Which one should you pick?
Rosarios for white sand and clear water, Tierra Bomba for the short crossing and a slower day. That's the honest version, and everything below is the detail behind it.
We're on Tierra Bomba, so you know where our loyalties lie. We also run boat trips out to the Rosario Islands for our guests, which means we're not going to pretend they aren't worth seeing. They're just a different sort of day.
The Rosario Islands
A chain of coral islands and cays southwest of Cartagena, inside a national marine park. This is where the postcard sand and the clear snorkelling water live, and it's the reason most people book a boat at all.
What it costs you beyond the tour price: two mandatory fees paid in cash at the pier, a national park entry fee of around COP 40,000 and a port tax of around COP 31,500 per person, so budget roughly COP 70,000 before you've bought a drink. Bring notes, not a card.
What it costs you in time: most boats leave Cartagena between roughly 7:50 and 8:30 in the morning, so it's an early alarm, and the crossing is longer and considerably bumpier than ours. Our own guests who've done both tell us the Rosario run is the one you feel in your spine. Go if the water is the whole point of your day. Skip it if a rough hour each way on a full boat sounds like the opposite of a holiday.
Tierra Bomba, and our corner of it
The island directly across the bay, close enough to see from Bocagrande. We're at Bocachica, on the southern shore, facing the open sea. Our boat leaves the Muelle de la Bodeguita at 10am, 11:30am and 5pm and takes about 25 minutes. The water on this run is usually smooth, and much calmer than the Rosario ride. Boats come back from us at 4pm and 5:30pm.
The trade-off is the sand. Ours is volcanic, so it's dark rather than white. It's natural, it's clean, and it leads out to a wide open ocean rather than a lagoon. If you booked a Caribbean day expecting powder, that's the bit to know in advance.
We're an eleven-room hotel and beach club rather than a boat stop, so the day here looks different: a sun-lounger with your name on it, lunch that took the kitchen some effort, and no schedule. Midweek it's quiet. Fridays, weekends and holidays are livelier, with music and locals coming out from the city. Saturdays and Sundays and public holidays are over-12s only, midweek we love well-behaved children.
Snorkelling: the thing to get right
Don't come to us for snorkelling. Our beachfront leads to open ocean and although we have a house reef, it sits at six metres with choppy water above it, so a mask and a snorkel won't get you much. A one-hour scuba dive will, no certification needed, and a house reef discovery dive is US $90. If face-in-the-water floating is your priority and you don't want to dive, that's a genuine point for the Rosarios.
Bocachica village
The fishing village we live next to, ten minutes on foot and a world away from the walled city. No running water, no paved roads, and more soul than you're ready for. Don't arrive expecting chic restaurants or bars, that isn't what it is. We run a village tour and a cooking and culture afternoon with people who live there, which is the way we'd suggest seeing it rather than wandering in for photographs.
Bocachica Fort
The Spanish fortification guarding the narrow Bocachica channel at the south end of the island, the gate the fleets had to squeeze through. It's on our island, so it's a moto-tour away rather than a boat trip, and it's the stop that makes people understand why this scrap of land mattered so much to the empire. Go in the morning before the heat sets in properly.
Can you do both?
Yes, and it's our favourite version of the week. Stay on Tierra Bomba, take a day out to the Rosarios by boat with us, and come back to your own lounger instead of a hotel lobby in the city. You skip the early pier scramble, and the day trip becomes a day trip rather than the whole logistical event.
Practical bits people get wrong
Reserve ahead for our boat, it has limited capacity and if you turn up unbooked and full, the wait for the next one is long. We have no phone signal on the island, so use WhatsApp and sort everything out before you get on the water. The beach club is open to day visitors from 11am to 6pm. And we don't do all-inclusive: full board for guests staying with us is US $90 per person per night, and at the beach club you pay for what you eat and drink.
See you on the boat.