Arví Park is a picturesque national park set in the mountains near Medellin. The journey there is spectacular in itself. It involves a 15 minute cable car ride up the mountain and over the forest. Here’s how to get to Arví Park Medellin Colombia and how to do one of the walks in Arví Park without a guide.
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How to get to Arvi Park
The best way to get to Arvi Park is on the Medellin metro. Jump on the A Line to Acevedo station. At Acevedo change to the K Line cable car (metrocable) to Santo Domingo station. At Santo Domingo, change to Line L cable car (metrocable) to Parque Arví.
The cable car up the mountain will give you delightful views and even if you don’t do a walk in Arvi Park, is worth it in itself.
Our walk in Arví Park Medellin, Colombia
Arvi park has 39,500 acres of lush green forest full of beautiful birds, plants and insects. Its pretty impressive that something so pretty and peaceful feeling can be so close to a vast city like Medellin.
Walking in Arvi Park felt like walking in a fairy tale. We went through a tall pine forest, where bright green moss spread out on the forest bed and glistened with dew. Our walk took us past a warped and twisted fallen tree, which looked like something from Lord of the Rings. We trundled along a pretty babbling brook, met many mariposas (the Spanish for butterfly) and spotted a shy toucanet on our stroll.
Why Arvi Park is fecking confusing
The visitor centre at the entrance looks very professional, it even lists walks you can do such as the bird walk and the archaeological walk. However, this professionalism evaporates within a matter of minutes, as signposts for these walks disappear after leaving the visitor centre area and most of these walks seem to be blocked off with no entry signs.
The best way to do walks in Arvi Park independently is via the maps.me routes and just heading vaguely in the right direction. You can use maps.me offline, so you don’t have to worry about getting a local sim.
The start of walking routes
To get to the start of many walking routes, venture down the road, away from the visitors centre and there are lots of walking paths through the forest. I’ve pulled together a comprehensive walking guide below to help you do the beautiful walk we did in Arvi Park.
Instructions for our walk in Arví Park Medellin, Colombia
The walk we did in Arvi Park took about 2 hours. It was not too long or difficult at all. It’s a circular route so you’ll end up back at the cable car.
From this maps.me point the walk starts:
- The starting point for this walk is about a 15-20 minute walk along the road from the cable car.
- When you get to the starting point, enter where there is a open gate leading into the forest.
- Take the left path up the hill.
- Carry on walking until you get to a clearing of trees, then head straight across it towards the path right in front of you.
- Soon, you’ll get to a bigger path (which is back on the maps.me route). Turn right on this. Just a few steps along this path, take the right fork and then talk straight on.
- Carry straight on, past the sign saying Flora trail and pointing to your right. Just walk pass, these signs are not that helpful! You’ll come across some picnic benches.
- Soon, there will be another sign for the flora walk on your right. Again, keep walking past these signs.
- After a while, you’ll reach a point where you can turn left, by a sign which says la flora in the opposite direction. Turn left here and head down the hill. There will be a sign for evacuations.
- You’ll get to a different bit of forest where there are nice tall pine trees and lovely bright green moss. Walk straight through this patch of forest.
- Then you will see a beautiful weird twisted fallen down tree. Walk past this.
- Head down the path and you’ll see a big sign to your right. Turn right and you start following the brooklet trial (which means brook/stream!).
- Ignore the tiny single plank of wood bridge on your left leading to a meadow, just head straight down the path.
- Afterwards, go over a wooden bridge. Then cross a second bridge. Keep following the path straight, it continues like this for a while. You’ll hit a third bridge which goes over the little river.
- Follow signs for Brooklet trail, keep left to the path. Go over another two different bridges.
- After that, you’ll hit some steps. Bear right up the steps. Then keep straight up a path which is very much made of tree roots.
- You’ll find some more steps. Carry on walking straight up the hill.
- You’ll hit the road eventually, turn right up the road. Then walk straight up the road. You’ll walk past the police station, keep on the left fork of the road from the police station. Keep walking along this road.
- Finally, you’ll meet a wooden hut and a road on your left at one point. There will also be a sign saying vegetarian food on your right. Turn left at this road by the hut. The cable car is along this road.
Hopefully my directions will guide you in your walk in Arví Park Medellin, Colombia. If you do get lost, don’t worry maps.me will guide you out and the road and human life are never too far away!
What to bring to trek in Arví Park
Arví Park can get a little muddy so bring vaguely decent shoes. I have an awesome pair of Salomon shoes, if you want to get a pair, make sure you go a size up! The weather in Medellin is extremely changeable, so bring sun cream, sunglasses, a hat and a waterproof.
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