medellin fruit tour

EXOTIC FRUITS TOUR

BOOKING REQUIRED

Curious to try some Colombian food which is not fried?  

Nothing against empanadas and buñuelos (we LOVE them!), but why not explore the healthy and truly diverse side of our local gastronomy? 

Join us on an exotic fruits tour, walk through one of Medellin’s main markets and see, feel and taste what makes Colombia the first country in the world in terms of fruit biodiversity. Learn about a variety of exotic fruits and try them with us…

** Vegan and vegetarian friendly **

INFORMATION

In this tour we will guide you through the labyrinth of one of Medellín’s main indoor markets. We will stop at different fruit stalls to taste over 10 exotic fruits, most of which you are likely to never have seen before (we’re not talking mangos and pineapples!).

We will introduce you to some of the vendors, and explain the benefits of each fruit as well as how to recognize ripeness/quality. At the end, there will be a chance to sit down at Don Rigo’s “smoothie bar”, where you can enjoy a fresh fruit juice/smoothie. Join us on this tasty adventure and make sure to come hungry!

2½ -3 hours

Monday to Sunday at 9:30am. Booking required! 

100,000 COP + VAT per person (around US$18 + VAT). Includes fruit tasting and a fresh juice. Don’t want to pay the VAT? Read the section below.

Value Added Tax in Colombia is 19%. According to Colombian law, a VAT tax exemption can be applied on touristic services for non-residents who provide (1)a copy of the main page of their passport, (2) as well as the tourist entry stamp (types  PIP-3, PIP-5, PIP-6, PIP-10 or visas TP-7, TP-11, TP-12). Therefore, if you send us the required copies via email to [email protected] before you take the tour , we can apply the exemption and charge you the price excluding VAT. The exemption applies only to the tickets of the people from whom we receive the required copies.

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Off-Beat Tours: Medellin’s Exotic Fruits Tour

Medellín is home to tons of interesting exotic fruits.

Moreover, you might not find these products in your home country or other destinations as easily as in Colombia, which is the second most bio-diverse country in the world.

Does this sound like something that interests you?

Find out what the exotic fruits tour is all about and what you can expect from this popular activity in Medellin.

What is the Exotic Fruits Tour?

The fruits and vegetables of Medellin, and Colombia in general, are very diverse.

And, if you really want to experience all those fruits, you should really try taking an exotic fruits tour!

The Exotic Fruits Tour , which is run by Real City Tours, consists of a walk through the main markets and squares that sell fruits, vegetables, meats, cheeses, and other products.

The tour includes a tasting of more than ten different exotic fruits. It also teaches you their names in both English and Spanish and walks you through how each one is grown. 

You’ll even learn how to tell when each fruit is ripe or not and discuss the nutritional value of each fruit.

At the end of the tour, each person chooses the fruit they like best and drinks their juice in Don Rigo’s “Smoothie Bar”!

Of course, the tour’s suitable for vegetarians and vegans !

How to Take the Exotic Fruit Tour

The tour takes place every day at 9:30 in the morning and lasts between two and a half and three hours.

The tour is in English , and booking is a requirement since the spots fill up very quickly. However, you don’t need to pay before the activity.

So, if you have to cancel for some reason, you won’t have to worry about losing a deposit.

In terms of the price of the tour, the fee is pretty affordable considering the fact that you get to try new fruits. And, the smoothie at the end won’t blow your budget either. 

However, carry more cash if you want to take some fruit home to your friends or have some to eat later on during your stay!

The History of the Plaza Minorista de Medellín 

The Exotic Fruits Tour takes place in Plaza Minorista , the main market for fruits, vegetables, groceries, and other key items in the family basket in Medellin. 

It’s stocked every morning with the freshest fruits and veggies that come in from the fields .

Since the 1800s, plazas and outdoor markets have been a big part of local culture in Medellin. These types of markets first began popping up thanks to the traditions the Spaniards brought to Latin America. 

The first plaza in the city opened in Plaza de Flores, in the Buenos Aires neighborhood. 

Ever since then, these plazas have become important social and cultural traditions, as well as key places for locals to pick up their produce for the week. 

Plaza Minorista is a market that’s been around for quite a while. It was established back in the early 80s to help remove vendors from the street and keep them in an organized area.

Despite its long history, the market has kept up its hustle and bustle. There are more than 2,500 stalls in the market for locals to shop for everything they need for the home.

Trying Exotic Fruits on One of the City’s Best Tours

During your tour, you’ll get a chance to try tons of different types of fruits. Most tours allow you to sample about fifteen different fruits, although you might get lucky and get some freebies thrown in!

Among the most exotic fruits you’ll try on your tour are:

• Tree tomato
• Passion fruit
• Gooseberries
• Borojó 

You’ll have to try them for yourself to see which ones you like and which you don’t mind skipping!

The plaza is a safe place to visit and is an excellent place to buy and try everything that the Antioquian lands have to offer. The plaza spans a whole two floors, so you won’t miss anything either! 

Still, this market is in the heart of the city, and its surroundings tend to be somewhat dangerous. So, it’s better to take safety precautions.

Other Things to Discover on the Tour

Exotic fruits aren’t the only things to see and taste in Plaza Minorista; there are hundreds of other items to check out and foods to try.

For example, there are vendors selling medicinal herbs , plants, essences, candles, and all kinds of spiritual items. 

In another section, you’ll see enormous blocks of cheese displayed in glass showcases or spread out over tables. And, there are even vendors selling used clothes.

This market is also famous for its cheap, tasty, and traditional food. If you stay in the plaza after the tour for lunch, try some fish sancocho or a bandeja paisa made with fresh ingredients and lots of seasoning!

Enjoy the Exotic Fruit Tour in Medellin

This Exotic Fruit Tour is an unmissable tour in Medellin that promises to show you a lot of new flavors and teach you something new.

In taking it, you’ll visit the biggest market in the city and catch a glimpse of the most delicious facet of culture: food! 

The market is full of offers of meat, fish, cheese, groceries, vegetables, and prepared food. Who knows when you’ll get to try all of it again!

Let us know in the comments if you’ve already taken this tour and what you thought of it!

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Wander-Lush

Best Fruit Markets in Medellin: 3 Vibrant Marketplaces You Can’t Miss

Vibrant, fresh and authentic: Here are the 3 best local markets in Medellin to visit for a taste of Colombian commerce and culture. Includes visitors info and what to expect.

18 percent of the world’s birds. 600 species of bees. 130,000 varieties of plants and orchids. Fair to say that biodiversity is one of Colombia’s strong suits.

With all that blooming, buzzing and cross-pollination going on, it’s no surprise that Colombia is also famed for its fresh produce.

Even in the heart of Medellin, the country’s second largest city , it’s impossible to overlook Colombia’s obsession with fruit and veg of all shapes and sizes.

Every refrigerator in Colombia is brimming with vibrantly coloured tropical fruits, many of which are grown in Antioquia Department, Colombia’s fruit bowl, and sold through Medellin’s humming wholesale markets.

Never one to pass on a pineapple juice, and with a serious mango habit I have no intention of kicking (three years living in Southeast Asia will do that to you), I came to Medellin fully prepared to embrace fruit culture.

But we haven’t had the best luck so far: Our first market adventure left us with a bag of plantains (nope, those aren’t oversized bananas) to slice up on top of our breakfast porridge.

Figuring we still had a thing or two to learn, when Medellin City Services invited us to join their Local Fruits and Market Places Tour for a guided look at three of the biggest and best produce markets in Medellin, we couldn’t say no.

The verdict? The fruit markets are a must-do, even if you only have a couple of days to spend in Medellin .

Here are my tips for visiting three of Medellin’s best markets independently or with a guide.

Please note: This post contains affiliate links, meaning I may earn a commission if you make a purchase by clicking a link (at no extra cost to you). Learn more.

Transparency: We were guests of Medellin City Services – Medellin City Tour for our Local Fruits and Market Places tour. As always, all opinions and endorsements are my own.

Colombia: It’s all about the fruit

‘People in Medellin don’t really drink juice when we go out. We much prefer Coca-Cola’, our guide, Steven, told us.

It might sound counterintuitive, but there’s an easy explanation: Paisas (people from Medellin) usually have so much fruit at home, there’s no need to spend money on juice when they go out.

Fruit is beloved in Medellin. Locals like Steven swear by the high Vitamin C content of certain tropical fruits for keeping their immune systems strong through Medellin’s unpredictable weather.

The rich soil and temperate climate in this part of Colombia provides the perfect conditions for growing fruit 365 days a year. The fruit trade is a lucrative export business and has made wealthy dynasties out of many a Medellin family.

Of particular interest to visitors are Colombia’s exotic fruits – some recognisable, but most totally foreign. For the uninitiated it can be dangerous territory: Not all fruits are sweet, some should only be juiced, and others still need to be peeled or chopped in a particular way to be palatable.

Some fruits look as if they could be wielded as deadly weapons. Sometimes nature’s sleight of hand turns something you think you know into something else altogether (hence our banana-plantain predicament).

Market culture in Medellin

For as long as there has been fruit, there has been some form of marketplace in Medellin. Organised markets popped up around the same time as Spanish colonisers.

It was the conquistadors who introduced the concept of convening at a set place and time to trade produce – before then, as Plaza Minorista so gracefully puts it , markets were more of a verb – an activity, a process – than a noun.

Under the Spanish, markets in Medellin evolved into a once-weekly outdoors affair at the city’s main meeting place, the Plaza Mayor.

Medellin’s first undercover market (still in use today and the final stop on our market odyssey) opened in 1881 before a series of smaller daily markets were constructed throughout the city.

Throughout the tumultuous years, markets helped keep Medellin running by providing a means for displaced people from rural areas to earn a living in the city.

Markets have continued to play a major role in urban development, expanding and mushrooming as Medellin has developed into the city it is today.

For a first-time visitor to Colombia , a lot can be learned about Medellin, it’s culture and people just by visiting a few local markets.

Three best produce markets in Medellin to visit

All of these farmers’ markets in Medellin has its own history and peculiarities. Each differs in size and caters to different customers, but all specialise in one thing: Fruit, glorious fruit!

