# Blue Apple Beach — Full editorial corpus Canonical site: https://www.blueapplebeach.com ## How Many Days to Spend in Cartagena (From People Who Live 25 Minutes Offshore) Source: https://www.blueapplebeach.com/blog/how-many-days-in-cartagena > Three days is enough for Cartagena itself, and five or six is the right number if you want island time as well. The Walled City is small and you can walk it in a day, so the second and third days are for the fort, the food and one boat trip. Anything past day three is better spent off the mainland: we're about 25 minutes out on Tierra Bomba, and a day pass with boat transfers from the city runs $40. If you're diving or taking a PADI course, add days deliberately, because Open Water takes four. ## The short answer Three days for Cartagena, five or six if you want islands too. Fewer than three and you'll spend the whole time in the old town at midday, which is the worst version of this city. More than six on the mainland and you'll start doing the same walk twice. We're not neutral about this. We're on Tierra Bomba, about 25 minutes offshore, so of course we think you should get on a boat. But the reason we think it is that the mainland runs out of new things faster than people expect, and the water doesn't. ## Two days: doable, but tight Two days works if the Walled City is all you want. The old town is small enough to cross on foot in about twenty minutes, so one day covers the streets, the walls and Las Bóvedas, the vaulted rooms built into the northern wall that now sell souvenirs. Day two covers Castillo San Felipe de Barajas, the hill fort just outside the walls, and one long lunch. What you lose with two days is the water. Every boat thing here takes most of a day once you count the crossing, and squeezing one into a 48-hour trip means eating breakfast standing up. ## Three days: the honest minimum Three days is where Cartagena starts making sense. Two for the city at a reasonable pace, one for a boat. On that third day you're choosing between the Rosario Islands, which are further out and famous for white sand, and Tierra Bomba, which is closer. Our sand is volcanic, so it's darker than the Rosarios, and the beach leads out onto open ocean rather than a sheltered bay. We'd rather tell you that now than have you arrive expecting a postcard. What you get instead is a much shorter crossing and a much calmer one, since the Rosarios run is famously bumpy. A day pass with us costs $40 including boat transfers, then you pay for what you eat and drink. A sun lounger is $5 to $30 depending on where you want to be, poolside near the music or down on the beach away from it. The beach club takes day visitors from 11am to 6pm. ## Five or six days: the version we'd book Five or six days lets you stop planning. Three in the city, then two or three out here, which is long enough that you stop checking the boat times. What fills those days on our side: scuba, mountain biking, a boat out to the Rosario Islands, a cooking class, the Bocachica village tour. Bocachica is the village on our island, with no running water and no paved roads, and it is not a chic afternoon. It's a real one. Go with someone who knows it, which is why we run the tour rather than pointing at a track. On diving, plan the days deliberately rather than hoping. A house reef discovery dive is $90 and a discovery day is $140. If you want the certification, PADI Scuba Diver is two days at $320, Open Water is four days at $460, and Advanced Diver is two days at $440. Four days of Open Water inside a five-day trip means you're here to dive, not to see Cartagena, and that's a fine choice as long as you make it on purpose. One thing we can't do for you is snorkelling off our beach. The house reef is at six metres and the surface water gets choppy, so we send people on a one-hour dive instead. No experience needed. ## A week or more A week is not too long, but it changes what you should book. Rooms come with one day's beach club access per night, and full board with all food and soft drinks is $90 per person per night, which is the sensible option once you're past a few days and bored of doing arithmetic at every meal. There's a $20 per night resort fee, which is on the island because we're not connected to public utilities out here. If you're with us for more than a week you're also welcome to take the odd night at Townhouse, our sister property in the centre of the Historic Walled City. Some people need a night with pavement. ## Getting the days to line up - **Airport to us is about an hour, door to door.** Leave us three hours before your flight departs. We can arrange airport transfers both ways, just ask. - **Boats leave the Muelle de la Bodeguita at 10am, 11:30am and 5pm**, and leave us at 4pm and 5:30pm. There's no bridge to the island, so the boat is the whole plan. - **Check-in is from 3pm, check-out by 11am**, and unless there's a private event you can use the beach club before check-in and until 5:30pm on your last day. That usually buys back half a day at each end. - **Message us on WhatsApp, not by phone.** There's no signal on the island. We answer reservations enquiries between 9am and 9pm. ## So, how long? If someone gave us five days in Cartagena tomorrow, we'd spend two in the city, then come out here and not go back until the last morning. Three if you only have three. Two only if you're passing through. See you on the boat. --- ## How to Pick a Beach Club in Cartagena (From One 25 Minutes Out to Sea) Source: https://www.blueapplebeach.com/blog/best-beach-club-cartagena-how-to-choose > The best beach club in Cartagena for you depends on one decision: stay on the city beaches at Bocagrande, or get on a boat. We're on the far side of Tierra Bomba, about 25 minutes from Cartagena by our own boat, which leaves Muelle de la Bodeguita at 10am, 11:30am and 5pm. Day visitors are with us from 11am to 6pm, boats back at 4pm and 5:30pm. The $40 day pass covers the return crossing and entry; a sun lounger is $5 to $30 on top, and you pay for what you eat and drink. Weekdays are quiet, weekends are louder, and the Saturday pool party runs 1 to 5. ## The real choice is city sand or a boat Every beach club decision in Cartagena comes down to that. Stay in the city and you can walk to the sand from your hotel, which is genuinely convenient and means you never have to watch a clock. Get on a boat and you trade twenty-five minutes of your morning for an island, open ocean in front of you and no traffic behind you. Neither is wrong. But they're different days, and people book the wrong one all the time because every listing looks the same from a phone screen. We're the boat option. We're on Playa Mamon, on the southern shore of Tierra Bomba, facing the open sea, and our boat takes about 25 minutes from Cartagena. So this is our side of the argument, written plainly, plus the things we'd want to know if we were the ones booking. ## What a day with us costs, without the small print The club day pass with boat transfers is $40. That gets you the return crossing on our boat and entry to the beach club. A sun lounger is separate and runs from $5 to $30 depending on what you choose, and then you simply pay for whatever you eat and drink in the restaurant. There's no all-you-can-drink package, no wristband, no minimum consumption dressed up as a deal. On the loungers: poolside is near the music and the action, beach is quiet and removed from everything. The bigger VIP sun beds and beach cabanas fit three people lying down, or work as a base for a group. Pick deliberately. The difference between a poolside bed on a Saturday and a beach bed on a Tuesday is the difference between two completely different holidays. ## Getting here, and getting back Our boat departs from the Muelle de la Bodeguita at 10am, 11:30am and 5pm. Boats leave us to go back to the city at 4pm and 5:30pm. The beach club is open to day visitors from 11am to 6pm, so the 11:30am out and the 5:30pm back is the long version of the day. Reserve. We say this to everyone who messages us. Our boat has a limited capacity, and if you turn up unreserved and there's no space, it's a long wait until the next one. If the tide is very high or the sea is unusually rough we use the dock in Bocachica village instead, about a mile away, and you ride pillion on a motorbike taxi from there to us. Most people end up telling that part of the story more than once. You can't drive here. There's no bridge to Tierra Bomba. It's a boat or, if you're feeling extravagant, a helicopter. ## The water is honest about itself Our beach has volcanic sand. It isn't the white sand you'll find out in the Rosario Islands, but it's natural, clean, and it leads onto a wide open ocean rather than a sheltered bay. The sea changes with her mood. We don't offer snorkelling and we'll tell you why rather than sell you a mask: the front of the beach leads out to open ocean, and while we do have a house reef, it sits at 6 metres with choppy surface water above it. A one-hour discovery dive on the house reef is $90 and needs no experience, which is a far better use of the same hour. ## The food is the reason a lot of people come back This is the part where most beach clubs go quiet, so here's ours. Our kitchen is run by Executive Chef Pedro Mosqueda, who trained under Jean-Georges before coming home to cook with what these islands actually grow. It's farm to table because the alternative on an island is a freezer. We were also the first beach club in Cartagena to have a wine list, and yes, we sell rose by the magnum. Cocktails are made with fresh juices. Two house rules that save awkwardness at the gate: you can't bring your own food, and you can't bring your own drink. That isn't us being precious, it's how we can pay the kitchen properly and keep the ingredients good. ## Quiet or loud? Both, on different days We're quiet during the week and livelier at weekends. There's always music. On Fridays, weekends and public holidays we get busy with locals coming out from the city, and the Saturday pool party runs 1 to 5. If you want a book and a lounger with nobody near you, come Tuesday and take a beach bed. If you want the other thing, you already know which day to pick. ## Two things we'd rather you heard now than later Bring a towel. Our website and confirmation emails have said contradictory things about this and we're fixing it, but the policy is that you bring your own. We're not wheelchair accessible, and we're sorry about it. Getting here means a boat and then a 200 metre sandy track, and the