Cartagena in December: A First-Timer's Winter Guide

The fortress and the hill

The fortress is coral stone the colour of sand, stacked in angular batteries and ramps up a bare hill, the Colombian flag on top and the city skyline behind it. Dark vaulted tunnels run into the rock. Coach parties come through all day, which is what the early hour is for.

Ticketing is walk-up and there is no cap on the size of a party. Guides and audioguides are hired at the gate. Children aged 6 to 13 pay $16,000 COP. One hour is enough here, and it is the hour I would give to history in Cartagena.

Convento y Santuario de Santa Cruz de la Popa is on the highest hill in the city, a white 17th-century monastery built around a square cloister with a flower-filled courtyard and a well, plus a gilded chapel to the Virgen de la Candelaria. From the top you take in the walled city, the bay, the islands and the barrios below in one sweep. Entry is $12,000 to $14,000 COP, plus the fare. Take a taxi or a tour van up and agree the wait before you set off. The access road is not safe to walk.

Museums for the middle of the day

Museo Histórico de Cartagena de Indias, in the Palacio de la Inquisición on Plaza de Bolívar, tells the grim half of the colonial story and does not soften it. The front is the finest civil façade in the walled city, heavy carved baroque stone around the doorway under brown wooden balconies. On the side street, a small barred window took denunciations. Past the doorway there is a courtyard.

Tickets are sold at the door only, with no online sale: $24,000 COP for an adult, $20,000 COP for students and seniors, free on the last Sunday of the month. Guides work inside. The rooms are air-conditioned and an hour is enough.

Museo del Oro Zenú, off the same square, is free and takes 30 to 40 minutes. Gold Zenú filigree earrings and cast birds sit spotlit in glass cases against cool blue-grey walls, with woven-pattern ceramics alongside. The gallery is small and dark and cool, and the old town around it is expensive, which makes half an hour in here the easy choice in the afternoon heat. It closes Mondays.

The walls at 5 p.m. and the rooftops

The bastion is arrow-shaped, jutting off the sea wall with old black cannons pointing west and low drinks tables set out along the ramparts. Vendors sell beer and cocktails at $12,000 to $45,000 COP. The Caribbean horizon runs open ahead of you and Bocagrande's towers stand away to the left. Café del Mar was evicted from this spot and is permanently closed; the city reopened the bastion as a public mirador, so there is no door and no ticket, and any size of group can walk straight on.

Alyzia Rooftop & Dining at the Movich Hotel Cartagena de Indias looks straight down from the sixth floor onto the ochre dome and bell tower of Santo Domingo church, with terracotta roofs in front and the sea beyond Bocagrande. Call ahead for a sunset table at the rail; those seats go first and the rest of the terrace loses the view. Cocktails are $50,000 to $80,000 COP, mains $70,000 to $120,000 COP.

Townhouse Rooftop in San Diego sells day passes to non-guests with no reservation needed, $100,000 to $120,000 COP for two, drinks $35,000 to $60,000 COP. The pool is a narrow turquoise strip running the length of a small roof, with striped loungers, bougainvillea over the parapet and church towers past it. It is an old-town rooftop pool with no hotel room attached. Come between noon and 3 p.m., when walking the streets stops being fun. After 8 p.m. it is adults only.

Ceviche, Celele and a walk through the market

Cartagena Connections runs small-group and fully private walks, including one into Mercado Bazurto, and takes group bookings direct by WhatsApp. The two-hour street-food walk is $100,000 COP a person and stands you in front of arepas de huevo frying in a black pan and sliced mango salted into plastic cups, under murals and strings of coloured flags. Locals point at this operator, and it is the quickest way to make sense of the food. The market trip is the one worth paying up for, and it works best on day one, before you have eaten anywhere else.

Celele on Calle del Espíritu Santo in Getsemaní is where to eat Colombian Caribbean cooking, and it holds a place on Latin America's 50 Best. The dining room is tiled and colourful and opens onto a plant-filled patio. The signature plate is a salad of more than 15 edible flower petals, and the chicken arrives in a chicken-shaped clay crock. Reservations are essential and the kitchen asks for about 10 days' notice, so book before you fly. Count on $250,000 to $350,000 COP a head with drinks.

