Santafé Mall: A Guide to One of the Largest Malls in Medellín

Santafé mall is one of the largest shopping malls in Medellín. This mall opened in 2010 and it’s located in El Poblado on Avenida Poblado. And it’s located a short walking distance south from Oviedo mall.

This very large mall was built by developers in El Poblado due to a desire to target the higher incomes in El Poblado. But when Santafé mall opened, the nearby Oviedo mall, which opened in 1979, reportedly started to lose some tenants.

Santafé’s retractable roof

Santafé mall is a rather unique mall in the city, as it has a retractable roof that is opened when the weather is nice.

The main tenants in the mall are Falabella, Jumbo and Cine Colombia. In addition, the mall has over 400 shops and businesses of all types, including banks, clothing stores, drugstores, eye-care, home furnishing stores, mattress stores, shoe stores and many more varieties.

iShop in Santafé mall

One place of interest for expats in the mall is iShop, which is a premium Apple reseller that is authorized to repair Apple products.

Unicambios in Santafé mall

Similar to many other malls in the city, Santafé also has a currency exchange place, Unicambios. But nearby Oviedo mall has more than one currency exchange.

Victoria’s Secret in Santafé mall

You can even find many U.S. brand stores in Santafé mall including American Eagle, Burger King, Converse, Dunkin’ Donuts, Forever 21, KFC, Levi’s, McDonald’s, Nautica, Nike, Starbucks, Subway and Victoria’s Secret.

Falabella in Santafé mall

Falabella Department Store in Santafé

Falabella is a large U.S.-style department store that sells a wide range of items including appliances, clothing, computers and electronics, furnishings, furniture, sports equipment and many other things. You can also find many imported brands at Falabella.

Falabella is based in Chile and reportedly has over 90 department stores located in Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Peru.  In Colombia, Falabella has 26 stores located in 11 cities. And in Medellín, Falabella has three stores, which are located in the San Diego, Santafé and Arkadia malls.

Also, Falabella has its own credit card, CMR Falabella, with more than 5.5 million cardholders in Latin America.

You can sometimes find good prices on computers in Falabella. For example, I purchased an iMac in the San Diego Falabella a few years ago for less than the cost for the exact same model listed on Apple’s website at the time. The iMac was on sale and taxes and import duties don’t apply to lower costs computers in Colombia.

Falabella is also a good place to buy higher thread-count sheets that can be difficult to find in other stores in Medellín.

Jumbo in Santafé

Jumbo Supermarket in Santafé

Jumbo is a large supermarket that also sells appliances, electronics, clothes, home furnishings, kitchen items, and many other things.  A Jumbo is similar to a Walmart or Target in the US.

Jumbo has five stores in Medellín located in the Premium Plaza and Santafé malls as well as additional stores at La 65, Envigado and Rionegro.

If you shop frequently at Jumbo you should sign up for Jumbo Puntos (points). Jumbo Puntos is a frequent shopper program where you accumulate points for each purchase. These points can be used to purchase items in the future. However, to sign up you need a cedula.

Jumbo frequently has sales on appliances, TVs and other electronics, which are similar to the sales at Exito. If you are furnishing a place, make sure to check out the sales at both Jumbo and Exito.

Jumbo used to be named Carrefour in Colombia. France-based Carrefour sold all of its stores in Colombia to Chile-based Cencosud in 2012.  Cencosud uses the Jumbo brand for its network of hypermarkets that can also be found in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru. Cencosud’s main objective is to become the largest retailer in Latin America.

Cine Colombia in Santafé

Movies at Cine Colombia

Cine Colombia’s movie theater in the mall has six screens. And it is located on the fifth floor. In this location (as well as in Oviedo mall), Cine Colombia shows some of the movies in English with Spanish subtitles. Furthermore, you can see the schedule of movies on the Cine Colombia website.

Cine Colombia is the largest movie theater chain in Colombia with 43 movie theaters located in 13 cities in Colombia. In the Medellín metro area, Cine Colombia has six movie theaters in Los Molinos, Oviedo, Santafé, Unicentro, Viva Envigado and Vizcaya.

Cine Colombia has the Cineco frequent moviegoer card that provides discounts for movies. The card costs 10,000 pesos. And for every 1,500 pesos in spending at Cine Colombia you receive one point. Points can be redeemed for movie tickets and food products. For example, for 100 points you can get one 2D general admission movie ticket.

Part of the large food court in Santafé mall

Food Options in the Mall

Santafé’s main food court is found on the fourth floor of the mall. There are over 50 restaurants and fast food places in the mall.