1. Mayorista Central Market (Central Mayorista de Antioquia)

Medellin’s biggest produce market accommodates thousands of vendors and serves customers from all over Colombia. To see how the fruit industry operates and to get an idea of what a lucrative business it is, you really need to witness the scale and intensity of the Mayorista.

The Central Market is a ‘model’ market, meaning it’s kept very clean and organised in comparison to smaller markets in the city. Primarily outdoors, it’s made up of rows upon rows of small warehouses.

Lorries pull up at the high curb in front of the roller doors to collect fruit and veg by the pallet load. Shoppers travelling on foot can explore the labyrinth of tarpaulin-covered stalls.

After generations of trading this way, Mayorista is set to undergo some big changes: Soon, stallholders will relocate to a new undercover, multi-storey market building.

It’s here at the Mayorista that our guide, Steven, gave us a quick lesson on how the fruit business works in Medellin. Farmers in rural Antioquia pick, wash and pack their produce in the late afternoon before driving overnight or through the very early hours to make it to the Mayorista when gates open at 3am. As a result, nothing on the market shelves is ever more than a few hours old.

Restaurateurs and re-sellers buy fruit and veg in bulk. You’ll also see wily locals wandering the aisles at the Mayorista in search of a bargain. By midday, most of the produce has been snapped up and the market starts to wind down.

We arrived mid-morning after the initial flurry of the morning trade had dissipated. As soon as we set foot in the market area it was straight into the samples, each vendor eager for us to try their offerings. We ate creamy pink guayaba (guava), face-contortingly sour curuba (banana passion fruit), and a huge avocado split into quarters and sprinkled with lime salt.

We finished with a thick slab of guanabana (sour sop), one of Colombia’s most recognisable fruits (the big spiky green one) and uchuva berries wrapped in nature’s paper-like packaging.

How to visit Mayorista Central Market

• Location: Calle 85, Itagüí (8.5km south of Parque Berrio)
• Opening hours: Daily from 2.15am until 8pm
• Get there: Take Metro Line A from Parque Berrio to Ayura station (20 mins) + 2 mins walking

2. Plaza Minorista José María Villa

As the name suggests, Plaza Minorista is smaller than the Mayorista but no less vibrant or animated. Vendors here have been trading with wholesale customers from all over Antioquia Department since the market opened in 1984.

A bit grungier and with beautiful filtered light courtesy of open balconies and skylights, this undercover marketplace is the most atmospheric of the three markets in Medellin we visited.

Los vendedores are the heart and soul of the Minorista, which was originally constructed to house thousands of headstrong fruit merchants who refused orders to abandon their outdoor stalls in the nearby Plaza de Cisneros. So, the government built them a nice undercover marketplace instead.

Up to 3,000 vendors vie for shoppers’ attention. Many of them have personalities as vibrant as the produce they’re selling. Their shouts cut through the din of the market like the sharpest passion fruit, and their belly laughs are heartier than the sound of a thousand potatoes crashing into a steel drum.

(If you want to hear a good story, ask your guide about the female assassin who was a vendor at the Minorista by day.)

Another thing I love about the Minorista are the hand-painted signs that hang above many of the stalls. Each has it’s own name, tagline and logo. You can tell from the way the produce is arranged with utmost care that these are family businesses people pour their hearts into.

At one point, we spotted an avocado vendor with a giant crucifix hanging above her cart as if to keep watch.

Something I was surprised to see was bundles of dried herbs, marigold flowers and tinctures – a nod to Colombia’s indigenous culture.

Ginseng, Steven told us, is often added to juices for extra immunity boosting oomph. The Minorista is a wonderful cultural melange and if you look beneath the surface, provides lots of clues to Medellin’s religious traditions, history and ethnicity as well as daily life and trade.

As we got stuck into sampling even more tropical fruit, it became apparent that the theme of this market was going to be fruit-eating etiquette. Steven explained that some tropical fruits aren’t eaten at all, they are exclusively used for juicing.

He also showed us how he ate one particular fruit when he was a kid: Sliced open with two sticks of white sugar poured in to soften the bitter pulp. When we tried another of Steven’s favourites, tamarindo (tamarind), he spoke fondly of childhood memories sucking on the sour seeds in the backyard of his family home.

Upstairs at one of the market’s sit-down juice bars, our conversation again turned to the past. Steven is around the same age as us, so the Medellin he grew up in was a very different place.

In a city where it wasn’t safe to go outside and where strangers couldn’t be trusted, hanging out at a busy marketplace like the Minorista would have been very rare.

Places to trade, barter and simply converse, the role of Medellin’s markets in rebuilding the city’s social fabric shouldn’t be underestimated.

How to visit Plaza Minorista

• Location: Calle 55 (1.2km west of Parque Berrio)
• Opening hours: Daily from 4.30am until 6pm
• Get there: 15-minute walk from Parque Berrio (towards the river)

3. Placita de Flores

The Placita de Flores (Flower Market) is the smallest of the three markets in Medellin we visited. It also happens to be the oldest marketplace in the city, dating all the way back to 1881.

With heritage appeal and a very local feel, it’s well worth dropping in to see how the fruit trade operates on a micro level. The Placita de Flores primarily supplies individual buyers and small businesses and vendors from Medellin.

The entry level of the market is an odd marriage between butchers and fresh cut flower vendors, with fruit and veg located underneath on the ground floor.

By this stage we had run out of fruit to sample, so we opted for an arepa de chócolo from a specialty restaurant in the market basement instead.

This particular kind of arepa (a fried maize flour cake) is made from a sweeter variety of corn. Topped with melted butter and a piece of creamy queso cheese, it was a salty saviour after all that sugary sweet fruit and juice.

While you’re in this area, be sure to visit the nearby Casa de la Memoria museum, a short walk from the market and another must-do in Medellin .

How to visit Placita de Flores

• Location: Calle 50a, Bombona (1.2km east of Parque Berrio)
• Opening hours: Monday-Saturday from 6am until 6pm; Sunday from 6am until 2pm
• Get there: 15-minute walk from Parque Berrio

Tips for visiting the fruit markets in Medellin

• There can be quite a crush at the markets in Medellin, especially in the early morning, so take care to stay out of people’s way. Beware of wheeled trolleys which can do some serious damage to your ankles and toes if you’re not careful (I recommend wearing closed-in shoes for this reason).
• We felt safe inside the markets, but you do need to watch your belongings. Don’t flash your phone or camera around too much. Take care outside Minorista in particular (the street from the metro station to the market is quite shady). If you have a backpack, make sure it’s locked and wear it on your front whenever you’re waiting in a queue.
• Bring some small change with you for buying fruit or wet wipes for those sticky fingers! Most vendors only accept cash.
• If you want to grab a traditional market breakfast , I recommend the fruit shops on the upper level of the Minorista and the arepas canteen underneath Plactia de Flores.
• Be respectful when taking photos of vendors. In my experience, people are very friendly and happy to have their photo taken. If in doubt, ask first and always show them the photo afterwards.

How to book a Medellin Market Tour

While it is possible to visit these markets in Medellin independently, I highly recommend going with a guide if you want to understand what’s going on, interact with the vendors, and most importantly, sample some fruit.

We chose the Local Fruits and Market Places tour with Medellin City Services, one of few companies that visits multiple markets in one itinerary.

Their local guides offer an excellent insight into the markets and other aspects of local culture . Our guide, Steven, was especially knowledgeable: Medellin born and bred, he actually comes from a family that’s been involved in the fruit business for several generations.

• Times: Daily at 9am and 2pm (I highly recommend requesting an earlier departure to see the markets in their full glory). The tour lasts approximately 4 hours.
• What’s included: Full narration by a local guide; pick up, drop off, and transport between the three markets by private car; unlimited fruit samples.
• How to book: Visit the Medellin City Tours website to make a booking.

Where to stay in Medellin

I stayed in the lovely Laureles neighbourhood in Medellin. It’s leafy, it’s very walkable, there are dozens of amazing restaurants and cafes – and it’s away from the busy downtown area, giving it a more local feel. The northern part of Laureles is especially convenient because it’s close to the metro line.

If you prefer to be in the thick of it, El Poblado is a bit more commercial, but at the same time that means lots of options for eating out and revelling in Medellin’s nightlife.

The Wandering Paisa

• Laureles district
• Dorms & doubles

• El Poblado district
• Doubles & singles

Quinta Ladera

• Doubles & suites

Factory Lofts

• Self-contained doubles

Check out this list of my favourite Airbnbs in Medellin for apartment rentals in Laureles, El Poblado and beyond.

Best Markets in Medellin: Pin it

Colombia trip essentials

Here are some of the websites and services I recommend for planning a trip to Colombia. Remember to check out my full list of travel resources for more tips.

FLIGHTS: Find affordable flights to Colombia using the Skyscanner website .

VISAS: Use iVisa to check if you need a tourist visa or a Health Declaration form for Colombia and apply for your documents online.

TRAVEL INSURANCE: Insure your trip to Colombia with HeyMondo , my preferred provider for single-trip and annual travel insurance.

AIRPORT TRANSFERS: Book a safe and reliable private transfer from the airport to your hotel in Medellin , Bogota or Cartagena (prices start from $18 per group).

ESIM FOR COLOMBIA: Stay connected during your trip – pre-purchase an eSIM for Colombia and get online as soon as you arrive without having to visit a phone shop.

CAR HIRE: Use the Discover Cars website to compare prices and features across all the major car rental companies.

ACCOMMODATION: Find the best Colombia hotel deals on Booking.com .

CITY TOURS & DAY TRIPS: Browse the Viator website to find the best day trips, city tours, Colombian cooking experiences and more.

