Cartagena travel guides & articles
All 20 in-depth pieces we’ve published on Cartagena — newest first.
Tours & tickets
Plaza de San Diego Is Cartagena's Calm Square After Dark
Cartagena's walled city has grander squares, but Plaza de San Diego is the one you can still sit in after nine. How to spend an evening around it, and what it costs.
Tours & tickets
Walking Cartagena's Walled City From Dawn to Salsa Hour
Four kilometres of free rampart and one dome worth climbing, but in Old Town Cartagena it is the hour you set out that decides whether the walk is a pleasure or a punishment.
What Cartagena's Boat Crowds Miss on the Barú Road
Almost everyone arrives on Barú by speedboat and sees four hours of sand. The road in from Cartagena passes lime kilns and painted village squares before it reaches a mangrove interior most visitors never learn is there.
Cartagena Changes the Day the November Breeze Lands
The rain thins, the trade wind comes back off the bay, and the city's rooftops, walls and islands all start working again. Here is how to use that turn.
How Many Days Cartagena Actually Needs
Three days, five, or a full fortnight: what each length of stay in Cartagena genuinely buys, and the days that stop the old town becoming one long loop.
Cartagena in October When the Rain Buys a Better Beach Day
The wettest month on this coast is also the cheapest. Here is how to spend it on the islands rather than the city sand, with real day-pass prices, boat times and rain plans.
Cartagena on Foot and the One Ride You Still Need
The walled city, Getsemaní and even the fortress on the hill are all within walking distance. Here is how to time the heat, which doors are difficult, and the one trip that really does need a taxi.
Cartagena Without the Bracelet Sellers
Book the boat, the fort ticket and the table before you leave your room. The street sell is much easier to wave off when you already have somewhere to be.
Day Trips Out of Cartagena That Earn a Longer Stay
Sixteen ways out of the walled city, ordered by how far you have to go, with what each one really costs you in hours and pesos.
Crossing to Tierra Bomba for a Slower Cartagena Beach Day
The island is fifteen minutes off Cartagena, and the day works or it doesn't depending on two things you sort out at the dock: catching an early boat and choosing one club.
Drinking Above the Walls in Cartagena's Old Town
Fifteen rooftops above the walled city and Getsemaní, with the door rules, dress codes and real prices you need before you go.
Cartagena After Dark: Where the Bazurto Spirit Still Dances
After the cruise crowds leave and Bazurto's stalls go dark, the market's food and picó-sound culture moves into Getsemaní's clubs, bars and street corners — here's where to actually find it.
The Rosario Islands, Two Days Out From Cartagena
A working itinerary for the Rosario archipelago — the dock gauntlet, the day-trip beach clubs, and which coral key actually earns an overnight.
The Rosario Islands: Cartagena's 48-Hour Escape
A practical, honest itinerary through the coral-fringed keys off Cartagena — where to sleep, which beach club actually suits your group, and how to spend two days without wasting one of them on a bad boat.
Cartagena's Emerald Quarter: A Colonial Inheritance
A block-by-block walk through the trade that has run through Cartagena's walled city since long before the Spanish arrived, from Zenú goldwork to the shops locals actually trust.
Chasing the Sentry's Ghost Through Cartagena's Fortress
There's no candlelit night tour of Castillo San Felipe de Barajas — but arrive in the last hour before the 6pm gates shut, and the tunnels, cannon vents and the legend of the wandering sentry are yours almost alone.
In Gabo's Cartagena: Streets That Became His Novels
A literary walk through the plazas, convents and crypts of the walled city that Gabriel García Márquez turned into Love in the Time of Cholera and Of Love and Other Demons.
The Cartagena Evening the Cruise Crowds Never See
As the last tender pulls away, Getsemaní's plazas fill, the walled city's real bars open, and Cartagena becomes a different, better city after dark.
Cartagena's Palenqueras: The Fruit-Sellers and the Afro-Colombian Story Behind the Postcard
Behind every postcard photo of a Palenquera balancing a bowl of fruit is a freedom village that beat the Spanish crown - here's how to see both, honestly, in 2026.
Eaten Standing Up: Cartagena's Street Food in the Caribbean Heat
A hungry, honest crawl through Cartagena's fry carts, market comedors and after-dark plazas — where the best food is eaten on your feet, in the heat, for a handful of pesos.