The short version
Cartagena is an easy city to travel in with children, as long as you plan around two things: the heat and the water. Mornings belong to the old town, afternoons belong to a pool or the sea. We're on Tierra Bomba, 25 minutes by boat from the city, and most families who come to us do exactly that split.
Here's what we can tell you honestly, including the parts that don't suit every family.
Can children come to our beach club?
Under-12s are welcome with us during the week. Weekends and public holidays work differently, and our own published pages and our reservations team have lately been saying slightly different things about it, so we're not going to guess in a blog post. Send us a WhatsApp with your dates and the ages of your children before you book and we'll tell you exactly where you stand. Better that conversation now than at the dock.
The beach club is open to day visitors from 11am to 6pm. If you'd rather stay the night, we have 11 rooms and up to 30 people can sleep on the property.
What a family day costs
Our day pass with boat transfers is $40 per person, which covers getting here and back. Sun loungers are booked separately, from $5 up to $30. With children the bigger options earn their money, because they give you a base rather than a seat: a VIP daybed by the pool is $50, and a beach cabana, which sits further from the music, is $30. Both take three people lying down, or one family plus hats, bags and half-eaten arepas.
Food and drink are charged as you go. There's no all-inclusive wristband here. If you're staying the night, full board with all food and soft drinks is $90 per person per night, and there's a $20 per night resort fee.
The boat, which is the bit parents ask about
Our boat leaves Muelle de la Bodeguita in Cartagena at 10am, 11:30am and 5pm, and leaves us to go back at 4pm and 5:30pm. For a family day trip, the 10am out and the 4pm back is the sensible pair.
The crossing is usually smooth and much calmer than the Rosario Islands run, which is the one people warn you about. In windy weather it gets choppy without ever becoming dramatic. The honest caveat: getting on and off the boat takes a bit of agility, and from the dock there's a 200 metre sandy track to our gate. With a toddler in arms, fine. With a pushchair, a nuisance, so bring a carrier.
If the tide is very high or the sea is rough, we land at the village dock about a mile away and you ride pillion on a motorbike taxi from there. Worth knowing in advance if that's a hard no for your family.
What the beach is actually like
Grey volcanic sand, not white. It's natural and clean, and it runs straight out to open ocean rather than a sheltered bay, so the sea has moods. Some days it's glassy, some days there's a swell. Small children should be in the pool when it's rough, and we'll tell you which kind of day it is when you arrive. Our pools are chlorinated, lightly.
Snorkelling doesn't work here and we won't pretend otherwise. The house reef is an eight minute swim out and sits deep, and the surface water is often choppy. Older children who want to get under the water are better off on a one hour discovery dive, which needs no certification: we're a PADI Dive Resort and the reef is the reason. If white sand in flat shallow water is your non-negotiable, the Rosario Islands are the better call and we'll say so before you pay us anything.
A day we'd actually recommend
Morning in the old town: get out by 8am while it's bearable. Castillo San Felipe de Barajas is the sight that holds a child's attention, because it's a fort you climb rather than a museum you shuffle through. We've written up the hours and tickets separately.
The 10am boat: twenty-five minutes, sea spray, everyone arrives pleased with themselves.
Lunch with us: Chef Pedro Mosqueda runs our kitchens. He trained at the Gato Dumas Institute in Bogota and cooked in leading Colombian kitchens and then in New York before coming back to cook with what these islands grow. Plain grilled fish and rice exists for the child who will eat nothing else, and there's a real vegetarian and vegan offering for everyone else at the table.
Pool until the light goes soft: volleyball, shade, and nobody checking a phone, because there's no cell signal at all on the island. The wifi is good, the network simply isn't there. Several parents have told us that's the best feature of the day.
The 4pm boat back: you're in the city by half past four with time to shower before dinner.
Two things that make older kids' days
A private dance class, if you've got a teenager who'll tolerate one: salsa, champeta, which is the local Afro-Colombian style, or zumba. Two left feet are welcome.
The back of house sustainability tour, which sounds like homework and isn't. You see how the place actually runs, and the fee goes to our impact fund. We're B Corp certified, and the tour is us showing our working rather than asking you to take our word for it.
Who this doesn't suit
Families who need step-free access. We're at the end of a boat ride and a sandy track, and we weren't built with accessibility in mind. We'd rather tell you now than have you find out at the gate.
And if you want the calm version of us, come midweek. Fridays, weekends and holidays get livelier here, with music and a good crowd of locals. Midweek is quieter, and midweek is also when under-12s are unambiguously welcome.
See you on the boat.