More Colombia resources

• Things to do in Medellin , 30 must-sees
• Medellin itinerary , 2 days in the City of Eternal Spring
• Visiting Comuna 13 , tips and tour recommendations
• 30 best places to add to your Colombia itinerary , hiking to beaches to cities
• Colombia bucket list , all the best experiences this nation has to offer
• 30 things to buy in Colombia , handicrafts and food souvenirs
• Things to do in Bogota , 7 essentials for first-time visitors
• Colombian cooking class in Bogota , what to expect
• Guide to Jerico , Colombia’s most charming small town
• Staying at El Despertar in Jerico , a delightful boutique hotel
• Photo guide to Jardin , colourful houses and handicrafts
• Visiting a coffee farm in Colombia , on the coffee trail in Concordia
• Hiking in Salento , peace beneath the palms

12 Comments

Columbia is next on our list to visit. I love markets and doing a tour of these 3 is now ‘bookmarked’ . Many thanks

Emily, why it took so long for me to discover your site, I can’t fathom, but glad I did. We’ve seen markets all over the world and this tour is a must and we’re taking it in the morning, too. If you ever get to Panama City, please go see the fish market next to Casco Viejjo. Never have we seen so much remarkable, totally fresh at such as smll price. Safe travels and thanks for this article. Comuna 13 next.

Oh wonderful! It’s a really great tour, I’m sure you’ll love it. Thanks so much for the tip! Hopefully I’ll make it to Central America soon.

Enjoy your time in beautiful Medellin!

Joseph, what did you think of the tour? Heading to Medellin next month.

Visiting the markets is always one of my favorite things to do on trips worldwide. I had no idea Columbia was all about the fruit. I’ve got to move it up on my travel priority list asap!

Absolutely, Christina! Colombia is a wonderful place to visit!

This post just got me even more stoked for my trip there in February!!! The food looks totally delicious! 😀

Awesome, Amanda! I hope you get a chance to join in the tour. Enjoy!

The photographer in me just got super giddy! Your shots are beautiful!!! So vibrant and colourful, great candid people moments too. Would certainly want to visit when I go to Colombia!

Thanks so much, Natasha! I definitely recommend visiting if you’re into photography. You’ll love it!

I have always been a fan of local, fresh markets. All three of these markets in Medellin look vibrant and bustling – just how I imagine Colombia to be. Can’t get over the size of those Avacados though!

Spot on! The markets are such a good representation on Colombian culture. The avocados defy belief!

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Medellín: Exotic Fruits and Explore the Local Markets

Travelers in Medellín can discover a treasure trove of exotic fruits by exploring the local markets. From the vibrant hues of dragon fruit to the unique taste of lulo, each fruit tells a story waiting to be unraveled.

But there’s more to this experience than just tasting – it’s about immersing in the sights, sounds , and aromas that make up the heart of Colombia ‘s culinary scene.

So, what hidden gems and cultural insights await those who venture into the bustling markets of Medellín?

• Taste 18-20 exotic fruits with a guide to understand their history and culture.
• Interact with market traders to discover hidden market secrets and dynamics.
• Feel like a local by exploring the main market in Medellín.
• Enjoy a unique fruit-tasting experience led by knowledgeable guide Sergio .

Here's some more nearby activities we've reviewed

• Half Day Bike Tour in Medellin – Local Food, Coffee and Beer
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• Comuna 13 Graffiti Tour

Activity Details

During this 2.5-hour tour in Medellín, participants can taste 18-20 exotic fruits while delving into their history and cultural significance, guided by a knowledgeable and attentive guide available in Spanish and English.

The fruit tasting experience includes exploring market secrets , providing insights into the local market dynamics, and fostering a sense of being part of the community. Interacting with traders, visitors can uncover hidden gems and unique aspects of the market, enhancing their understanding of the vibrant Colombian culture.

The tour guide, identified by a purple umbrella at the main entrance of Plaza Minorista, leads small groups limited to 8 participants, ensuring personalized attention and a memorable experience. This immersive activity not only offers a chance to savor exotic fruits but also to discover the intricate world of Medellín’s local markets.

Experience Highlights

Discover an array of exotic fruits and the rich cultural history behind them on this immersive tour in Medellín, led by a knowledgeable guide and limited to small groups for a personalized experience. Visitors can look forward to the following highlights:

• Tasting Extravaganza: Indulge in 18-20 exotic fruits and explore their fascinating history.
• Market Revelations: Uncover hidden secrets of the local markets while engaging with traders.
• Local Vibes: Experience the bustling dynamics of the main market and feel like a true local.
• Guide Extraordinaire: Meet at Plaza Minorista’s main entrance, where the guide , identifiable by a purple umbrella, will lead you through a unique culture .

Set out on a journey of exotic fruits and culture in Medellín’s vibrant markets.

More Great Things To Do Nearby

Location and Exploration Details

In the vibrant city of Medellín, Colombia , visitors are immersed in a sensory journey through local markets where a diverse array of exotic fruits awaits exploration. Market culture comes to life as travelers witness locals’ interactions, gaining insights into the dynamics of the bustling market scene. The exploration insights garnered from trying various fruits with different accompaniments offer a unique perspective on the region’s rich diversity. Positive recommendations for the tour and guide Sergio further emphasize the enriching experience.

Customer Feedback

Visitors from around the globe have left glowing reviews about their experience with the exotic fruits and local markets tour in Medellín, particularly highlighting the insightful guidance provided by Sergio and the opportunity to taste a wide variety of unique fruits.

• Emotion-evoking Bullet List:
• Experiencing the vibrant colors and flavors of fruits never seen before
• Gaining cultural insights through interactions with local traders
• Being amazed by the historical and culinary stories behind each fruit
• Feeling like a part of the Medellín community through this immersive experience

These unique experiences and cultural insights have left a lasting impression on travelers, making the tour with Sergio a highly recommended activity in Medellín.

Additional Information

Amidst the vibrant cultural tapestry of Medellín, travelers can explore the rich diversity of exotic fruits in the region through immersive experiences offered in local markets. Colombian cuisine shines through the plethora of fruits available, offering a unique opportunity for culture.

Exploring the local markets not only provides a feast for the taste buds but also a glimpse into the history and traditions that shape Medellín’s culinary landscape. Visitors can expect to encounter fruits they may have never seen before, each with its own story and significance in Colombian gastronomy.

Engaging with market vendors and learning about the fruits’ origins adds depth to the experience, making it a memorable and enriching journey into the heart of Medellín’s food culture.

Live Tour Guide Information

Exploring the vibrant local markets of Medellín offers a unique opportunity to connect with the city’s culinary heritage through the guidance of knowledgeable and personable live tour guide, Sergio, known for his expertise in exotic fruits and market dynamics.

Language Options : Sergio provides tours in both Spanish and English to cater to a diverse range of visitors.

Small Groups: Limited to 8 participants, ensuring an intimate and personalized experience.

Purple Umbrella: Look for Sergio at the main entrance of Plaza Minorista, easily identifiable by his distinctive purple umbrella.

Market Secrets: Sergio reveals hidden gems and insider knowledge about the markets, adding an element of mystery and excitement to the tour.

Market Dynamics and Interactions

Market dynamics in Medellín’s local markets come alive through the vibrant interactions between traders and visitors, showcasing a blend of tradition and modernity in the bustling marketplace. As visitors stroll through the market, they witness the lively exchange of local produce , with traders enthusiastically sharing their knowledge and stories about the fruits on display.

This cultural exchange fosters a deeper understanding of Colombian traditions and the significance of these exotic fruits in the region. The market’s atmosphere is filled with the aromas of fresh fruits, inviting visitors to engage with the vibrant colors and unique textures of the produce.

These interactions not only create a dynamic shopping experience but also offer a glimpse into the rich tapestry of Medellín’s culinary heritage.

Here's a few more nearby tours and experiences we have reviewed.

• Comuna 13 Graffiti Tour and Enjoy Photos and Videos With Drone
• Comuna 13 Graffitour Knows the Urban Art District of Medellín
• Medellin Private Full-Day Guatape Tour (Mar )
• Coffee Half-Day Tour in Medellín: From the Seed to the Cup
• E-Bike to a Full Downtown Ride With Coffee and Fruit
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Common questions

Are There Any Safety Precautions or Recommendations for Visitors Exploring the Local Markets in Medellín?

Safety precautions and market etiquette are crucial when exploring local markets in Medellín. Visitors should stay aware of their surroundings, keep belongings secure , and respect local customs . Following these guidelines enhances the experience and ensures a safe visit.

Can Participants Purchase the Exotic Fruits They Taste During the Tour to Take Home?

Participants can purchase the exotic fruits they taste during the tour to take home as fruit souvenirs . They can also receive exotic fruit recipes to recreate the experience. This adds a delightful touch to the exploration of local markets.

Is There a Minimum Age Requirement for Participants Joining the Fruit Tour?

There is no minimum age requirement for participants joining the fruit tour. Safety precautions are in place to ensure a family-friendly experience. The tour offers a unique opportunity for all ages to taste exotic fruits and explore local markets.

Are There Any Specific Dietary Restrictions or Considerations That Should Be Mentioned Before the Tour?

When mentioning dietary restrictions or cultural considerations before the tour, participants should inform the guide. They ensure a seamless experience by accommodating needs. Embrace diverse culinary experiences while respecting local customs ; it enriches the journey.

How Are the Fruits Selected for the Tasting Experience, and Are There Opportunities to Request Specific Fruits to Try?

The fruits for the tasting experience are carefully selected to showcase a diverse range of flavors and textures. While specific requests can’t be guaranteed, the tour aims to offer a variety based on seasonal availability and local favorites.

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• COMUNA 13 Graffiti Tour
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• Guatape, El Peñol Rock and Boat Ride Private Tour With Lunch

Set out on a sensory journey through Medellín’s markets and discover the vibrant world of exotic fruits.

With a knowledgeable guide leading the way, guests will explore the history, flavors, and dynamics of the local market scene.

From interacting with traders to uncovering hidden market secrets, this 2.5-hour tour offers a unique opportunity to learn about Colombian culture and create lasting memories of a truly unforgettable experience.

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The Wonderful World of Fruit: Tropical Fruits to Try in Medellin

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Short on time? Medellin is home to many tropical fruits that you won’t find anywhere else in the world!

When you visit Medellin, one of the first things you’ll notice is the unique tropical fruits on offer at pretty much any restaurant you visit. 

I know that sounds strange, but hear me out. 

