The short version
Get your group on a boat. We're on Tierra Bomba, 25 minutes out of Cartagena, and the crossing is the part everyone remembers. Our boat leaves the Muelle de la Bodeguita at 10am, 11:30am and 5pm, and heads back from us at 4pm and 5:30pm. A club day pass with boat transfers both ways is $40 per person. You then pay for a sun lounger if you want one, $5 to $30 depending on which, and for whatever you eat and drink.
That's the whole machine. Everything below is the detail that stops a group of twelve standing on a dock at 10:05 watching a boat leave.
Yes, we host bachelorettes, and we'd like a heads up
We love hosting well-behaved bachelors and bachelorettes. All we ask is that you tell us in advance what kind of group you are. That isn't a screening exercise, it's so we can put you somewhere that suits you: a group of fourteen who want music and the pool goes in a different spot to a group of fourteen who want to read novels. Get this wrong and both groups have a worse day.
One thing to know before you plan anything around it. We're not a party island resort and we don't pretend to be. Weekdays here are quiet. Fridays, weekends and holidays are livelier, with plenty of locals coming out to kick off the weekend, and our pool session on Saturdays runs 1 to 5. If the group wants noise, come Saturday. If half the group is nursing something from the night before in Getsemaní, come Tuesday.
Group sizes, and where the rules change
Under 13 people, book online like anyone else and turn up. From 13 people up, contact us directly. We ask for payment in advance and we'll agree a set menu with you before you arrive, because a kitchen on an island can't take 20 separate à la carte orders at 1pm and give anyone a good lunch.
Group lunch menus are $45 USD per person for groups of 10 or more, and they're published on our website so nobody is negotiating over a table.
At more than 70 people we require privatisation. In the daytime we can receive up to 250 people, so a large celebration genuinely fits, it just fits as a private event rather than as a big table in the middle of everyone else's afternoon.
Taking the whole place
Full private hire means Blue Apple is yours and yours alone: the beach club, the pool, the restaurant, no day visitors wandering through your speeches. It's also the only situation in which you can bring your own alcohol, and we charge corkage for it. Smaller groups can't bring their own drinks, so please don't arrive with a suitcase of rum and a hopeful face.
If you want the whole property with the group sleeping over, that's 11 rooms and up to 30 people on the property overnight. For anything bigger, some of the group sleeps at neighbouring hotels and villas on the island.
Staying the night instead of doing a day
If the group stays, the day stops being a countdown to the 4pm boat, which is the single best upgrade available. Room rates include a day's beach club access per person per night, and there's a $20 per night resort fee, because we make our own water and power out here rather than plugging into the city's.
Full board, meaning all food and soft drinks, is $90 per person per night. There is no all-inclusive bar. This is not Cancún.
And if the group wants a night in the city as well, our sister property Townhouse sits in the Walled City, which is a sensible way to split a long weekend: one night dancing in town, one night out here with nothing to do.
Weddings, in case that's where this is heading
We don't host weddings. We're very good at the day before and the day after, which is arguably the better job anyway: the whole group, a boat, a long lunch, nobody making a speech. For the ceremony itself you'll want somewhere else.
What we won't do
We won't discount. Our prices are what let us buy good ingredients and pay our team properly, so asking for a group rate on top of the group menu isn't going to go anywhere pleasant for either of us.
We also don't do all-you-can-drink packages, and our house rules are short and firm: no sex tourism, no prostitution. A bachelor group that reads that sentence and hesitates should book somewhere else.
Planning notes worth writing down
- Reserve, especially if you want seats on our boat. Capacity is limited and if there's no space it's a long wait for the next one.
- Cancellation for groups of fewer than eight on day passes, lunches and transfers: 97% of the deposit back until 4pm the day before, nothing after that. Room bookings are 50% back up to 30 days out, then non-refundable.
- There's no phone signal on the island, so use WhatsApp for everything, and expect answers between 9am and 9pm.
- Bring a towel. The official policy is that you bring your own, whatever any older confirmation email may have told you.
- Getting on and off a boat takes some agility. Factor that into whoever is wearing the sash.
See you on the boat.