place wasn't built with accessibility in mind. If you're weighing us against a beach club you can walk to from your hotel in the city, the fair summary is this: we cost you a boat ride and give you an island back. See you on the boat. --- ## Cartagena's Old Town or an Island? How to Split Your Nights Source: https://www.blueapplebeach.com/blog/cartagena-old-town-or-island-stay > If it's your first trip and you have three or four nights, stay in Cartagena's Walled City, because the restaurants, the forts and the streets are the reason people come. Add island nights when you want quiet, swimming and no cars. We're 25 minutes by boat from the city on Tierra Bomba, with eleven rooms, and the last boat back to Cartagena leaves us at 5:30pm. There's no bridge and no phone signal out here, which is either the drawback or the entire point. Short answer: if this is your first trip and you only have three or four nights, sleep in the Walled City. The old town is the reason most people fly to Cartagena, and you shouldn't experience it as a day visitor who has to catch a boat at 5:30pm. Add island nights when you want to swim, sleep with the windows open and stop looking at your phone. We're on the island side of that decision, so here's what we think each one honestly gives you. ## Stay in the Walled City if you want evenings The Walled City earns its nights rather than its days. It's a compact grid of colonial streets inside the old fortifications, and the pleasure of it is walking after dark when the heat drops and the balconies fill up. Being able to fall out of a restaurant and be home in ten minutes is worth paying for, and it's the one thing an island simply cannot give you. Two things near the centre we send people to without hesitation. Getsemání, just outside the wall, is the old working-class neighbourhood that now has most of the city's street art and the best late hours; go in the early evening and walk, don't plan. Castillo San Felipe de Barajas is the hilltop fortress on the edge of the centre, all tunnels and ramps; go first thing in the morning, because there's very little shade on it and by midday the stone is punishing. ## Stay on the island if you want mornings We're on the southern shore of Tierra Bomba, about 25 minutes from Cartagena on our boat, facing open ocean. What you get out here is the opposite of the old town: space, a pool, sand, and a day that's shaped by the boat schedule rather than by dinner reservations. We have eleven rooms and up to 30 people can sleep on the property, so it never feels like a large hotel. We're also quiet midweek and livelier at weekends. If you want the calm version, come Monday to Thursday. If you want music and people, Friday to Sunday is when locals come out to us. ## What the island actually costs you We'd rather you know this before you book than discover it on arrival. - **No car, ever.** We're on an island and there is no bridge. It's a boat, or a helicopter if you're feeling flush. - **The boat schedule is the schedule.** Boats leave Muelle de la Bodeguita at 10am, 11:30am and 5pm, and come back from us at 4pm and 5:30pm. Spontaneous late dinners in the city don't really work from here. - **No phone signal.** There's none on the island, which is why we ask you to use WhatsApp to reach us rather than calling. - **Not step-free.** We're at the end of a boat ride and a 200 metre sandy track. We're sorry to say the hotel wasn't built with accessibility in mind and we aren't wheelchair accessible. - **Weekends are for over-12s.** We love well-behaved children during the week, but Saturdays, Sundays and holidays are for the over-12s so everyone, parents included, gets a day off. - **There's a $20 per night resort fee.** City hotels plug into public utilities. Out here we make our own arrangements, and that fee is part of it. ## The answer most people should pick: both Three or four nights in the centre, then two or three out here at the end, is the split that works. Do it in that order. The old town is better when you still have energy for it, and the island is better when you don't. If you're with us for more than a week, you don't have to choose at all. Residents staying over a week are welcome to take the odd night at our sister property, Townhouse, right in the middle of the Walled City, and you can go back and forth on our boats as often as you like. ## Booking notes worth reading before you commit Check-in with us is from 3pm and check-out is by 11am, but as long as there's no private event you can use the beach club before you check in and until 5:30pm on the day you leave, which makes a late flight much less annoying. On cancellations, we refund 50% of the value of your stay if you cancel more than 30 days before check-in. Inside 30 days the deposit is neither refundable nor transferable. That's stricter than a city hotel, so book the island nights when you're sure of them. And reserve your boat crossing. Our capacity is limited, and turning up hopeful is how people end up waiting a few hours on a dock in the sun. --- ## A Tierra Bomba Day Trip From Cartagena: How Ours Actually Works Source: https://www.blueapplebeach.com/blog/tierra-bomba-day-trip-from-cartagena > A Tierra Bomba day trip from Cartagena starts with a 25 minute boat ride: ours leaves Muelle de la Bodeguita at 10am, 11:30am and 5pm, and comes back at 4pm and 5:30pm. Our day pass with boat transfers is $40 per person, a sun lounger is $5 to $30 depending on where you want to sit, and food and drink are paid for as you go. The beach club is open to day visitors from 11am to 6pm. There's no bridge to the island, so book ahead: our boat has limited capacity and there's a long wait for the next one. ## The boat is the whole trip, so start there There's no bridge to Tierra Bomba and no road onto the island, so you're coming by water. Our boat leaves from Muelle de la Bodeguita in Cartagena at 10am, 11:30am and 5pm, and the crossing to us takes about 25 minutes. Going home, boats leave us at 4pm and 5:30pm. If a five minute helicopter is more your speed, that exists too, and our friends at Galavanta arrange it. The water is usually smooth, and much calmer than the infamous Rosario Islands run. In windy weather it can get choppy, but it isn't white-knuckle. Getting on and off does need a bit of agility, and if the tide is very high or the sea is rough we use the dock in the village instead, about a mile away, and you ride pillion on a motorbike taxi from there. Most people say that bit is the best part of the day. You can also come in your own boat. There's a dock about 200 metres from our gate, and if conditions are rough or your boat is too big to tie up with us, we can sometimes come and collect you. Ask us first. ## What a day pass costs Our Club Day Pass with boat transfers is $40 per person. That's the crossing both ways and the run of the beach club. Then you choose a sun lounger, from $5 to $30, and pay for whatever you eat and drink in the restaurant as you go. There's no all-inclusive wristband here and there never will be. This isn't Cancun. The beach club is open to day visitors from 11am to 6pm. A word on seating: you can add a lounger on the day if there's one free, but we'd rather you picked it when you book. The good ones go. Poolside puts you near the music and the movement; the beach loungers are quiet and set apart from everything. The bigger VIP sun beds and the beach cabañas fit three people lying down, or work as a base for a group who'll mostly be in the water anyway. ## The beach is volcanic, and we're not going to pretend otherwise Our sand is dark. It's volcanic, not the powder white of the Rosario Islands, and if white sand is the entire point of your trip then book a Rosario boat instead and we'll wave you off. What we have is a natural, clean beach facing open ocean, which means real waves, real horizon, and no jet ski traffic three metres from your feet. The sea changes with her mood. One consequence of the open water: you can't snorkel here. The house reef sits at 6 metres and the surface can be choppy, so masks and floaty tubes aren't the move. A one hour scuba dive on the house reef is, and you don't need any experience for it. ## What to do between lunch and the last boat Honestly, plenty of people do nothing, and that's a legitimate plan. If you want more: - **Dive the house reef.** A discovery dive on our reef is US $90 and takes about an hour. No certification needed. - **Go into Bocachica.** The village at the north of our end of the island has no running water and no paved roads, and it will rearrange your idea of the Caribbean in about twenty minutes. Do not turn up expecting chic bars. Go with our village tour rather than wandering in cold, so the money lands with the people who live there. - **Horse riding, mountain biking, or the island moto-tour.** All run from us, all better in the morning before the heat sits down on the island. - **The Rosario Islands.** If you want that white sand after all, we run boats out there. ## Lunch is the reason a lot of people come We take the food seriously. Our kitchen was built by Chef Silvestre Saiz Cortazar and Pedro Mosqueda is now Executive Chef, and what comes out is not deep fried island filler. Most of what's on the plate is local and we're fussy about where the meat comes from. We were also the first beach club in Cartagena to have a wine list, and yes, we sell rosé by the magnum. Cocktails are made with fresh juice. Vegetarians, vegans, and anyone gluten or lactose intolerant are properly looked after, not handed a sad side salad. Tell us when you book. What you can't do is bring your own lunch or your own bottle. We won't lose it over a banana in your bag, but that's the rule. ## Know before you get on the boat Book ahead. Our boat has limited capacity, and if you turn up unreserved and it's full, the next one is a long way off. There's no phone signal on the island, so WhatsApp is the way to reach us, and we answer reservations messages between 9am and 9pm. Bring cash or a card for food and drink, sun cream, and shoes you don't mind getting wet. Leave the drone and the sound system at home. Children are welcome during the week. Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays are over-12s only, so that everyone, parents included, gets a day off. We should be straight about access: we're at the end of a boat ride and a 200 metre sandy track, and we are not wheelchair accessible. We're sorry about it, and we'd rather tell you now than at the dock. See you on the boat. --- ## Renting a Private Villa Near Cartagena for a Group: What Taking Over Our Island Place Involves Source: https://www.blueapplebeach.com/blog/private-island-villa-hire-cartagena-groups > If you want a private villa near Cartagena for a group, we hire out the whole place: an 11-room hotel and beach club on Isla Tierra Bomba, 25 minutes by boat from the city. Up to 30 people can sleep on the property and we take daytime events of up to 250. Groups of 13 or more book directly with us with advance payment and a set menu agreed beforehand, and groups over 70 require full privatisation. On a full privatisation you may bring your own alcohol, with a corkage fee. We don't host weddings, but we're built for the day before or the day after one. ## Yes, you can have the whole place We rent Blue Apple out as a villa, and without a doubt it's the best staffed and serviced villa in the islands of Cartagena. On a full privatisation the place is yours and yours alone: 11 rooms, the beach club, the kitchen, the staff, no day visitors wandering through your afternoon. We're on Isla Tierra Bomba, at Bocachica, 25 minutes by boat from Cartagena. There's no bridge and no road, which is exactly why a buyout works here. Nobody drifts in. Once your group is on the island, the island is your group. ## The numbers, before anything else Overnight, we have 11 rooms and up to 30 people can sleep on the property. For daytime events we receive groups of up to 250. If your party is bigger than the beds, there's accommodation in neighbouring hotels and private villas on the island, so a 40-person weekend is a solvable problem, just not a one-building one. The thresholds that decide how you book: | Group size | How it works | | --- | --- | | Up to 12 | Book online like anyone else | | 13+ | Contact us directly. Advance payment, and we agree a set menu with you before you arrive | | 70+ | Full privatisation required | | Up to 250 (daytime) | Our maximum for a daytime event | | Up to 30 sleeping | Our maximum overnight, across 11 rooms | ## Why we insist on the set menu Because we're on an island. Every ingredient arrives by boat, and a 30-person table deciding at 2pm what it fancies is how people wait 90 minutes for lunch. Agreeing the menu in advance is the difference between a group that eats together and a group that eats in shifts. We'll build it around what your people actually eat, including vegetarians, vegans and anyone gluten or lactose intolerant, so send us the list when you send us the numbers. ## Drink, and the one time you can bring your own On a full privatisation you can bring your own alcohol and we'll charge corkage. That's the only version where it's allowed: smaller groups can't bring their own unless the circumstances are genuinely special, and "we found cheap rum" is not a special circumstance. Otherwise you're drinking ours, which we're not shy about. We were the first beach club in Cartagena to have a wine list, cocktails are made with fresh juices, and we don't run an all-inclusive bar for anyone, groups included. ## Bachelors, bachelorettes and weddings Well-behaved bachelor and bachelorette groups are welcome, a bit like children and pets. We just want to know in advance what kind of group you are, honestly, so we can put the right team and the right set-up around you. A surprise is worse for you than for us. Weddings, no. We don't host them, unless you happen to be good friends with the owners. What we're genuinely good at is the day before and the day after: the whole group out on the island, one long lunch, everyone in the sea, nobody driving. Ask any wedding planner which of those three days people remember. ## Logistics your organiser needs Boats leave Cartagena from the Muelle de la Bodeguita at 10am, 11:30am and 5pm, and leave us at 4pm and 5:30pm. Door-to-door from Rafael Núñez airport is about an hour, and you should leave us three hours before a flight. We can arrange airport transfers both ways. Two things that catch organisers out. First, there's no phone signal on the island, so agree a plan with your group before they get on the boat and use WhatsApp with us rather than calling. Second, if the tide is very high or the sea is unusually rough we use a dock in the village, about a mile away, and you ride pillion on a motorbike taxi from there to us. It's a good story afterwards and a surprise in the moment, so warn your group. Also worth flagging kindly: we're not wheelchair accessible. Boat, then a 200 metre sandy track. If someone in your party needs step-free access, talk to us before you commit rather than after. ## What it isn't We don't do all-you-can-eat, we don't discount, and we won't pretend to be a big resort with a hundred rooms. We're 11 rooms and a beach club that a group can have entirely to itself for a couple of days. If that's the shape of your trip, message us on WhatsApp with your dates, your headcount and what the occasion is. --- ## Farm to Table Near Cartagena: What Comes Out of Our Island Kitchen Source: https://www.blueapplebeach.com/blog/farm-to-table-restaurant-near-cartagena > Our restaurant is a farm to table kitchen on Tierra Bomba island, 25 minutes by boat from Cartagena. Executive Chef Pedro Mosqueda trained under Jean-Georges before coming home to cook with what the islands actually grow, in a kitchen built by Chef Silvestre Saiz Cortazar. Most of what we buy is local, and the meat we serve is sustainably raised and ethically treated. The restaurant runs 10am to 11pm and is open to people who aren't staying with us, though you'll need a day pass to come in. Groups of 10 or more eat from a set lunch menu at US $45 per person. ## Where's the farm to table food near Cartagena? Ours is 25 minutes away by boat, on the island of Tierra Bomba. We cook mostly with local things, we're serious about where the meat comes from, and we're a 20-minute crossing from the Walled City rather than a table on a street in it. That's the trade. Here's what you actually get for it. ## Who's cooking Our kitchen was built by Chef Silvestre Saiz Cortazar, born and trained in Ibiza and raised in the kitchens of Bogotá. Pedro Mosqueda has taken over as Executive Chef. He trained under Jean-Georges before coming home to cook with what the islands actually grow, which is a shorter way of saying he could be doing something more glamorous somewhere colder and chose not to. ## What "farm to table" means when you're on an island Mostly, local things. We're conscientious about what we buy and what you put in your body. The meat we serve is sustainably raised and ethically treated, including how far the animal travelled, which is not a small consideration on the Caribbean coast. What it doesn't mean is a menu of fried fish and coconut rice, which is what an island day usually gets you around here. We take the eating seriously. It's the reason people book the boat over rather than treating lunch as the thing that happens between swims. ## The wine list, which we're smug about We were the first beach club in Cartagena to have a wine list, so we'll start there. Yes, we sell rosé by the magnum. Our cocktails are made with fresh juices, and most of our gins, rums and other spirits are chosen rather than inherited from a distributor's catalogue. You can pre-order wine for your meal through our restaurant staff. You cannot bring your own bottle. Outside alcohol isn't permitted, tequila included, and the only exception is a full privatisation of the place, where we charge corkage. ## Vegetarian, vegan, gluten, lactose A lot of us have been vegetarian or vegan at some point, so there's a proper offering for non-meat eaters rather than a grilled vegetable afterthought. We know how many of you are lactose or gluten intolerant. Tell us when you book and it's handled. ## Eating with us if you're not staying the night You're welcome. The restaurant is open to people who aren't hotel guests, and guests from other properties on the island come over too. You'll need a day pass to come in, because the restaurant sits inside the beach club rather than on a public street. The kitchen runs from 10am to 11pm. The beach club takes day visitors from 11am to 6pm. Dinner is the quieter version of this place: the day crowd has gone back on the 5:30pm boat and the tables by the water are candlelit because there isn't much else out there to light them. ## Groups For 10 or more we do a set lunch menu at US $45 per person, and the menus are on our website. For 13 or more you'll need to contact us directly and we'll agree the menu before you arrive. This isn't bureaucracy for its own sake. We're on an island, everything arrives by boat, and a table of 20 deciding at 1pm is a genuinely different problem here than it is on land. We don't do all-you-can-eat or an all-inclusive bar. Full board with all food and soft drinks is US $90 per person per night if you're staying. ## Getting to lunch Our boat leaves Muelle de la Bodeguita at 10am, 11:30am and 5pm, and the crossing is 25 minutes. Boats leave us at 4pm and 5:30pm. The 11:30am out and 4pm back is the classic lunch shape. Reserve rather than turning up, because the boat has a limited capacity and the wait for the next one is long. One last thing: there's no phone signal on the island. Nobody at your table will be taking a call. --- ## Visiting Bocachica: The Village and the Fort on Tierra Bomba Source: https://www.blueapplebeach.com/blog/visiting-bocachica-tierra-bomba > Bocachica is a village on the southern end of Tierra Bomba island, about 25 minutes by boat from Cartagena, and the two things to see are the Fuerte de San Fernando de Bocachica and the village itself. The fort is an 18th-century Spanish fortress guarding the Bocachica channel, the southern entrance to Cartagena bay. The village has no running water and no paved roads, so go with realistic expectations and cash, since there's no phone signal and no card machines. We're at the Bocachica end of the island and run a village tour with people who live there. ## What is there to see in Bocachica? Two things, and they're both worth the boat: the Fuerte de San Fernando de Bocachica, and the village of Bocachica itself. It's the southern end of Tierra Bomba island, about 25 minutes by boat from Cartagena, and it's where we live. This is an honest account of what you'll find, because a lot of what's written about it isn't. ## Fuerte de San Fernando de Bocachica A Spanish colonial fortress sitting right on the water at the Bocachica channel, which is the southern mouth of Cartagena bay. That's the whole point of it: the channel is