Juan Valdez, the Starbucks of Colombia

There was a Juan Valdez right around the block from the Selina we were staying at, and it was located on the water front so provided some great views to contemplate while snacking.

Over the course of our three weeks in Cartagena, I probably got the Juan Valdez cinnamon roll half a dozen times. Usually the barista was able to heat it up, and with few exceptions it was a fresh, gooey, delicious experience. I think once it was stale, but I am willing to look past this.

We also tried other pastries, including the chocolate cake and the yogurt and berry muffins. Most of them were winners in my and Sev’s book.

As far as the coffee goes, I thought it was pretty good, especially the cafe granizada, which is like a coffee slushy. They also had this ice cream coffee drink calld cremolattes which Sev really liked, although was too sweet for me.

We did find it odd that usually only one person was working in the entire store we frequented the most, so this meant that there could be quite a long wait time if there were more than one or two people in line ahead of us.

Like Starbucks, Juan Valdez has a little gift shop, and we bought instant vanilla-flavored coffee there which we could make at the Selina coworking space. This was also pretty good and lasted us until we got the Mexico City roughly a month later.

If you make it to Colombia, it’ll be hard to miss Juan Valdez. We recommend it for the pastries and the coffee, plus, if you do have to do a bit of work, we found Juan Valdez had reliable and high quality internet.