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Parque del Café, a coffee-themed amusement park, is located in a beautiful green valley near the towns of Montenegro and Pueblo Tapao in the heart of the Coffee Region.
Introduction to Parque del Café
Parque del Café is one of the biggest entertainment attractions not only in the Coffee Region, but in all of Colombia. It’s fun for the whole family and is a great place to visit if you’re traveling with kids. The park is located within the UNESCO World Heritage listed Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia.
The idea for Parque del Café came from Diego Arango Mora and his wife Margarita, who in the early 1980s believed Colombia should have a museum dedicated to coffee. Arango was a member of the Departmental Committee of Coffee Growers of Quindío (Comité Departamental de Cafeteros del Quindío) and contacted Jorge Cárdenas Gutiérrez of the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia (Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia), who was open to the project.
Over the next decade, Arango worked to make his dream a reality. He faced opposition from banks unwilling to lend money to a project they saw as unprofitable, and towns that objected to his choice of Montenegro as the location. After several years of lobbying, the museum was built and opened to the public on February 24, 1995.
The first year was successful but surveys showed only visitors over age 40 found it enjoyable. Arango made the decision to add an amusement park to attract younger visitors, starting with a cable car and train followed the original roller coaster and other rides. It was an instant success, and the rest is history.
Overall, Parque del Café is an enjoyable yet exhausting day that’s worth the price of admission. You have to get there early if you want to do everything, and that’s actually impossible with the large number of attractions at the park.
Getting to Parque del Café
Getting to the park is very easy. At the bus terminal in Armenia, you’ll find minibuses buses that take you directly to the park. The ride takes about 30 minutes. You can even buy your tickets for admission to the park at the bus terminal.
Getting back to the bus terminal in Armenia can be difficult if you wait too long. There’s no special bus – you’ll have to flag down a local minibus heading to the terminal. They’re usually completely full after 6pm. The last bus is at 7:30pm. As an alternative, you might find a colectivo offering rides for just a bit more money than a minibus, and as a last option there are also taxis.
Visiting Parque del Café
There are several options that allow you to enjoy all of the park or certain attractions. A day pass including all activities in the park costs COP$95,000 for adults, COP$65,000 for kids 90 to 124 centimeters in height and seniors, and free for kids under 90 centimeters (as of July 2025). 10% discounts are available if purchasing tickets online.
Admission includes unlimited use of the attractions, including a very colorful traditional dance program that should not be missed. Horseback riding is extra. The park is open from 9am to 6pm. Check the official website for more info and to make sure it’s open on the day you plan to visit.
Throughout the park, you’ll find a wide variety of different attractions as well as restaurants, snack bars, shops, and restrooms. In some sections, there are complimentary lockers to guard your things as you enjoy the attractions.
Getting Around Parque del Café
Parque del Café is huge and there’s lots of walking involved. It’s broken down into five sections identified by color: Red, Yellow, Blue, Purple, and Orange. To make things easier, the park has a couple methods of transportation to help visitors get around.
Teleférico Bambusario
Teleférico Bambusario is one of two cable cars and the quickest way to jump into the action. It leads between the Red Section at the top of the park and Plaza de Bolívar in the Yellow Section below. You can hop on right inside the entrance to the park.
Teleférico Plaza Estación
Teleférico Plaza Estación is at the end of the Coffee Museum. It also leads down to Plaza de Bolívar in the Yellow Section.
Train
The train takes you from the Armenia Train Station in the Yellow Section to the Montenegro Train Station in the Purple Section. Honestly, it’s a waste of time. We waited over 40 minutes for the train to fill up and leave the station when we could have walked in 10 minutes.
Red Section at Parque del Café
Once you show your tickets and pass through the turnstiles, you’re in the Red Section. It’s at the highest point of the park. Immediately past the gates is a plaza with the Teleférico Bambusario on the left side and the building with a Juan Valdéz café and the Coffee Museum (Museo del Café) on the right side. You’ll also find the Parque del Café sign. On the other side of the building is a nice garden with coffee plants.
Coffee Museum
The Coffee Museum (Museo del Café) is the reason Parque del Café exists. It’s an interactive museum covering four themed sections, presenting information in both Spanish and English.
The first section covers the basics about coffee, including how the coffee plants grow, the arrival of coffee in Colombia, and how it’s picked and processed. There’s also a display on the biodiversity of the Coffee Region and some of the insects that live there.
The second section covers the culture of the Coffee Region. You’ll find models of traditional homes as well as scenes of locals on their front porch and at cafés.
In the third section you’ll find a detailed description of what happens to coffee after it’s harvested and processed. One room covers the cooperatives that coffee growers use to sell their coffee at a fair market price followed by quality control and roasting. Next is freezing for shipping, and packaging.
In the final room, you’ll learn about coffee on the market, the top 10 coffee-producing and coffee-consuming countries, and the health benefits of drinking coffee.
Finally, in the fourth section you can participate in a coffee tasting session. Next door is a store where you can purchase coffee and coffee brewing supplies. The corridor is lined with more processing equipment.
Lookout Tower
Behind the museum building is the Lookout Tower (Torre Mirador). It’s 18 meters high and constructed of guadua, a type of bamboo that grows locally. From the top of the tower you’ll get great views of the park as well as the surrounding landscape.
Trails to the Attractions
If you choose not to ride the cable cars, there are two different themed accessible trails down to the Yellow Section.
Myths and Legends Trail
The Myths and Legends Trail (Sendero de Mitos y Leyendas) starts near Teleférico Bambusario. It contains statues of four different myths and legends important to the culture of the Coffee Region.
