Tourists come to Guatapé as the day trip. But locals living here take their own day trips too, and they tend to look a little different from what shows up on a typical visitor's Antioquia itinerary.
Neighboring El Peñol
Right next door, El Peñol is the town most closely tied to Guatapé's own history — it's the site of the original settlement flooded to create the reservoir in the 1970s, and locals move between the two towns regularly for errands, family, and just a change of pace, without treating it as a "trip" at all.
Medellín, but for practical reasons
For guatapenses, a trip into Medellín is often about errands, medical appointments, bigger shopping needs, or visiting family — a two-hour bus ride that's simply part of regular life here, not a tourism excursion.
Smaller surrounding towns
The broader Oriente Antioqueño region (the eastern Antioquia area Guatapé sits in) has a number of smaller towns locals visit for markets, festivals, or family connections — most of which see far less tourism attention than Guatapé itself, and few visiting travelers ever hear their names.
Why this is useful to know as a visitor
If you're building extra days into an Antioquia-based trip and want somewhere genuinely off the standard tourist path, asking locally about smaller Oriente Antioqueño towns often surfaces better, quieter recommendations than a generic search.