Getting around Cartagena: Uber, taxi, bus or your own feet

Eight places hold most of a visitor's trips. The chart gives every walk between them along the streets, marked for the month and the hour you leave. Pick two places, or tap a cell, and read the line above the table.

The heat line for a street walk is the guide's own: a felt temperature in still air at or below 35 °C (95 °F). The sea breeze does not count in a street. A walk over 60 minutes is marked ride in every month: every walk to the airport, and the cruise port from Bocagrande or Las Bóvedas.

The old town is small. From the Clock Tower gate, the island pier at La Bodeguita is 560 m, 8 minutes; Plaza de la Trinidad is 680 m, 10 minutes; Las Bóvedas, at the north end of the walls, is 1.0 km, 15 minutes; Castillo San Felipe, across the bridge from Getsemaní, is 1.3 km, 20 minutes. Those four are walks in every month, if you pick the hour. Walks through the walled city and Getsemaní have their own pages.

The hour is what decides. In January the streets stay inside the heat line until about 9:45 and come back inside it from about 16:45; in May the cool stretch ends at about 7:15 and the evening does not cool to the line until about 21:15. Short hops inside the walls and Getsemaní work at any hour, slowly and in the shade. The heat by month is on Cartagena weather; the fortress has its own hours on the Castillo San Felipe page.

Three hops are rides for most people. Bocagrande is 2.4 km, 37 minutes from the gate, by Avenida Blas de Lezo; the edge of the cruise port in Manga is 3.5 km, 52 minutes, before the walk to your berth; the airport terminal is 5.1 km, 77 minutes. Is Cartagena walkable, then? The old town is, and the map of Cartagena draws it street by street. The walks from each place to stay are on where to stay in Cartagena.

City taxi fares are set by zones under a city decree, for 2026 Decreto 0051 de 2026, Alcaldía Mayor de Cartagena. El Universal, which printed the decree’s table on 27 February 2026, reported its minimum fare as 12,250 COP (El Universal). In that table, the fare from the historic center to Bocagrande, Castillogrande, El Laguito, Marbella, Manga or Crespo is the minimum, 12,250 COP, and the night surcharge is 1,100 COP from 19:00 to 5:00. The airport operator’s fare table prints the same decree’s fares from the airport: from its taxi station to the walled city and Getsemaní it is 20,200 COP, or 24,300 COP if the station counts your hotel in the hotel zone of the historic center, and the fare finder on the Cartagena airport page has every zone.

A transfer booked ahead is the seller’s price, not the city’s. Six private airport transfer listings started at 11 to 30 USD on GetYourGuide and Viator, read 12 November 2026, the lowest price each showed, four of them priced per group and two per person; the partner sets these prices and they change. The zone fares above are set by the city and do not change with the seller.

For any other ride, ask the fare before you get in and agree it. By the decree, as El Universal reported it, every taxi must carry the notice of the official fares, where passengers can read it: ask to see it. Name the place and the barrio, for example Torre del Reloj, Centro or Plaza de la Trinidad, Getsemaní. To report an overcharge, the city’s transit department, DATT, takes complaints on WhatsApp 323 319 0810 with the plate, the route, the hour and the amount (El Universal, December 2025); Colombia’s consumer authority takes them on its online portal.

How to find one: the UK, Canada and Australia all advise against hailing taxis on the street. The UK: Do not hail taxis on the street; use licensed phone or app taxi services or book through your hotel (FCDO, 30 October 2026). At the airport, the operator runs two authorized taxi stations, one at each exit, and recommends always using them (airport operator). All four advisories on taxis: is Cartagena safe. Every official price: Cartagena prices.

Uber’s own city page for Cartagena de Indias says Uber is available in Cartagena de Indias; riders can request a ride at any hour, 24/7 (uber.com, Cartagena), and its page for the airport says pickups at CTG can be arranged, and rides to the airport can be requested now or reserved for later (uber.com, CTG). That is the company’s statement about its own service. Colombia’s national transport regulator, the Superintendencia de Transporte, has ruled on named platforms, not on Cartagena. In July 2022 it fined the companies behind Beat, DiDi and Cabify for facilitating breaches of transport rules, as some of their drivers carried paying passengers without meeting the legal requirements, among other things in private vehicles not authorized for it (press release, 15 July 2022). Uber is not named in that release. In November 2024 it wrote, in answer to a complaint, that the DiDi platform is not authorized (habilitada) to provide taxi-type passenger service (transporte individual de pasajeros) (answer of 12 November 2024).