You will find several U.S.-based fast food options located in Santafé including Burger King, Dunkin’ Donuts, KFC, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Starbucks and Subway.

Starbucks in Santafé

In addition, there are many of the typical Colombia fast food places found there such as Archie’s, AsiaWok, Dogger, El Corral, Kokoriko, Montolivo, Qbano, Sr. Wok and many others.

Also, there are several sit-down restaurants in Santafé mall including Crepes & Waffles, Il Forno, Parmessano, Pizzería Olivia and Romero.

How to Get to Santafé

Santafé is located in El Poblado on the main part of Avenida Poblado, which is also known as the Milla de Oro (Golden Mile). It is located just south from Oviedo mall. In addition, it takes only about five minutes to walk between these two malls.

The nearest metro station is Aguacatala. But this is located about a 15-minute walk from the mall. There are also metro feeder buses from Aguacatala station that run by Santafé mall and cost 2,000 pesos. In addition, every taxi driver will know where this mall is located.

If you drive, Santafé has a parking fee that started on April 20, 2017. The parking fee is 2,000 pesos for up to six hours and an additional 3,500 pesos for additional hour or fraction of an hour.  There is no parking fee if your stay is 30 minutes or less.

Address: Carrera 43A # 7 Sur-170, El Poblado, Tel: 4600737

Website: http://www.santafemedellin.com/

Hours: Monday-Saturday: 10 am – 9 pm; Sunday and Holidays: 11 am – 8 pm

The Most Popular Malls in Medellín

Several readers of Medellin Guru have asked for information about the malls in the Medellín metro area.

So, we have provided up-to-date guides to the 14 best and largest malls in the Medellín metro area in a series on this website:

1. Viva Envigado – one of the newest malls in the Aburrá Valley located in Envigado, which is reportedly the largest mall in Colombia
2. Santafé – one of the largest malls in Medellín located in El Poblado
3. Mayorca Mega Plaza – a popular mall in Sabaneta with several outlet shops
4. El Tesoro – Medellín’s popular mall with a view in El Poblado
5. Premium Plaza – one of Medellín’s largest shopping malls with entertainment on the third floor
6. Puerta del Norte – the largest and most popular mall in Bello
7. Arkadia – the newest mall in Medellín and the nicest mall in Belén
8. Los Molinos – the oldest Western-style mall in Belén
9. Oviedo – the oldest mall in El Poblado.
10. San Diego – the oldest mall in Medellín.
11. Unicentro – the largest and most popular mall in Laureles-Estadio
12. Monterrey – Medellín’s technology mall in El Poblado
13. Florida Parque – the only Western-style mall in the Robledo comuna in Medellín
14. La Central – the only Western-style mall in the Buenos Aires comuna in Medellín

Also, we included Santafé in our article about the 14 best malls in Medellín.

Inside Santafé mall, with area setup for kids

Each year during Feria de las Flores, the annual flower festival in Medellín, a large flower display is set up in Santafé mall.

Inside Santafé mall during the 2017 Feria de las Flores (Flower Festival)

Inside Santafé mall during the 2018 Feria de las Flores (Flower Festival)

Flower display in Santafé mall for the 2019 Feria de las Flores (Flower Festival)

Flower display in Santafé mall for the 2019 Feria de las Flores (Flower Festival)

One of the flower butterflies for the 2019 flower display in the mall

The flower display in the Santafé mall in 2019 will be available during Feria de las Flores and after until September 1, 2019.

The Bottom Line: Shopping at Santafé

Santafé is worth going to, as it’s one of the largest malls in Medellín and it’s impressive. In addition, it is located near where most expat tourists stay in the city. A majority of the hotels, furnished apartments and hostels in Medellín are found in El Poblado.

The large mall is also convenient as there is a large Jumbo for groceries, a sizable Falabella department store, many eating options with all the fast food and restaurants, a movie theater that shows some movies in English and more shops than you will find in many other malls in the city.

The biggest downside is that it’s located in El Poblado. So, the prices can be higher than you can find in malls in other neighborhoods in the city. Also, it’s not located near a metro station.

When my father visited Medellín recently, I took him to Santafé and he was very impressed. He didn’t expect to find a mall like Santafé in Medellín. And he even said it was nicer than the malls he knows in the U.S.

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Editors note: updated on August 1, 2018 to add a photo of the flower display in Santafé mall during Feria de las Flores 2018.

Editors note: updated on October 6, 2018 to add the new Viva Envigado mall.

Editors note: updated on August 5, 2019 to add photos of the flower display in the mall during Feria de las Flores 2019.

Editors note: updated on November 14, 2019 to add the Arkadia mall, which is the newest mall in Medellín.