Can you see the Walled City in one day?
Yes, easily, as long as you don't try to do it all between 11am and 3pm. The old town is small. You can cross it on foot in about twenty minutes without hurrying. What makes people say they needed longer is usually the heat, not the distance, so we tell guests to split the day in two: streets in the morning, something with walls and shade in the middle of the day, squares again in the evening.
We're on Tierra Bomba, on the far side of the water, so we watch a lot of guests do this in both directions. Here's the version that works.
Start at the Torre del Reloj and then walk away from it
The Torre del Reloj is the clock tower gate, the arch you pass through to get inside the walls, and it's the reference point everyone in Cartagena gives directions from. It's also where a lot of walking tours meet up, which tells you what the space outside it looks like around 9am.
So use it as a door, not a destination. Photograph it, walk through it, then keep going for two or three streets. The crowd thins out fast once you're off the first block, and the streets behind it are the reason you came: low colonial houses, wooden balconies, doors painted colours nobody would sign off on at home.
If you'd rather have someone explain what you're looking at, we run a walking tour of Cartagena as one of our activities. Ask us before you arrive and we'll set it up.
Plaza Santo Domingo is an evening square, not a lunch square
Go to Plaza Santo Domingo after dark. It sits in front of the Iglesia de Santo Domingo, one long block north and west of Plaza Bolívar, and in the evening it fills up with street performers and the restaurant tables that spill into it. That's the whole appeal. In the middle of the afternoon it's a hot open square with people trying to sell you a hat.
Our honest note: this is the most visited square in the old town, and you'll pay old-town prices for a drink there. We think it's still worth an hour, because sitting in it at night is one of the few things in Cartagena that lives up to the photographs.
Las Bóvedas: go for the wall, not for the shopping
Las Bóvedas is a run of vaulted rooms built into the northern city wall, originally military storage and now artisan and souvenir stalls. We won't oversell it. Most of what's for sale in there is sold in four other places in the city too.
The reason to put it on your day is the walk. You approach it along the top of the walls, with the sea on one side and the roofs of the old town on the other, and that stretch is the best free thing in the city. Do it late in the afternoon when the light drops.
Castillo San Felipe de Barajas is the middle-of-the-day option
Castillo San Felipe de Barajas is the hill fort just outside the walled city, and it's the one big sight that isn't inside the old town. It's a short taxi ride from the Torre del Reloj.
Go first thing or late, not at one in the afternoon. It's a fort built on an open hillside, and there is nothing pleasant about climbing it at the hottest hour with a bottle of warm water. Give it an hour and a half.
How this fits around a stay with us
We're about 25 minutes by boat from the city, which means the old town is a day trip from us rather than a walk. Our boats leave the Muelle de la Bodeguita at 10am, 11:30am and 5pm, and leave us at 4pm and 5:30pm. If you want a crossing outside those times, message us on WhatsApp and we'll tell you honestly whether we can do it. There's no phone signal on the island, so WhatsApp is the only sensible way to reach us, and we answer reservations messages between 9am and 9pm.
One more thing worth knowing: if you're staying with us for more than a week, you're welcome to take the odd night at Townhouse, our sister property in the centre of the Historic Walled City. It's the easy way to do a late night in the old town without thinking about the last boat.
What we'd actually do with the day
- 8:30am Through the Torre del Reloj and into the streets behind it, before the tour groups gather.
- 10:30am Castillo San Felipe de Barajas, while it's still bearable.
- 1pm Lunch somewhere with a ceiling fan and a long menu. This is the part of the day to sit down for two hours and not feel bad about it.
- 4:30pm Up onto the walls and along to Las Bóvedas.
- 7pm Plaza Santo Domingo, when the performers turn up.
That's a full day and it leaves the beach for the next one. See you on the boat.