While most Americans would order a soda with their meal, it’s much more common for Colombians to order a juice. That could be made in water or it could be made in milk. 

Either way, the result is an extensive juice menu at most local restaurants. And, some of those juices feature some pretty wild fruits!

So, are you ready to learn all about the tropical fruits you’ll find in Medellin? Let’s take a look in this guide!

Plantain (Plátano)

First on our list is actually a savory fruit, the plantain. Plantains are grown all over Colombia, especially in the warmer, tropical regions (like Medellin).

Plantains are featured in a number of typical Paisa dishes , such as in the ever-popular bandeja paisa. 

Plantains are a starchy fruit, sort of like potatoes. They’re often used in soups or deep-fried as side dishes. 

I wouldn’t recommend eating them raw, however. They’re delicious when cooked but when raw they’re not really edible.

Passionfruit (Maracuyá)

Passionfruit is my personal favorite fruit and is one that you’ll find pretty easily around Medellin. 

Passionfruit, called maracuyá in Spanish, is a super sour, tart fruit. It’s usually large and yellow and contains small seeds. 

If you want to eat passionfruit, your best bet is to order it as a juice made in milk. The milk cuts through some of the acidity. 

Once again, this isn’t really a fruit you’ll want to eat raw. Although you theoretically could eat it raw, you’d be puckering your lips with every bite!

Cacao (Cocoa)

If you haven’t had a bite of Colombian chocolate yet, it’s time that you did. Colombia produces more than 60,000 tons of cacao every year, making them a major player in the chocolate-making industry. 

Now, while you’re likely to find cacao pods laying around in the Amazon, you’re not likely to find them in the supermarket. 

Cacao isn’t a fruit that you’d want to eat raw. In fact, it undergoes quite a lengthy and complicated process in order to be ready for you to eat and use in chocolate. 

Still, this is one Colombian fruit that you should definitely be aware of. And, you can always experience a version of it by picking up some classic Colombian chocolate. 

Coffee (Café)

Now here’s a fruit that you definitely will see. There are several coffee farms located just outside Medellin that produce coffee cherries. 

Coffee cherries are harvested, dried, roasted, and eventually turned into coffee beans that are then shipped all over the country!

You may find coffee cherries growing wild from time to time, although you won’t find the fruits themselves at the grocery store.

Still, you can try the finished product by trying a coffee tasting experience or picking up a bag of your favorite beans. 

Speaking of favorite beans, do you need suggestions for where to find some coffee in Medellin? Check out this guide to the best coffee around the city!

Soursop (Guanábana)

Another fruit you’ll come across is something called guanabana. The English translation of this soursop, although it’s a rare enough fruit that you probably haven’t heard of it before anyway. 

Soursop is a large, scaly green fruit. The seeds inside are large and black and come coated in a thick, white pulp. 

It’s the white pulp that you’ll actually eat! The pulp is sour with a slightly sweet aftertaste. 

If you come across jugo de guanabana while in Medellin, order it! As with most juices, I find this tastes best when you order it as a juice in milk. 

Avocado (Aguacate)

“Wait a second, I know avocado,” you’re probably thinking. 

And I believe you!

However, there’s something very different about the avocados you’ll find in Colombia versus those you’ll find in the United States (or in many other countries for that matter). 

Avocados in Medellin are much larger than most of those typically sold in Western countries. While the US and other locations often stock Haas avocadoes, the variety typically sold in Medellin is Choquette avocadoes . 

Choquette avocadoes are much larger in size. You can get two to two and a half as many times as much fruit out of a Choquette avocado as you can out of a Hass avocado. 

Lulo is a fruit that’s sometimes called “little orange”. That’s pretty unsurprising when you take a look at the fruit!

On the outside, it does look like a small, round orange. 

However, if you bite into a lulo you’ll be met with a surprise – this is another pretty sour fruit! If you try out the exotic fruits tour in Medellin , you’ll get a chance to taste this fruit.

The inside of the fruit is also pretty unappealing. It’s a brownish-green that looks definitively unpleasant. 

Don’t let that put you off, however. Lulo is a really refreshing fruit that makes for a wonderful juice, especially on a hot day!

The granadilla is actually a variety of passion fruit , but it tastes nothing like the maracuyá we talked about earlier. 

Granadilla has a sweet and juicy flavor. Unlike passion fruit, you can eat granadilla raw. 

Granadilla is actually my partner’s favorite fruit. I often bring it along when we go on hikes or long day trips because it keeps fresh for a good chunk of time and is easy to eat!

You won’t usually find granadilla in a fruit juice, but you’ll sometimes find it as a topping for yogurt. Try it with kumis and a bit of granola for a truly outstanding breakfast!

Guava (Guayaba)

I don’t actually like guava, but it’s a very common fruit in Medellin. You’ll often find it whipped into super sweet juices. 

That’s my major problem with guava – it’s very sweet. Its flavor is quite mild and is a bit reminiscent of watermelon but with a bit more sugar. 

If you don’t enjoy drinking your guava, you can also get it in the form of a popular Colombian candy called bocadillo. This is another treat to try on the exotic fruits tour in Medellin.

Many Colombians enjoy eating their bocadillo with a glass of cold milk.

Fun fact: The Spanish word for guava is very similar to a unique Colombian term, guayabo . In Colombia, guayabo means hangover. 

So, if you had one too many drinks at last night’s Gringo Tuesday language exchange , you can tell your friends you’re dealing with a guayabo and are sleeping in!

Another fruit you’re likely to see a lot of in Medellin is papaya. Papaya tastes a bit like honeydew melon, only slightly less sweet.

This oblong, orange fruit is full of small black seeds. You don’t eat the seeds, but you do eat the fruit surrounding them!

You’ll often get a slice of papaya served alongside your breakfast or brunch platter . It’s a great, refreshing finisher after a heart breakfast!

Although I suppose you could make papaya into a drink, I have yet to see it as such. It’s better to just enjoy this juicy fruit straight!

Tree Tomato (Tomate de Arbol)

Another Colombian fruit that I’m not a fan of is the tree tomato. Now, just because I’m not a fan doesn’t mean you won’t be.

My suegra (mother-in-law) can’t get enough of tree tomatoes!

You’ll usually find tree tomatoes blended into a mildly sweet juice with a bitter aftertaste. The reason why it’s usually put into juice is that on its own, it’s a bit bitter and bland. 

Still, if you want to eat tree tomatoes straight, try doing so with a bit of lime and salt. They can really transform this fruit!

Loquat (Níspero)

One of the things I love about Medellin is that even if something isn’t cultivated in the city, as long as it’s grown domestically, you can get your hands on it. 

Níspero is a type of fruit that’s actually grown on the coasts of Colombia . You’ll often find it in areas such as Cartagena and Santa Marta. 

When it’s in season, you can occasionally find it in the fruit markets of Medellin too!

Níspero has a sweet and sour taste. I enjoy eating it in ice cream, smoothies, or with a bit of yogurt.

Borojó is a super gooey fruit. You’ll usually find it sold in plastic wrap and tied up in yellow mesh bags in the grocery store. 

The best way to describe borojo is like a rose-flavored version of tamarind. The fruit has a mostly sweet flavor with a bit of tang at the end. 

Borojo is usually served in juice or in delicious baked treats. 

My personal favorite way to eat borojo is in a milk-based juice with a shot of whiskey and a dab of honey. The combination is rich, sweet, and smooth. 

The kiwis and Australians reading this guide probably are already familiar with feijoa. However, if you’re not from the Pacific island area, you might not recognize this fruit.

Feijoa is a green fruit that tastes a bit like an apple. It’s slightly tart and doesn’t usually taste so great on its own. 

You can get feijoa whipped into some truly delicious baked goods, however. It also tastes great in ice cream. 

Dragonfruit (Pithaya)

Dragonfruit gained popularity a few years back when Starbucks launched its Dragonfruit Refresher. 

However, the dragonfruit you’ll find in Medellin tastes very different from the Starbucks beverage. 

Dragonfruit in Medellin is usually yellow, not pink, and is like a sweeter version of kiwifruit. These tropical fruits have a white inside with black seeds. 

Just make sure not to eat too much! Any Colombian will tell you that dragonfruit can give you the runs if you’re not careful.

Star Fruit (Carambola) 

Many a Colombian cocktail comes served with a slice of star fruit on the rim. Star fruit is a long, yellow fruit that has a (you guessed it) star shape. 

These tropical fruits is quite acidic and tastes a little bit like lemons.

However, it’s not unpleasant to eat! Usually, it’s just used as a garnish, but you can also slice it up and eat it with salt and lemon. Yum!

Spanish Lime (Mamoncillo)

Spanish limes, known as mamoncillo in Colombia, are actually pretty hard to find in supermarkets. However, they grow wild on trees all over the country so keep your eyes peeled!

On the outside, Spanish limes look just like a normal lime. However, if you cut them open, the fruit is bright orange. 

The fruit is also much sweeter than limes. They’re a wonderfully refreshing fruit to eat if you’re lucky enough to find some! 

Mangosteen (Mangostino)

I’ll never forget the first time I found mangosteens in the supermarket. They were small, red items that looked sort of like a mix between beetroot and a plum!

What surprised me was when I cut the fruit open. Inside that hard, red exterior was a soft white fruit. The fruit was deliciously sweet!

Mangosteens are seasonal fruit, so you won’t see them on sale every day. They have a red dye in their skin, too, so open them with caution!

Zapote looks thoroughly unappealing from the outside. It’s large, round, brown, and usually a bit dirty. 

When you cut into the fruit, however, you’ll be greeted with a starchy and stringy orange fruit. The texture (and flavor) is pretty similar to that of sweet potato. 

You don’t have to cook zapote to eat it and can enjoy it fresh. You may also find it blended into fruit juice in one of the many restaurants around Medellin . 

Peruvian Ground Cherry (Uchuva)

Very occasionally, I’ve seen Peruvian ground cherries in US grocery stores. However, that was in a specialty grocery store that imports oddities from around the world. 

Peruvian ground cherries have an orange color and are about the size and shape of cherry tomatoes. 

These tropical fruits have a slightly sour flavor with a bit of a sweet aftertaste. 

