The short version: your day runs on boat times, not on you
That's the single biggest difference between sleeping on Tierra Bomba and sleeping in Cartagena. There's no bridge and no road onto the island, so you can't drive here. Our boat leaves the Muelle de la Bodeguita at 10am, 11:30am and 5pm, and comes back from us at 4pm and 5:30pm. That's the frame your two or three days sit inside, and people either love it within an hour or spend the whole stay slightly wrong-footed by it.
We're 11 rooms on Playa Mamon, on the southern shore facing the open sea, about 25 minutes out from the city. Up to 30 people can sleep on the property. That's the whole place. It's small enough that the staff learn your drink on day one.
What the night after the day boat leaves is like
At about 5:30pm the last day visitors get on a boat and the island goes quiet. This is the part you're really paying for. The beach club that had music and a pool party in the afternoon becomes eleven rooms' worth of people and a kitchen, and dinner runs long because nobody has anywhere to be.
There's no phone signal on the island. None. It's much easier for everyone if you reach us on WhatsApp before you arrive, because once you're here the world gets a lot smaller. We think that's the point. If you disagree, book two nights rather than five.
Rooms, rates, and what's actually included
Room rates are per room, based on two people sharing unless stated otherwise, and include one day's access to the beach club and facilities (pool, volleyball, a sun-lounger, towel service) per night. Your favourite lounger gets reserved for you every day of your stay, so there's no towel-on-the-bed race in the morning.
Rooms differ more than the photos suggest. MANZANA has a private pool and a jacuzzi. NISPERO has a jacuzzi and no private pool. Both include breakfast. We're not all-inclusive and never will be, but full board with all food and soft drinks is $90 per person per night. There's an all-inclusive bar question we get a lot and the answer is no. This isn't Cancun.
The money that catches people out: a $20 per night resort fee. City hotels plug into public utilities. Out here we make our own, so that's what the fee covers. Foreign residents pay no tax on hotel accommodation; for Colombian residents IVA is already in the price. Rooms have air conditioning, which we'll admit is not the greenest thing about a solar-powered B Corp, but the nights are warm.
On cancellations, so nobody is surprised: we refund 50% of the value of your stay if you cancel more than 30 days before check-in. Inside 30 days the deposit isn't refundable or transferable.
Arriving and leaving
Check-in is from 3pm and check-out is by 11am. As long as there's no private event on, you can use the beach club before your check-in and until 5:30pm on the day you check out, which means your last day is a real day rather than a morning spent watching a clock. There's a private bathroom for post-checkout guests too, so you don't have to fly home salty. Ask reception to set you up.
If the tide is very high or the sea is rough on the day you travel, we dock in Bocachica village instead, about a mile away, and you finish the journey pillion on a motorbike taxi. Pack accordingly, which mostly means a soft bag rather than a hard suitcase. Door to door from Rafael Nunez airport is about an hour, and you should leave us three hours before your flight departs.
What there is to do, including the thing that isn't running
Honestly: scuba on our house reef, mountain biking, boat trips out to the Rosario Islands, a cooking class, a moto-tour of the island, and a walk into Bocachica village. Horse riding is suspended at the moment and will be back, so ask us before you plan a stay around it rather than after.
Bocachica is worth the walk and it will rearrange your idea of the island. It's a village with no running water and no paved roads and a huge amount of soul. Don't go expecting chic restaurants and bars, and do go with someone who can introduce you properly, which is what our village tour is for.
A one-hour discovery dive on our house reef is $90, and the reef sits at 6 metres just off the beach. If you'd rather come back with a qualification, the PADI Open Water is four days and $460.
Worried you'll get island fever?
Fair. Some people love five days out here, some want the city too. If you're staying more than a week you're welcome to take the odd night at Townhouse, our sister property in the middle of the Walled City, and you can go back and forth on our boats in between. Splitting a trip that way, a few nights in the old town and a few out here, is what we'd do ourselves.
We should also say plainly that we're not wheelchair accessible. Getting here is a boat and then a 200 metre sandy track, and the hotel wasn't built with accessibility in mind. We're sorry about it and we'd rather tell you now than at the dock.
See you on the boat.