The short answer
Three days for Cartagena, five or six if you want islands too. Fewer than three and you'll spend the whole time in the old town at midday, which is the worst version of this city. More than six on the mainland and you'll start doing the same walk twice.
We're not neutral about this. We're on Tierra Bomba, about 25 minutes offshore, so of course we think you should get on a boat. But the reason we think it is that the mainland runs out of new things faster than people expect, and the water doesn't.
Two days: doable, but tight
Two days works if the Walled City is all you want. The old town is small enough to cross on foot in about twenty minutes, so one day covers the streets, the walls and Las Bóvedas, the vaulted rooms built into the northern wall that now sell souvenirs. Day two covers Castillo San Felipe de Barajas, the hill fort just outside the walls, and one long lunch.
What you lose with two days is the water. Every boat thing here takes most of a day once you count the crossing, and squeezing one into a 48-hour trip means eating breakfast standing up.
Three days: the honest minimum
Three days is where Cartagena starts making sense. Two for the city at a reasonable pace, one for a boat.
On that third day you're choosing between the Rosario Islands, which are further out and famous for white sand, and Tierra Bomba, which is closer. Our sand is volcanic, so it's darker than the Rosarios, and the beach leads out onto open ocean rather than a sheltered bay. We'd rather tell you that now than have you arrive expecting a postcard. What you get instead is a much shorter crossing and a much calmer one, since the Rosarios run is famously bumpy.
A day pass with us costs $40 including boat transfers, then you pay for what you eat and drink. A sun lounger is $5 to $30 depending on where you want to be, poolside near the music or down on the beach away from it. The beach club takes day visitors from 11am to 6pm.
Five or six days: the version we'd book
Five or six days lets you stop planning. Three in the city, then two or three out here, which is long enough that you stop checking the boat times.
What fills those days on our side: scuba, mountain biking, a boat out to the Rosario Islands, a cooking class, the Bocachica village tour. Bocachica is the village on our island, with no running water and no paved roads, and it is not a chic afternoon. It's a real one. Go with someone who knows it, which is why we run the tour rather than pointing at a track.
On diving, plan the days deliberately rather than hoping. A house reef discovery dive is $90 and a discovery day is $140. If you want the certification, PADI Scuba Diver is two days at $320, Open Water is four days at $460, and Advanced Diver is two days at $440. Four days of Open Water inside a five-day trip means you're here to dive, not to see Cartagena, and that's a fine choice as long as you make it on purpose.
One thing we can't do for you is snorkelling off our beach. The house reef is at six metres and the surface water gets choppy, so we send people on a one-hour dive instead. No experience needed.
A week or more
A week is not too long, but it changes what you should book. Rooms come with one day's beach club access per night, and full board with all food and soft drinks is $90 per person per night, which is the sensible option once you're past a few days and bored of doing arithmetic at every meal. There's a $20 per night resort fee, which is on the island because we're not connected to public utilities out here.
If you're with us for more than a week you're also welcome to take the odd night at Townhouse, our sister property in the centre of the Historic Walled City. Some people need a night with pavement.
Getting the days to line up
- Airport to us is about an hour, door to door. Leave us three hours before your flight departs. We can arrange airport transfers both ways, just ask.
- Boats leave the Muelle de la Bodeguita at 10am, 11:30am and 5pm, and leave us at 4pm and 5:30pm. There's no bridge to the island, so the boat is the whole plan.
- Check-in is from 3pm, check-out by 11am, and unless there's a private event you can use the beach club before check-in and until 5:30pm on your last day. That usually buys back half a day at each end.
- Message us on WhatsApp, not by phone. There's no signal on the island. We answer reservations enquiries between 9am and 9pm.
So, how long?
If someone gave us five days in Cartagena tomorrow, we'd spend two in the city, then come out here and not go back until the last morning. Three if you only have three. Two only if you're passing through.
See you on the boat.