An independent guide to Cartagena, Colombia
Things to do · by the hour
The things to do in Cartagena, Colombia that matter most fit in two days in the city and one on the water: the walled city and Getsemaní on foot, Castillo San Felipe, the walls at sunset, and a boat to the Rosario Islands. The clock sets the order. The streets stay under the guide’s walking line, 35 °C (95 °F) felt in the shade, until about 9:45 in February but only 8:00 in October. Spend midday in a museum, a pool or on the boat, climb the wall an hour before sunset, and after dark go to Plaza de la Trinidad.
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1The board
Pick your month. The strip shows how the day runs; the board puts every thing on this page on the same clock, with what it costs. Filter for what today needs.
Off a ship?“Fits a ship day” keeps what can start after 9:00 and end by 15:00. Ship dates: the port schedule; hours ashore: the cruise port page.
Day-part board
36 things to do in Cartagena, placed on the hours where they work in November
Showing all 36.
| Thing | When it works, 06:00 to 24:00 | Time to allow | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| The cool morning6:00 to 8:00Streets and hills, before the heat. | |||
| Walk the walled city | 6:00 to 8:00 | Half a day | free |
| Getsemaní murals and Plaza de la Trinidad | 6:00 to 8:00 | An hour or two | free |
| Parque del Centenario | 6:00 to 8:00 | An hour or two | free |
| Castillo San Felipe de Barajas | 7:00 to 8:15, warm | An hour or two | 38,000 COP |
| Convento de la Popa | 7:00 to 8:15, warm | An hour or two | fee at the gate, not published |
| A swim at Bocagrande | 6:00 to 7:45 | An hour or two | free; tents are extra |
| Kayak on the bay at 08:00 | 8:00 to 10:00 | An hour or two | in the tour price; 3 listings, 100 to 120 USD |
| La Boquilla mangroves by canoe | Times vary | An hour or two | agreed at the boat, or in the tour; 3 listings, 59 to 174 USD |
| Nothing here matches. | |||
| Midday and afternoon8:00 to 16:35 | |||
| Totumo mud volcano | 8:15 to 12:15 | Half a day | in the tour price, though some charge the entrance; 3 listings, 55 to 69 USD |
| Botanical garden in Turbaco | 8:30 to 16:00 | Half a day | fee at the gate, not published |
| Museo del Oro Zenú | 9:00 to 17:00 | An hour or two | free |
| Palacio de la Inquisición (history museum) | 9:00 to 18:00 | An hour or two | 24,000 COP |
| San Pedro Claver church and museum | 9:00 to 16:30 | An hour or two | 30,000 COP |
| Museo Naval del Caribe | Times vary | An hour or two | fee at the door, not published |
| Las Bóvedas, the vaults in the wall | Times vary | An hour or two | free to walk in |
| A coffee tasting | Times vary | An hour or two | in the tour price; 1 listing, 32 USD |
| Rum and chocolate tasting | Times vary | An hour or two | in the tour price; 2 listings, 45 to 107 USD |
| A cooking class | Times vary | Half a day | in the tour price; 3 listings, 40 to 59 USD |
| Rosario Islands boat day | 8:00 to 16:30 | A full day | 31,500 COP |
| Oceanario on the Rosario Islands | 9:00 to 13:30 | A full day | fee on the island, not published |
| Tierra Bomba beach day | Times vary | Half a day | in the day pass or tour; 13 listings, 14 to 222 USD |
| Playa Blanca on Barú | 7:00 to 15:00 | A full day | free beach; transport and loungers extra; road trips 5 listings, 24 to 50 USD |
| San Basilio de Palenque | 8:00 to 14:00 | A full day | in the tour price; 5 listings, 26 to 128 USD |
| Aviario Nacional on Barú | 9:00 to 17:00 | Half a day | 90,000 COP |
| Nothing here matches. | |||
| Sunset16:35 to 18:05 | |||
| Sunset on the walls | 16:35 to 18:05 | An hour or two | free |
| A sunset cruise on the bay | Times vary | An hour or two | in the tour price; 6 listings, 24 to 55 USD |
| Kayak into the sunset | 16:30 to 18:00 | An hour or two | in the tour price; 3 listings, 100 to 120 USD |
| Salsa class on a rooftop | Times vary | An evening | in the tour price; 2 listings, 35 USD |
| Nothing here matches. | |||
| After dark18:05 to 24:00 | |||
| Plaza de la Trinidad at night | Times vary | An evening | free |
| The walled city plazas after dark | Times vary | An hour or two | free |
| A street food walk | Times vary | An evening | in the tour price; 3 listings, 52 to 56 USD |
| Salsa and champeta bars | Times vary | An evening | cover at some bars |
| A chiva party bus | Times vary | An evening | in the tour price; 1 listing, 30 USD |
| Dinner on a boat in the bay | 19:00 to 21:00 | An evening | in the tour price, plus the dock fee; 1 listing, 80 USD |
| A night boat with music | 17:00 to 19:30 and 19:00 to 21:30 and 21:00 to 23:30 | An hour or two | in the tour price |
| Glowing plankton off Barú | Times vary | An evening | in the tour price; 2 listings, 79 to 91 USD |
| Nothing here matches. | |||
2Morning
From May to November the cool ends between about 7:15 and 8:00, time for one walk below (best time to visit).
