What it costs and what's in it
US $40 per person for the club day pass with boat transfers, which covers the 25-minute crossing from Cartagena to us in Bocachica and back again. It's the option we recommend to almost everyone. From there you choose a sun-lounger, from $5 to $30, and you pay for whatever you eat and drink in the restaurant.
We don't do all-inclusive and we're not going to start. This isn't Cancun. What that means in practice: you order what you actually want rather than eating your way to break-even.
The loungers, and which one you want
Two zones, and the difference matters more than the price does.
Poolside is near the music and the action. Beach is quiet and removed from everything. The bigger VIP sun beds and beach cabañas fit three people lying down, or work as a base for a group who'll be up and about.
Whichever you pick, it's yours for the day and it's reserved in your name, so there's none of that 8am towel-throwing ritual. If you're staying with us overnight, your favourite lounger is held for you every day of your stay.
How the day runs
Boats leave the Muelle de la Bodeguita in Cartagena at 10am, 11:30am and 5pm. Ours takes about 25 minutes and the water on this run is usually smooth, much calmer than the Rosario Islands crossing. We're open to day visitors from 11am to 6pm, and boats leave us at 4pm and 5:30pm, so the 11:30 out and the 5:30 back is the full-value version of the day.
Book first. Our boat has limited capacity, and if you arrive unreserved when it's full, the next departure is a long wait rather than a short one. Reservations go through WhatsApp and we answer between 9am and 9pm. Once you're on the island there's no phone signal at all, so make your plans before you step on the boat.
Lunch, which is the point for a lot of people
We take the eating seriously. Our kitchen was built by Chef Silvestre Saiz Cortazar and Pedro Mosqueda runs it now as Executive Chef, and the food is farm-to-table with as much as possible sourced from the islands. Meat is sustainably raised and ethically treated. If you're vegetarian, vegan, lactose or gluten intolerant, you're properly looked after rather than grudgingly accommodated, plenty of us have been there.
We were the first beach club in Cartagena to have a wine list, and yes, we sell rosé by the magnum. The cocktails use fresh juice.
Quiet day or lively day?
Both exist here, on different days of the week, so choose deliberately.
Midweek is quiet. Fridays, weekends and holidays get busy, with music and a good crowd of locals coming out from the city. Same beach, entirely different afternoon.
One rule that catches people out: Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays are for over-12s only, so parents get a day off too. Midweek we love well-behaved children.
Adding a dive to your day pass
There's a house reef off our beach but it sits at six metres with choppy water on top, so snorkelling isn't worth your time here. Diving is. A house reef discovery dive is US $90 and needs no certification, and a full discovery day is US $140. If you want the qualification while you're in Colombia, the PADI Scuba Diver course runs two days at US $320 and Open Water four days at US $460.
Things worth knowing before you book
An 8% food tax applies to all food and drinks and isn't refundable. Getting on and off the boat takes a bit of agility, and there's a 200 metre sandy track between our dock and the gate, so we'll be straight with you: we're not wheelchair accessible. Bring less than you think. And please don't ask for a discount, we'd rather keep buying good ingredients and paying our team properly, which is the same reason we're B Corp certified and running on solar.
See you on the boat.