narrow, so whoever held these walls decided what got into the bay, and the fort was built to make that decision expensive for anyone arriving uninvited. It's a horseshoe of stone with the sea on three sides, and unlike the forts in the city you'll often have long stretches of it to yourself. Go in the morning. There's little shade and the stone holds heat, so by two in the afternoon it stops being a pleasant hour of history and becomes an endurance event. Bring cash in small notes. Accounts of the entrance fee vary from nothing at all to around 25,000 to 40,000 COP depending on who's at the gate that day, so budget for the higher number and be pleased if nobody asks. There's no card machine and, on this island, no signal to run one. ## The village You can go into Bocachica, and it will blow your mind, but go with your eyes open. This is a village with no running water and no paved roads. It also has more soul than anywhere you'll walk in the Walled City, which is a sentence we mean literally rather than as a compliment to fill space. What it isn't: chic restaurants and cocktail bars. Do not go looking for a lunch spot with a view and a natural wine list. This is island life, lived by people who live it, and the interesting part is exactly that it hasn't been arranged for visitors. So: walk, buy something from someone, ask before you photograph anybody, and take your rubbish back out with you. The waste that arrives on this island tends to stay on it. ## Going with someone who actually lives here We run a Bocachica village tour, and there's also a cooking and culture version if you'd rather learn to make something than look at it. Both are led with people from the village. We'd push you towards one of these over wandering in alone, not because the village is unwelcoming but because half of what's interesting about it is invisible without someone to explain it. The other half is that money spent through a guide from Bocachica reaches Bocachica. If you'd rather cover ground, we also run an island moto-tour and mountain biking, which is how most people here get around anyway. ## Getting to Bocachica from Cartagena Our boat leaves Muelle de la Bodeguita at 10am, 11:30am and 5pm, and the crossing takes 25 minutes. Boats leave us at 4pm and 5:30pm. There's no bridge to Tierra Bomba and you can't drive here. It's a boat, or a five-minute helicopter if that's the kind of week you're having. There is a public transport route between 7am and 5pm, which is cheaper, more complicated and a genuine adventure. It's in our FAQs if you want the detail. If the tide is very high or the sea is rough, we land at the dock in the village instead, about a mile from us, and you'll ride pillion on a motorbike taxi from there. People tend to remember that bit fondly afterwards. ## Where we fit into this We're an 11-room hotel and beach club at the Bocachica end of Tierra Bomba, on the southern shore facing the open ocean. Most people come for the day, eat lunch, swim, and go back on the 4pm or 5:30pm boat. If you want the fort and the village and a swim without watching the clock, stay the night instead. The island is very different once the day boats have gone. A couple of practical things either way. There's no phone signal here, so tell people at home you'll be on WhatsApp when you can. Bring a towel, that's our official policy whatever else you may have read. And bring cash for the village. See you on the boat. --- ## Scuba Diving Near Cartagena: What It Costs and What You'll See Source: https://www.blueapplebeach.com/blog/scuba-diving-cartagena-house-reef > Scuba diving near Cartagena is easiest from Tierra Bomba island, 25 minutes by boat from the city. Our house reef sits at 6 metres straight off the beach, so a discovery dive takes about an hour and needs no previous experience: it's US $90, or US $140 for a discovery day. If you want a certification, PADI Scuba Diver is US $320 over two days, Open Water is US $460 over four days, and Advanced is US $440 over two. Snorkelling isn't an option here, because the surface water over the reef is often choppy. ## You can dive from the beach, and that's the point Most diving sold in Cartagena involves a long boat ride before you get wet. Ours doesn't. Our house reef is straight off our beach on the southern shore of Tierra Bomba, sitting at about 6 metres, and a discovery dive on it takes roughly an hour from kitting up to coming out. You don't need a certification, a logbook, or any experience at all. We're 25 minutes by boat from Cartagena, so the whole thing fits inside a day out of the city, and you can eat lunch afterwards without moving more than fifty metres. ## What it costs | What | Price | How long | | --- | --- | --- | | House reef discovery dive | US $90 | About an hour | | Discovery day | US $140 | A full day | | PADI Scuba Diver | US $320 | 2 days | | PADI Open Water | US $460 | 4 days | | PADI Advanced Diver | US $440 | 2 days | If you're deciding between the discovery dive and the discovery day: the single dive is for people who want to find out whether they like breathing underwater. The day is for people who already suspect they will. If you're doing Open Water, four days means four days on the island. That's a room, not a day pass, and it's a good reason to look at our rooms rather than commute back and forth on the boat. ## No, you can't snorkel here Straight answer: no. Our beachfront leads out to open ocean, and while the house reef is there, it's at 6 metres with surface water that's frequently choppy. Floating on top of it with a mask is a waste of a morning. Going down to it with a tank is not. This is one of the very few things we'd tell you to spend money on rather than do for free. If you specifically want easy, shallow, warm-bath snorkelling, that's the Rosario Islands, and we run boats out there. ## What the water is actually like The sea in front of us changes with her mood. Some days it's glass, some days there's swell, and visibility moves with it. Nobody serious will promise you Caribbean postcard clarity every single morning, and we're not going to either. The trade for that is a reef that isn't crowded with other operators' boats, because most of them are an hour away pointing at the Rosarios. The crossing from Cartagena is usually smooth, and much calmer than the infamous Rosario Islands run. In windy weather it can be choppy. Getting on and off the boat takes a bit of agility, which is worth knowing before a day carrying dive kit. ## Fitting a dive into a day trip Our boat leaves Muelle de la Bodeguita at 10am and 11:30am, and comes back from us at 4pm and 5:30pm. Take the 10am if you're diving. It gives you the morning water, lunch afterwards, and a lounger for the flat part of the afternoon when you shouldn't be doing anything strenuous anyway. The day pass with boat transfers is $40 per person, with a sun lounger from $5 to $30 on top and food and drink paid as you go. The beach club is open to day visitors from 11am to 6pm. One planning note that catches people out: there's no phone signal on the island. Sort your dive booking over WhatsApp before you come, not from the dock. ## Who shouldn't book We'd rather say this than have you waste the money. - If you're flying within 24 hours of diving, don't book the dive. Standard rule, no exceptions from us. - If the idea of open ocean rather than a lagoon makes you tense, the Rosario Islands trip is the better day. - If you're travelling with under-12s on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday, those days are over-12s only here. ## What to bring Swimwear, a towel is provided, sun cream that isn't going to strip the reef, and something to change into. Leave the GoPro pole at home for a first dive: you'll enjoy it more with both hands free. If you take medication, or you've had recent surgery or any heart or lung condition, tell the dive team before you book rather than on the beach. And if you finish the dive and decide you want the certification after all, tell us that day. Four days on an island is an easier sell after you've seen the reef. --- ## Rosario Islands or Tierra Bomba? Choosing Your Day Trip From Cartagena Source: https://www.blueapplebeach.com/blog/rosario-islands-or-tierra-bomba-day-trip > Pick the Rosario Islands if white sand and clear snorkelling water are the whole point, and you don't mind an early start, a longer rougher crossing and paying park and port fees in cash at the pier. Pick Tierra Bomba if you want the shortest day: our boat leaves the Muelle de la Bodeguita at 10am, 11:30am and 5pm and reaches us in Bocachica in about 25 minutes, and the sand here is volcanic rather than white. Rosario boats generally leave Cartagena between roughly 7:50 and 8:30 in the morning and the fees at the pier come to around COP 70,000 per person. If you can't decide, stay on Tierra Bomba and let us run you out to the Rosarios for the day. ## 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. --- ## The Best Beaches Near Cartagena, Ranked by How Far You'll Travel Source: https://www.blueapplebeach.com/blog/best-beaches-near-cartagena > The best beaches near Cartagena, Colombia are not in Cartagena. Every good one needs a boat. Playa Blanca on Barú has the white sand and the crowds, around 50 to 55 minutes out. The Rosario Islands have the clearest water and the roughest crossing. Bocagrande is the only beach you can walk to from the city, which is its main argument. We're 25 minutes out on Tierra Bomba, with volcanic sand and open ocean, and our boat leaves Muelle de la Bodeguita at 10am, 11:30am and 5pm. The honest answer first: the best beaches near Cartagena are not in Cartagena. The good sand is all offshore, so the real question isn't which beach is prettiest, it's how long you're willing to sit in a boat and how much company you want when you get there. We run one of those boats, so treat us as interested parties. We've still tried to be straight about the options. ## Playa Blanca, Barú: the famous one, and the busiest Playa Blanca is the white-sand beach everyone has seen a photo of, a long strip on the Barú peninsula south of the city. Boat operators put the crossing at roughly 50 to 55 minutes each way, with the route passing the San Fernando fortress at Bocachica and the Cholón lagoon on the way. It is also the most crowded beach near Cartagena, and visitors consistently report persistent vendors working the sand all day. That doesn't make it a bad day out. It makes it a specific kind of day out. Go if you want that particular shade of turquoise and don't