Much like star fruit, ground cherries are often served as garnishes on cocktails. They come in a papery husk, which looks great as decorations on desserts and drinks.

Tamarind (Tamarindo)

When many people think of tamarind they think of Mexico. However, you can find it sold in Colombia as well!

In many Medellin grocery stores, these tropical fruits are sold in pods. If you open the pods, you’ll find a sticky, sweet, brown fruit.

Tamarind is often made into desserts and juices. The flavor is a little bit nutty, and I find it pairs well with nutmeg and cinnamon. 

Banana Passionfruit (Curuba)

Another one of the many tropical fruits that you should know about if you’re going to explore Medellin’s fruit scene is the banana passionfruit. 

This passionfruit is an oblong shape. It tastes quite similar to your standard passionfruit in that it’s pretty bitter and sour.

You’ll usually find banana passionfruit blended into juices or made into ice cream.

Custard Apple (Chirimoya)

If you find a custard apple in the supermarket, you might mistake it for soursop. Custard apples look very similar to soursop on the outside.

The main difference is that they’re quite a bit smaller and are more scaly than spiky. 

I often compare custard apples to artichokes. They both have green, scaly exteriors. 

When you open chirimoya, however, you’ll be greeted with delicious white pulp. You can eat the pulp, which tastes like condensed milk, but not the seeds. 

Gooseberry (Grosella) 

There’s a very particular type of gooseberry called grosella that you can occasionally find in fruit markets around Medellin. 

Like some of the other fruits on this list, grosella can be a bit harder to come by. My partner has fond memories of little old ladies selling it outside his high school at the end of the day. 

Grosella is very sour, however, so I advise you to eat it with caution. The best way to eat it is raw with salt. 

Chontaduro is another fruit from Colombia’s coasts. When in season, however, you’ll find peddlers selling chontaduro on the street. 

This fruit isn’t eaten raw. Instead, it’s typically boiled and cooked. 

From there, the skin is peeled off. The chontaduro is then served with salt and honey or with salt and lemon. 

It’s a great afternoon snack, but beware! Chontaduro is surprisingly filling. 

Take a Bite Out of Medellin’s Many Tropical Fruits

There truly is no end to the tropical fruits you’ll find in Medellin. Each one is super unique and is worth trying in some form or another. 

If you like this blog, you might like the Casacol Instagram page to keep up with all the new articles. Anything we need to update or correct? Care to contribute? Email us at [email protected].  

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Tour details

Delight your palate with exotic Colombian fruits, learning about their origins, benefits and preparation, while taking a tour of the Retail Plaza of Medellin

Tour location

Plaza Minorista Medellin

Place of departure

Hotel in Medellín

Departure time

To be arranged with customer

• Round trip door to door transportation from your hotel
• fruit tasting
• Natural juice
• Accident insurance

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A Party For Your Taste Buds: Medellin Exotic Fruits Tour

This one’s about ALL THE FRUIT!   It’s well-established by now that I’m a sucker for food tours, so that was one of the first things I looked up once I booked a ticket to Medellin.

In this particular case as well, I felt that as a solo female traveler and non-Spanish speaker, having at least one small group tour would help me make sure I got out and saw some things while feeling safe and actually understanding what I was seeing.

There were several interesting tour options in Medellin and with my short time (about 2 1/2 days) I just couldn’t do it all.  I had to decide between this exotic fruit tour in Medellin, and the famous 3-4 hour free walking tour of Medellin (by the same company), which gets rave reviews.

But I was going to get fed on this one, so it ultimately won 🙂  I also did do a full-day tour to Guatape , El Penol , and a coffee farm , which I highly recommend!

This post looks long but is a super easy, fast scroll…I just couldn’t resist sharing pics of many of the fruits we tried, just because they’re so cool looking.  At the bottom of the post I’ve shared all the details you need to decide if you want to book this for your own Medellin adventure.

Tips for the best long weekend in Medellin, Colombia!

A First-Timer’s Guide to Medellin

Why Visiting a Coffee Farm is a Must in Colombia

Guatapé, Colombia’s Most Colorful Town

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I took an Uber from my hotel in Poblado over to Minorista, about 15 minutes.  Finding my tour group was easy, and I introduced myself to German (“Her-man”) and the rest of the folks.  One thing I liked about Real City Tours is that their groups are small, so there were only 8 of us (which I think is the max size).

German gave us some initial instructions and we headed into the market.  It’s totally covered and largely inside, and was a pleasant-enough temperature (just for your planning purposes).

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We started our tour with the tomato de arbol, or tree tomato.  I’d never even heard of this and it is…odd?  It’s like a tomato and a papaya had a baby.  Or like someone finally told the tomato that it was actually a fruit, and it was trying to live up to that.  Not my fave, but not offensive.

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Next up was the lulo.  It, like many of these fruits, was quite tart.  I loved the look of this one.

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German took us through an area of the market where we couldn’t take pictures of the people, as the section is focused on more superstitious medicine (herbs and bars of soap meant to bring riches, and the like).

Then we were back at the fruit with some chontaduros!  These were definitely strange, with a texture like tough pumpkin and a very protein-y kind of taste that were at odds with their fruity look.  I liked it a bit better with the honey and salt, but I wouldn’t go back for this myself.

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Haha and then the algaroba…a.k.a. “stinky toe”  Yes, for real.  It is a pungent odd bean kind of thing, which had to be broken open with a hammer.

The inside was the texture of sawdust, very mild and a little sweet though quite dry.  I think they use it often in smoothies, which makes a lot of sense for protein, fiber, and texture.

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And now this was one of my favorites!  I’d accidentally stumbled on a traditional Colombian delicacy called arepas con chocolo at breakfast that morning—fresh corn arepas.  These are SO much better than the sad, bland white arepas I’d had before.  So German brought us to a stand selling freshly fried-up ones with the traditional fresh cheese.

We wandered on into a different section and noshed on the biggest avocado I’ve ever seen, and then mamoncillo—these weird tiny Spanish limes that are kind of like sucking on a delicious, tart eyeball.  If you eat more than like 3 they’ll eventually numb your mouth too.

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Then we had the uchuva (also called physalis, which I learned from the Great British Bake Off).  Much milder than I would have guessed.

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The pitahaya (dragon fruit) was quite tart, and was one of my favorite-looking fruits.

After a slice of prickly pear, German set us free for about 15 minutes to wander around.  I talked some dudes who let me taste some other fruit, and then we continued on to finish out the tour.

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Here’s a look at everything we tasted on our exotic fruit tour (except the soursop, which we could have had juice from at the end).  We finished up our tour with fresh juice mixed with milk and then four different types of passion fruit.  I had the borojo juice, which was lovely.

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So I’ve always wondered why I can never find passion fruit in the grocery stores in the U.S., and my new theory is that Colombia exports all of them to Britain for use on the Great British Bake Off.  So there’s your conspiracy theory for the day…

Doesn’t this look like an alien being birthed???

Here are three different kinds of passion fruit, all great and all quite tart.  And the color of that regular one (the purple) is just glorious!

Taking an exotic fruit tour in Medellin

• I took the tour with Real City Tours
• Note, they only open up their bookings about 2 weeks out, so if you’re trying to book and can’t select the date you want, that’s probably why
• The tour will take 2.5-3 hours and you’ll meet at the south metro station by Minorista.  They provide very good, detailed directions for getting there either on your own on the metro or by cab/Uber.  I decided to go the Uber route so I could actually enter my destination in the app.
• Wear cool, comfy clothes and shoes that are good for walking
• The area is a not-bad walk from Plaza de Botero so I’d recommend going up that way after your tour is over…the guide can easily give you directions for the safest way to walk (and ours also walked us part of the way)
• I stayed in Poblado at the Diez Hotel Catagoria Colombia , which was clean and comfy enough and I felt very safe

Other food and culture pairings you’ll like:

• Devouring the Food of Istanbul’s Asian Side: A Walking Food Tour
• A (Frigid) Food Tour of Asheville
• Diving Into Jerusalem’s Amazing Mahane Yehuda Market (a.k.a. The Shuk)

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Comments (1)

Joe Slimowicz

April 7, 2023 at 6:15 pm

Thank you for such a nice review – I am planning on booking this now for my trip!

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Medellin Exotic Fruit Tour

By: Author Randi Delano, Creator & Owner

Posted on Published: November 6, 2017

Table of Contents

One of the best things to do in Medellin is the Exotic Fruit Tour. Every foodie, especially of the vegan variety, should take this tour!

The Medellin Exotic Fruit tour is a two and a half hour tasting extravaganza at the Minorista Farmers Market. It includes a tour of the grandiose and lively bazaar and a tasting of exotic fruits found in Colombia, most of which I’ve never seen anywhere else in the world.

Jennifer, our energetic Colombian guide, whose passion for fruit became obvious before we even set foot inside the market, led our tour. She enthusiastically guided us from stall to stall picking out the ripest of each fruit we would be tasting. She provided us with a plethora of information ranging from facts about the origins of the fruit, to stories of how locals used them in daily life, to nutritional information about each.

The fruits ranged greatly in characteristics. With textures that included chalky and dry, to wet and slippery, and even cottony.

Flavors were all over the spectrum and included salty, to sugary sweet, tangy, and sour. Odors included everything from floral to stinky feet.

Fruits We Tried on the Exotic Fruit Tour

Medellin Exotic Fruit Tour Highlights

After touring the many levels and sections of the lively and vibrant Minorista Farmers Market, and tasting sixteen of Colombia’s best exotic fruits we sat down with Jennifer to enjoy a fresh glass of Guayaba juice. She asked us to choose our favorite fruit of the day. An impossible question since there were so many varieties that appealed to my different senses.

Nevertheless, I there were a few that stood out.

A powerhouse fruit with 16 vitamins and nutrients, including three times the recommended daily allowance of vitamin C in 100 grams! It is juicy, sweet, slightly sour, and delicious.

Pitahya (Dragon Fruit)

This fruit is in the same family as the Dragon Fruit you find in Asia. This variety is sweeter, more juicy, and every bit as enjoyable. After the tour, I bought them every time I saw them in Colombia.

