FEBRUARY 2020
One thing that always excites me when traveling is a good street art scene. Everybody who knows me, knows I love taking pictures with street art 😉 I love visiting more raw neighborhoods that feature a lot of street art and admiring the creativity of the works. The last years the street art scene has become pretty big and many cities are seeing the added value of a cool street art neighborhood, giving the artists space to exhibit their works making traveling all the more fun. I love that the street art scene is thriving and that street art heroes such as Kobra & Kelsey Montague are rising in fame. In this blogpost you will find a list of locations that feature the coolest street art.
Valparaiso, Chile
Valparaiso is one of the best cities to visit if you love street art. The neighborhood Cerro Concepcion is super colorful and you will find street art works on each corner of the street. We stayed two nights in this lovely neighborhood which gave us the perfect opportunity to get up and close with the beautiful art works.
Miami, United States
Miami is a super creative city, so logically it also features a lot of street art. The Wynwood Walls are an initiative that you can visit for free, that has some of the best street art I have ever seen. Some art works of the world famous Kobra were exhibited here, which was a nice surprise! You will not only find street art at the Wynwood Walls, but the whole area surrounding the walls is super progressive and colorful.
Vienna – Austria
When you think of Vienna you probably do not think of street art. Vienna is a classical city, with a beautiful historic center, but even Vienna jumped on the street art bandwagon. The Danube river flows right through the heart of the city and at the banks of the river you will find hundreds of meters of street art. At night a young scene gathers here to have some drinks before going out, which is a nice ritual to join in on to get a local experience.
Rio de Janeiro – Brazil
One of the highlights of Rio de Janeiro was visiting the enormous works of Kobra at the Olympic Boulevard. Kobra specifically created these works for the Olympic Games that were held in Rio and luckily they have been preserved. I heard that Kobra has even more works in Sao Paulo, but wel… maybe next time 😉
London – England
What I love about London is that its neighborhoods are so incredibly diverse. One of my favorite neighborhoods in London is Shoreditch, a more grungy neighborhood that has some of the best street art, shopping, markets and clubs. When in London visiting this creative neighborhood is an absolute must.
Cartagena – Colombia
Cartagena is mainly famous because of its beautiful historic, colonial city center. Little do people expect that it also has a lively street art scene. You have to venture out of the historical center for at least one afternoon to visit the neighborhood Getsemani and enjoy the colorful architecture and original street art.
Lima – Peru
Lima definitely isn’t the prettiest city I have ever visited, but I was positively surprised when we visited the Barranco neighborhood. Barranco is one of the more bohemian neighborhoods of Lima and perfect for a morning of walking around, visiting the street arts and enjoying the nice restaurants. Another safe area to visit in Lima is Miraflores, which luckily also has a good share of street art works.
Medellin – Colombia
One of the most fun neighborhoods to visit in Medellin is Comuna 13. Years ago, Comuna 13 was a very dangerous place to visit, but now it is possible to visit this neighborhood (preferably with a guide). By teaching the inhabitants to make art works, this formerly very rough neighborhood became more safe to visit. It is amazing to learn about how street art has had such a positive impact on the lives of the inhabitants and I would definitely recommend booking a tour to experience this first hand.
Nashville – United States
When I think of Nashville I think of country music & murals.. and country music inspired murals. Nashville was such a great location on our U.S. trip. The city has the perfect combination of being super American, but also trendy and you can really see that when visiting the street art that is scattered through town. One of Nashville’s street art darlings is Kelsey Montague, who is famous because of the What Lifts you Wings. She recently created the What Lifts you Balloon (see below).
Reykjavik – Iceland
I was a bit taken aback when I discovered that Reykjavik doesn’t have that pretty architecture (besides the famous church and music building). Reykjavik is always described as a colorful town, but I was a little disappointed by the cheap-looking design of most of the houses on Iceland. Luckily, Reykjavik discovered that you can cover up ugly architecture with cool street art!
Cape Town – South-Africa
We felt a bit uncomfortable visiting a township in Cape Town, so we decided to do a street art tour of the Woodstock neighborhood. In this way we would get a feel for the culture of Cape Town, without having the feel that we were specifically visiting a poor neighborhood. I would recommend to visit Woodstock with a guide, as we were sometime hassled by locals.
Hamburg – Germany
Hamburg is another city with a great left-wing hipster culture, so naturally you can find street art in Hamburg. We stayed in the Sternschanze neighborhood and you can find lots of graffiti here. Another neighborhood that is really good for spotting street art is St. Pauli. These are neighborhoods where you will get those Berlin-vibes.
Weer heeeel leuk gedaan hoor!