Loop from the Clock Tower gate past Plaza Santo Domingo to Plaza de Bolívar, where the museums wait for midday. The walled city page draws it, hour by hour.
Go if you have one cool morning: the streets cost nothing. Skip the midday loop; it works again in the evening.
The old barrio outside the walls is painted on almost every corner, around the church on Plaza de la Trinidad. Stay or visit: Getsemaní.
Go early or after dark: free, minutes on foot from the Clock Tower gate. Skip midday; the lanes have no shade.
The shaded park between Getsemaní and the walls opened in 1911. Sloths have been photographed in its trees. Map.
Go if you pass that way: free, shaded, ten minutes. Skip it if you are counting on seeing a sloth: they are wild animals in the trees, and no one can promise one.
The fortress on the hill, 1.1 km from the Clock Tower in a straight line. Open Monday to Sunday, 7:00 to 18:00; foreign adults pay 38,000 COP (fort operator). More: Castillo San Felipe.
Go at opening: no shade on the ramps, so the guide never counts the hill between 10:00 and 15:30. Skip midday; reduced rates need the ticket office and ID.
The Augustinian convent on La Popa hill, 2.6 km from the Clock Tower in a straight line, looks over the city and the bay; inside are a cloister and a museum. The sanctuary opens every day, 7:00 to 18:00.
Go by taxi at opening, with the fort from December to April. Skip it if you need the price first: the gate fee is not published.
The city beach below the towers, 2.2 km from the Clock Tower in a straight line, faces the open sea. Compare: beaches, Bocagrande.
Go early, before the sand heats up: free, tents extra. Skip it if you want supervised water; Canada (2 November 2026) notes unsupervised beaches, missing warning flags and riptides.
A guided paddle on the inner bay from Castillogrande beach. It starts 8:00 at Castillogrande beach and lasts 2 hours, with fruit and a swim at the end.
Go for the bay while it is flat. Skip it if you cannot swim, are pregnant or have back or heart trouble; the listing excludes those, and under-sixes.
The fishing village of La Boquilla, 8.4 km north of the Clock Tower in a straight line, backs onto the mangrove channels of the Ciénaga de la Virgen, where local guides pole canoes through the roots.
Go for the channels and the guides who live there; it fits a ship day. Skip the walk-up canoe if you want a fixed price: none is published.
3Midday
At noon the walled city feels like 36 °C (97 °F) in the shade in February and 37 °C (99 °F) in October. Spend these hours in the museums around Plaza de Bolívar, at a tasting or a class, or on a boat.
The central bank’s gold museum on Plaza de Bolívar shows the goldwork of the Zenú, of the plains and wetlands of this coast. Admission is free; open 9:00 to 17:00 Tuesday to Saturday, 9:00 to 14:00 on Sunday, closed Mondays, including public holidays (visitor page).
Go on a hot afternoon or a ship day: free, cool, an hour, with a lift. Skip Mondays, holidays included, and late Sundays.
Across the square, the palace of the tribunal at work in Cartagena from 1610 holds the city’s history museum (MUHCA). Adults pay 24,000 COP; open 9:00 to 18:00 Monday to Saturday, 10:00 to 16:00 on Sundays and holidays (museum page).
Go for the city’s own history: one price for everyone, the longest hours here. Skip it if you want one museum only; San Pedro Claver covers the same centuries.
The church and cloister of the Jesuit who served the enslaved Africans landed here; he died in 1654 and lies under the altar. Foreign adults pay 30,000 COP; the museum opens 9:00 to 16:30 on weekdays, 10:00 to 16:00 at weekends and on holidays (fees and hours).
Go on a weekday for the cloister and the altar. Skip a late weekend visit, when it shuts earlier: this is the highest museum fee inside the walls.
The Caribbean naval museum, by the Baluarte de San Francisco Javier, has old cannons at the door and the navy’s history inside. Map.
Go if you have a spare hour inside the walls and like ships. Skip it if you need to plan; no fee and no hours are published.
At the northern corner of the walls, 23 vaults finished in 1798 are craft shops under a shaded arcade. Map.
Go if you are finishing the wall walk: free, and in the shade of the vaults. Skip it if you want something made where it is sold.