What the travel advisories say is about booking, not about brands. Canada: Avoid hailing taxis on the street; use reputable companies through your hotel or a ride-hailing app (2 November 2026). Australia: Criminals frequently rob taxi passengers; book a licensed taxi by phone or app (Smartraveller, 6 October 2026). The US rule is for its own staff: US government employees in Colombia may not hail street taxis or use any public transport (State Department, 31 March 2026).

An app ride costs what the app shows before you book. The airport names no pick-up point for apps; see ride-hailing apps on the airport page.

A ride on Transcaribe, the city's bus system, costs 3,900 COP, set by Decreto 017 of 15 January 2026 and charged since 23 January 2026 (Transcaribe). Since September 2026 you can pay with a contactless Visa card or a phone: Visa debit/credit contactless, or Visa in Apple Pay / Google Pay, at validators on buses and in stations; no card needed, no registration, no PIN. Each traveller needs their own card or phone, as a card pays once an hour; a change to a second route in the same direction is free within 90 minutes on the same card (Transcaribe's guide to paying by Visa).

The useful line is Bocagrande. Route T103 runs from the Portal through La Bodeguita station, by the island pier, to a loop along Bocagrande, and X105 also ends in Bocagrande after La Bodeguita (general map, October 2025). The Bocagrande stops are named on the T103 route map. In Transcaribe’s route book of July 2024, T103 runs from 5:00 to 21:00 on weekdays, 5:30 to 20:30 on Saturdays and 6:00 to 20:00 on Sundays and holidays.

For the intercity bus terminal, route X104 runs from the terminal into the centre and stops at Bazurto, La Popa, Chambacú, Centro, Bodeguita. For the airport there is no route. T102 runs to Crespo, the airport's barrio, but on Transcaribe's T102 map of October 2025 the airport is not one of the stops; the stops in Crespo are Vivero, Carrera 2, Carrera 4, Esquina Carrera 6 and Tienda Glorimar. The bus at the airport, including the free test of 2025: Cartagena airport. Every route and map is on Transcaribe's routes page.

Night comes early all year. The sun sets between 17:37 and 18:28.

The walk back from the evening in Getsemaní is short if you sleep in the old town. From Plaza de la Trinidad, the Clock Tower gate is 680 m, about 10 minutes, and Las Bóvedas in San Diego 1.5 km, 23 minutes. To Bocagrande it is 2.9 km, 44 minutes: that is a taxi. The barrio's evening is on Getsemaní.

For anything longer, take a taxi booked through your hotel or a licensed app, as the advisories advise. What the UK, Canada and Australia say about the evening, from taxis to drinks: is Cartagena safe.

Boats. The short crossing is to Tierra Bomba, the island across the bay: 7 to 20 minutes on the water, from El Laguito, Castillogrande or La Bodeguita. Island day boats leave from La Bodeguita in the morning; the dock and its fee are on the Rosario Islands, every island on Cartagena's islands.

The cruise port. The ride from the cruise terminal into town and the hours ashore are planned on the cruise port page.

Out of town. Barú has no public transport, says the Aviario Nacional: come by taxi, with a private driver or in a rented car. The beach day is on Isla Barú. Buses to the rest of the coast leave from the bus terminal in El Pozón; its address and the ride there are on getting to Cartagena; door-to-door shuttles are compared on Cartagena to Santa Marta.

The airport operator’s table prices rides from the airport, and the decree’s table as El Universal printed it starts from the historic center. To fix the price of the ride back before the day, two listings cover hops the bus does not.

• Transfer from Cartagena hotels to the airport: a private ride from the door of a hotel or rental in Bocagrande, the old city, Getsemaní, El Laguito, Castillogrande, Marbella, Los Morros, Cabrero, Manga or San Felipe to the airport. Small 4-seater vehicles; with a lot of luggage choose the luggage option for a larger vehicle.
• Private Arrival or Departure Transfer: Rafael Nuñez Airport: a private arrival or departure transfer, from or to the airport or the cruise ship terminal, so it also covers a ship day that ends at the airport. Vehicles: 1 to 3 travellers a sedan, 4 to 5 a minivan, 6 or more a van.

Both listings allow free cancellation up to a day ahead. Transfers from the airport into town are on the airport page.