mind negotiating for a massage you didn't ask for. Go early, because the boats from the city all arrive within the same couple of hours and the beach fills behind them. ## The Rosario Islands: the clearest water, the roughest ride The Rosario archipelago sits further south again and has the clearest water of anything within day-trip range of Cartagena. We take guests there ourselves, so we'll say the quiet part: the crossing is the part people underestimate. We describe our own 25-minute run as smooth compared with the infamous Rosario Islands ride, and we mean it. In windy weather that longer trip earns its reputation. Our take is to give the Rosarios a full day rather than a half one. If you're going to spend that long on the water, don't spend it turning around. ## Bocagrande: the one you can walk to Bocagrande is the city beach, the strip of sand in front of the high-rise hotels on the peninsula. Its whole argument is that it needs no boat, no reservation and no planning. Walk down, sit, walk back for dinner. Guides that rank the beaches around Cartagena put the urban ones at the bottom and the island ones at the top, and we'd agree with them. Treat Bocagrande as an hour before dinner on the day you land, not as your beach day. ## Our beach: Playa Mamón, Tierra Bomba We're on the southern shore of Tierra Bomba, facing open ocean, about 25 minutes from the city by our own boat. Our sand is volcanic, so it's dark rather than white. It's natural and clean, and the ocean in front of it is wide and moody, changing with the wind rather than sitting still like a lagoon. If white sand is the entire point of your trip, Barú is your answer, not us. If you'd rather have space, a pool and lunch worth sitting down for, this is the trade we'd make. The practicalities, since they're what people actually write to ask: | What | Detail | | --- | --- | | Boat from the city | Muelle de la Bodeguita, 10am, 11:30am and 5pm | | Boats back | 4pm and 5:30pm | | Beach club, day visitors | 11am to 6pm | | Day pass with boat transfers | $40, then you pay for what you eat and drink | | Sun loungers | $5 to $30, poolside or on the beach | | Towels | Bring your own | One thing we won't sell you: snorkelling. Our beachfront leads out to open ocean, and while we do have a house reef, it sits at 6 metres with choppy water above it. A one-hour scuba dive is the better use of the same hour, and no experience is needed. ## So which one - **You want the postcard white sand and don't mind crowds.** Playa Blanca, Barú. Leave early. - **You want the clearest water and have a whole day.** Rosario Islands. - **You have two hours and no plan.** Bocagrande, and no boat required. - **You want a quiet day on the water with a proper lunch, and you'll trade white sand for space.** Come out to us. - **You want to sleep by the sea rather than visit it.** Stay the night on the island. Our eleven rooms are twenty-five minutes from the Walled City and about as far from it as you can feel. Book the boat either way. Capacity is limited, and if there's no space on a crossing it's a long wait until the next one. See you on the boat. --- ## Where to Eat on the Islands Near Cartagena (An Honest Guide From Our Kitchen) Source: https://www.blueapplebeach.com/blog/where-to-eat-islands-near-cartagena > Eating well on the islands near Cartagena takes planning, because there is no restaurant strip out here. On Tierra Bomba we run a full kitchen at our beach club under Executive Chef Pedro Mosqueda, open to day visitors from 11am to 6pm and serving dinner until 11pm, with a wine list (we were the first beach club in Cartagena to have one), cocktails made with fresh juices, and meat we source sustainably. Full board is $90 per person per night. Reserve first: the boat from Muelle de la Bodeguita has limited seats and leaves at 10am, 11:30am and 5pm. ## The short version: the islands are not a restaurant scene If you're picturing a waterfront lined with places to choose between, that isn't Tierra Bomba. There is no strip. There are villages, houses, a few hotels and beach clubs, and long stretches of nothing. That's the honest starting point, and it changes how you plan a day out here: you pick where you're eating before you get on a boat, not after you land. We cook here, so treat this as us telling you what we do and what we don't, rather than a survey. ## What we cook, and who cooks it We take our eats seriously, and we're proud to be the only real culinary destination in the islands of Cartagena. Our kitchen was built by Chef Silvestre Saiz Cortazar, born and trained in Ibiza and raised in the kitchens of Bogotá. Pedro Mosqueda runs it now as Executive Chef, having cut his teeth in some serious places before us. The food is mostly local. We're conscientious about what we buy and what you put in your body, and we only serve meat that's sustainably raised and ethically treated, including how far the animal travelled. Nobody is deep frying you a plate of something grey and calling it island lunch. ## Drinks: the wine list came first We were the first beach club in Cartagena to have a wine list, so let's start there. Yes, we sell rosé by the magnum, and yes, people order it before noon. Cocktails are made with fresh juices, and most of the gins, rums and other spirits behind the bar are chosen with the same fussiness as the food. What we won't do is all-you-can-drink. There's no all-inclusive bar here. This isn't Cancun, and we'd rather pour you two good drinks than eight bad ones. ## Dietary requirements are actually fine A lot of us have been vegetarian or vegan at some point, so the non-meat offering isn't an afterthought sandwich. Lactose or gluten intolerant, same answer: tell us when you book and we'll sort it. Say it in advance rather than at the table, because we're on an island and we can't send someone to a shop. One related rule, since people ask: you can't bring your own food. We're not going to lose it over a banana in your bag, but we don't allow guests to bring their own lunch and we don't cook food brought in from somewhere else without a very good reason. ## Hours, prices, and how to actually get a table The beach club is open to day visitors from 11am to 6pm. The restaurant runs later, through to 11pm for dinner, and everyone is welcome, not only people staying the night. If you're staying with us and don't want to think about it, full board with all food and soft drinks is $90 per person per night. If you're coming for the day, the day pass with boat transfers is $40, you choose whether you want a sun lounger ($5 to $30), and then you simply pay for what you eat and drink. Reserve. Always. This matters most if you want to come on our boat, because it has limited capacity, and if you're not booked and there's no space it's a long wait for the next one. Boats leave the Muelle de la Bodeguita at 10am, 11:30am and 5pm, and head back from us at 4pm and 5:30pm. Book online, and message us on WhatsApp rather than calling: there's no phone signal on the island. ## Bocachica, the village Bocachica is the village on our island and it's worth your afternoon, though not for lunch. There's no running water and there are no paved roads, and it has more soul than you'll be ready for. Do not expect chic restaurants and bars, because there aren't any. This is island life, not a food destination, and going in expecting the second one is unfair to the place. Go for the village itself, eat with us before or after. ## The one-line answer Eat where you've booked. Out here that's the whole trick. Reserve a table or a day pass, get the 11:30 boat, and let the afternoon do what it does. --- ## What a B Corp Hotel Near Cartagena Actually Does Differently Source: https://www.blueapplebeach.com/blog/b-corp-sustainable-hotel-cartagena > We're a B Corp certified hotel and beach club on Isla Tierra Bomba, 25 minutes by boat from Cartagena, with 11 rooms. In practice that means nobody who works here takes home less than Colombia's established living wage once tips and bonuses are counted, our lowest wage sits at least 15% above the national minimum, and most of what the kitchen cooks is sourced from the islands and the coast around us. We're not a zero impact operation and we won't claim to be: we run air conditioning, we still send around half a ton of waste to landfill every month, and every guest arrives on a fossil-fuelled boat that we offset. Measuring our CO2 properly is the next job. ## The short answer: it's about wages and sourcing, not bamboo straws We're B Corp certified, and the part of that certification we care about most is the boring part: how the people who work here are paid and how the money moves through the island. With tips and bonuses, nobody at Blue Apple takes home less than the established living wage in Colombia, and our lowest wage sits a minimum of 15% above the national minimum. Most of our team comes from the islands around us. That is the sustainability story. Everything else is downstream of it. We chose B Corp over the other certifications for two reasons. It keeps making money at the centre of the operation, because we're a for-profit business and pretending otherwise helps nobody, and it looks at the whole company rather than handing out a sticker for a towel-reuse policy. ## What we get right **The kitchen buys close to home.** We're conscientious about what we buy and what you put in your body. The meat we serve is sustainably raised and ethically treated, including how far the animal travelled, and most of what's on the plate is local. Our kitchen was built by Chef Silvestre Saiz Cortazar and Pedro Mosqueda runs it now as Executive Chef. Farm-to-table gets said a lot on this coast. Ask us where a specific dish came from and you'll get a specific answer. **We run on solar.** Island hotels are not connected to public utilities the way city hotels are, so power, water and waste are all our own problem to solve rather than something that arrives in a pipe. **The village is part of the business, not a backdrop.