The short version
Four areas account for almost every bed in and around Cartagena: the walled city, Getsemani, Bocagrande, and the islands to the south. They are not interchangeable, and the choice is less about budget than about what you want your mornings to look like. Below is how we'd put them in order, and where we sit in that picture. We're on Baru Island, on Bahia de Cholon, so we have an obvious interest in the last of the four. We'll try to be straight with you about when it isn't the right answer.
The walled city: stay here on a first trip
If this is your first time in Cartagena, stay inside the wall. The old city is compact and walkable, the colonial streets are the thing most people came for, and you can see the centre properly without arranging transport for any of it. Travel guides comparing the city's districts consistently put the Centro Historico and Getsemani at the top for visitors, and that matches what our guests tell us when they arrive.
What you trade for it: the walled city is the busiest part of Cartagena, and the beach is not here. Expect a city stay rather than a sea one.
Two or three nights inside the wall, then the water, is the shape of trip we see most often.
Getsemani: the livelier version, one street outside the wall
Getsemani is the neighbourhood immediately outside the old wall, and it's the one to pick if you want evenings out rather than early nights. It's known for its street art and a bohemian, going-out atmosphere, and it sits close enough to the Centro Historico that you can still walk everywhere in the old city.
It is louder than the walled city. That is the whole point of it, and it's a reason to choose it or avoid it depending on how you sleep.
Bocagrande: modern, beachfront, and not very old Cartagena
Bocagrande is the high-rise peninsula south of the old city, and it's the area with the city's own beach and most of its modern apartment buildings. It suits longer stays and anyone who wants a supermarket, a gym and a flat sandy strip within a block. Visitors who live in Cartagena tend to name Bocagrande, Castillogrande and El Laguito as the practical places to base yourself.
The honest caveat: the sea on the city side is not the Caribbean postcard. For clear water, you go south by boat, which brings us to the islands.
The islands: Baru and the Rosarios, where the water is
The islands are where the clear water is, and they are reached by boat, not by taxi. The Rosario Islands sit roughly 45 to 70 minutes out from Cartagena by boat. Tierra Bomba is the closest of all, around 10 to 15 minutes from Castillogrande, which makes it a common half-day trip rather than a base. Baru is the large island south of the city, separated from the mainland by the Canal del Dique.
We're on Baru, on Bahia de Cholon, and our boat takes 30 minutes to an hour from Cartagena. Door to door from Rafael Nunez International Airport to us is an hour. Our boat has limited capacity, so a crossing needs to be reserved in advance; if there's no space, the wait for the next one is long. That is the real difference between staying in the city and staying out here. In town you improvise. Out here you plan the day before, and in exchange the bay is quiet.
What we are is small: six rooms across three houses, built in guadua bamboo to designs by Simon Velez and Gustavo Pinto. Villa Pinto is the three-bedroom house with its own pool and direct sea access, and it takes up to eight. The whole place can be taken as one villa if you'd rather not share it with anyone.
So which one
- First trip, four nights or fewer: the walled city, and take a day boat out to the islands.
- You want the nights out: Getsemani.
- A week or more, with children, self-catering: Bocagrande.
- You want water, birds and quiet, and you've seen the old city before: the islands. Baru if you want a house rather than a resort.
- A group travelling together: an island buyout usually works out better than scattering across city hotels, because everyone eats and swims in the same place.
Splitting the trip
Most people get the best of it by splitting: a few nights in the old city, then a few out on the water. It is not an either or question, and the crossing is short enough that you don't lose a day to it. If you do split, come out to the island second. Going the other way means ending a quiet week with traffic, and nobody enjoys that order.
One practical note on money: foreign residents pay no tax on hotel accommodation in Colombia, and for Colombian residents IVA is already included. We charge a resort fee of 20 USD per night, because out here we are not connected to public utilities the way a city hotel is.