Start here: the unusual stuff is across the water
Every list of unique things to do in Cartagena ends up in the same four streets of the Walled City, which are lovely and which you should absolutely walk. But the genuinely unusual days out are across the bay, on Tierra Bomba, 25 minutes from the Muelle de la Bodeguita by boat.
We're biased, obviously. We live over here, and everything below is something we run or something we send guests to, with the price we charge next to it. All of it needs booking ahead, because none of it happens without someone being told the day before.
1. Cook Bocachica sweets after climbing to the best view on the island: US $55
This is the one we push hardest. You walk up to the Angel San Rafael fort, which is the highest useful vantage point around here and gives you the whole island and the bay mouth in one go, then head back down to the Foundation Oars of Hope to make traditional Bocachica sweets with the women who make them properly.
It's half history and half kitchen, and the actual point of it is meeting people who live here rather than looking at them from a golf cart. Half a day, US $55.
2. Walk Bocachica village, then have a beer in it
Bocachica is the village at the southern tip of the island, five minutes from us by motorbike taxi. It has no running water and no paved roads. It also has the San Fernando fortress, the great squat coastal battery that guarded the narrow entrance to the bay, and more life per street than anywhere in the old city.
We'll say the obvious thing: don't turn up expecting chic restaurants and bars, because there are none, and being disappointed about that in someone's home town is a poor look. Come for the fort, the walk and a cold beer with whoever is sitting outside. Our village tour goes on foot after the motorbike-taxi ride over.
3. Ride pillion across the island: US $45
The Island Moto-Tour is the fastest way to understand the shape of Tierra Bomba. You sit on the back, your driver does the work, and you take in Bocachica and the island's better viewpoints in one loop. US $45. It's also what we recommend while our horse riding is suspended, which it currently is.
4. Mountain bike the island trails, early
Up to an hour on Tierra Bomba's trails with your own private motorbike escort. Go early. By mid-morning the sun is fully up and there is very little shade out there, and an hour of climbing in that is a different activity from the one you signed up for.
5. Learn champeta, or salsa, or neither, well: US $25
Champeta is the local Afro-Colombian style, and it's the one worth learning here rather than at home. A private class is US $25 and you can pick salsa or zumba instead. Two left feet are genuinely fine. If nothing else it's a proper workout, and it makes a night out in the city make a lot more sense afterwards.
6. Cut a wine bottle into a glass: US $15, or US $30 as a candle
One of our artisans, trained by Green Apple, teaches you to cut, file and decorate an empty wine or gin bottle until it's a drinking glass or a candle. US $15 for the glass, US $30 for the candle. It is the only souvenir from this trip that you will actually still own in five years, and it started the week as rubbish.
7. Make ceviche, with wine, for two
Our cooking class is a ceviche class with a bit of extra flair, run for two people, wine included. Book it for an afternoon when you've had enough sun. Ask us for the current price when you book, since it moves.
8. Dive the house reef, no certification needed
We're a PADI Dive Resort and the reef is an eight minute swim off our beach, sitting at about six metres. That last detail is why we tell people not to bother snorkelling here: the good stuff is too deep to see from the surface and the surface water can be choppy. A one hour discovery dive solves it and you don't need to be certified to do one.
9. Look behind our own kitchen door: US $10
The Back of House Sustainability Tour is exactly what it sounds like. A member of the team walks you through how this place actually runs, including the parts that don't flatter us. The US $10 is a donation to our impact fund. If you have ever wondered whether a hotel's sustainability page is worth anything, this is the fastest way to find out.
One more, if the budget allows
A private speedboat out to the Rosario archipelago is US $750 for the boat, food and drink extra. That's the big-ticket version of a day out from here, and it makes sense split between a group rather than a couple.
Planning around all this
The beach club is open to day visitors from 11am to 6pm, and the restaurant runs from 10am to 11pm. Boats leave the Muelle de la Bodeguita at 10am, 11:30am and 5pm and head back from us at 4pm and 5:30pm, so a single day trip gives you time for roughly one activity plus lunch, not three. If you want to do two or three of these properly, stay a night or two.
And book ahead. There is no phone signal on the island, so message us on WhatsApp before you come rather than calling from the dock. See you on the boat.