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| Beautiful Streets of Cartagena, Colombia |
Cartagena
is a beautifully restored Spanish colonial city – possibly one of the best and
in South America. You should plan a visit!
Five years ago we visited Cartagena in Colombia on a Panama Canal cruise (click here to see)
for just a day. After spending a week here, we realized we missed so much of
the beauty of this city. During the day Cartagena is hot and humid making your
visit hard to enjoy. This beautiful city comes alive at night with wonderful
restaurants and enjoyable Caribbean balmy weather (see photos).
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| Romantic Streets at Night - Cartagena, Colombia |
Cartagena, located on Colombia's northern
coast and facing the Caribbean Sea, is the most tourist-visited city in
Colombia. The city has basically two main areas where tourists go: the walled
colonial city (Ciudad Amurallada), which is amazing and has many nice
restaurants, clubs and hotels and a long strip of hotel towers and condos
fronting onto the beach, known as Bocagrande.
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| Amazing Beauty at Every Turn |
Inside Cartagena's walled city we split our time staying in both the
San Diego and Centro areas. Both of these areas are beautiful. In the San Diego area, you should not miss
wandering the streets around and between Plaza
Fernandez Madrid and Plaza San Diego. The restaurants around Plaza San Diego are very nice.
The Centro area has more beautiful streets
(see photos) around the Plaza Santo Domingo, Parque del Bolivar and
all the way south to wall – stunning views around every corner (see photos).
CartagenaColombia.JPG "El Marques Hotel Boutique Cartagena Colombia") |
| El Marques Hotel Boutique |
In the Centro area of Cartagena, we enjoyed staying at the El Marques Hotel Boutique. We immediately loved this hotel with its beautiful
public area (see photo), warm service, and inviting pool.
We also had a
wonderful dinner at the San Pedro
Restaurant in Plaza de La Aduana followed by unique flavored popsicles at La Paletteria on Calle Santo Domingo.
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| Beach Condo & Hotels on Bocagrande - Cartagena, Colombia |
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| Ariel View of BocaGrande & Old Town |
Then it was off for a 2-day stay on the beach area of
BocaGrande (see photo). It became quickly apparent to us why so many people stay in BocaGrande enjoying their hotel pool
and swimming in the ocean during the hot and humid days and taking
a $4 taxi ride into Cartagena's old town for dinner and wandering at night – a pretty
nice combination. BocaGrande is an average beach.
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| Pat Enjoying Playa Blanca Beach |
You owe it to yourself to enjoy one of the wonderful
Caribbean beaches near Cartagena that can be accessed by hour boat ride.
Because Cartagena is usually hot and humid during the day, taking a beach day trip followed by wandering the streets of old town at night is a wonderful way to beat the heat.
Because Cartagena is usually hot and humid during the day, taking a beach day trip followed by wandering the streets of old town at night is a wonderful way to beat the heat.
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| Beautiful Playa Blanca Beach |
Playa Blanca is the best beach near Cartagena and
our visit was a joy with its warm turquoise water and long sandy beach (see
photos).
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| Old Town from BocaGrande - Cartagena, Colombia |
We booked the standard day trip that takes you for a boat tour of the
Islas de Rosas, aquarium with its dolphin and shark shows, and then for lunch
and a couple hours on Playa Blanca beach. Our boat went first to Playa Blanca
to drop some people off and when we saw the beautiful turquoise water and Caribbean
white sand beach, we jumped ship and stayed the day.
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| More of the Beautiful Old Town Streets |
You can book a day trip to Playa Blanca through your hotel
or go down about 8:30am to the port dock (Muelle Turistico La Bodeguita) just
south of Cartagena's Centro walled city and choose one of the many vendors selling the
trip. You should be aware that most tours to Playa Blanca do not include beach
chairs and umbrellas but they can be rented for an additional fee.
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| Isla Encanto Day Trip |
We love swimming in Caribbean warm ocean waters so we also
took a couple of somewhat more expensive day trips to two of the private islands
near Cartagena. Our favorite was Isla
Encanto because we could choose between staying at the beach or the pool (see photo).
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| Pool at Isla de Sol Day Trip |
We
also went to Isla del Sol, a popular
well-marketed excursion. We had a good time swimming in the pool (see photo)
and the snorkeling was very good. Day trips to these private islands are more
expensive than visiting Playa Blanca but they do have much better facilities
and food – but not as nice beach.
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| Pat in 2014 - Plaza Santa Domingo, Cartagena |
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| Pat in 2009 - Plaza Santa Domingo, Cartagena |
Some
history...
First, see the photos of our 'history' visiting Cartagena in the photos of Pat on the right.
Cartagena is extremely rich in historic relevance. Attracted by a great protected bay, the Spaniards believed they found El Dorado, the City of Gold, when they found natives with lots of gold and jewels. The Spanish moved most of the gold taken and mined in South America through Cartagena. Cartagena and Spain became very wealthy.
Cartagena is extremely rich in historic relevance. Attracted by a great protected bay, the Spaniards believed they found El Dorado, the City of Gold, when they found natives with lots of gold and jewels. The Spanish moved most of the gold taken and mined in South America through Cartagena. Cartagena and Spain became very wealthy.
In the 16th
century, Sir Francis (pirate) Drake sacked Cartagena. Rebuilt and fortified,
Spain started the slave trade in 1664 and Cartagena became the largest slave
market in the Caribbean. Cartagena's magnificent city walls and fortresses were
erected to protect its riches. In the early 1700’s, Cartagena was the site
of the largest naval engagement prior to D-day. Vastly outnumbered (7-1), the Spanish
beat the British to maintain Spanish rule in the Americas for another century.
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| Old Slave Dress - Cartagena, Colombia |
In 1819,
Columbia became independent of Spain followed by a century of revolution.
Cartagena was one of the first sanctuaries of freed African slaves in the
Americas and is currently populated by an ethnic mix representative of
Colombia's own variety.
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Great post. Love the pictures and it look like a great place to visit. I have a friend who lives in Momphox and he loves it there. I am planing on visiting the area in the future. It seems like the country is somewhat safe now.
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