About Medellin Crew

Medellin Crew is the team you need to know if you are thinking of coming to Medellín. We hire and work with a handful of guides, drivers, chefs and nightlife hosts, and the people you are most likely to speak to or see on your trip are introduced in the team section below.

We started in 2019 with a simple idea: give every visitor the chance to break stereotypes and see a different piece of Medellín every day they are here. That includes our restaurant selection, a range of day trips, nightlife plans, and the views and sights along the way.

Medellin Crew’s early beginning started as a simple way to cope with homesickness. Jovan Medina, our founder, was born in Medellín but spent the first 18 years of his life in Boston, Massachusetts. He moved back to Medellín in 2007.

Missing the food of home

In 2007 there was very little American influence in Medellín. Being a lifelong foodie, Jovan missed the variety of food that was easy to find in Boston: authentic pizza, burgers, sandwiches, Chinese takeout, shawarmas, apple pies and more. The food in Medellín that came close always had a Colombian twist, made for the local palate. The few authentic places did not last long, because there was not much of an expat community or tourism at the time.

Parque Lleras and the unsolicited translator

Jovan started spending time in Parque Lleras, the hub for the few expats and the American influence in the city. He held several jobs there, in hotels, restaurants and even a few call centers, always within the vicinity of the park. On lunch breaks, afternoons and weekends he enjoyed the vibe of the area and the crowd the bars attracted.

As a native English speaker, he often came across lost visitors, or waiters and waitresses avoiding them for fear of not speaking their language. He would step in as an unsolicited translator, making small talk and helping people get around. He did it mostly for fun, and because he lived with his grandmother, who knew next to no English, talking with a fellow American was a way to feel close to the home he knew he would never return to.

From blog articles to building trips

A few jobs later, Jovan was learning to write blog articles for websites and, soon after, building websites for American clients. He then landed a job at an automotive equipment company based in New York. The company’s owner had a side business helping his fraternity brothers organize trips to Medellín.

Jovan wrote articles to position that company among the first Google results for the keywords the team worked to rank for. The work paid off: inquiries started arriving organically through the website, not only by word of mouth. When the first group arrived, his role expanded to chaperone and point person in Medellín, building itineraries from scratch and guiding newcomers, much like he had done informally in Parque Lleras.

Five years of contacts and experience

Jovan led that life for about five years: write the article, attract the client, close the deal, set up the itinerary, and be on the ground to make sure everything was executed properly. Along the way he built contacts for everything from top restaurant maîtres to lavish villas, and traveled to Cartagena, Santa Marta, across Europe and Dubai. Creative differences with his former employer eventually made it time to step aside.

Founding Medellin Crew in 2019

In 2019 Jovan branched off to do his own thing, and Medellin Crew was born. The pandemic arrived shortly after: the first Medellin Crew group was hosted March 12–16, 2020, about a week before Colombia went into lockdown. During that period he took another job, without losing sight of the goal of building Medellin Crew the way he wanted to build it.

The name Crew came from a desire to avoid the buzzwords common in the industry, such as “luxury,” “skip the lines” and “VIP.” Jovan wanted every visitor to see that Medellin Crew is the crew you need to know if you are thinking of coming down to Medellín. We want you to feel important, but more than that, our goal has always been to give every visitor the chance to break stereotypes and see a different piece of Medellín every day.

When Jovan first worked as a logistics person for visiting groups, he had to go out and see for himself what was available: which tours were offered, who the best guides were, and which transportation services, restaurants, rentals and everything else these trips require. It was, in his words, like a school for all things Medellín and Cartagena.

The goal was always to find unique experiences and people who are passionate about what they do. Examples of what that looks like:

• Coffee. Families of coffee farmers who open the doors of their homes to talk to our groups about what makes Colombian coffee unique.
• City history. Local guides who lived through the difficult periods and share what Medellín was like 30 years ago.
• Nightlife. Nightlife guides who earned their stripes as promoters at nightclubs, know the ins and outs, and know how to stay safe.

As far as experience goes, it comes down to having the right team around you.

Medellin Crew has more than 250 five-star reviews between Google and TripAdvisor. That reputation was built on the same approach Jovan started with in Parque Lleras: local knowledge, reliable contacts, and a team that is on the ground with you throughout your trip.

Cartagena Crew is the Medellin Crew subsidiary in Colombia’s most popular beach town. It is the same Crew, with the same approach to local knowledge and hands-on support, now available in Cartagena.