You need a hammer to get to the the dry and stringy flesh inside these pods. Warning, don’t expect to be rewarded with a sweet scent  but rather the strong smell of stinky feet hits you.  This makes me think the first people to start eating this fruit were probably desperately hungry. Once you get past the smell the fruit has a mildly sweet flavor. It’s also a nutrient packed fruit that in powdered form is an excellent addition to smoothies. The powder is high in protein, fiber, calcium, lysine, and magnesium and is sweet and nutty.

Ice Cream Bean (Inga edulis)

PC: Inga edulis: Guabo 1 by Vilseskogen under CC2.0

Another fruit that makes you work hard to get to it’s flesh, this one is a little more rewarding however. The furry meat that surrounds the slippery black seeds inside the woody pods taste very similar to vanilla ice cream. A huge treat for the traveling vegan who doesn’t have access to non-dairy ice cream!

Nispero (Loquat)

This fruit has a soft and delicate flesh that tasted like brown sugar and has the texture of a kiwi. It’s basically a creamy and decadent dessert in fruit form.

Chontaduro (Peach Palm)

This fruit has to be boiled for about 20 minutes before eating and has the starchy texture of a potato with a slightly sweet taste. Colombians eat it with a bit of salt and honey and it’s said to have an “appetite opening effect”…meaning all bodily appetites… Luckily it was one of the first fruits we tasted on the tour.

Mangostino (Mangosteen)

They were Queen Victoria’s favorite fruit and in New York you’ll pay up to $40 a pound for them! Luckily in Colombia you can get your hands on the same quantity for about $2.00 and it’s a steal. This fruit is mildly sweet, juicy and absolutely delicious. Like most great things, a little work is required. You first have to remove the top, bang the side against a hard surface and tear it open to expose the sections of white flesh inside. Be careful because the outer flesh can stain your hands and at one point was even used as dye for clothing.

Tomate de Arbol (Tree Tomato)

Yes, tomatoes are fruits and in Colombia you see these everywhere. They are particularly good for juicing. The flavor is similar to a tomato but a bit sour.

The Best Part of the Medellin Exotic Fruit Tour

As I traveled throughout Colombia for two months earlier this year I saw a myriad of unfamiliar fruits everywhere. While I do consider myself adventurous, I had no idea what most of these fruits were, or even how they should be enjoyed (or opened in some cases). If it weren’t for the Medellin Exotic Fruit Tour I would have missed out on the opportunity to try many of what ended up being the most delicious fruits I’ve ever had the pleasure of putting in my mouth.

Note: Several photos courtesy of Real City Tours

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roamingpursuits

Friday 31st of July 2015

Nice pics of the luscious fruits. Have tried some of it in Southeast Asia.

Thanks for stopping by! Yes, believe it our not as good as they look in picture, they're even better in person. ;)

Tuesday 28th of July 2015

Great to see about 7-8 are available here in South Africa and that I have eaten them on a regular basis.

Its always interesting to see what is "exotic" to different people around the world, in different places. Also names of things can be different but the actual product can be the same. I also find that very cool.

Lovely article, nice bright images, great fun read. #LoveAndTravelHugs© Cee

Sunday 26th of July 2015

All that delicious fruit. It is important to know how and what to eat with so many different fruit to choose from. Very informative. I'm dying for some fruit now , maybe just time to head to our local Sunday market. Might have to settle for papaya, or dragon fruit if it is in season? .

Lyn, thank you for stopping by and reading my article. The tour was fantastic and it was such a treat to get to try all of the different fruits, especially the ones I had never had before. Visiting local markets is one of my favorite things to do, I hope you have a wonderful time at yours today and find plenty of great options!

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A Tour of Deliciously Exotic Colombian Fruits

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Colombia is a land of superlatives and extremes, still full of poverty but so very rich in biodiversity and natural resources. One thing that immediately strikes most travelers on their first trip here is just how many incredible, delicious, colorful, and strange exotic Colombian fruits there are, whether they are sold on the streets, in the markets, or served up as a delicious juice or smoothie. 

Colombia is the world’s second most biodiverse country after Brazil and is a place rich in plant and animal life with an almost mind-boggling variety. The same is true of the exotic fruits here.

Of course, there are the standard tropical fruits that you are already familiar with, like mango, pineapple, bananas, avocados (yes, actually a fruit), papaya, and more… Colombia has all those things, but also SO much more. Indeed, the sheer number of strange Colombian fruits that I’d never heard of before coming here (and those I continue to learn about after years) is quite incredible.

Exotic Colombian Fruits Tour

I’ve always enjoyed the numerous fresh tropical fruit juices which are readily served up across Colombia and consumed on a daily basis by those of us who call this country home (locals or foreigners alike). Fruits are everywhere here and an almost daily part of life… Fresh fruit juice is almost obligatory during any Colombian lunch.

I thought I’d “seen it all” after a few years here, but when I was invited on the Real City Tours exotic fruits tour in the Minorista Marketplace in El Centro , I quickly learned that that wasn’t the case. I was still missing quite a lot!

The exotic tropical fruits tour was incredibly interesting (and delicious) and is one of those Medellin tours that I’d recommend working in among the many other things to do in Medellin .

In this virtual tour of Colombian fruits, I wanted to introduce you to some of the most unusual exotic fruits we tried on the tour (as well as a few others), just to give you a better idea of the incredible opportunities that await you if you enjoy exploring new and unusual things.

After that, I’ll be sharing where the best place is to find these fruits in Medellin as well as a little more details about the exotic fruits tour.

Maracuya – Yellow Passion Fruit

Maracuya, aka the yellow passion fruit, is almost ubiquitous across much of Colombia. This is a type of citrus fruit rich in vitamin C and antioxidants. It’s almost like a hollow gourd filled with a bunch of seeds, these seeds are each covered in a slippery, juicy little bit of fruit.

It is actually the seeds covered in fruit that you eat when you are eating Maracuya. Most people slurp them whole, not chewing on the seeds. There is a whole family of passion fruits that are similar, albeit with slightly different forms, tastes, or colors. The yellow passion fruit is quite bitter or tart, but that is a taste that I love, personally. Yum!

It is quite common to find maracuya fruit juice, but they also use maracuya for different things like desserts, jams, and so forth.

We’ll be talking about a few different passion fruits throughout this article.

Murrapo – Baby Banana

The murrapo, sometimes called banano bocadillo, is basically a baby banana that you’ll see being sold all over Colombia in tight little bushels with dozens of murrapos. I had no idea there are more than 1,000 species of bananas around the world, but the murrapo is one of them.

Generally speaking, the most common bananas I eat here in Colombia are a bit sweeter than the ones we receive imported in the United States, and this little baby banana is even sweeter still.

It seems like it takes all the same sugar content of the big bananas sold here in Colombia but packs it down into a 1/3 or 1/4 of the size. The murrapos are quite delicious and should be tried. 

Locals commonly eat the murrapos by rolling them in their hands to soften them up, then squeezing them and sucking out the sweet goodness, rather than peeling and eating… It’s like nature’s version of one of those Gogurt things that I remember as a kid from the 90s.

Mangostino – Mangosteen

The mangosteen is not native to Colombia, but rather Southeast Asia, although it is cultivated here now. This unique fruit, also known as the “queen of fruits” has a thick, inedible purple rind that you crack open to get to the fleshy fruit pods contained inside.

In appearance, the little white slices of delicious sweet and sour fruit look a bit like garlic cloves, but obviously taste nothing alike. This is one of the most delicious fruits I’ve tasted here in Colombia, but it isn’t really common, owing to the fact that they have a short shelf-life and are somewhat expensive compared to other fruits (especially comparing the amount of actual fruit each mangosteen contains). As a result, even many locals haven’t tried the mangosteen.

If you see it for sale, I’d highly recommend giving this delicious, sweet, and unusual fruit a try, it is something that you’re not likely to find back home.

Tomate de Arbol – Tree Tomato

I’ve drunken about a million glasses of tomate de arbol juice during my many “menu of the day” meals, but I’d actually never eaten the fruit directly. This is actually a somewhat common theme in Colombia, as they prefer to drink many of their fruits since many flavors aren’t suitable for directly eating.

These elongated, egg-shaped fruits range in color from yellow to red and can be eaten straight, although the flavor is a bit tart. These fruits are pretty ubiquitous and cheap, which is why they are used so commonly in “menu of the day” restaurants here, where they are blended with sugar and water to get rid of the tartness.

In other parts of the world, this fruit is known as tamarillo. They are becoming more popular for use in locally inspired cocktails too, which is pretty cool.

Algarroba – West Indian Locust

The algarroba isn’t actually a fruit but rather a legume, although it is considered a fruit here. It is a strange long pod that grows from the algarrobo tree. The exterior is a super hard wooden shell which must be cracked into with a hammer in order to access the edible white interior.

The first thing you’ll notice though, as you bring the fleshy part toward your mouth, is the unmistakable foul odor. Locals also name the algarroba “pecueca” which is the Colombian slang for nasty smelling feet. No, it isn’t durian, but that should still give you a good idea of how it smells.

If you can move beyond the smell, the white fleshy part is actually pretty tasty. It isn’t like out of this world delicious, but it’s definitely good. It is actually kind of dry, chalky, and sweet, dissolving in your mouth like cotton candy.

It is a pain to get into though, believe me, I’ve tried cracking into them myself. But if you wanna try a “stinky fruit” then the algarroba should be on your list. It is more commonly used in powder which can be mixed into milk as a drink or substitute for other sugars.

Guayaba – Guava

The Guayaba or guava is a fruit that can be found the world over in both the tropics and subtropics, having spread originally from Central America. The ones found in Colombia are a few inches long and rounded, with pink flesh inside and hard black seeds.

Like many fruits, you can eat the seeds as well, but the guava seeds here are particularly hard, so be careful when chewing.

The guava here is quite often used to make a sweet treat known as bocadillo de guayaba which is also known as guava paste. It is basically a block of the sticky sweet treat sometimes served with cheese. These bocadillos make for great gifts for people back home.