A guided tasting of three methods and profiles, 2 hours seated and out of the sun.
Go if it is too hot to walk and the coffee interests you. Skip it if you only want a cup of coffee rather than a tasting.
Colombian rums paired with local chocolate, in Getsemaní. The longer session, 2 hours, adds a view of the fort.
Go for an indoor hour with something to taste. Skip it if you are pregnant, use a wheelchair or have children with you: the listing rules out all three.
Coconut rice, fish, patacones and empanadas in an old-town restaurant kitchen, then lunch on what you made: 2.5 hours out of the heat. More: Cartagena food.
Go if you would rather cook the coast’s food than queue for it. Skip it on a one-day stay; it takes the whole hot half.
The coral islands of the national park, 35 km south of the Clock Tower in a straight line, take a day. Boats leave Muelle de la Bodeguita 8:00 to 8:30 and are back about 16:30. At the dock the park fee and the dock fee come to 31,500 COP on top of the tour price; 11 shared island-hopping listings started at 65 to 166 USD on 12 November 2026, and the park’s accident insurance has been required of every visitor since 1 March 2026. More: Rosario Islands.
Go if the whole day is yours and you reach the dock early: Puerta 3 sells the park ticket only 7:00 to 11:40. Skip it on a cruise day.
An aquarium on Isla San Martín de Pajarales, inside the park, reached as a stop on an island tour. It opens every day from 9:00 to 13:30. Oceanario.
Go only on a tour that reaches Pajarales in the morning: it shuts at 13:30. Skip it if you need the price first; the entry is paid on the island.
The nearest beach by boat: 7 to 20 minutes across the bay, depending on the landing. At Punta Arena the clubs rent loungers; boats back run 14:00 to 17:00. Tierra Bomba, beach clubs.
Go for a beach day without a long crossing; it fits a ship day. Skip it if you came for reef water: this is the bay side.
The long white beach on Barú, 39 km from the Clock Tower by road and 2.4 km long. Road tours run pickups 7:00 to 8:15, return to Cartagena at 15:00. Which end to pick: Barú.
Go on the first pickup, if the sand is the point: the beach is free. Skip it if you want long hours there; the tour sits across 10:00 to 15:30, never counted on open ground.
The village 52 km inland in a straight line was founded in the seventeenth century by people who escaped slavery, and kept its own language, palenquero; UNESCO listed its cultural space in 2008. Tours pick up 8:00 at the Clock Tower, 5 to 6 hours in all. Palenque.
Go for the history of the people who freed themselves, and book ahead. Skip it if you use a wheelchair; the listing is not accessible.
The national aviary, 38 km from the Clock Tower by road, on the way to Barú, shows Colombia’s birds. Foreign adults pay 90,000 COP; open Monday to Sunday 9:00 to 17:00, last entry 16:00 (aviary site). Aviario.
Go with children, or for the birds, if you are driving to Barú anyway: last entry is an hour before closing. Skip it if you use a wheelchair; the tour listing names it unsuitable.
A cone of mud 49 km northeast of the city in a straight line. You climb a wooden stair, float in the warm mud, then wash off in the lagoon; helpers offer massages for a tip. Take the morning pickup, from about 8:15 or 13:15. More: Totumo.
Go if the mud is the point and you can manage the 50 steps up the cone: 4 hours door to door. Skip it if you are pregnant, have back trouble or use a wheelchair, which two listings rule out; one also leaves the entrance, 20,000 COP, to you.
The Jardín Botánico Guillermo Piñeres, 15 km inland in a straight line, is paths under tall trees. Open Tuesday to Sunday 8:30 to 16:00; open on holiday Mondays; closed the Tuesday after a holiday.
Go by taxi at opening if you have half a day for trees and quiet. Skip it on a short stay, and on the Tuesday after a holiday, when it closes.
4Sunset
The sun sets over the sea west of the walls, between 17:37 in November and 18:28 in July. The wall is free; a boat gives you the skyline. Every place to watch it: Cartagena sunset.
The walls are free and open to the public. Go up by the naval museum an hour before sunset and walk north, sea on your left, to the Baluarte de Santo Domingo. The route: walled city.
Go, whatever else you drop: free, no booking, the hour the walls are for. Skip it if you want a seat and a drink; the bastion bars charge.
The walls and the towers from the water as the light goes. The cruise lasts 2 hours and leaves the dock at 17:00.
Go if you want the city from the water. Skip it if you expect dinner or an open bar: one drink, an appetizer, no pickup.
The calm inner bay at the other end of the day: the tour starts 16:30 at Castillogrande beach, back about 18:00, and you watch the sun go down at sea level.
Go if you swim and would rather paddle than be driven. Skip it if you want pictures; both hands are on the paddle, and the wall is free.
