Cartagena: what to see, where to stay and how to get around

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Cartagena was built to hold treasure and to survive being attacked for it. Everything mined in Peru and Bolivia came through here on its way to Spain, and that made the city the richest and the most raided port in the Americas — sacked five times in the sixteenth century alone. The answer was eleven kilometres of wall that took nearly two hundred years to build. This walk is what is inside them. Two and a half hours, and start at seven or after four.

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A short history of Cartagena

In 1533 Pedro de Heredia founded Cartagena on a deep bay on the Caribbean, and it quickly became one of Spain's most important ports on the continent. South America's silver and gold left through it, and tens of thousands of enslaved Africans were brought in through it to work. In 1586 Francis Drake sacked the city, and as a result it was surrounded by walls about 11 kilometres long. In 1610 a tribunal of the Inquisition was established here. In 1741 Blas de Lezo repelled a British fleet here that was far larger than his own forces. In 1811 the city declared independence from Spain, and in 1984 the old city was declared a World Heritage Site.

The ten best sights in Cartagena

1
Plaza de Bolivar
The shaded square at the centre of the walled city, with the cathedral on one side and the Inquisition palace on another. The shade is the point at midday.
2
The Cathedral
Begun in 1577 and half demolished by Francis Drake's cannon in 1586 before it was finished. The tower is nineteenth-century and painted ochre.
3
Torre del Reloj
The main gate of the walled city, and the only one for three centuries. The clock was added in 1888 and came from Switzerland.
4
Plaza de los Coches
The square inside the gate, and for two centuries it was the slave market of the Spanish Caribbean. The arcade around it now holds sweet stalls.
5
Plaza de la Aduana
The largest square in the old city, where the customs house stood and where everything landed was taxed before it moved.
6
Plaza Santo Domingo
The evening square, with a Botero bronze lying in the middle of it and restaurants round three sides.
7
Santo Domingo
The oldest church in the city, from 1552. Its tower is visibly crooked, and the local story is that the devil twisted it.
8
San Pedro Claver
Named for the Jesuit who spent forty years tending the people landed from the slave ships and is buried under the altar. He baptised, by his own count, three hundred thousand of them.
9
Museo del Oro Zenu
Free, small and very good: the goldwork of the Zenu people, who built a system of canals across the floodplains that worked for a thousand years.
10
Palacio de la Inquisicion
The Inquisition tribunal for the whole of Spanish South America sat here from 1610. The denunciation window is still in the wall on the square.

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What is an audio walk?

Tours in Cartagena →

A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Cartagena:

Free walking tours in Cartagena

Inside the Walls

Torre del Reloj · The only gate into the walled city for three hundred years, which is the whole point of it: one way in, one way out, and a drawbridge over a moat that is now a road. The clock was added in 1888 and was made in Switzerland.
Plaza de los Coches · The square immediately inside the gate was the slave market. Cartagena and Veracruz were the only two ports in Spanish America licensed to land enslaved Africans, and well over a million people were sold in this square between 1580 and 1810.
San Pedro Claver · Pedro Claver was a Jesuit who met every slave ship at the dock for forty years with food, water and medicine, and called himself the slave of the slaves. He is buried under the altar here. He did not oppose slavery itself, and the church says so.
Palacio de la Inquisicion · The Holy Office sat here from 1610 with jurisdiction over all of Spanish South America and the Caribbean. The denunciation window is in the wall facing the square — anyone could post an accusation into it, unsigned, and the museum does not soften what followed.
Plaza de Bolivar · Trees, shade and a fountain, surrounded by the cathedral, the Inquisition and the gold museum. The Zenu gold inside the museum came from a people who built raised canals across a floodplain the size of a small country, and ran them for a thousand years.
Las Murallas · The walls were begun in 1586 after Francis Drake held the city to ransom and were declared finished in 1796 — two hundred and ten years. A Spanish king is said to have asked whether they were being built of gold, since he could see them from his palace window.

Getsemani and the Fort

Outside the wall was where the workers lived — free black families, artisans, sailors — in the quarter called Getsemani, and the independence of Cartagena was proclaimed from its church, not from the grand square. Above it all stands the largest fort Spain ever built in the Americas, which survived the biggest naval siege in the history of the Caribbean. Three hours, and the fort is best before nine.

Getsemani · The quarter outside the walls, built by the people who were not allowed inside them. It was the poorest part of the city into the 2000s and is now the part everybody walks through, which has pushed rents up and some of the families out.
Plaza de la Trinidad · The square fills every evening after seven with the people who live around it. Nothing is organised, there is no stage, and that is exactly why it is the best hour in Cartagena.
Iglesia de la Trinidad · On the eleventh of November 1811 the independence of Cartagena from Spain was declared here, in Getsemani, pushed by the artisans of this quarter and not by the merchants inside the walls. Colombia still marks that date.
Calle de la Sierpe · The murals along this street are repainted constantly by the people who live on it, and several of them are portraits of neighbours rather than decoration.
Castillo San Felipe · The largest fortress Spain built anywhere in the Americas. In 1741 a British fleet of about a hundred and eighty-six ships and twenty-three thousand men besieged it and lost — defeated by the walls, the heat and disease — and Britain had already struck medals declaring victory before the news arrived.
La Popa · An Augustinian monastery of 1607 on the only real hill, a hundred and fifty metres up. From the cloister the whole geography is visible at once: the walled city, the bay, the lagoon and the sandbar — and it explains why the Spanish chose this spot.