First is El Mohán, which is a guardian spirit of the waters. He lives in dark sections of rivers and gorges and is a monstrous figure indicative of floods, earthquakes, and plagues. Fishermen describe him as a mischievous sorcerer, while laundresses call him a seductive, deceitful lover and musician. He’s supposedly cannibalistic.
Next is El Hojarasquín del Monte. This spirit was a boy who beat his own mother and dragged her through the coffee plantations, then killed her by tearing her to pieces with a spur. God punished him and he fled to the mountains, turning into a monster covered in dry leaves and moss. He has a monstrous, deafening howl.
Continuing along is La Llorona, which represents the inconsolable grief of a mother who killed her son. This anguished woman proclaims misfortunes and makes threats. She desperately roams the jungles and rivers on moonlit nights, appearing to unfaithful men, drunks, and gamblers.
La Madremonte is next. Antioquian settlers consider her the goddess of the mountains and forests. She rules over the winds, rains, and all plants. She’s described as a furious woman, always dressed in branches, fresh leaves, vines, and green moss. She defends the sanctity of the forests, expressing intense anger at the lumberjacks, hunters, and fishermen who invade her domain.
Finally, at the end of the trail is Profesor Yarumo. He’s a fictional character created in 1985 to promote coffee culture.
Coffee Trail
If you haven’t been on a coffee tour during your trip, the Coffee Trail (Sendero del Café) is a quick and easy way to witness the coffee cultivation process firsthand. It starts near the end of the Coffee Museum. Along the way, you’ll see coffee growing naturally and get demonstrations on the entire coffee harvesting and production process.
One small section of the trail pays homage to the indigenous people of the region, including a replica tomb. Near the end is a traditional farmhouse and a processing area, where you’ll see some equipment and a jeep loaded with coffee. Overall, the trail is more of a crash course than anything, so if you’re looking for something more technical or in-depth, it’s better to take an actual coffee tour elsewhere.
Coffee Show
Where the two trails intersect, there’s a path leading up to the auditorium where you can see the excellent Coffee Show (Show del Café). Check for showtimes when you arrive at the park.
Suspension Bridge
At the very bottom of the Red Section, if you’re walking down one of the trails, you’ll have to cross the long Suspension Bridge (Puente Colgante) through a beautiful bamboo forest to reach the Yellow Section.
Yellow Section at Parque del Café
The Yellow Section of the park is where the all the fun begins. There are a few rides and lots of restaurants to choose from.
Plaza de Bolívar
The Yellow Section is centered around Plaza de Bolívar, a recreation of a traditional plaza in the Coffee Region. All the colorful buildings surrounding it represent the traditional colonial architecture commonly found in the region.
The south side of the plaza has the Plaza de Bolívar Food Court (Mall de Comidas Plaza de Bolívar), which contains several reasonably priced restaurants serving traditional Colombian food and other fast food. On the opposite side is the Armenia Train Station (Estación del Tren de Armenia), which provides scenic rides to the far end of the park.
The west side of the plaza contains the Chapel de San Jerónimo (Capilla San Jerónimo), a small chapel that offers Mass on Sunday.
On the east side you’ll find a gift shop, café, and a fire station with antique fire trucks. The Teleférico Plaza Estación is also there.
Rides in the Yellow Section
The path next to the train station leads to the rides in the Yellow Section. You’ll find the Red Baron (Barón Rojo), which is a kid’s airplane ride; the Coffee Boat (Barco del Café); single rider go-karts (Karts Sencillos); and the Cyclone (Ciclón).
Blue Section at Parque del Café
The Blue Section is in the middle of the park. It features the Orchids Food Court (Mall de Comidas Orquídeas), the oldest rollercoaster at the park, a flume ride (Montaña Acuática), and double-rider go-karts (Karts Dobles). There’s also a small playground with kiddie rides including the Lazy River (Río Lento), bumper cars, and a carousel. You can catch the Art of Coffee Show (Show El Arte del Café) as well.
As for the rollercoaster (Montaña Rusa), it was originally called the Zambezi Zinger and came from Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, Missouri. It debuted at Parque del Café in 1999. At 1,050 meters long, it’s the longest coaster in Colombia.
Purple Section at Parque del Café
The Purple Section is on the far end of the park. If you ride the train, it’ll drop you off at the Montenegro Train Station (Estación del Tren Montenegro), which contains a small archaeological museum.
You’ll find one restaurant, Restaurante Parque del Café, which serves a choice of one, two, or three grilled meats (pork, beef, and chicken). This is also where you can go horseback riding for an extra fee.
In the main part of the Purple Section you’ll find the Bumper Cars (Carros Chocones); the Children’s World Carousel (Carrusel Mundo de los Niños); the Octopus (Pulpo); and the Ferris Wheel (Rueda Panorámica).
Heading towards the Blue and Orange Sections are the Bumper Boats (Botes Chocones); Rin Rin Junior Fall Tower (Rin Rin); and the Cumbre Drop Tower (Torre Cumbre). Expect extremely long queues for the Bumper Boats and Bumper Cars.
Orange Section at Parque del Café
The Orange Section contains the park’s thrill rides, such as a raging rapids ride (Rápidos) and three rollercoasters – Krater, Yippe, and Avix.
The Krater is the most popular of the three. It’s 380 meters long and features a 30-meter drop. The Krater debuted on February 24, 2015. The Yippe opened on March 23, 2018, while the Avix opened on December 17, 2024.
