Cartagena Independence Day is 11 November. It marks the city's declaration of independence in 1811, it's a public holiday across Colombia, and in Cartagena it sits in the middle of a week of celebration rather than standing alone. Listings for the Fiestas de Independencia put the festival roughly between 6 and 12 November, with parades, music and street parties concentrated in the Old Town and Getsemaní.
We're on Bahía de Cholón, on Barú Island, between 30 minutes and an hour from Cartagena on our boat. That distance is the useful part of this page. You can be at the parades in the morning and back on the water by the afternoon, which makes for a very different week from staying in the middle of it.
What the Fiestas de Independencia are
They're the city's own independence celebrations, not an event staged for visitors. The programme spreads across neighbourhoods, the outlying corregimientos and the island zones as well as the historic centre, and the city presented the 2026 programme publicly in advance. Expect drums, dancing and costume in the street, and expect it to be loud.
The dates, and what the 11th itself looks like
The festival week runs approximately 6 to 12 November 2026, and 11 November is the holiday at the centre of it. The formal acts begin early that morning: a floral offering at around 7am opens the protocol programme before the day's crowds build. If you want the ceremony rather than the crush, that early hour is the one to aim for.
After the official acts, the day belongs to the street. The Cabildo in Getsemaní is the part most visitors are pointed towards, and rightly so. Getsemaní is the old working quarter just outside the walls, small enough to cross on foot in about fifteen minutes, and during the Fiestas its narrow streets carry the parade rather than watch it go past. Go on foot, and accept that you'll move slowly.
The walled city during the festival
The walled city, the ring of 16th and 17th century streets inside Cartagena's defensive walls, is where most of the official programme lands. In an ordinary week we'd tell you to walk it early, before the heat settles in. During the Fiestas that advice counts double, because by midday you're dealing with the sun and the crowd at once. Wear something you don't mind getting foam or flour on. That's a known part of the street celebration, and it isn't personal.
Why we'd watch it from the island
Here is the honest case for being an hour away. A festival week in Cartagena is a good thing to attend and a hard thing to sleep inside. Our six rooms sit across three houses above the bay. Villa Orquídea holds the Estrella, Cuerno and Fuego rooms, all with sea views. Casita Veranera has the Rhizo and Avi rooms, each with a large balcony looking over the Ciénaga de Cholón. Casita Laguna stands on its own, with a private pool, an outdoor bathroom and its own gazebo. Families and groups travelling together tend to split along those lines, one household per house.
What you get in exchange for the boat ride is quiet at night and the mangroves in the morning. What you give up is spontaneity. You can't wander back at 2am on a whim, which is exactly the point for some guests and the wrong answer for others. We'd rather say that plainly than sell you the island as the solution to a problem you don't have.
Getting in and out during the week
The crossing takes 30 minutes to an hour from Cartagena on our boat. From Rafael Núñez airport, door to door, allow an hour. Going home, leave us three hours before your flight departs, and treat that as a minimum on a holiday weekend, when the city's roads and the airport are both working harder than usual.
Reserve the boat. It has limited capacity, and if you arrive unreserved and there's no space, the wait for the next crossing is a long one. During independence week, with more people moving in both directions, that's the single piece of logistics worth settling in advance.
If you want the week to yourselves
The whole place can be taken as one villa. Groups who come together for a holiday week often book all six rooms rather than share the houses, and it's available that way. There's also Villa Pinto, a three-bedroom house for up to eight, designed by Simón Vélez and Gustavo Pinto, with its own pool and direct sea access. If November is your plan, tell us early. A national holiday week is not the moment to ask at short notice.
On food, our kitchen was built by Chef Silvestre Saiz Cortázar, born and trained in Ibiza and raised in the kitchens of Bogotá, and Pedro Mosqueda has since taken over as Executive Chef. If you're vegetarian or vegan, or you avoid lactose or gluten, tell us when you book and we'll plan around it rather than improvise on the day.
One practical note on cost
Foreign residents pay no tax on hotel accommodation in Colombia. For Colombian residents, IVA is already included in what we quote. We charge a resort fee of 20 USD per night, and we'd rather you read that here than meet it at checkout.