Popayán is a dazzling city to get lost between its colonial buildings that lead you through time to this beautiful settlement origin. Capital of Cauca’s department. Located in the Pubenza valley, one of the oldest and well preserved towns of the American’s continent.

This antique town, known by its white facades that gives the image of a city cover by a white cloak, where it got the White city name. Some of the older buildings were remodelled and used as hotels, like the Dann Monasterio Popayán Hotel: an antique Franciscan monastery from 1570 which has a unique colonial architecture, turned into a luxury hotel in Popayán.

This Colombian city is an interesting destination thanks to its architectural heritage, with some singular religious buildings such as the Belén, Carmen and Francisco chapels, and other places of worship like the Ermita or the religious art museum. To visit these places, travellers can make a reservation in any hotel in the centre of Popayán which also have an incredible architectural wealth.

One of the best season to visit Popayán is during the holy week, when the whole city change in order to show its devotion in the festivities. Each years the city gathers many visitors that come to see the holy week processions in Popayán, declared oral and immaterial masterpiece of world heritage by the UNESCO.

The city not only shines by its architecture but its delicious gastronomy as well, in fact, it was declared city of Gastronomy by the UNESCO in 2005, thanks to its tasty, and varied cuisine, and for being itself a legacy from the traditional Colombian cooking methods.

The gastronomy from Valle del Cauca is consider Colombian’s world heritage, it has a variety of dishes made with a mixture of local ingredients and other brought from Spain, some of these traditional dishes are the caratanta, the soups, pumpkin seed tamale, pumpkin seed empanada, or the vegetables recipe like the huerta fríana potatoes.

Some of the best hotels in Popayán, offers a very rich Colombian menu, making a whole new experience to the guests, what’s better than touring Popayán to get fancy with the traditional cuisine, places like Humilladero bridge, located between the centre of the city and the Bolívar neighbourhood, other beautiful places to know are the Casa Mosquera museum, built in the XVIII century, o the Negret museum of modern art where the artist Edgar Negret Dueñas lived, and we can appreciate their whole life work where.

You can also visit some monuments like the Clock tower, built between 1673 and 1682, the pantheon of the heroes or the historical district which is considered a national monument.