The short version
First time in Cartagena, stay inside the walled city. It's the most walkable, the best lit, the most heavily policed and the most expensive, and on a short trip that trade is usually worth making. Getsemaní, just outside the wall, gives you more character for less money. Bocagrande gives you a waterfront room and the easiest logistics. An island gives you the sea, which is the thing a lot of people came for and then never get to.
Here's each one, and then how we'd actually split the nights.
The walled city (Centro and San Diego)
The old town inside the fortifications, which locals split into Centro Histórico and San Diego, is where the postcards come from: balconies, vines, a church on every third square. As Cartagena Explorer's neighbourhood guide sets out, those two barrios sit inside the same wall and feel different, with San Diego the quieter and more residential of the pair.
Our take: this is the right call for two or three nights if you want to put the map away. Everything a first-timer wants is inside a fifteen minute walk, and a 2026 Colombia Luxury Services guide notes it carries the heaviest police presence in the city, which is why it's also the easiest place to be out on foot after dinner. You pay for all of that, and rooms inside the wall are the priciest in Cartagena. Our own sister hotel, Townhouse, is right in the centre of the walled city, so this is the part of town we know best.
Getsemaní
Getsemaní is the old working neighbourhood immediately outside the wall, and it is now where most of the music and street art is. Colombia Move's neighbourhood breakdown describes it as having more character and lower prices than Bocagrande, which matches what our guests tell us when they come back on the boat.
Our take: better value than inside the wall and a five to ten minute walk from it, with the caveat that it's louder at night and the streets around its edges get dark. Cartagena Explorer's safety guide advises avoiding those darker edge streets and the Matuna strip between Getsemaní and the walled city after dark. Stay near Plaza de la Trinidad, come home the lit way, and it's a good trade.
Bocagrande
Bocagrande is the high-rise peninsula south of the old town, a strip of towers between the bay and the sea. It looks nothing like the Cartagena on the postcards and doesn't pretend to.
Our take: pick it for practicality. Colombia Move rates it the most convenient and easiest area for a newcomer to navigate, with the best internet infrastructure in the city, which matters if you're working part of the trip. You'll be in a taxi to reach the old town, and the beach at the bottom of the towers is a city beach with vendors, not a quiet one.
An island: where we are
We're in Bocachica, on the island of Tierra Bomba, 25 minutes by boat from the Muelle de la Bodeguita. Eleven rooms, a beach club, volcanic sand and open ocean in front, no bridge and no cars on the island at all.
Our take: don't make this your only base on a first trip, and don't skip it either. Boats leave the city at 10am, 11:30am and 5pm, and leave us at 4pm and 5:30pm, so a night out here costs you a little flexibility with the city. What you get back is the part of the coast most first-timers only see through a day tour window. Our room rates include a day's beach club access per night, the beach club runs 11am to 6pm for day visitors, and you can add full board at $90 per person per night if you'd rather not think about lunch. If you only want a taste, a day pass with boat transfers is $40 and you're back in town by dinner.
One honest warning: there's no cell signal on the island. The wifi is excellent most days and handles video calls, but your phone will be a camera between boats.
How we'd split a five night first trip
- Nights one to three, inside the wall or in Getsemaní. Walk it out. Castillo San Felipe de Barajas in the morning before the sun is high, the old town on foot in the afternoon, dinner wherever the square looks busy.
- Nights four and five, out with us. Take the 10am boat so you get a full day. Dive the house reef, do nothing loudly, eat what came off the islands that morning.
- Fly home from the island side. Door to door from us to the airport is about an hour, and we ask you to leave three hours before departure.
If you've only got three nights, do two in the city and one out here, or come for the day on a $40 pass and see whether you want the night. Most people do. See you on the boat.