your way even with bad or no internet reception. 

At the Hummingbird Sanctuary you pay 5,000 COP (∼£1) as an entrance fee, but in return you will get a ‘free’ coffee or aqua con panela. 

3. Explore Lush Green Nature on the Back of a Horse

There are many horse treks you can do directly from Salento, which will take you through green valleys to waterfalls, viewpoints, coffee farms or even through Cocora valley, if you don’t feel like walking it. 

Make sure to research the company before going. When you enter Cocora Valley there are many companies offering you the palm tree circuit for example. They will come to the Willy drop-off and try to drag you to their horses. Often though these companies don’t treat the horses with care and also will try to get you through the trek as fast as possible to jump to the next client. 

4. Learn all about the production of coffee

There are a lot of coffee farms located around 5km from Salento. You can either take a Willy or even hike there. By car it is around 20 minutes until you reach the first coffee farms and walking it’s around 1 to 1.5 hours.

The cost of the ride depends. To get to the first coffee farms, like El Ocaso, it used to be 6000 COP round trip per person before the pandemic, but at the moment there are no regular transports and you will either have to get an entire Willy and pay the whole vehicle or find other people that will join you. We are sure though that when tourism picks up again, there will be more options for transport again. 

We would recommend you to skip the big coffee farms like El Ocaso and instead visit some of the smaller ones. We really liked El Recuerdo. It is a smaller farm that really has in mind sustainable coffee farming and the guided tour is super insightful and you get to try some delicious coffee in their little wooden coffee shop they built themselves. And at the end of the property they have an amazing view over the river and the mountains, which you can enjoy sitting in a wooden swing!

Even smaller is Arzacia coffee farm. The tour is less formal than at El Recuerdo and a bit quirkier. This farm is really just run by one family and the head of the family and coffee farmer, Libardo, proudly shows you around his little farm.

At each farm you pay around 10 000 COP (∼£2) for the tour with a coffee in the end. As they are quite close to each other, you can visit them in one morning or afternoon. 

5. Play an explosive round of Tejo

You can play Tejo all over central Colombia, but Salento is definitely the perfect spot to give Colombia’s explosive game a try. There is a small bar with pool tables in the centre of the city, which has a Tejo arena below, but we prefer to leave the centre and go to Los Amigos for a round of Tejo. 

The aim of the game is to launch heavy metal discs at a metal ring embedded in a clay field. On the upper end of the metal ring you put a paper filled with gunpowder, which will explode when being hit with the metal disk. There are different points for scoring and whoever reaches 21 first, wins the round. 

You just pay 5000 COP (∼£1) per person and you can play for around 1.5 hours. It all depends on how busy it is though. When there are not many people, you can most likely play as long as you like.

6. Check out Salento’s coffee shops

It only makes sense that with all the coffee farms around Salento, you can also get some really good coffee in the town itself. And Salento has plenty of good coffee shops. We don’t know why, but carrot cake also seems to be a big thing in Salento. Each of the cafes we tried, also had some delicious carrot cake with their own spin on it. Some were rather simple, some had a thick layer of frosting and others were more of a layered cake. But all frankly very delicious and worth a try.  

We really liked Café Jesús Martín, a cute rustic place with the best coffee in Salento. It’s not the place to get some work done as they don’t have WIFI, but it’s a great place for a strong espresso and a piece of cake. 

For working we recommend Summer Cáfe right at the main square. The coffee is good, the breakfast as well and the WIFI is decent. Don’t trust Google though. Somehow their location is messed up. The actual cafe is at a corner of the main square, where Calle 5 meets Carrera 7.

Quite small and rather for a quick coffee and bite, is Mocam Café Bar. The coffee is good, the place small and the waiters extremely friendly. 

To reach Café Que aproveche! you have to walk through a small market and at the end climb some stairs and then you will end up in a small cafe with some delicious coffee and cake. 

7. Cycle through a forest full of wax palms

Another way to explore Salento and its surroundings is on a bicycle. If you feel sporty you cannot only cycle through the town, but also to the coffee plantations or to Cocora Valley. 

If you are looking for a more extreme activity, you can also do a bicycle tour to a second valley with even more palm trees than Cocora Valley. The tour company will take you there, which is around 1.5 hours by car. At the highest point you get on a bike and cycle down a dirt road through tons and tons of palm trees. 

If that’s an experience you want to try, we would recommend going with Mountain Bike Tours Salento.

8. Go Paragliding

You want to see the lush green valleys and endless coffee farms of Salento and its surroundings from above? Why not enjoy the views with a little adrenaline rush. 

There are many tour companies offering this activity. They will bring you to a little hill outside of town, strap you to an experienced guide and you can take in the breathtaking views.

In the end they will of course pick you up again and bring you back to town. 

9. Eat your way through the food trucks 

There is always street food on some corner, wherever you go in Colombia. But on the weekends the main square in Salento, Plaza Bolívar, will fill up with food trucks.

Delicious smells from burgers to trout and of course patacones, deep fried plantain patties will make your mouth water. 

If you are in search of an inexpensive easy meal, we highly recommend giving it a try. 

10. Explore and eat in Filandia  

About a 40 minute ride by Willy is the town of Filandia. It is much like Salento, but with less tourists and more locals just going about their daily lives. There are not that many great hostels around Filandia, so it might be best to do a daytrip. 

Next to waterfalls, which you can hike, there are also lots of coffee farms around the area. And what you definitely shouldn’t miss is the best restaurant the area has to offer. 

Helena Adentro offers Colombian cuisine, but with a delicious modern twist. The restaurant is extremely stylish, has an incredible view and should be your lunch spot, if you do a daytrip to Filandia. 

11. Admire the crafts in Calle Real 

Calle Real stretches right off Salento's main square, Plaza Bolívar. This colourful street is full of artisanal shops, restaurants, cafes and bars. 

You should take some time to stroll along the street, observe the busy restaurants, the friendly shopkeepers and maybe you will even go home with a souvenir or two. Next to the usual tourist souvenirs like magnets, hats and ponchos, you can also get very pretty and inexpensive jewelry here.