Christmas and New Year in Cartagena is the best weather of the year and the worst availability of the year, in that order. If you're weighing it up: yes, go, and book earlier than feels reasonable.
We're 25 minutes offshore on Tierra Bomba, so we watch the city fill up from the water. Here's what we tell people who write to us in August and September about December dates.
The weather in December is the reason to come
December is when the dry season returns to the Caribbean coast, and it holds through to around April. Daytime temperatures sit roughly between 24C and 30C, with sun rather than the afternoon downpours of September and October. Humidity is still high, in the region of 80%, so it's hot in the way that makes you want to be in water by eleven in the morning.
For us that means the sea behaves, the boats run comfortably, and dinner outside is a certainty rather than a gamble. If you've read our honest piece about the rainy season, December is the other end of that story.
It will be busy, and prices follow the crowds
Colombia's dry period comes back in December and so do the tourists. Christmas through New Year is the peak of it, and the city runs full. That has three practical effects: rooms go early, restaurants want reservations, and the boats between Cartagena and the islands are fuller than at any other point in the year.
Our advice is unglamorous. Fix your dates, book the room, then book the crossings. Our boat has limited capacity, and over the holidays turning up unreserved is a genuinely bad plan.
Worth knowing before you pay: we refund 50% of the value of a stay if you cancel more than 30 days before check-in, and inside 30 days the deposit is neither refundable nor transferable. Day passes, lunches and boat transfers work differently, with a 97% refund up to 4pm the day before for groups under eight. So commit to December dates only once flights are certain.
What the holidays look like out here
Quieter than the city, and deliberately so. We're calm midweek and livelier at weekends, and the holiday period behaves like a long weekend: music, locals coming out for the day, the pool doing most of the work.
One rule catches families out, so we'll be plain about it. Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays are for the over-12s. We genuinely like well-behaved children and they're welcome during the week, but on the busy days we keep it adults so that everyone, parents very much included, gets to switch off.
On food, our kitchen is the reason a lot of people come out for the day rather than just for the sand. Chef Pedro Mosqueda runs it, cooking with what the islands and the coast actually produce, and over the holidays we'd book a table rather than chance it.
If you're bringing a group
December is when the group enquiries land. For 13 people or more we need you to contact us directly, we ask for advance payment, and we'll agree a set menu with you before you arrive. Above 70 people we require privatisation of the whole place. None of that is us being difficult; it's the only way to feed a large group properly on an island where every ingredient arrives by boat.
What we won't do in this article
We're not going to publish a list of city concerts and street events for a December that hasn't happened yet. Cartagena's holiday programme firms up late, and a page full of last year's dates is worse than no page. Message us on WhatsApp closer to your trip and we'll tell you what's actually on. We reply between 9am and 9pm.
The short plan
- Book flights and rooms as far ahead as you can. Peak fortnight, dry season, full city.
- Reserve every boat crossing. Limited capacity, and the last boats back to Cartagena leave us at 4pm and 5:30pm.
- Plan around the over-12s rule if you're travelling with younger children. Weekdays work.
- Reserve a table if you're coming out for lunch or dinner over the holidays.
See you on the boat.