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Manizales, Colombia Data Sheet
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Manizales, Colombia Data Sheet

Hey guys,
Mostly lurk but decided was time I give back. Have spent a bit of time in Colombia, mostly in places that have been covered a lot already. I have noticed there's almost no info on Manizales, which is a place I spent a bit of time in and liked a lot. Apologies if any of this info is outdated but it hasn't been too long since I was there.

Manizales
Manizales is a city of around 350,000 in the department of Caldas, located in the coffee triangle region of Colombia. It's the northernmost of the three main cities of the coffee triangle, the other two being Armenia and Pereira. If you're travelling by bus, you can get there in 1:15 from Pereira and around 3 hours from Armenia. A bus from Medellin will take you about 4-5 hours.

Manizales is in a very mountainous area, and if you're visiting, outdoor activities are probably on your list of things to do. This is a site for chasing girls so I'll avoid spending too much time on that but IMO Manizales is the best jump-off spot for some adventure in the mountains. Trekking at the volcano above the city, coffee farm tours, spending some time at lower elevations below the city swimming and being in the sun, the list could go on. Just keep in mind this is not Medellin, so if you're going to go, expect the nightlife to be a few notches below and plan on doing some things like this to have fun

La Feria de Manizales
Hard to avoid this, so I'll get it out of the way. Manizales has one of the biggest festivals in Colombia during early January. There's concerts, a beauty pageant, sporting events, bullfights, and of course, parties every night. I haven't been, but if you're going to be there during this part of the year, book in advance. My impressions are it's probably a blast, but not great for girls. Most girls travelling in will be with family, and the locals told me numerous times there were lots of 'ladrones' out during la fera, so they are probably on their guard more than normal.

Where to stay
I'll make this simple-stay in the El Cable area. This is the heart of the city and where a lot of the best spots for daygame and nightgame are. If you're not staying here you'll just end up cabbing it here constantly anyway. I don't have any specific recommendations on places to stay but AirBNB works fine for the area, or there are plenty of hostels and hotels, most of which are located near El Cable. Do not stay in El Centro.

Daygame
It's Colombia, wherever. Probably the first place to start is at the El Cable mall. Lots of pretty store girls, occasional groups of girls shopping, and a few small coffee shops inside where you might catch groups hanging out. Across the street is the outdoor Juan Valdez coffee shop which is also a great daygame spot. Remember there are a ton of students here, so these places will be flooded in the afternoon. Some of the bars I mention later might also be good spots to run mid-late afternoon game while people meet up after work/school.

The old center, during the day, could be a good spot to spit game on some shop girls and this is also a spot where they are less used to seeing gringos. There's a small mall here as well. The big mall between centro and el cable is good as well, I believe it's called fundadores.

Nightgame
The main nightlife area is el cable. This street is populated with bars and small discotecas. For the latter, if you've been to Colombia, you know the type-tables, chairs, bumping music, and people in groups. Eventually they'll get up to dance, but probably no group mixing. I think these places are all the same, so I'm ignoring them in my sheet, as I'd only go there if I was with a group. Better to hit a bar where you can actually have a conversation, or a full blown club. There's pockets of nightlife in other places in the city: Milan, Chipre, and places outside the city that are open after-hours. I've never been out in Chipre but Milan has one nice spot and a few others I'll get to. Below I'll mention the bars and clubs I think are worthwhile, but keep in mind it's Colombia, so if you find a good group, you'll have more fun just doing what they do. Assume the spots listed are in el cable unless I put the location in parentheses.

La Plaza-Maybe the oldest bar in el cable and very popular. Nothing special, tables and chairs, mix of Latin music and English. Pretty decent bar food too. Good quality of girls but never had much luck here.

Silmaril-next to La Plaza, down the hill. This is a rock bar. You'll see a pretty low average quality here, but the higher quality girls are just as hot as anywhere else. Probably a bit more likely to speak English and have interest in gringos, plus some of them can be pretty cool, too. If it looks a bit sausage-y keep in mind a lot of the guys are gay. On the weekends everyone will be up and dancing after 11 or 12. Very cheap drinks is a plus.

Irish Bar-Not very Irish, but they play English music and stay pretty crowded. Plus gets a decent after work/school crowd early in the night. Not a bad place to start.

Tres Maris-Right next to the mall. Sometimes dead, sometimes good. If you see pretty girls and it's happy hour (I forget the times on that, but it's 2x1 on all drinks) it's worth stopping in.

Simon Dice-This is the best club in El Cable, as I said before, all the small shitty little discotecas are worth a miss if you aren't in a group. I believe cover is about 10k. It closes at 2 typically so people start getting in pretty early. If you're flying solo or just with one wing I still wouldn't recommend it, better to hit a place open later where people are drunk and groups start mingling a bit more.

Barcelona (Milan)-Coolest bar in the Milan neighborhood. Hot girls, and more likely to be unaccompanied by guys. More chilled out, slightly older vibe than el cable and have had good luck here.

Milagros-Club slightly out of town, open all night. Free entry with your wristband from Simon Dice, otherwise I think it's 10k to get in. Mostly reggaeton, everyone will be drunk and dancing. Fun place, probably the best club at the time I was there.

Bar C-Up the hill from Milan, this is the other main all-night spot. Smaller than Milagros and gets really, really packed. Hard to say which one is better, I lean towards Milagros, but both are worth a visit. Early morning at Bar C and Milagros is when groups disintegrate and you should be doing dance approaches left and right. One night stands are pretty rare in Colombia so if you meet a hottie try to not be so wasted that you forget to get her number and never see her again.

Summary
Overall I think Manizales is a great place if you're looking for a second tier city in Colombia. It's very clean, safe, and modern yet still cheap compared to Medellin or Bogota. The nightlife is good enough for a city of this size. It's small enough, and the early-week is dead enough at night that I'd advise having something to do if you're going to be there for awhile. Other than that, I'd highly recommend it for a few weeks or a few months even, especially if you prefer smaller places over a city the size of Medellin.
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