We spent a month in this apartment, and enjoyed our stay very much. The HomeAway description and photos are accurate. The owner responds to emails quickly and works to make sure your stay is a good one. He checked in with us once a week to see if we had any questions and were happy.
Our motivating reason for choosing this apartment was money. It is a very good value as compared to apartments in El Poblado and other areas. It is very close to the Bicentenario tram station, which connects with the Metro trains. The area is upgrading with the arrival of the tram line and there are a lot of new construction sites and new shops going in. There are a number of university-level institutions in the area, and a lot of young people. Street singers, live music and plays at Teatro Pequeño make the area lively.
The apartment is small, but it is well organized and functional. Two people can work in the kitchen at the same time. There is no air conditioning (not common in Medellín because of the mild weather). It got a bit hot in the late afternoon and we learned to close the window and curtain then to keep the temperature reasonable. Otherwise we left the window open. There is an on-demand hot water heater for the shower, but both sinks and the clothes washer do not have hot water. The dish soap and clothes detergent seem to accommodate for that. The WiFi was excellent, and the smart TV allowed for us to use our Netflix and Amazon video accounts. There is also an extensive list of cable TV channels (sadly no English-speaking ones).
Recommendations for the visitor: There is an ice cream shop on the corner as well as a restaurant. Both were good. For pizza we opted to walk 5 blocks to La Grande Pizza, which was excellent. We did not try the pizza restaurant 1/2 block away. The best meal we had was at Full Arabe, a Lebanese restaurant in Laureles. It was the best Mediterranean food we have ever had! There is a nice supermarket one block away, Super HH, and it met most of our needs. We also shopped at Tienda D1, and Aldi-like discount market only a block further.
Americans still have a concern about personal safety in Medellín, because of all the news in the 1980's and 90's. We felt quite safe. There are police, citizen volunteers and private security guards everywhere. We did not see any crime at all. The building also has security.
We found Colombians to be very friendly, helpful, honest and very proud of their city and country. We loved our stay here!