The fruit itself is quite sweet and delicious, just head the warning about the seeds. It is also often used for juice.

Mamoncillo – Spanish Lime

These green little balls look like smaller lime, giving them their English name of “Spanish Lime.” They’ve got a thin skin which is easily popped off with the fingernail or you can break the skin with your teeth and pop out the fruit.

Be careful, though, don’t just bite down! This fruit is actually much more seed than fruit. It contains a large seed at the center, covered by the yellowish fruit.

Basically, the mamoncillo is popped into the mouth whole to suck on for a little bit, trying to draw out as much of its flavorful juice and flesh as you can, then you just spit the large seed into the trash.

They are tasty little fruits, although you don’t get much out of each one.

Curuba – Banana Passion Fruit

The curuba is another member of the passion fruit family, but this one is smaller and more elongated, rather than round, thus giving it the “banana” name in English. This one is also a bit tart, though in my mind less-so than the maracuya, with seeds that are perhaps a little more bitter.

Curuba is often used to make a milk-based drink which helps knock down some of the tartness, resulting in a fruity milkshake sort of concoction. It is quite good, but of the four passion fruits we’ll be discussing, it stands out as the least notable, to me.

Borojo is perhaps one of the most unusual fruits on the list. This fruit can only be found the Choco Province of Colombia (and Esmeraldas in Ecuador) where it grows in conditions of high heat and humidity.

You’re likely to only see it neatly wrapped in plastic in a mesh bag where this delicate fruit will actually rot a little bit. Yeah, it doesn’t sound or look appetizing whatsoever, and it is apparently very bitter when eaten alone.

This isn’t a common fruit, but we had it as a drink where it was mixed with milk and sugar, basically creating a big ol’ delicious milkshake. It’s honestly like an ice cream smoothie, surprisingly yummy, and a must-try! They also say that it is an aphrodisiac, haha.

Guama – Ice Cream Bean

This interesting looking fruit is like a giant bean pod growing on the trees and it is indigenous to South America. When you crack open the bean pod, you’ll find a series of white fleshy bulbs inside, each one covering a hard seed.

There isn’t much flesh to each seed, but the flavor has been compared to vanilla ice cream albeit not so sweet. This is certainly an unusual fruit that you should try and seek out when you’re here.

Zapote or Sapote

This is another unusual fruit that is about the size of a large apple but shaped like a spinning top. Outside is hard and brownish and it is native to the Amazon region. The easiest way inside is to pop off the stem piece and then peel the hard flesh down from the hole it leaves. Inside is a bright orange, fibrous fruit covering about 4-5 large seeds inside.

Like the mamoncillo, the easiest way is to just pop the seed and fruit inside your mouth to suck on the juice and try to remove as much of the flesh as possible. You can’t actually get all the fibers off the seed since they are stuck very well to the seed, but you can get almost all the juice out.

It is actually a very nice fruit that you should try and seek out in a local market. Fair warning though, these fruits seem to have an unusually high occurrence of worms inside, so you must always carefully check over the fruit inside before eating.

The granadilla is another member of the passion fruit family, with a light orange or yellow exterior, and about the size of an orange, as well. You’ll also easily recognize it by the stem. You can crack into the rigid but weak exterior of the fruit with your hands, and inside you’ll find purplish colored seeds covered in that fleshy material.

This was the first of the passion fruits I ever tried, and it is much more commonly sold whole like this and easy to find on the streets. Indeed, it makes a quick and easy on-the-go snack for locals.

The flavor is not tart like some of the others, and while it is sweet, it isn’t overwhelmingly so. Compared to the other members of the family, it is a milder flavor, more suited to eating whole rather than in juice form.

As a side note, did you know the passion fruits are named that way not because of any sort of love or romantic passion, but rather for the passion of the Christ? The flowers of this plant are unbelievable — seriously, I’ve never seen anything like them.

They were named so because these flowers supposedly are representative of the Passion with elements like the ten apostles in the ten petals, the crown of thorns, and other religious elements. Supposedly the Spanish priests used these flowers to help proselytize to the locals about Christianity.

Chontaduro – Peach Palm

The chontaduro is a different sort of fruit in that these small reddish to yellowish berry looking things are not actually eaten fresh. The tough texture of them requires them to be boiled for hours in order to soften up the skin and make them edible.

They aren’t very sweet, and the fruit has more of a fleshy texture and a flavor that I found reminiscent of sweet potatoes. It’s an okay fruit, but not exactly at the top of my list of favorites. Locals will often drizzle honey over them to make them a little sweeter and more delicious.

Uchuva – Cape Gooseberry

The uchuva is a small fruit about the size of a cherry, but each fruit comes “wrapped” in a nifty little papery leaf package. You rip off the leafy exterior and find the little yellowish fruit contained inside.

They don’t have any hard seeds so you can just pop it your mouth whole. This is another fruit that is a bit sweet or tart, so it isn’t among the favorites, although some locals will use the uchuva as a chaser after shots of aguardiente (the local firewater).

The fruit contains properties that supposedly good for the eyes and prostate as well. I quite like the little fruits, although they have a tendency to get overripe and soften quite quickly, so you should plan to eat them fast. You can also find them sold without the papery leaf covering.

Guanabana – Soursop

This fruit is a monster — not only is each fruit massive but the exterior is green and spiky, like something straight out of Jurassic Park. Honestly, these fruits are almost too big to buy individually, which is why you’ll often see them split open and sold in halves or quarters.

You’ll recognize it for its slimy white interior. It doesn’t look too appetizing at first glance, and the fruit itself has a lot of large black seeds which can make for quite a lot of work.

There is a lot of fruit here, and most often in Colombia, they use the guanabana for juice. The white juice is sweet and refreshing and is actually the only way I’ve consumed it. I’ve yet to try the fruit in its whole form, simply for the reasons we talked about above.

Cherimoya – Custard Apple

Cherimoya is a relative of the guanabana, but thankfully it is much smaller than its monster-sized cousin. Rather than spikes, this smaller green fruit has a scaly or textured surface. It is also white on the inside with large black seeds like the guanabana, but it contains much less of the seeds.

The fruit has a creamy texture, not quite as juicy, and which led to its name of “custard apple” in English. This is a really good fruit and a whole lot more manageable than the guanabana if you’re looking to try it in the fresh fruit form rather than juice.

Lulo – Little Orange

This sour little fruit is most commonly used in juices and can be found quite readily, although perhaps not quite as common as maracuya or tomate de arbol. The lulo is actually part of the same family as tomate de arbol (the nightshade) and is not commonly eaten on its own due to the sour factor.

I’m a fan of sour fruits though, so I quite enjoy eating it on its own. If I had to compare it to a more common fruit, I’d say it is fairly similar to the kiwi with a bit of a citrus flavor. It also has soft seeds inside like the kiwi which are edible. I quite like lulo, both as a fruit and in the juice form.

Feijoa – Guavasteen

The feijoa is a small green little oblong fruit that looks a bit like a tiny cucumber. Inside is white flesh with a translucent center, a bit reminiscent of cucumber as well. This one you don’t normally eat the skin because of the bitter flavor, but rather just scoop out the middle with a spoon to enjoy.

It has a strong and pleasant smell and the taste and texture are a bit like a pear, in my mind, with that sort of slightly gritty texture as well. It’s a really delicious fruit that you must try!

You’ll know the fruit is ripe if you cut it open and there is a larger transparent area in the middle. If it is all white, it is not ripe enough, and if it is starting to go brownish, that means it is overripe (which some people prefer).

Gulupa – Purple Passion Fruit

Here’s another one of the passion fruit family members, the gulupa. This one is known as the purple passion fruit because of its outside color. The exterior of the fruit often turns a bit dimpled or wrinkly too… From the outside, it isn’t a particularly attractive fruit.

On the inside, you’ll find the same fleshy seeds as all the other passion fruits, but the flavor of the gulupa is much sweeter, less tart, and probably the most delicious of the four.

This one is a favorite of many people, although it is nowhere near as common as the granadilla and maracuya. I’d highly recommend trying the gulupa at some point in your travels in Colombia ! The more wrinkly, the better in terms of sweetness.

Carambola – Star Fruit

This attractive-looking fruit forms beautiful little stars when cut into slices. You’ll often find them tossed into fruit salads or used as garnishes on drinks. It’s a good fruit, but it’s also kind of plain, not really too sweet or overwhelmingly delicious.

These fruits aren’t really anything to write home about, in my opinion, but they are certainly nice looking though! 🙂

Higo – Prickly Pear

I first got to know this delicious cactus fruit in Mexico where they call it “tuna”. The most common type you’ll find is a oblong green one. The easiest way to eat them is to chop off both ends of the fruit, then make a slit across the body which can then be peeled away from the fruit.

These higos are surprisingly juicy, especially given the fact that they come from a cactus. Sometimes they are practically dripping with fruit juice. I quite like higo and you’ll also find them in a few different colors like red and yellow, although green is the most common here.

Be careful with the outside of the fruit, there may be spines (since it is from a cactus) although that is pretty uncommon. In English, it is also known as a cactus fig.

Pitahaya – Dragon Fruit

The pitahaya, also known as dragon fruit, is a spiky yellow fruit on the outside and features a beautiful, juicy white flesh filled with small black seeds on the inside. This is a fruit that you can find around the world in tropical locales, although in different colors. Here in Colombia, it is the yellow dragon fruit that reigns supreme, rather than pink or red colors of Asia.

This fruit is another cactus fruit, like the higo above, but is probably even more delicious, at least for my palate. You can cut open the pitahaya and just scoop out the juicy white flesh and eat it right along with the seeds.

Be warned though, pitahaya is renowned for helping digestion, so everyone warns against eating too much of this delicious fruit.

Even More Exotic Colombian Fruits

So that’s just a brief tour of some of the most unusual and noteworthy fruits of Colombia among those that I have tried personally. I’ve eaten almost all of them in their whole, fresh form, and a couple only in juice form (like guanabana and borojo). I’d recommend trying as many of these fruits as you can during your time here, and I’ll actually give you a couple recs for how to do so, just momentarily.