Salsa, bachata and champeta, the city’s own music, on a Getsemaní rooftop at sunset: 2.5 hours in a small group, then out to the bars.
Go if you want the step before you walk into a bar that plays it. Skip it if being taught in front of strangers is not your evening.
5Night
After dark, the evening centers on Plaza de la Trinidad in Getsemaní and the squares of the walled city (Getsemaní). Bars and clubs: Cartagena nightlife; before you go out, the Cartagena safety page.
Where Getsemaní meets after dark: street food, music, people on the church steps. Watching costs nothing. Map.
Go for the evening the city actually has: no cost, no booking. Skip the bottle from the shop; UK advice (30 October 2026) states that public drinking is illegal in Colombia.
Plaza Santo Domingo, Plaza de San Diego and the lanes between them are lit and full of tables.
Go for tables, light and a short walk back inside the walls. Skip the phone in your hand between them: Smartraveller (6 October 2026) names pickpocketing and bag snatching as common here.
Arepas de huevo, carimañolas, juices and the sweets of the Portal de los Dulces, eaten where they are sold. The guided walk takes 2.5 hours from the Camellón de los Mártires.
Go hungry, on the latest start. Skip it if you have eaten or need collecting; the listing excludes pickup.
Getsemaní plays old Cuban salsa and champeta. Café Havana is one of them. More: nightlife.
Go if the music brought you; ask the cover before you sit. Skip any drink you did not see poured: Canada (2 November 2026) names bars and nightclubs among the worst places for drugging.
A painted wooden country bus full of music, stopping at the Zapatos Viejos monument, the fort and the Cartagena letters, with a club at the end: 3 hours.
Go if a loud bus and a club after it is your evening. Skip it if you came to see the monuments; the stops are short.
Dinner and wine while the boat circles the lit bay. Boarding 18:30, departure 19:00; the cruise lasts 2 hours. Boats and docks: boat rental.
Go Wednesday to Sunday, if dinner and the lit skyline beat a table on a square. Skip it if you expect everything in the price: the dock fee, 18,000 COP a person, is extra.
A sports boat with an open bar and the skyline, then a club in the old town. Departures: sunset tour 17:00, night tours 19:00 and 21:00; each lasts 2 to 2.5 hours.
Go if an open bar on the water is the plan. Skip it if you are prone to seasickness, which the listing names as unsuitable.
In the dark water off Barú, plankton glow blue-green when you move. Tours spend the afternoon at a beach club and go out after nightfall, 5 hours with pickup in Bocagrande.
Go for an afternoon at a beach club with a night boat at the end. Skip it if the glow is the only reason; nothing in the listing promises it.
6At the gate
Foreigners often pay more than Colombians, and at the fort the lower rates are given only at the ticket office, with ID. For taxis, meals and the rest: Cartagena prices.
| Place | Foreign adult | Reduced |
|---|---|---|
| Castillo San Felipe | 38,000 COPabout USD 12 | 16,000 COP |
| Palacio de la Inquisición | 24,000 COPabout USD 7 | 20,000 COP |
| San Pedro Claver | 30,000 COPabout USD 9 | 22,000 COP |
| Aviario Nacional | 90,000 COPabout USD 27 | 65,000 COP |
| Rosario Islands, park and dock | 31,500 COPabout USD 10 | same |
| Museo del Oro Zenú | free | free |
| City walls | free | free |
| Convento de la Popa | at the gate, not published |
Dollar figures use 3,297 COP per USD. The fort operator raises its fees every January, and the park fee is set per calendar year. Many of the things above have no gate of their own: they are sold as tours, and their cost line carries the lowest listed price instead of a fee. The two are never added together here.
Toilets on the walls1,500 COPPer person, 2025 rate, at Las Bóvedas and the bastions.
Small childrenFree under 6 at the fort and at San Pedro Claver; free under 5 at the Inquisition palace.
7Short answers
Four things: the walled city on foot in the early morning, the Castillo San Felipe at opening, the city walls at sunset, and one day on the water, to the Rosario Islands or Playa Blanca. Add Getsemaní after dark.
For its walled colonial old town, part of the Port, Fortresses and Group of Monuments that UNESCO listed as World Heritage in 1984, and for the Castillo San Felipe above it. It is also the port for the Rosario Islands and Barú.
Australia’s Smartraveller (6 October 2026) names pickpocketing and bag snatching in Cartagena; Canada (2 November 2026) notes accidents with unlicensed tour boats. Keep your phone out of sight and book boats at the authorized dock; the safety page compares four governments.
The streets and plazas of the walled city and Getsemaní, the walk on the city walls, Parque del Centenario, the city beaches from Bocagrande to La Boquilla, and the Museo del Oro Zenú, whose admission is free. Plaza de la Trinidad at night costs nothing either.
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