** Bocachica, the village at our end of Tierra Bomba, has no running water and no paved roads. We run tours into it, and the reason we'd rather you went with us than wandered in on your own is simply that it puts money in the right hands. Go. It will rearrange what you thought this coast was. ## What we get wrong We're not perfect and we'd rather tell you than have you find out. - We have air conditioning in the rooms. On this island, in this heat, we're not going to pretend that's an efficiency choice. - We still send roughly half a ton of waste to landfill every month. That number should be smaller and we know it. - Everyone and everything here arrives on a fossil-fuelled boat. We offset it, and offsetting is not the same as not burning it. - We serve Italian bottled water, which means flying water around the world, and it's the hardest one for us to reconcile. The people behind San Pellegrino and Acqua Panna do more on water stewardship than any local alternative we've found, so we made a trade we're still arguing about internally. Next on the list: we've been lazy about measuring CO2, so that's the big project. After that, serious work on biodiversity, professional development for the team, and converting our boats to biofuel or electric. ## Sustainable doesn't have to mean quiet Who decided that kindness and consideration had to be boring? There's music here, a lot of it from underrepresented artists, and there's drinking, and then we recycle the bottles. Weekdays are calm, weekends are livelier. Sustainability should feel like something you want to be part of, not a penance you sit through in a linen shirt. We were also the first beach club in Cartagena with a wine list, which we mention mostly because it undercuts the idea that caring about your supply chain means eating brown rice in silence. ## What this looks like as a guest We're 11 rooms and a beach club on the southern shore of Tierra Bomba, facing the open sea, 25 minutes by boat from Muelle de la Bodeguita in Cartagena. Boats leave at 10am, 11:30am and 5pm. A few practical consequences of being off-grid on an island: - There's a $20 per night resort fee. City hotels are connected to public utilities; we generate, treat and haul everything ourselves, and that's what the fee covers. - There's no phone signal on the island. WhatsApp works, and we answer reservation messages between 9am and 9pm. - Our sand is dark and volcanic, not the powder white of the Rosario Islands. It's natural and clean and it faces open ocean. - We're not wheelchair accessible. We're at the end of a boat ride and a 200 metre sandy track, and the place wasn't built with accessibility in mind. We're sorry about that. ## Is a certification worth choosing a hotel over? On its own, no. Plenty of places on this coast will tell you they're eco. What we'd suggest instead is asking any hotel three questions: what's your lowest wage, where does your food come from, and what happens to your waste. We've answered all three above, including the answer we don't like. If a place can't answer them, the certification on the website isn't doing much work. Come and check. Ask the team what they're paid. We'd genuinely rather you did. --- ## PADI Courses Near Cartagena: What We Charge and Where You'll Dive Source: https://www.blueapplebeach.com/blog/padi-dive-courses-near-cartagena > You can do a PADI course near Cartagena with us on Tierra Bomba, 25 minutes by boat from Muelle de la Bodeguita. A house reef discovery dive is US $90 and a discovery day is US $140. Full certifications run US $320 for PADI Scuba Diver over two days, US $460 for Open Water over four days, and US $440 for Advanced Diver over two days. The reef sits at 6 metres straight off our beach, so there's no long boat ride to the dive site. You can book ahead or arrange it once you're here. ## Can you get PADI certified near Cartagena? Yes, and you can do it with us on Tierra Bomba, 25 minutes by boat from the city. We run PADI courses from a single try-it dive up to Advanced Diver, and the reef is straight off our beach rather than an hour's ride away. Here's what everything costs and who each option is actually for. ## Prices, in full | What you're booking | How long | Price | | --- | --- | --- | | House reef discovery dive | One dive | US $90 | | Discovery day | One day | US $140 | | PADI Scuba Diver | 2 days | US $320 | | PADI Open Water | 4 days | US $460 | | PADI Advanced Diver | 2 days | US $440 | Those are our published dive prices. Getting to us is separate, and so is your room or day pass. ## Never dived before? Start with the discovery dive The US $90 house reef discovery dive is the one for people who have never breathed underwater and aren't sure they'll like it. No certification needed, no course to commit to, and if you hate it you've lost an hour rather than four days. Plenty of people do this on a day trip, come up grinning and ask about Open Water over lunch. The US $140 discovery day is the same idea with more water time. ## The certifications, and how to pick one PADI Scuba Diver takes two days and costs US $320. It's the shorter qualification: you can dive with a professional, which is fine if you only ever dive on holiday with a guide anyway. Open Water is the real one. Four days, US $460, and it's the certification most dive shops around the world will ask you for. If you've got the time in Colombia, do this one. Four days sounds like a lot until you realise the alternative is doing half of it at home in a swimming pool in February. Advanced Diver is two days at US $440 and assumes you're already certified. It's for people who want to go deeper and get more comfortable rather than people starting out. ## Where you'll actually be diving Our house reef is at 6 metres, directly out from our beach. That's the reason we can run a one-hour dive at all: there's no transfer to a site, you go in from here. It also explains something we get asked constantly, which is whether you can snorkel. You can't, and we'd rather say so plainly than have you arrive with a mask. Our beachfront leads straight out to open ocean and the surface water is often choppy, so a snorkel over a reef that's six metres down doesn't work. A dive does. This is the honest trade of being on the ocean side of the island rather than on a sheltered bay. ## Booking, and how far ahead You can book a dive in advance or arrange one when you arrive. Both work. If you're set on a multi-day course, tell us before you come so we can plan the days around your stay, because a four-day Open Water needs four days that actually exist in your itinerary. ## Getting here for a dive Our boat leaves Muelle de la Bodeguita in Cartagena at 10am, 11:30am and 5pm, and the crossing takes 25 minutes. Coming back, boats leave us at 4pm and 5:30pm. If you're diving as a day visitor rather than staying the night, you'll need a day pass to be here, which is the same pass that gets you the beach club and the restaurant. If you're doing a course over several days, staying with us is simply less stressful than making that round trip four mornings running. We have 11 rooms. ## Two things worth knowing before you commit There's no phone signal on the island. That's lovely on day two and mildly alarming on day one, so tell whoever needs to know that WhatsApp will be sporadic. Bring a towel. Our official policy is that you bring your own, whatever else you may have read. See you on the boat. --- ## An Island Beach Club Day Pass From Cartagena: What $40 Gets You, Boat Included Source: https://www.blueapplebeach.com/blog/beach-club-day-pass-from-cartagena > Our club day pass with boat transfers is US $40 per person and includes the 25-minute crossing from Cartagena to Bocachica on Tierra Bomba and back. A sun-lounger is a separate choice, from $5 to $30 depending on whether you want poolside, a quiet spot on the beach or a bigger VIP bed, and you pay for whatever you eat and drink in the restaurant. Boats leave the Muelle de la Bodeguita at 10am, 11:30am and 5pm and come back from us at 4pm and 5:30pm; the beach club is open to day visitors from 11am to 6pm. Reserve ahead, our boat has limited seats. Weekdays are quiet and children are welcome; Saturdays, Sundays and holidays are over-12s only. ## What it costs and what's in it US $40 per person for the club day pass with boat transfers, which covers the 25-minute crossing from Cartagena to us in Bocachica and back again. It's the option we recommend to almost everyone. From there you choose a sun-lounger, from $5 to $30, and you pay for whatever you eat and drink in the restaurant. We don't do all-inclusive and we're not going to start. This isn't Cancun. What that means in practice: you order what you actually want rather than eating your way to break-even. ## The loungers, and which one you want Two zones, and the difference matters more than the price does. Poolside is near the music and the action. Beach is quiet and removed from everything. The bigger VIP sun beds and beach cabañas fit three people lying down, or work as a base for a group who'll be up and about. Whichever you pick, it's yours for the day and it's reserved in your name, so there's none of that 8am towel-throwing ritual. If you're staying with us overnight, your favourite lounger is held for you every day of your stay. ## How the day runs Boats leave the Muelle de la Bodeguita in Cartagena at 10am, 11:30am and 5pm. Ours takes about 25 minutes and the water on this run is usually smooth, much calmer than the Rosario Islands crossing. We're open to day visitors from 11am to 6pm, and boats leave us at 4pm and 5:30pm, so the 11:30 out and the 5:30 back is the full-value version of the day. Book first. Our boat has limited capacity, and if you arrive unreserved when it's full, the next departure is a long wait rather than a short one. Reservations go through WhatsApp and we answer between 9am and 9pm. Once you're on the island there's no phone signal at all, so make your plans before you step on the boat. ## Lunch, which is the point for a lot of people We take the eating seriously. Our kitchen was built by Chef Silvestre Saiz Cortazar and Pedro Mosqueda runs it now as Executive Chef, and the food is farm-to-table with as much as possible sourced from the islands. Meat is sustainably raised and ethically treated. If you're vegetarian, vegan, lactose or gluten intolerant, you're properly looked after rather than grudgingly accommodated, plenty of us have been there. We were the first beach club in Cartagena to have a wine list, and yes, we sell rosé by the magnum. The cocktails use fresh juice. ## Quiet day or lively day? Both exist here, on different days of the week, so choose deliberately. Midweek is quiet. Fridays, weekends and holidays get busy, with music and a good crowd of locals coming out from the city. Same beach, entirely different afternoon. One rule that catches people out: Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays are for over-12s only, so parents get a day off too. Midweek we love well-behaved children. ## Adding a dive to your day pass There's a