The short answer
Go to Playa Blanca if you have come to Colombia for white sand and you are willing to spend a chunk of the day travelling. Come to us on Tierra Bomba if you want to be in the water 25 minutes after leaving the city, and you don't mind that our sand is grey.
That's genuinely the whole trade-off. Everything below is the detail behind it.
Getting there: one is much closer than the other
We're the closer one, by a wide margin. Our boat leaves Muelle de la Bodeguita in Cartagena and the crossing takes 25 to 30 minutes. Playa Blanca sits on Isla Barú, about 31 km from the city, and you get there either by speedboat from Muelle de la Bodeguita or the Todomar marina in Bocagrande, which takes roughly 45 to 60 minutes, or overland through Barú, which runs 2 to 2.5 hours each way.
| Playa Blanca (Isla Barú) | Us, on Tierra Bomba | |
|---|---|---|
| Distance from Cartagena | About 31 km | 25 to 30 minutes by boat |
| By boat | 45 to 60 minutes by speedboat | 25 to 30 minutes on our boat |
| By road | 2 to 2.5 hours each way via Barú | Not possible. No bridge |
| Sand | White | Volcanic, grey, natural |
| Water | Sheltered bay | Open ocean |
There's no bridge to Tierra Bomba, so a car gets you nowhere. It's our boat, your own boat if you have one, or a five-minute helicopter ride if that's the sort of week you're having. Our boat leaves the city at 10am, 11.30am and 5pm, and comes back from us at 4pm and 5.30pm. Capacity is limited, so reserve. If you turn up unreserved and the boat is full, the wait for the next one is long and there's nothing we can do about it from this side of the water.
The sand is the real difference, and we won't pretend otherwise
Our beach is volcanic sand. It isn't white like the Rosario Islands or Playa Blanca, but it's natural and clean, and it leads out onto a wide open ocean rather than a bay. The sea changes with her mood. Some days it's glass, some days it's got a chop on it.
That open water has one practical consequence worth knowing before you pack a mask: you can't really snorkel here. Our house reef sits at six metres and the surface water is often too choppy to enjoy from the top. If you want to see it, a one-hour discovery dive on the house reef is $90 and needs no previous experience. We're a PADI Dive Resort, so if you like it, the Scuba Diver course is two days at $320 and Open Water is four days at $460.
What a day with us costs
Our day pass with boat transfers both ways is $40. On top of that you pick a sun lounger, from $5 up to $30, and then you pay for whatever you eat and drink. A VIP daybed right in front of the pool is $50. A beach cabaña, which is quieter and closer to the water, is $30. The beach club is open to day visitors from 11am to 6pm and the restaurant runs from 10am to 11pm.
We're not an all-inclusive and we don't do all-you-can-drink. The kitchen is the reason a lot of people come: Pedro Mosqueda is our Executive Chef, we cook with what the islands and the coast actually produce, and we were the first beach club in Cartagena to bother with a wine list.
Once you're on the island
The beach isn't the only thing here, which is the other argument for the short crossing: you can do something with the day and still be back in the city for dinner.
Bocachica is the village at this end of Tierra Bomba, five minutes away by motorbike taxi. It has no running water and no paved roads, and it's one of the most interesting hours you can spend near Cartagena, as long as you arrive expecting island life rather than restaurants and bars. The San Fernando fortress is there, at the mouth of the Bocachica channel. Our village tour goes on foot after the motorbike ride in.
For the fort with the view, we run a walk up to Angel San Rafael and then a session cooking traditional Bocachica sweets with our foundation. There's also mountain biking on the island trails, up to an hour with a private motorbike escort, best done early before the sun is at full strength.
When Playa Blanca is the better call
Honestly: when the white sand is non-negotiable, or when you're already heading down the Barú road for other reasons. It's a genuinely beautiful stretch of coast and we're not going to argue with a photograph.
We'd also say this. If you have one beach day in Cartagena and you spend four to five hours of it in transit, you have had a travel day, not a beach day. That maths is what sends most people 25 minutes out to sea instead.
Know before you get on the boat
There is no phone signal on the island. The wifi is excellent most days and handles video calls, and on the days it goes down, it goes down. Bring a towel: our official policy is that you bring your own. Reserve the boat in advance, and if the tide is high or the sea is rough we dock in the village instead and you ride pillion on a motorbike taxi for the last mile, which most people end up enjoying more than the boat.
See you on the boat.