Cartagena: how many days you need and when the dry season falls

When to go, and what humidity does to a plan

Temperatures barely move across the year — it is hot in every month. What changes is rainfall and humidity, and that is enough to change the trip.

1. January: Go nowJan
2. February: Go nowFeb
3. March: Go nowMar
4. April: Go nowApr
5. May: Worth it, butMay
6. June: Worth it, butJun
7. July: Worth it, butJul
8. August: Worth it, butAug
9. September: Think twiceSep
10. October: Think twiceOct
11. November: Worth it, butNov
12. December: Go nowDec

• Go now
• Worth it, but
• Think twice

• December to April

  Go now

  The dry season, and it is a real difference

  Little rain, more breeze and lower humidity, which makes walking the old city genuinely pleasant. This is peak season, so prices are high and the walled city gets busy — particularly around the turn of the year.

• July and August

  Worth it, but

  A drier gap inside the wet season

  A relatively drier interlude between the two rainy peaks, with fewer visitors than the winter high season. A reasonable compromise if the dates suit.

• May, June, November

  Worth it, but

  Rain, but usually in bursts

  Wetter and more humid, typically as heavy afternoon showers rather than all-day rain. Prices are lower and the city is quieter.

• September and October

  Think twice

  The wettest months, and peak storm risk

  The heaviest rainfall of the year and the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season. Cartagena is rarely hit directly, but the weather is at its least cooperative and boat trips to the islands are more often cancelled.

How many days Cartagena needs

Two days covers the walled city and Getsemaní properly. A third adds the islands or the beaches, which is what most people actually came for.

The city works best on a split-day rhythm: mornings and evenings outside, the hottest hours indoors or on the water. Fighting that produces a worse trip than accepting it.

How the city is arranged

Three quite different places within a few kilometres of each other, and each has a different reason to be there.

• The walled city — colonial streets, the walls themselves, and where the evening is best spent.
• Getsemaní — just outside the walls, livelier and better value, and where the food is more interesting.
• Bocagrande — the modern high-rise strip on the beach, which feels like a different city entirely.
• The Rosario islands — a boat trip out, and the clearest water in reach.

Where to stay, and the three Cartagenas to tell apart

Cartagena has three completely different areas and choosing wrong means spending the trip in taxis. The walled Centro Histórico is what you came to see: colonial streets, balconies with bougainvillea, and the ramparts. Getsemaní, right beside it and also inside the old walls, is the formerly working-class quarter that now has the best bars and the best prices.

Bocagrande is the third: a peninsula of apartment towers facing the sea that looks like Miami and has nothing colonial about it. It is comfortable and a walk from the centre, but anyone who came for the walled city and books there is in for a surprise.

Compare these areas against your priorities

Airport to centre, and the heat warning

Rafael Núñez airport is inside the city, a few kilometres from the historic centre: a short taxi ride, so long as it does not coincide with rush hour. It is one of the most convenient arrivals on this list.

What does need taking seriously is the climate. Cartagena is at sea level in the Caribbean and it is hot and humid all year, without exception. There are no cool months: there are less humid ones. That changes how you organise the day far more than in any European city here.

• The day splits in two: street from seven to eleven in the morning, siesta or indoors at midday, and street again from four. Trying to sightsee on the ramparts at two in the afternoon is a mistake you make once.
• The walls at sunset are the city's evening promenade, and there are bars on top. It is the best hour of the day by a distance.
• Taxis have no meter: you agree the price before getting in. Asking at your hotel what a fare should cost avoids arguments.
• Street selling is persistent in the tourist area. A polite no and continuing to walk is what works.
• Carry cash in pesos. Many small places, boats and stalls do not take cards.

Beaches and islands: where the turquoise water is

This is the part that most disappoints anyone who did not know in advance: Cartagena's city beaches are not good. The water is brown from river and port sediment, and the sand is grey. The postcard Caribbean exists, but it is an hour away by boat.