Water

Cartagena is a city on a lagoon, a bay and the open sea at once, and almost everything worth doing here involves leaving the land. This route is the water: the boat dock, the island with the white sand the mainland does not have, the mangrove channels behind the city, and a village founded by people who escaped slavery and were recognised as free a hundred and sixty years before Colombia abolished it. A full day, mostly on boats.

Muelle de la Bodeguita · The working dock for the islands, beside the convention centre. Buy the ticket the day before and ask what the dock tax is, because it is charged separately and in cash.
Isla de Baru · It was a peninsula until 1650, when the Spanish cut the Dique canal through it to connect the city to the Magdalena river — so the island is man-made, and the canal is the reason the port had an inland route at all.
Playa Blanca · The white sand the city beaches do not have. It is also the busiest beach in the region from eleven to three, which is the whole argument for getting there at nine.
La Boquilla · A fishing village of mostly Afro-Colombian families north of the airport, where the boatmen pole visitors through mangrove tunnels in canoes without engines — so it is silent, which is the point.
Cienaga de la Virgen · The lagoon behind the city. On moonless nights there is bioluminescent plankton in parts of it, and the boatmen know which parts; it is not guaranteed and nobody should promise it.
San Basilio de Palenque · Founded around 1600 by people who escaped the slave ships and fortified a village in the swamps. In 1713 the Spanish crown gave up trying to retake it and recognised it as free — the first free black town in the Americas, a hundred and forty years before Colombia abolished slavery. Its creole language is still spoken.

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Getting to Cartagena and getting around

Rafael Nunez Airport · Three kilometres from the walls, which is unusually close. A taxi to the old city takes fifteen minutes and the fare is fixed by zone.
Terminal de Transportes · Ten kilometres out, with buses along the coast to Santa Marta and inland to Medellin. The coastal road north is the good one.
Muelle de la Bodeguita · The dock for the boats to the Rosario islands and Baru. They leave between eight and nine in the morning and come back at four.
Muelle Turistico · The main passenger quay, and where the cruise ships land their passengers for the day.

Cheap eats in Cartagena

Eight counters where Cartagena eats standing. Two things define the coast: arepa de huevo — a maize cake split, filled with a raw egg and fried again, eaten for breakfast — and the fruit sellers in the full white and red dress, the palenqueras, who come from the free town of Palenque and have been selling in this city for generations. Agree the price before anyone cuts anything.

Mercado de Bazurto · Open 5 to 3 · go with someone who knows it
Plaza de los Coches · All day · a few thousand pesos
Plaza de la Trinidad · From 7pm · cash only
Las Bovedas · Afternoons · a couple of thousand pesos
Getsemani · Noon to two · cash
La Boquilla · Lunch · agree the price first
Manzanillo del Mar · Lunch only · weekdays are empty
Plaza San Diego · Evenings · agree the price

Museums in Cartagena

Palacio de la Inquisicion · Open daily · ticketed
Museo del Oro Zenu · Free · closed Monday
Museo Naval del Caribe · Open daily
Casa Museo Rafael Nunez · Free · closed Monday
Castillo San Felipe · Go before nine · no shade
Teatro Adolfo Mejia · Tours in the morning
Claustro de Santa Teresa · Rooftop open to non-guests

Parks and gardens in Cartagena

Las Murallas · Free · the north wall at sunset
Parque Centenario · Free · daylight
Cerro de la Popa · Taxi up · do not walk it
Cienaga de la Virgen · Go from La Boquilla
Playa de Castillogrande · Free · quiet on a weekday
Tierra Bomba · Boats from the Bocagrande pier
Isla de Baru · An hour by boat

Things to do in Cartagena with kids

Castillo San Felipe · Before nine · take water
Parque Centenario · Free · mornings are better
Volcan del Totumo · An hour north · half a day
Playa Blanca · Boats from eight · back at four
La Boquilla · Mornings · an hour on the water
Las Bovedas · Open 9 to 7
Muelle Turistico · Late afternoon departures

Holy places in Cartagena

San Pedro Claver · Ticketed · the cloister is included
The Cathedral · Ticketed · open most days
Santo Domingo · Free · the square is the evening
Iglesia de la Trinidad · Free · open in the evening
Convento de la Popa · Ticketed · taxi up
Claustro de Santa Teresa · The rooftop is open to all
San Basilio de Palenque · An hour inland · go with a local guide

Nature and day trips near Cartagena

Isla de Baru · Boats from eight · back at four
Playa Blanca · Stay the night to have the morning
Tierra Bomba · Boats all day from Bocagrande
Volcan del Totumo · An hour north
Cienaga de la Virgen · Canoes from La Boquilla
Manzanillo del Mar · Lunch · weekdays are empty
Barranquilla · Carnival is the weekend before Lent

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Frequently asked questions about Cartagena

What is there to see in Cartagena?

The top sights in Cartagena are Plaza de Bolivar, The Cathedral and Torre del Reloj. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.

How many days do you need in Cartagena?

Three to four days are enough to see the best of Cartagena without rushing, including at least one walking tour.

Is there a free walking tour in Cartagena?

Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Cartagena, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: Inside the Walls.

How do you get to Cartagena and get around?

The main ways are Rafael Nunez Airport, Terminal de Transportes and Muelle de la Bodeguita. Full details are in the transport section on this page.

Where to stay in Cartagena, and for how much?

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