What cultural etiquette should I know for Medellin?

The single biggest etiquette mistake visitors make in Medellín is asking taxi drivers, waiters, or anyone else about Pablo Escobar. Paisas, the people of Antioquia, spent decades living through the violence of the cartels. The city's murder rate fell from 381 per 100,000 in 1991 to roughly 14 per 100,000 by 2023. Residents are proud of that transformation and tired of having their city reduced to a Netflix plot. If you want to understand the history, visit the Museo Casa de la Memoria in Parque Bicentenario, which opened in 2013 and handles the topic with the gravity it deserves. Don't bring it up over aguardiente at a fonda in Sabaneta.

Greetings run warmer here than in Bogotá. Women greet each other and men with a single kiss on the right cheek, even on a first meeting. Men shake hands firmly and maintain eye contact. The word "usted" matters more than you might expect. Paisas default to "usted" with strangers, older people, and anyone in a service role. Switching to "tú" too early reads as disrespectful, not friendly. You'll hear "sumercé" occasionally, a holdover from colonial-era courtesy that still surfaces in Antioquia. At Café Velvet in Provenza or any of the specialty coffee spots along Calle 10 in Poblado, greeting the barista with a quick "buenas" before ordering is the minimum. Walking up and stating your order without a greeting feels rude here.

Tipping in Medellín tends to follow a soft 10% convention. Most restaurants in Poblado and Laureles add a "propina voluntaria" line to the bill, usually 10%. You can decline, but locals rarely do unless the service was poor. For street food, say a 6,000-peso arepa de chócolo con quesito from a cart near Parque de los Deseos, tipping is not expected. Taxi drivers don't expect tips either, though rounding up by 1,000-2,000 pesos is common. At Hacienda Junín or similar sit-down spots in Centro, the 10% is almost always included. Worth noting, delivery drivers on Rappi receive tips through the app, and 2,000-3,000 pesos is considered decent.

Dress code in Medellín is less formal than Bogotá but more considered than coastal cities like Cartagena. Paisas take appearance seriously. You'll notice men in pressed jeans and clean sneakers even on a Saturday afternoon walk through Parque Lleras. Shorts are fine in Poblado and Envigado, but at the Metropolitan Cathedral on Parque Bolívar (completed in 1931, the largest brick church in the Americas), knees and shoulders should be covered. The same applies at Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria in La Candelaria. Flip-flops outside the pool or beach trip mark you as a tourist faster than anything else. For nightlife along Calle 10 or in Provenza, smart casual is the norm. Some clubs enforce a no-shorts, no-sandals door policy after 10pm.

Religious customs still carry weight in Medellín. The city is roughly 70% Catholic, and you'll hear church bells from the Metropolitan Cathedral most mornings around 7am. During Semana Santa in March or April, processions move through Centro and El Poblado. Standing quietly and removing hats during a procession is expected. If you enter a church during mass, sit at the back and stay silent. Photography is generally tolerated in churches outside of services, but flash is frowned upon at the Museum of Antioquia's religious art collection (founded 1881) and inside the Cathedral itself. Sundays still feel slower in neighborhoods like Belén and Robledo, where family lunch after mass remains a weekly anchor. Many smaller shops in these barrios close before noon on Sundays.