The short version
Three days is enough for Cartagena if you stop trying to do everything on land. Give the Walled City two days and the sea one, because the city is small enough to walk and the water is the part most people fly home wishing they'd made time for. We're biased: we run an 11 room hotel and beach club on Tierra Bomba, 25 minutes by boat from the city, so the island day in this plan is ours. The city days are yours to ruin as you like.
One piece of logistics up front. You can't drive to us. We're on an island and there's no bridge, so it's a boat, and boats run to a timetable rather than to your morning.
Day 1: land, then walk the walls
Spend the first afternoon inside Cartagena's Walled City on foot. It's compact, it's flat, and the heat decides your pace more than the map does. Most people land, check in, and try to see everything before dinner. Don't. Walk one loop, sit down somewhere with shade, and save the sights.
If you'd rather have a bed inside the walls for a night or two before you come out to us, our sister hotel Townhouse is in the middle of the Historic Walled City. Guests who stay with us more than a week are welcome to take a night there, which is the fix for anyone who worries about island fever.
Evening is for Getsemani, the neighbourhood immediately outside the walls, which is where the city stays up latest. We'll leave the restaurant picking to you; we don't publish reviews of places we haven't checked this month.
Day 2: the island day, and the boat times that shape it
Get on the 10am boat. Our boat departs from the Muelle de la Bodeguita at 10am, 11:30am and 5pm, and the crossing takes 25 minutes. Coming back, boats leave us at 4pm and 5:30pm. Reserve a seat, because our boat has a limited capacity and if you turn up unbooked and we're full, it's a long wait for the next one.
A day pass with boat transfers is $40. A sun lounger is separate and runs from $5 to $30 depending on whether you want poolside, near the music, or a quieter one on the beach, and the bigger VIP beds and beach cabanas fit three people lying down. Food and drink you pay for as you go. Our beach club is open to day visitors from 11am to 6pm.
A few honest notes about our stretch of coast. The sand here is volcanic, so it isn't the white you'll see in photos of the Rosario Islands, but it's natural and it's clean and it faces open ocean. That open ocean is also why we say no to snorkelling: our house reef sits at 6 metres and the surface water gets choppy. If you want to get under, book an hour's scuba dive instead, which needs no experience.
Our kitchen is the other reason to give the island a whole day rather than an afternoon. Pedro Mosqueda runs it, cooking with what the islands actually grow, and lunch is a proper sit-down rather than a fried fish handed to you on a plastic plate.
Day 3: village in the morning, city by the afternoon
Start day three in Bocachica, the village on our island. It has no running water and no paved roads, and it has more character than anywhere you'll walk inside the walls. Go with the right expectations: this is island life, not a row of chic bars, and it is worth the hour.
Then take Castillo San Felipe de Barajas on your way back through the city. It's the hilltop fort above Cartagena, open 7am to 6pm every day, and the 2026 full rate is 38,000 pesos, with Colombian nationals paying 33,000. Go at opening. By eleven the stone is hot enough to end the visit for you.
If you'd rather sleep out here
Staying the night changes the shape of the trip. Room rates include one day's beach club access per night you book, which covers the pool, volleyball, a sun-lounger and towel service, and your favourite lounger is held for you for the rest of your stay so nobody has to do the towel-at-dawn routine. Check-in is from 3pm, check-out is by 11am, and as long as we don't have a private event on you can use the beach club until 5:30pm on your check-out day, which lines up with the last boat.
We charge a $20 per night resort fee. We're not connected to city utilities out here, so that pays for the water and power we make ourselves. Full board, with all food and soft drinks, is $90 per person per night. There's no all-inclusive bar. This isn't Cancun.
Flights, and the thing everyone gets wrong
Airport to us, door to door, is about an hour. Going the other way, leave us three hours before your flight departs. People treat the boat like a taxi and it isn't one.
One more: we have no phone signal on the island, so sort your plans over WhatsApp before you get on the water rather than expecting to call from a lounger. See you on the boat.