Even though I’ve tried a lot of the most exotic Colombian fruits, there are still quite a few that I have yet to taste, if you can believe it! There is truly a smorgasbord of fruit options here in Colombia, which could keep you busy for quite a while…

I was talking with locals here in Colombia about some more fruits and they mentioned things like chonta, nispero, corozo, papayuela, granada, annona, mortiño, and noni/morinda, just to name a few more that I haven’t tried and didn’t talk about here.

Where to Taste These Colombian Fruits

The best place to taste any of these fruits is in one of the major Colombian cities in the biggest local market. In the city of Medellin , that market would obviously be Minorista in El Centro where you can find basically anything and everything — it goes well beyond fruits and vegetables, to meats, cheeses, consumer goods, and even live animals.

The Minorista is one of those must-do things in Medellin , in my book. And while I’ve visited the market a number of times on my own, I gotta a lot more out of the experience by going with a knowledgeable guide as I finally did with Real City Tours .

I’ve been introduced to a lot of local fruits thanks to ties to locals here, but obviously, even their knowledge about the sheer range of fruits pales in comparison to a guide. You can pack in more fruits in a few hours on a tour than you probably otherwise would in weeks… I’d highly recommend it!

Real City Tours Exotic Fruits Tour

The Real City Tours Exotic Fruits Tour runs daily at the Minorista Market, so long as they have the minimum number of participants, and it takes about three hours. You’ll have to meet up at the Metroplus station outside the market (it connects with the Metro system) where you’ll head out with your guide through the labyrinth that is La Minorista.

The tour costs less than $20 and includes everything — we had 14 different exotic fruits, a bit of arepa de choclo with fresh queso, and even a fresh fruit smoothie or juice at the end (where I tried the borojo). I even got to try the super tiny pajarito pepper, which is also super hot — be warned!

Honestly, it is a fantastic deal and makes for a fun half-day out in Medellin where you can learn more about some of what this country has to offer.

Real City Tours is also the operator behind the amazing Medellin free walking tour (my #1 recommended activity) and the barrio transformation tour (different and better than Comuna 13) in Moravia Medellin . No, they aren’t paying me, I’m just happy to recommend fun and awesome activities to make your trip to Medellin as memorable and enjoyable as possible.

You can reserve your exotic Colombian fruits tour now on the Real City Tours website.

Planning Your Trip to Medellin

Traveling to Medellin soon? Book your lodging now via Booking.com to save, and be sure to check my travel guide about where to stay in Medellin , including the best Medellin hostels , or my ultimate guide of things to do in Medellin to plan an unforgettable trip. If you’re traveling throughout Colombia, don’t miss my detailed guide to traveling to Colombia .

Read Next: Ultimate Guide to Colombian Food

Travel Insurance for Medellin

Finally, don’t forget to purchase travel insurance for Colombia to protect yourself against theft, sickness, and injury while in Medellín. I use and recommend World Nomads for the best combination of affordability and coverage.

Colombia Travel Tips

Important tips and resources for planning an amazing trip to Colombia, based on my years of traveling and living in Colombia.

Colombia Trip Planning

• Lonely Planet Colombia
• Momondo Flight Search
• ViaHero Itinerary Planning
• Booking.com
• SafetyWing Travel Insurance
• Get Your Guide Tours

Instructions

• Book a cheap fligh t to Colombia with Momondo , or better yet, start travel hacking so you can fly for free. Traveling between major cities is much better by flying, trust me.
• Plan a rough itinerary and how long you will spend at each destination. Use an itinerary planning service for custom recommendations and pick up Lonely Planet Colombia .
• Work a little every day to teach yourself Spanish , you'll want to know as much as possible before you arrive.
• Book cheap accommodation in advance, at least for the first destinations -- For hostels use: Booking , for cheap hotels use: Hotels.com , for apartments use: Airbnb .
• Reserve your on the ground tours and activities through Get Your Guide .
• Purchase travel insurance for Colombia with SafetyWing to protect yourself from illness, injury, and theft while in Colombia. VERY important. And be sure to read my article: " Is Colombia Safe? " for my honest opinion and safety tips.
• Sign up for my free emails about planning a better trip to Colombia, and be sure to check out my comprehensive guide about traveling to Colombia .
• Learn more money-saving tricks with my top budget travel tips .
• Put together your Colombia packing list .
• Enjoy this incredible country!

I hope this helped you plan your travels in Colombia! I know it can be a struggle to find accurate and on the ground information when traveling to a new place like Colombia, which is why I started writing so extensively about it!

If you have any questions about Colombia, budget travel, or anything else shoot me an email at [email protected].

(I love getting questions! That is how I get ideas for my blog posts and what to write about!)

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Exotic fruits of Medellin: a journey through its flavors.

Colombia, the second most biodiverse country in the world and the first in orchids, second in butterflies, and third in palms and reptiles. It is also a suitable and fertile land for the cultivation of exotic fruits , which delight the palate of those who have the opportunity to consume them. They adorn the local markets of this tropical paradise with their colors.

Thanks to the excellent geographical location of Colombia in the equatorial zone of America, which has luminosity throughout the year and has the necessary conditions for the cultivation of various fruits, in the country you can enjoy countless of these during practically any time of year.

Pitahaya, lulo, papaya, pineapple, avocado, gulupa, mango, mamoncillo, blackberry, tamarind, mandarin, passion fruit, banana, soursop, and many more fruits, adorn the shops of the local markets of the different Colombian cities where they are sold.

Do you want to try them?

One of the ways to appreciate the sweet, semi-acid, acid, and neutral flavors of Colombian fruits is to know its public markets through, for example, an exotic fruit tour , one of the experiences best valued by travelers from all over the world. that as if it were a spell, they are delighted to appreciate the various colors, smells, and flavors of the tropics.

Tours such as ¨Medellin, the fruit market¨, which takes place in the Plaza Minorista de Medellin , one of the most important public markets in the city and where people attend to make their daily fruit purchases, vegetables, greens, grains, and groceries in general.

Located in the heart of the city, it is described by visitors who come to visit it as a clean, safe place with two fascinating components to want to return to, fresh products of excellent quality and friendly and welcoming hosts.

Two floors full of everything you may need make the Plaza Minorista de Medellin the ideal place to live the typical experience of the Colombian market.

In fact, those who do this type of tour, through immersive experiences and in which they can interact with the environment, products, and people; enjoy not only the sensations produced by the flavors they are discovering, (for example also through desserts and juices), but they also have a magical visual experience that captivates with a color palette as large as the number of fruits in Colombia .

Other places in Medellin to try exotic Colombian fruits

Placita de flórez, placita de flórez, plaza de la américa, plaza de la américa, farmer’s markets of medellin, mercados campesinos.

In typical local markets, in neighborhood stores, supermarkets, or large structures. In farmer’s markets, in a wooden cart in the center of any city, or on the side of the road adorning the Colombian landscapes; In Colombia, it is very easy to taste all kinds of exotic and tropical fruits because of their production is abundant, generous and permanent.

Also read: 5 proposals from Medellin to support local purchases.

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• Destinations
• Tours in Medellin

Exotic Fruit Tour Medellin

Overview of the tour in Medellin

The tradition of a ¨Plaza de Mercado¨, or marketplace, was brought to our land by the Spanish Colonizers. At its time, the Market, developed at the “Plaza Mayor” in the central area of the city. It was usually held on Saturdays or Sundays, the same days Religious Services were provided. With us, you will explore this vivid place, walking through the best stalls with fresh delicious fruit and vegetables. You will also meet locals and learn tips on getting around the city from our friendly guide.

This activity includes:

• Plaza Minorista José María Villa
• Local market
• 10 fruits tasting

Meeting point

Main entrance of the market

Meeting point: main entrance of the market.

Things to note

You will meet the guide at the main entrance. Please provide us with your WhatsApp number to organize the meeting time.

Free Cancellation

Free Cancellation up to 24 hours before the activity starts. Late cancellation or your non-arrival is not refundable.

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Daily departures 7 days a week 9am and 2pm, 365 days of the year.

365 days of the year.

Duration: 4 hours, language: english/spanish.

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Get to know the authentic taste of Medellín- the famous  paisa gastronomy ! We will take you on a half day tour to the  most popular markets  of the city. Experience the variety of colorful flowers and enjoy the taste of traditional plates. You will be surprised about the wide range of tropical fruits and to give you a first insight of the different tastes, our tour offers you  unlimited fruit tasting ! We invite you to get lost in the Colombian cuisine!

All of our tours are  private bilingual tours  that include a  professional local guide  who will pick you up and drop you off at your hotel. We also make sure you will have enough free time to buy souvenirs, grab a snack or take breathtaking pictures.

Note : Don’t forget to bring  cash  with you in case you want to buy goods or beverage that is not included because some shops or local restaurants may not accept credit cards.

INCLUDED AND NOT

• Hotel pick up and drop off
• Private car with bilingual driver and AC

Typical souvenir

• Relevant entries to main markets
• Traveler`s insurance
• Parking fees
• Unlimited fruit samples
• Fully narrated tour
• Local taxes

Tips to driver/guide

• Departures 2
• Videos/Articles 4
• ¿Any Question? 5
• Minorista market
• Placita de flores
• Mayorista central market.
• 365 days of the year, daily departures 7 days a week 9am, excepting sundays

Related articles

36 Hours in Medellín, Colombia. New York Times  Click here to read

Medellin, From most Dangerous to Most Innovative City of the Year  Click here to read

Food Tour: The Best Chicharrón, Buñuelos and Morcilla in the Valley  Click here to read

TANGO TOUR PRICE PER PERSON:

Do you have a question?

(+57) 311 341 3715, [email protected].

Terms and Conditions • Against child pornography • RUES • SIC • RNT • National Tourism Registry

#WEDONTALLOW The exploitation, pornography, sexual abuse or sexual tourism of children and teenagers (Law 678 of 2001 of Colombia). We do not support illegal trade in flora and fauna (Law 17 of 1981 and Law 1333 of 2009), nor the carrying, distribution and consumption of drugs. Medellin City Services supports the work of UNICEF by committing itself to the protection of the rights of children and adolescents in Colombia.

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