house reef off our beach but it sits at six metres with choppy water on top, so snorkelling isn't worth your time here. Diving is. A house reef discovery dive is US $90 and needs no certification, and a full discovery day is US $140. If you want the qualification while you're in Colombia, the PADI Scuba Diver course runs two days at US $320 and Open Water four days at US $460. ## Things worth knowing before you book An 8% food tax applies to all food and drinks and isn't refundable. Getting on and off the boat takes a bit of agility, and there's a 200 metre sandy track between our dock and the gate, so we'll be straight with you: we're not wheelchair accessible. Bring less than you think. And please don't ask for a discount, we'd rather keep buying good ingredients and paying our team properly, which is the same reason we're B Corp certified and running on solar. See you on the boat. --- ## Staying the Night on Tierra Bomba: What an Island Hotel Near Cartagena Is Actually Like Source: https://www.blueapplebeach.com/blog/tierra-bomba-island-hotel-overnight-stay > Staying overnight on Tierra Bomba means no cars, no bridge and no phone signal, so everything runs on boat times. We have 11 rooms on Playa Mamon, about 25 minutes by boat from Cartagena, with the last boat out of the city at 5pm. Rates are per room for two sharing and include a day's beach club access per night, breakfast comes with the room, full board with soft drinks is $90 per person per night, and there's a $20 per night resort fee because we make our own power and water out here. Check-in is from 3pm, check-out by 11am, and you can stay on the beach club until 5:30pm on your last day. ## 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. --- ## A Romantic Getaway Near Cartagena: How Two Nights on Our Island Actually Goes Source: https://www.blueapplebeach.com/blog/romantic-getaway-near-cartagena-island > For a romantic getaway near Cartagena, come out to us on Isla Tierra Bomba: 25 minutes by boat from Muelle de la Bodeguita, 11 rooms, a beach club and a kitchen run by Chef Pedro Mosqueda. Come midweek if you want it quiet, since Fridays, weekends and holidays get livelier with locals arriving for the day. There's no phone signal on the island, which most couples decide they like. Boats out leave at 10am, 11:30am and 5pm, and boats back leave us at 4pm and 5:30pm, so plan your first and last day around those. ## Where we are, and why that's the romantic part We're on Isla Tierra Bomba, at Bocachica, on the southern shore facing the open sea. It's 25 minutes from Cartagena on our boat. That short crossing does more for a couple's weekend than anything we could build: you leave the old city behind, you arrive somewhere with no bridge to it, and there's no phone signal on the island. You can't take a call. Most people work that out on the first afternoon and stop reaching for the pocket. We're an 11 room hotel with a beach club attached. Small enough that we know your name by dinner, big enough that you're not eating alone with the owners. ## Come midweek if you want it quiet Midweek is the quiet version of us. We're calm during the week and livelier at weekends, and on Fridays, weekends and holidays we fill up with locals coming out from the city for the day. Neither one is wrong, it just depends what you're after. If the plan is long lunches, a book and nobody talking to you, book Monday to Thursday. If you want music and other people around, come Friday or Saturday. One thing worth knowing for couples: Saturdays, Sundays and holidays are for the over-12s only. Children are welcome during the week. ## The boat times run your first and last day Boats leave Cartagena from the Muelle de la Bodeguita at 10am, 11:30am and 5pm. Coming back, boats leave us at 4pm and 5:30pm. Check-in is from 3pm and check-out is 11am, but as long as we don't have a private event you can use the beach club before you check in and until 5:30pm on the day you leave. So the last morning isn't really a last morning. Check out, put your bags down, keep your lounger, get the 5:30 boat. If you're flying, door-to-door from Rafael Núñez airport to us is about an hour, and you should leave us three hours before your flight departs. We can arrange transfers both ways, just ask. There's no road here. No bridge, no car. If a helicopter is more your speed, that's a five minute flight and our friends at Galavanta handle it. ## Eating, which is the other reason to come Our kitchen was built by Chef Silvestre Saiz Cortazar, born and trained in Ibiza and raised in the kitchens of Bogotá, and Pedro Mosqueda runs it now as Executive Chef. It's local and it's serious. We were the first beach club in Cartagena to have a wine list, and yes, we sell rosé by the magnum. Cocktails are made with fresh juices. If one of you is vegetarian, vegan, lactose or gluten intolerant, say so when you book and it's genuinely not a problem. The beach club is open to day visitors from 11am to 6pm, and the restaurant runs through to 11pm, so dinner is the part of the day that's just the people staying over. If you'd rather not think about it at all, full board with all food and soft drinks is $90 per person per night. ## About the beach, honestly Our sand is volcanic. It isn't the white sand you'll see in photos of the Rosario Islands, it's darker, and it's natural and clean and it leads straight out onto open ocean. We'd rather tell you that now than have you arrive surprised. The sea changes with her mood: some days flat, some days with a swell. You can't snorkel here. The house reef sits at six metres and the surface water is often choppy, so instead of selling you a bad snorkel we'll put you on a one hour dive. A house reef discovery dive is $90 and needs no experience. Two of you underwater on an anniversary morning beats two of you floating over nothing. ## If you're proposing Romance is alive and well here, we get a couple of proposals a month these days. We can help plan a beachside proposal and arrange the various romantic touches around it. Tell us early and tell us specifically, including whether you want it seen by everyone or seen by nobody. We're good at both. ## Two small honesties We're not wheelchair accessible. We're at the end of a boat ride and a 200 metre sandy track, and the place wasn't built with accessibility in mind. We're sorry about it. And there's a $20 per night resort fee. We're not on public utilities out here, so it covers what an island has to make for itself. Book midweek, take the 11:30 boat, don't plan the middle of the day. See you on the boat. --- ## One Day in Cartagena's Walled City: What We Tell Guests Before They Get on the Boat Source: https://www.blueapplebeach.com/blog/cartagena-walled-city-one-day > One day is enough for Cartagena's Walled City if you walk it in two halves. Start at the Torre del Reloj, the arch that gets you inside the walls, and spend the morning on the streets behind it before the heat sets in. Take the middle of the day indoors or out at Castillo San Felipe de Barajas, the fort just outside the walls, then come back for Plaza Santo Domingo in the evening, when the square fills up with street performers. Las Bóvedas, the old vaulted storerooms built into the wall, is a souvenir market now, so go for the walk along the wall rather than the shopping. We're about 25 minutes away by boat, and our boats run between the Muelle de la Bodeguita and our dock on Tierra Bomba. ## Can you see the Walled City in one day? Yes, easily, as long as you don't try to do it all between 11am and 3pm. The old town is small. You can cross it on foot in about twenty minutes without hurrying. What makes people say they needed longer is usually the heat, not the distance, so we tell guests to split the day in two: streets in the morning, something with walls and shade in the middle of the day, squares again in the evening. We're on Tierra Bomba, on the far side of the water, so we watch a lot of guests do this in both directions. Here's the version that works. ## Start at the Torre del Reloj and then walk away from it The Torre del Reloj is the clock tower gate, the arch you pass through to get inside the walls, and it's the reference point everyone in Cartagena gives directions from. It's also where a lot of walking tours meet up, which tells you what the space outside it looks like around 9am. So use it as a door, not a destination. Photograph it, walk through it, then keep going for two or three streets. The crowd thins out fast once you're off the first block, and the streets behind it are the reason you came: low colonial houses, wooden balconies, doors painted colours nobody would sign off on at home. If you'd rather have someone explain what you're looking at, we run a walking tour of Cartagena as one of our activities. Ask us before you arrive and we'll set it up. ## Plaza Santo Domingo is an evening square, not a lunch square Go to Plaza Santo Domingo after dark. It sits in front of the Iglesia de Santo Domingo, one long block north and west of Plaza Bolívar, and in the evening it fills up with street performers and the restaurant tables that spill into it. That's the whole appeal. In the middle of the afternoon it's a hot open square with people trying to sell you a hat. Our honest note: this is the most visited square in the old town, and you'll pay old-town prices for a drink there. We think it's still worth an hour, because sitting in it at night is one of the few things in Cartagena that lives up to the photographs. ## Las Bóvedas: go for the wall, not for the shopping Las Bóvedas is a run of vaulted rooms built into the northern city wall, originally military storage and now artisan and souvenir stalls. We won't oversell it. Most of what's for sale in there is sold in four other places in the city too. The reason to put it on your day is the walk. You approach it along the top of the walls, with the sea on one side and the roofs of the old town on the other, and that stretch is the best free thing in the city. Do it late in the afternoon when the light drops. ## Castillo San Felipe de Barajas is the middle-of-the-day option Castillo San Felipe de Barajas is the hill fort just outside the walled city, and it's the one big sight that isn't inside the old town. It's a short taxi ride from the Torre del Reloj. Go first thing or late, not at one in the afternoon. It's a fort built on an open hillside, and there is nothing pleasant about climbing it at the hottest hour with a bottle of warm water. Give it an hour and a half. ## How this fits around