Pereira is known nationally for being an important city for tourism, attracting visitors as it is the center of the Coffee Cultural Landscape as named by UNESCO. Pereira has several landmarks which attract tourists, such as the Bolivar Statue, the Viaduct, and its many open-air swimming pools and recreational parks. Lake Otún and Santa Isabel provide destinations for sports adventure tourism. Pereira also has a night life scene with bars and nightclubs, located mostly on Circunvalar Avenue. Pereira is also a health destination, with many clinics housing health care specialists, as well as esthetic clinics. The city is also the most common setting for two Colombian soap operas on Netflix: Sin Senos No Hay Paraiso, and the sequel Sin Senos, Si Hay Paraiso. It's also very close to Cocora Valley (Valle de Cocora in Spanish) which is around 45 minutes drive from Pereira and famous for its giant palm trees visited by all types of domestic and international tourists every year.

The history of the city goes back to the pre-Columbian era, in which the current city area was inhabited by the Quimbaya and Pijao cultures, widely recognized for their goldsmiths. In this region, Marshal Jorge Robledo founded the city of Carthage on August 9, 1540, but due to the siege of the pijaos or reasons of economic expediency this city was moved in 1691 to the site that currently occupies the north end of the Valley of the Cauca, towards the banks of the La Vieja river. The original site became jungle again and buried the remains of civilization. On the few ruins of the Spanish population, crossed by the route that led from Valle del Cauca to Medellín, through Manizales, a group of 20 Antioqueno families had already built their homes when a handful of Vallecaucanos appeared to find the population of Carthage La Vieja, today Pereira. Although the formal foundation came from the Caucano group, the emergence of Pereira was another chapter of the Antioqueno colonization, and the contribution of other social groups such as the Caucano was in its beginning relatively scarce.

When someday comes you'll need to get in.

When someday comes you'll need to be able to get around.