Location: Manizales
Top Things to do in Manizales
Top 10 Nature & Parks in Manizales, Caldas Department
Manizales (Spanish pronunciation: [maniˈsales]) is a city and municipality in central Colombia. It is the capital of the Department of Caldas, and lies near the Nevado del Ruiz volcano.
Restaurants in Manizales
1. Nevado Del Ruiz Paramo Experience
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 4 reviews
2. Parque Natural Privado Volcan Cerro Bravo
3. Parque Nacional Natural Los Nevados
4. Nevado del Ruiz
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 412 reviews
Reviewed By JohnRothSeattle
I was fortunate enough to meet Pablo of Guru talks in the city of Manizales. It is not easy to find guides in Manizales but I got lucky and found Guru walks and Pablo. Our time together was in January of this year. Besides doing city tours, Pablo is a geologist and loves nature. He does tours in the surrounding nature around Manizales. For our time together, we visited one of the biggest volcanos in Colombia, Nevada del Ruiz. It is an incredible site and over 14,000 feet in elevation. We stood exactly where the lava flow was in 1985, the last time of its eruption. The lava killed over 25,000 people within 2 hours of its eruption with the lava flowing down the valley. It was beautiful and magnificent to see. Pablo has climbed 15 volcanos in Colombia. He climbed the Nevada also. There is a climbing route in which you start at 3:00 am, many times in the rain, with ice storms as you get to the top. Needless to say, these are not great conditions, but Pablo is used to it. After viewing the volcano, we traveled down the mountain and completed a loop. The car ride was beautiful but, on a dirt, and bumpy road. Pablo does all kinds of nature tours/hikes. If this interest you, Pablo is a passionate and excellent guide.
5. Recinto del Pensamiento
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 412 reviews
Reviewed By WorldTvlerParker_CO
Take the Malteria bus from the centro and they will drop you at entrance,,,only 30min ride out of the city. Walk up the entrance and ask for the ticket center. $19,000 entry for the guided walk, but there is an old cable car you can opt if you don’t want to walk up. Not too difficult a walk up through the woods. Excellent guide to explain what they are doing here and beautiful areas...ponds, herbal gardens, butterfly house, Bonsai garden, and the hummingbird house....amazing. Loved it. Great place to spend the morning!
6. Reserva Ecologica Rio Blanco
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 90 reviews
Reviewed By BirdBrian - Berkhamsted, United Kingdom
After some difficulty, over a period of months, in finalising a booking at Rio Blanco, our visit was finally confirmed. Once we had been there, we realised that the main visitors to this wonderful reserve are professionally organised bird tours. As it turned out, the two of us spent 3 nights at the reserve in very comfortable room, and we had the place to ourselves overnight. Each morning tour parties would arrive, to join the ranger on a walk up the mountain, to seek out different species of Antpitta. These walks are hugely enjoyable, not just to find antpittas, but many other bird species, starting with an enormous variety of hummers in the gardens of the lodge. We really enjoyed the experience of having the lodge to ourselves overnight, and were served wonderful local meals by the cook. We had a Spanish speaking bird guide to help us, his name is Andres. Amazingly, although he has only rudimentary English, he has memorised all the English and scientific names of the local birds. We had a great time with him.
7. Parque Fundadores
8. Nevados Santa Isabel
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 68 reviews
Reviewed By daisy21988 - Maracaibo, Venezuela
To visit Santa Isabel you need to make a reservation through a tour company. We went through Kumanday by the recommendation of a friend and they were awesome. You begin by taking a 2 hour drive from Manizales to a small farm to eat breakfast, and then continue about one hour more to the base of the trail. The road is very, very bumpy and if you get motion sick easily you should definitely take some medicine before the trip. The group begins walking at the same pace and the guide tries to keep everyone together, but over time people who could go faster went on with other groups and those who wanted to go a bit slower stayed back with the guide. The altitude is challenging but if you give yourself time to acclimate to it, it isn't too bad. Coming from Medellin, Bogota, or after spending some time in Manizales you would probably be ok. I would consider myself to have a very average fitness level, and I'm not a hiker, but I made it to the top just at a slower pace than some others in the group by taking several breaks and drinking lots of water. I thought it was going to be much more difficult that it was, so maybe the trick is to psych yourself up for a grueling hike and then you'll be ok. :) With that said, there were several people who were really struggling (crying, almost fainting) so if you are not in shape or if you are not acclimated to high altitude, this is not the trip for you. Overall, the scenery of the paramo ecosystem and the experience of being on a glacier was well worth the challenging hike, and I have already recommended it to some friends.