a stay with us We're about 25 minutes by boat from the city, which means the old town is a day trip from us rather than a walk. Our boats leave the Muelle de la Bodeguita at 10am, 11:30am and 5pm, and leave us at 4pm and 5:30pm. If you want a crossing outside those times, message us on WhatsApp and we'll tell you honestly whether we can do it. There's no phone signal on the island, so WhatsApp is the only sensible way to reach us, and we answer reservations messages between 9am and 9pm. One more thing worth knowing: if you're staying with us for more than a week, you're welcome to take the odd night at Townhouse, our sister property in the centre of the Historic Walled City. It's the easy way to do a late night in the old town without thinking about the last boat. ## What we'd actually do with the day - **8:30am** Through the Torre del Reloj and into the streets behind it, before the tour groups gather. - **10:30am** Castillo San Felipe de Barajas, while it's still bearable. - **1pm** Lunch somewhere with a ceiling fan and a long menu. This is the part of the day to sit down for two hours and not feel bad about it. - **4:30pm** Up onto the walls and along to Las Bóvedas. - **7pm** Plaza Santo Domingo, when the performers turn up. That's a full day and it leaves the beach for the next one. See you on the boat. --- ## Cartagena in September and October: Honest Advice on the Rainy Season Source: https://www.blueapplebeach.com/blog/cartagena-september-october-rainy-season > September and October are the wettest months in Cartagena: October averages around 15.8 days with measurable rain and roughly 230mm of it, while temperatures barely move, sitting around 27 to 30C all year. The rain usually arrives as heavy afternoon downpours rather than all-day grey, so mornings are the reliable part of the day. That's the case for coming anyway: fewer people, and on our side of Tierra Bomba a mid-week beach club that's genuinely calm. Book the 10am boat from Muelle de la Bodeguita and plan the water for the morning. ## Yes, it rains. No, it doesn't ruin the trip. October is the wettest month of the Cartagena year: weather records put it at around 15.8 days with at least a trace of rain, and roughly 230mm of rainfall across the month. September is close behind. The temperature, meanwhile, does almost nothing all year, sitting around 27C on average with highs near 30C. What that adds up to in practice is not a fortnight of drizzle. It's hot, bright mornings and heavy, dramatic afternoon downpours that often clear as fast as they arrive. Plan around the shape of the day and the season stops being a problem. ## How we'd plan a day in it Mornings are the part you can count on, so put the water in the morning. Our boat leaves Muelle de la Bodeguita at 10am, 11:30am and 5pm, and the crossing takes about 25 minutes. Take the 10am. You get the calmest sea, the best light, and you're on a lounger before the heat sits down properly. The beach club is open to day visitors from 11am to 6pm, and boats back leave us at 4pm and 5:30pm. If a downpour lands at 3pm, that's a long lunch rather than a lost day, which is roughly how our regulars treat it. One thing worth knowing about wet season sea: the water in front of us faces open ocean and changes with her mood. Some days it's glass. In windy weather the crossing gets choppy, though it stays much calmer than the infamous Rosario Islands run. If you're prone to seasickness, sort that out before you get on. ## The case for coming in low season Fewer people. That's the whole argument, and it's a good one. We're quiet during the week and livelier at weekends year round, and in September and October the weekday version of us is very quiet indeed. If your idea of a good day is a beach lounger, a long lunch and nobody's speaker competing with ours, this is the window. Your favourite lounger gets reserved for you every day of your stay if you're staying with us, so there's no towel-on-the-sunbed nonsense at 7am. It's also the better season for the things that need a bit of space around them: the house reef discovery dive, an hour long and US $90 with no experience needed, or the island moto-tour and the mountain biking, both of which are far more pleasant before midday. ## Things to do when it's actually raining Don't fight it. Some options that work wet: - **Eat properly.** Our kitchen is the reason a lot of people come over in the first place. Pedro Mosqueda is Executive Chef, most of what's on the plate is local, and we were the first beach club in Cartagena to have a wine list. A three hour lunch during a downpour is not a consolation prize. - **Go into Bocachica.** The village at our end of the island has no running water and no paved roads, and it has more soul than anywhere you'll be sold a tour of. Go with our village tour rather than on your own. Rain doesn't change it much. - **A cooking class, or make your own glass or candle.** These run indoors and they're a better use of a wet afternoon than refreshing the forecast. - **Cross back to the Walled City.** Cartagena's Walled City is a 25 minute boat ride away, and colonial streets under warm rain are not the worst thing that can happen to you. Guests staying more than a week are welcome to take a night at our sister property, Townhouse, right in the centre of it. ## What we'd tell you to pack A light rain layer that isn't a heavy jacket, because it'll be 29C while it rains. Shoes you don't mind soaking. Dry bag for a phone on the boat, which is good advice in any season. Mosquito repellent, more relevant in wet months than dry ones. And check the boat before you travel. There's no phone signal on the island, so WhatsApp is how you reach us, and we answer reservation messages between 9am and 9pm. Book your crossing ahead: our boat has limited capacity, and if it's full when you turn up, the next one is a long wait. ## So is it a bad time to visit? No, with one caveat. If you have exactly two days in Colombia and you need both of them to be perfect, September and October carry more risk than January does. If you have a week, the odds are strongly in your favour, the city is calmer, and the sea is warm regardless. We're here through all of it. --- ## How to Get to Tierra Bomba From Cartagena: Boat Times, Costs and What the Crossing Is Like Source: https://www.blueapplebeach.com/blog/tierra-bomba-boat-from-cartagena > You get to Tierra Bomba by boat. There's no bridge and no road, so every arrival is on the water. Our boat leaves the Muelle de la Bodeguita in Cartagena at 10am, 11:30am and 5pm and takes about 25 minutes to reach us in Bocachica, on the southern shore of the island. Boats come back from us at 4pm and 5:30pm. You can also cross on public lanchas from Bocagrande between 7am and 5pm, which is cheaper and a lot more of an adventure, or arrive in your own boat at the dock 200 metres from our gate. Reserve ahead either way: our boat has limited capacity, and if there's no space it's a long wait for the next one. ## The short answer By boat, always. There's no bridge to Tierra Bomba and no road onto it, so the only ways over are a boat or a helicopter. Our boat leaves the Muelle de la Bodeguita in Cartagena at 10am, 11:30am and 5pm, and the crossing to us in Bocachica takes about 25 minutes. We're on the southern shore of the island, facing the open sea. ## Where you meet our boat The Muelle de la Bodeguita, the pier by the walled city. Come to the dock for the departure you've booked and give your name. That's it, there's no ticket office queue to solve. Book before you turn up. Our boat has a limited number of seats, and if you arrive unreserved and we're full, the next departure is hours away rather than minutes. Reservations go through us on WhatsApp and we answer between 9am and 9pm. Don't bother phoning once you're on the island either, we have no phone signal here. ## What the crossing is actually like Calm, most days. The water between Cartagena and our side of the island is usually smooth and much gentler than the infamous run out to the Rosario Islands. When it's windy the sea gets choppy, but it isn't white-knuckle stuff. The part people don't expect is the getting on and off. It takes a bit of agility at both ends, and there's a 200 metre sandy track between our dock and the hotel. We'll be honest with you: we weren't built with accessibility in mind and we're not wheelchair accessible. If the tide is very high or the sea is unusually rough, we use a dock in the village instead, about a mile from us. From there you ride pillion on a motorbike taxi to our gate. Nobody has ever complained about that bit. ## Getting back to the city Boats leave us at 4pm and 5:30pm. If you're on a day pass, that's your window: the beach club is open to day visitors from 11am to 6pm, so the 5:30 boat gives you the whole afternoon. ## Doing it the local way Between 7am and 5pm you can get here on public transport. It's time-consuming, it's genuinely complicated, and it's a little cheaper. It's also a real adventure, so if that's your kind of morning, ask us and we'll walk you through it. For context on the geography: public lanchas cross from Bocagrande to the near side of Tierra Bomba in roughly 10 to 15 minutes, which is why people assume the whole island is a ten-minute hop. We're not on that side. We're down at Bocachica on the southern shore, which is why our own boat runs from the Bodeguita instead. ## Arriving in your own boat Yes, and it's easy. There's a dock about 200 metres from our gate. If conditions are rough, or your yacht is too big to dock with us (lucky you), we can sometimes send our boat out to collect you. Ask first rather than assuming. ## The helicopter, since people ask It exists. Five minutes in the air instead of 25 on the water. We don't operate it, our friends at Galavanta do, so speak to them. ## From the airport Door to door from Rafael Núñez International to us is about an hour, counting the drive across town and the crossing. Going the other way, leave us three hours before your flight departs. We can arrange transfers both ways, just ask when you book. ## Three things worth knowing before you commit We have no phone signal on the island, so sort out your plans by WhatsApp before you get on the boat. There are no cars here, no paved roads to speak of, and no bridge coming. And the sand on our beach is volcanic, not the white powder of the Rosarios, which surprises people who arrived expecting the postcard. It's natural, it's clean, and it leads straight out to open ocean. See you on the boat. ---