Manizales General Activities

General Activities

The city has a municipal auditorium and theatres where you can attend concerts, operas, and listen to symphonic music. There are lots of night clubs, discos, and bars that serve up lively house, trance, rock, salsa, and tango music. The Red Zone is where most of night clubs, discos, restruants and coffee bars are located, and Luker Plaza is city's newest, ultra modern commercial development. Next to it is Cable Plaza, the city's hottest new entertainment destination. It houses a 5 floor state of art, shopping and entertainment center, housing an upscale luxury supermarket, expensive fast food resturants, and the latest Hollywood movies. The city offers an exciting nightlife along the main avenue Santander, where you will find many of best discos and resturants in what's called the Red Zone, but there is another smaller, newer Red Zone in upscale residential neighboorhood located in south part of city, called Batallion and Milan. On weekends, starting on Thursday night, this is where many of younger crowd and students like to gather. There are many fast food resturants in this area also. The city is also home to famous football (soccer) club, Once Caldas, who won the South American Championship 'Cupa Liberatadores'. Viewing football is a very important activity here and Once fans pack the 35,000 seat stadium to cheer for their team. If you are a football fan you will appreciate the dedication of fans and large, beautiful stadiumm that sits in center of Palogrande, one of best neighboorhoods in Manizales, and close to many universities, and the Red Zone. Then there is the famous mountains surrounding the city called 'El Nevado Ruiz', with it's three volcanic formations. Early in morning is best time to view it as clouds then move in a make viewing difficult, but if you get up early you won't be disappointed. The mountains contain glaciers and it snows alot up on mountain, where the temperature can be chilly and cold, but the solitude and peace you'll experience up on mountain make all the inconvenience and difficulty in reaching it, worth it. Also, the region is famous in Colombia for it's hot water springs and resorts such as 'Termales del Otono' and 'Termales del Santa Rosa' and 'Termales del Nevado'. Each contains not only hot pool where the public gather to soak and relax, but many levels of hotel accomdations. Prices are approx. $16,000-$20,000 per day, and all stay open till midnight. The 'Termales del Santa Rosa' lower and upper locations, as does the hot springs at 'Termales del Nevado.' At both locales, the upper pools are closer to water source and so have hotter water, but water temperature also flucuates depending on which season it is, winter or summer. Worth seeing is the 'Termales del Santa Rosa' Hotel, it is a four star hotel and very nice if you can afford the $150,000 peso price (per person), however, included is all meals and entry fees to pools, as well as use of private, exculsive wading pools. Also, both sites at Santa Rosa have incredible, breathtaking waterfalls that are lit with multi-colored lights, visiting at night is best, or if you have time, stay all day as price of entry is for all day!