La Cevichería (Calle Stuart, San Diego) opens daily from noon to 11 p.m. and takes no reservations in practice. The queue forms on the pavement, where a handful of tables sit under a striped awning at a small white-and-blue corner building. Ceviche comes in tall glasses with plantain chips, and mains are $60,000 to $110,000 COP. The Bourdain fame means a wait, and the cooking has held up. Arrive at opening or at 3 p.m. A party above six is a real problem here; split it or eat somewhere else.

Drinks and the salsa rooms

Alquímico takes up three floors of a gutted colonial mansion in the walled city: an apothecary bar at street level with wall-high shelves of glass bottles and a vintage bicycle hung above them, a dim lounge on the second floor, and a breezy top-floor rooftop under plants with a DJ. It is on the World's 50 Best Bars list and anyone can still walk in off the street. There are no reservations of any kind and the house reserves the right of admission. Bring a group before 8 p.m. or split it into fours. Queues build after 9 p.m. at weekends. Cocktails are $45,000 to $75,000 COP.

Café Havana in Getsemaní has a band most nights and is the live-salsa room to start with. The corner building has mustard-yellow walls and shuttered windows; inside, slow ceiling fans turn above a square wooden bar hung with black-and-white Cuban portraits, and the brass section plays from a tiny corner stage. The cover is $40,000 to $60,000 COP on Friday and Saturday, paid per head at the door in cash, and drinks are $25,000 to $50,000 COP. The room is for standing and dancing, with no table service. It closes Mondays and is packed by 11 p.m.

Donde Fidel Salsa Bar sits under the arcades of Portal de los Dulces by the yellow Clock Tower and has been open since 1985. Every inch of wall carries photographs of salsa legends and visiting singers, and the plastic chairs spill out onto the pavement, where half the city drinks alongside you. Beers are $8,000 to $15,000 COP. There is no cover and no cards are taken, so carry notes. Weekends are standing room.

Bazurto Social Club on Avenida del Centenario runs live champeta from Thursday to Saturday, a brass-and-percussion band with dancers in neon on a low stage. The hall is shed-like, painted over with hand-painted market-stall lettering and cartoon murals, with a long bar down one side. Entry is free before 10 p.m. and $20,000 to $30,000 COP after, with food and drinks at $25,000 to $60,000 COP. Tables are laid for dinner early, then the floor clears for dancing. The crowd is still mostly local.

Island days by boat

Blue Apple Beach on Tierra Bomba is 25 minutes out by boat, which keeps an island day from eating the whole trip. Shuttles leave at 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m., with returns at 4 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. The day pass starts at $160,000 COP with the boat; $320,000 COP covers lunch and a cocktail with it. The beach house is whitewashed and Mediterranean in style, rattan loungers on dark volcanic sand, a square pool inside a ring of palms, Cartagena's skyline across the water. It stays calm and the kitchen is good. The club takes up to about 150 day visitors and handles group bookings by email or WhatsApp.

Bora Bora Beach Club in the Rosario Islands is 50 minutes out, strictly 18 and over, and the day pass is booked in advance: $450,000 COP for the club area and $550,000 COP for VIP, per person including the boat. White daybeds and parasols stand in ankle-deep turquoise shallows, a DJ booth sits on the sand and swings hang out over the sea, with a thatched bar behind. It is built for music, and its core trade is birthdays and bachelor or bachelorette parties.

What to book for a December week

In December, book Celele about 10 days before you fly, call Alyzia for a rail-side table and buy the Bora Bora pass in advance; the rest here takes walk-ups, and the Inquisición museum sells tickets at its own door only. Café Havana and the Museo del Oro Zenú close Mondays, Bazurto's music runs Thursday to Saturday, and La Popa needs a taxi with the wait agreed.

See the Cartagena guide and the Cartagena hotel search.