Top 10 Things to Do in Cartagena

Castillo San Felipe de Barajas is the largest Spanish fortification ever built in the Americas — a massive 17th-century hilltop fortress of angled bastions, 3-metre-thick walls, and an extraordinary labyrinth of internal tunnels built to allow resupply and communication between sectors during siege, with no two tunnels intersecting to prevent attackers from taking control of the whole system at once. The fort successfully repelled British Admiral Edward Vernon's 1741 attack with 186 ships and 23,600 men, one of Spain's greatest colonial military victories. The views from the ramparts across Cartagena Bay and the Caribbean horizon make it as spectacular a panoramic viewpoint as it is a military engineering achievement.

Getsemani is Cartagena's most authentic neighbourhood — a historically working-class barrio just outside the walled city that has transformed over the past decade into the most vibrant street art district in the Colombian Caribbean, with virtually every building facade now covered in large-scale murals by Colombian and international artists depicting Afro-Caribbean history, folklore, and contemporary social themes. The neighbourhood's Plaza de la Trinidad is the social heart of Getsemani, filling every evening with locals playing dominoes, street food vendors, and live cumbia and champeta music that drifts from open doorways. It retains a genuinely local feel that the increasingly boutique-hotel-filled walled city has largely lost.

The Islas del Rosario are an archipelago of 30 coral islands in the Caribbean Sea 45 kilometres southwest of Cartagena, protected within a national park of extraordinary marine biodiversity that includes the largest coral reef system in Colombia, extensive sea-grass beds, and mangrove forests harbouring seahorses, sea turtles, and manatees. The crystal-clear warm water above the white sand seafloor makes snorkelling and diving here a revelation for visitors accustomed to Atlantic or Mediterranean conditions. Day trips from Cartagena by fast boat take around 90 minutes and include snorkelling stops and time on Playa Blanca's beautiful white-sand beach.

Bocagrande is Cartagena's modern beach district — a narrow peninsula of high-rise hotels, seafront condominiums, and beachside restaurants that provides the city with its primary urban beach strip and its most concentrated nightlife. The beach itself is wide and active, flanked by palm trees and vendors selling coconut water and fried fish, while Avenida San Martin behind it offers the city's best variety of informal restaurants, beach clubs, and cocktail bars. Bocagrande's skyline of modern towers reflected in the bay at night, seen from a boat or the city walls, provides the strongest visual evidence of Cartagena's modern economic boom alongside its colonial grandeur.

The Palacio de la Inquisicion on Plaza de Bolivar is Cartagena's finest example of colonial Baroque architecture — a 1776 building whose extraordinary facade of carved stone portals, wrought-iron balconies, and ornate window frames represents the peak of colonial Colombian craftsmanship. The palace served as the seat of the Holy Office of the Inquisition from 1610 to 1821, and its museum documents the history of trials, torture instruments, and 800-plus executions that made Cartagena one of the three main Inquisition centres in the Americas. The collection is gruesome, historically important, and entirely genuine — including the public announcement stone outside where sentences were read to the assembled population.

The Gold Museum of Cartagena (Museo del Oro Zenu) is a smaller but fascinating satellite of the Bogota Gold Museum, dedicated specifically to the goldsmithing traditions of the Zenu people — the pre-Columbian culture that dominated Colombia's Caribbean lowlands and created some of the most sophisticated filigree goldwork in the ancient Americas. The Zenu were master goldsmiths who developed a lost-wax casting technique capable of producing hollow figurines of extraordinary delicacy, and many of the pieces on display in Cartagena's colonial building cannot be found in any other collection in the world. Entry is free and the building's colonial courtyard is one of the most beautiful in the walled city.

Cafe del Mar on the bastion of the city walls overlooking the Caribbean is Cartagena's most iconic sunset destination — an open-air bar and restaurant built directly into the 17th-century fortifications where guests watch the sun descend into the sea from raised platforms above the crashing Caribbean waves while sipping tropical cocktails. The location was made famous by an iconic 1997 Cafe del Mar compilation album cover and has since become a ritual stop for every visitor to the city. Arriving two hours before sunset to secure a table on the outer terrace, then watching the sky turn pink and orange over the Caribbean horizon, remains one of the most reliably beautiful experiences in South America.

San Basilio de Palenque, 70 kilometres south of Cartagena, is one of the most historically significant communities in the Americas — the first free African settlement in the New World, established in the early 17th century by escaped enslaved Africans led by Benkos Bioho who negotiated its freedom from the Spanish Crown in 1713. The village maintains Palenquero, the only Spanish-based creole language with a Bantu substratum spoken in the Americas, and its musical and healing traditions were inscribed by UNESCO on the Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2005. Visiting Palenque to hear traditional bullerengue music and eat the unique Palenquera cuisine is one of the most culturally profound experiences in Colombia.

Isla Baru is a 25-kilometre-long island connected to the Colombian mainland by a narrow strip of land south of Cartagena, home to the famous Playa Blanca — a stretch of white Caribbean sand and turquoise water consistently rated among the best beaches in South America. The island is also where Club Med and several luxury eco-lodges have established themselves amid the coconut palms and mangroves, but the village end of Playa Blanca remains accessible and relatively uncommercial. The 90-minute speedboat ride from Cartagena passes through the Rosario Islands and can be combined with a snorkelling stop, making the journey itself part of the reward.

