The three tours that ride the metro and the Line J cable car before walking the murals, transit tickets included. Real ratings from 12,920 traveller reviews, from $21.
Three tours, from $21 with an arepa and a viewpoint drink in the ticket to $28 with a fruit tasting worked in. 12,920 traveller reviews between them, and free cancellation up to 24 hours out on every one.
Short answer
These tours start at a central metro station, ride Line B out to San Javier, lift over the rooftops on the Line J cable car, and then walk the escalators and murals with a guide. Every transit ticket is in the price, which matters more than it sounds: you skip three queues and never fumble a fare machine. Prices run $21 to $28 per person for three to four and a half hours, and the $21 flagship, with 10,683 reviews, is the most-booked way into the barrio full stop.
The cable car is not a gimmick bolted onto a walking tour; it is the fastest way to understand why Comuna 13 exists the way it does. From the cabin you read the whole western slope: how the houses stack, how far the climb to the top really is, and why a city that built escalators into a hillside changed everything. Then the walk begins and the murals fill in the story the view started.
They are genuinely different days. The flagship keeps it social and fast, with street food and a drink at a viewpoint bar. The district tour spends more of the day on the transit system itself, about half the tour, which suits people who love how cities work. The four-and-a-half-hour version adds a fruit tasting and the slowest pace of the three.
Prices are the current from-price on each live listing and move with your date and group, so the listing is always the authority.
Most reviewed in this category
The one most people book, and the reason is the route: metro from Poblado, the Line J cable car over the rooftops, then the murals on foot with an arepa in one hand and a drink at a viewpoint bar at the end. Transit tickets are already in the price, so the day runs itself.
The transit-first version of the district: about half the tour is the metro, bus and cable car that stitched Comuna 13 back to the city, the other half is an 80-minute walk through the murals with a guide who grew up riding those lines.
The longest of the cable-car routes at four and a half hours, with a fruit tasting worked in between the metro legs and the graffiti alleys. Suits a first day in Medellín when you want the city's geography to make sense before anything else.
Read the duration and food columns before the price column: the spread mostly reflects how much of the day is riding, walking and eating.
| Tour | Time out | Food | Transit | From |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Graffiti Tour, Cable Car & Street Food (flagship) | 3 to 4 hours | Arepa, plus a drink at a viewpoint bar | Metro, cable car and bus tickets included | $21 |
| District Tour with Cable Car Ride | 3 to 4 hours | None included | Metro, cable car and bus tickets included | $22 |
| Tour with Cable Car Ride (long version) | 4 hours 30 minutes | Fruit tasting | Metro, cable car and bus tickets included | $28 |
| Where you meet | At a central metro station, confirmed on your booking, and the group rides out together. That is the point: the transit is part of the tour, not a way to reach it. |
|---|---|
| The Line J maintenance window | The metrocable lines take turns closing for annual maintenance between July and October; Line J took its 2026 turn in mid-July. When a closure lands on your date the operators reroute by bus, and the walking half of the tour is unchanged. |
| Fitness | The barrio is a hillside. Escalators carry the steepest stretch, but expect stairs, slopes and two to three hours on your feet. The listings are frank that wheelchairs and serious mobility limits do not work here; the $79 private tour is the accessible route. |
| Language | English and Spanish guides on all three, assigned by departure. English departures are the ones that fill first on weekends. |
| Cancellation | Free up to 24 hours before departure on all three tours, read off each live listing. Inside 24 hours, nothing comes back. |
| Sundays | The busiest day on the corridor by a distance. A weekday morning slot gets you the same route with room to photograph the murals instead of the crowd. |
Yes, on all three tours: metro, Line J cable car and any bus transfers are in the ticket, stated plainly on each listing. You tap through with the group and never buy a fare yourself.
The metrocable lines close in turn for annual maintenance between July and October, about a week each; Line J's 2026 window ran July 16 to 22. On closure days the operators substitute a bus leg, the walking tour is unchanged, and listings flag it at booking. If the cabin ride is the reason you chose this category, check your date does not land in a posted window.
Plenty: the guided walk through the escalators, viewpoints and mural alleys runs 80 minutes to two hours depending on the tour. The cable car replaces the climb into the district, not the tour itself. Comfortable shoes are not a suggestion.
It is the one we point first-timers at, because the ride stitches the city together before you stand in the middle of it. If you have already ridden the metrocables elsewhere in Medellín, the street-food walks spend that time eating instead, which is its own good argument.
The flagship listing flags itself as unsuitable for over-70s and for mobility impairments rather than for children, and reviewers regularly bring kids; the crowds and stairs are the real consideration. Strollers struggle in the alleys. For a fully child-paced day, the private tours let you set the stops.
Worth a look for the same hillside with empanadas and mango ice cream doing the narration.
Worth a look for hotel pickup, your own pace, and the one wheelchair-accessible route.
Worth a look for folding the whole of Medellín around the barrio in one long day.
Reading first: Getting to San Javier, step by step · The escalators, explained · When the corridor breathes easiest
