Cartagena, done right.
Boat days out to the Rosario Islands, salsa nights at Cafe Havana, a slow morning inside the old walls. What each one is really like, what it costs, and where to book it.
Seven you won’t second-guess.
First visit or fifth, these hold a Cartagena trip together: the catamaran out to the Rosarios, a guided wander through the walled city, the boat party anchored off Cholon that your hotel never mentions.
Cartagena de Indias: 2-Hour Sunset Cruise
2-hour Cartagena catamaran sunset cruise with city lights, skyline views, music, and a drink plus appetizer. Great value.
From $31 per person
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The whole story is behind the walls.
Balconies dripping bougainvillea, plazas that fill up after dark, four centuries of coral-stone rampart you can walk end to end at sunset. Start with a good guide and the old town stops being a maze and turns into the best afternoon of the week.
Pick your day on the bay.
Everyone leaves Cartagena on a boat at least once; the right one depends on what you want from the water. Three ways to spend the day. Pick the one that sounds like you, and every option behind it is already reviewed and priced.
Five islands, one day
The island-hopper
7h 30m · from $107 · 2,479 reviews
Catamaran out across the bay, anchoring off two or three of the Rosarios for snorkel stops over the reef, a beach lunch of fried fish and coconut rice, back at the dock by late afternoon. The most water you can pack into a single day, and the reason most people fly in.
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Sand, not schedule
The beach day
7 hours (approx.) · from $39 · 371 reviews
One long white strand at Playa Blanca on the Baru peninsula, close enough to reach by road, quiet if you go early. Rent a lounger, order a whole fried snapper, wade into flat Caribbean water and do very little until the light turns gold. For travellers who want the sea without the itinerary.
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DJ on the water
The boat party
2 hours · from $22 · 899 reviews
A crewed boat, a cooler that never empties, and a slow cruise to Cholon, the anchored sandbar where the whole bay ties up to dance. Music, aguardiente, warm shallow water you can stand up in. The day out that turns into the story everyone retells at home.
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The heat only lifts at night.
A chiva rolls through Getsemani with a live papayera band on the back. Cafe Havana fills with salsa and cigar smoke by midnight. The plazas turn into open-air dance floors. Go with someone who knows which door to knock on and the night finds its own rhythm.
Rum, coffee, cacao, in that order.
Colombia grows some of the world’s best coffee and cacao, and Cartagena is where you sit down to taste it: an aged rum flight in a colonial courtyard, a bean-to-bar chocolate session, arepas and fruit off a Bazurto cart. Book the tasting, skip the guesswork.
The bay is the point.
Jet skis off Bocagrande, a sunset sail past the fortress, the anchored party at Cholon that runs till the light goes. Cartagena spends its best hours on the Caribbean. Here is how to get out on it.
The fortress that never fell.
The Castillo de San Felipe held off the biggest fleet the Caribbean ever saw, and its tunnels still run cool through the hill. Climb it in the morning, then take La Popa convent for the view that puts the whole walled city, the bay and the islands in one frame.
Cartagena, area by area.
The coast splits into pockets, and each one owns a different day. The walled city for history and dinner. Getsemani for murals and music. Playa Blanca for sand. The Rosarios for reef. La Boquilla for mangroves at first light.
Know the kind of day you want?
Twelve ways to spend Cartagena. Pick the one that sounds like you, and every tour behind it is already reviewed and priced.
Gone by nine, back for dinner.
The coast opens up the moment you leave the walls. A reef island, a bubbling mud volcano, the free town at San Basilio de Palenque, the palm beaches of Tayrona. Every one of them is a morning’s drive or boat ride away.
Three days, done right.
You won’t see all of the coast in one trip; you can absolutely nail the right three days. This is the order we’d give a friend landing at Rafael Nunez tomorrow.
Day 1
Settle inside the walls
A slow morning walk of the old town and Getsemani while it’s cool, lunch in a shaded plaza, sunset up on the ramparts, dinner where the salsa starts. Easy pace, maximum Cartagena.
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Day 2
Out to the islands
Early boat across the bay to the Rosarios, snorkel stops over the reef, a beach lunch and a swim, back in time to clean up and find a rooftop for the sunset.
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Day 3
Mud, then one last swim
The morning drive out to the Totumo mud volcano for a float and a rinse in the lagoon, then a lazy afternoon on a Baru beach before the flight home. A daft, brilliant last day.
Plan day three →
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