Castillo San Felipe de Barajas is the largest Spanish fortification ever built in the Americas — a massive 17th-century hilltop fortress of angled bastions, 3-metre-thick walls, and an extraordinary labyrinth of internal tunnels built to allow resupply and communication between sectors during siege, with no two tunnels intersecting to prevent attackers from taking control of the whole system at once. The fort successfully repelled British Admiral Edward Vernon's 1741 attack with 186 ships and 23,600 men, one of Spain's greatest colonial military victories. The views from the ramparts across Cartagena Bay and the Caribbean horizon make it as spectacular a panoramic viewpoint as it is a military engineering achievement.

Getsemani is Cartagena's most authentic neighbourhood — a historically working-class barrio just outside the walled city that has transformed over the past decade into the most vibrant street art district in the Colombian Caribbean, with virtually every building facade now covered in large-scale murals by Colombian and international artists depicting Afro-Caribbean history, folklore, and contemporary social themes. The neighbourhood's Plaza de la Trinidad is the social heart of Getsemani, filling every evening with locals playing dominoes, street food vendors, and live cumbia and champeta music that drifts from open doorways. It retains a genuinely local feel that the increasingly boutique-hotel-filled walled city has largely lost.

The Islas del Rosario are an archipelago of 30 coral islands in the Caribbean Sea 45 kilometres southwest of Cartagena, protected within a national park of extraordinary marine biodiversity that includes the largest coral reef system in Colombia, extensive sea-grass beds, and mangrove forests harbouring seahorses, sea turtles, and manatees. The crystal-clear warm water above the white sand seafloor makes snorkelling and diving here a revelation for visitors accustomed to Atlantic or Mediterranean conditions. Day trips from Cartagena by fast boat take around 90 minutes and include snorkelling stops and time on Playa Blanca's beautiful white-sand beach.

Bocagrande is Cartagena's modern beach district — a narrow peninsula of high-rise hotels, seafront condominiums, and beachside restaurants that provides the city with its primary urban beach strip and its most concentrated nightlife. The beach itself is wide and active, flanked by palm trees and vendors selling coconut water and fried fish, while Avenida San Martin behind it offers the city's best variety of informal restaurants, beach clubs, and cocktail bars. Bocagrande's skyline of modern towers reflected in the bay at night, seen from a boat or the city walls, provides the strongest visual evidence of Cartagena's modern economic boom alongside its colonial grandeur.

The Palacio de la Inquisicion on Plaza de Bolivar is Cartagena's finest example of colonial Baroque architecture — a 1776 building whose extraordinary facade of carved stone portals, wrought-iron balconies, and ornate window frames represents the peak of colonial Colombian craftsmanship. The palace served as the seat of the Holy Office of the Inquisition from 1610 to 1821, and its museum documents the history of trials, torture instruments, and 800-plus executions that made Cartagena one of the three main Inquisition centres in the Americas. The collection is gruesome, historically important, and entirely genuine — including the public announcement stone outside where sentences were read to the assembled population.

The Gold Museum of Cartagena (Museo del Oro Zenu) is a smaller but fascinating satellite of the Bogota Gold Museum, dedicated specifically to the goldsmithing traditions of the Zenu people — the pre-Columbian culture that dominated Colombia's Caribbean lowlands and created some of the most sophisticated filigree goldwork in the ancient Americas. The Zenu were master goldsmiths who developed a lost-wax casting technique capable of producing hollow figurines of extraordinary delicacy, and many of the pieces on display in Cartagena's colonial building cannot be found in any other collection in the world. Entry is free and the building's colonial courtyard is one of the most beautiful in the walled city.

Cafe del Mar on the bastion of the city walls overlooking the Caribbean is Cartagena's most iconic sunset destination — an open-air bar and restaurant built directly into the 17th-century fortifications where guests watch the sun descend into the sea from raised platforms above the crashing Caribbean waves while sipping tropical cocktails. The location was made famous by an iconic 1997 Cafe del Mar compilation album cover and has since become a ritual stop for every visitor to the city. Arriving two hours before sunset to secure a table on the outer terrace, then watching the sky turn pink and orange over the Caribbean horizon, remains one of the most reliably beautiful experiences in South America.

San Basilio de Palenque, 70 kilometres south of Cartagena, is one of the most historically significant communities in the Americas — the first free African settlement in the New World, established in the early 17th century by escaped enslaved Africans led by Benkos Bioho who negotiated its freedom from the Spanish Crown in 1713. The village maintains Palenquero, the only Spanish-based creole language with a Bantu substratum spoken in the Americas, and its musical and healing traditions were inscribed by UNESCO on the Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2005. Visiting Palenque to hear traditional bullerengue music and eat the unique Palenquera cuisine is one of the most culturally profound experiences in Colombia.

Isla Baru is a 25-kilometre-long island connected to the Colombian mainland by a narrow strip of land south of Cartagena, home to the famous Playa Blanca — a stretch of white Caribbean sand and turquoise water consistently rated among the best beaches in South America. The island is also where Club Med and several luxury eco-lodges have established themselves amid the coconut palms and mangroves, but the village end of Playa Blanca remains accessible and relatively uncommercial. The 90-minute speedboat ride from Cartagena passes through the Rosario Islands and can be combined with a snorkelling stop, making the journey itself part of the reward.