The Islas del Rosario are the real beach destination, an archipelago with clear water and reef. You go by launch from the city dock, either for the day or staying over. The other option, quieter and less crowded, is Barú and Playa Blanca, which is also reachable by road.

• The island day is booked the evening before and leaves early. Big launches are cheaper and less comfortable in choppy water.
• Playa Blanca has become very touristy and in high season it is packed. Arriving early or sleeping there changes the experience considerably.
• There is an island access fee paid separately from the boat, and it is sometimes not included in the advertised price.
• The Caribbean sun burns harder than it feels with the breeze. It is the place on this list where getting complacent goes worst.
• Tierrabomba is only fifteen minutes by launch and is the short escape when there is no full day.

Eating in Cartagena, between Caribbean and tourist

The cooking of Colombia's Caribbean coast is fish, coconut and frying, and it is very different from the interior of the country. Coconut rice, whole fried fish with patacón and seafood cazuelas are what to look for, and they are better and considerably cheaper outside the walled centre.

Within the walls there are excellent restaurants and also many living off passing trade, at European capital prices. Getsemaní offers better value, and Bazurto market — chaotic and entirely untouristy — is where the city eats.

• The palenqueras with fruit bowls on their heads charge for the photograph, and not a little. It is their job; agree the price first if you want one.
• Arepas de huevo and carimañolas are the coast's street breakfast, sold for very little on any corner.
• Coconut lemonade is the city's local drink and it is on every menu.
• Cartagena's ceviche comes with pink sauce, not the Peruvian version. They are different dishes with the same name.
• Bazurto is the real market and there are guided food tours. Going alone is possible but it is a dense, chaotic place.

Where to eat in Cartagena, dish by dish

Inside the walled city you are paying for the setting, and the gap between what a plate costs there and two hundred metres outside is large. Getsemaní, just outside the walls, has better food at half the price, and the market north of the centre is another order of magnitude cheaper again. Coastal Colombian food is coconut rice, fried fish and fruit, and it is very good.

• Mercado de Bazurto

  Market

  The real market, and what to expect from it

  The city's main market, chaotic, hot and entirely unpolished, north of the old town. This is where the restaurants buy and where a plate of fish with coconut rice costs a fraction of the walled city. It is not a tourist attraction and does not pretend to be — go in the morning, go with someone if it is your first time, and eat where there is a queue.

  Check it on Wikidata

• Arepa

  What to order

  The thing sold on every corner, and which to pick

  A maize cake, grilled or fried, with cheese or egg inside depending on the region. The coastal version — arepa de huevo — has a whole egg cooked inside and is a breakfast. Sold from carts and small stands; the ones being made in front of you are the ones to buy.

  Check it on Wikidata

• Chicharrón

  What to order

  The fried snack that goes with a cold drink

  Fried pork, sold in fried-food stands alongside empanadas and plantain. It is a snack rather than a meal here, eaten standing, and it is what a beer in Getsemaní comes with. Fried-food stands are cash and are best in the early evening, when the turnover is fastest.

  Check it on Wikidata

• Cevichería

  Where to look

  Caribbean ceviche, which is not Peruvian ceviche

  On this coast it is served with more sauce, often with a tomato and mayonnaise base, and with crackers rather than sweet potato. It is a different dish from the Peruvian one and comparing them is a category error. Eat it near the water, and at a place selling enough of it that the turnover is quick.

  Check it on Wikidata

Things that change the trip

1. 1Plan the walled city for early morning and after sunset. In the middle of the day it is genuinely uncomfortable, and the light is worse for it too.
2. 2Prices inside the walls are several times those in Getsemaní, a five-minute walk away, for very similar food.
3. 3Island boat trips are weather-dependent and get cancelled. Keep them early in the trip so there is a second chance.
4. 4The city beaches are not the reason to come. The islands are, and they are a different experience entirely.
5. 5Persistent street selling is part of the walled city. A polite, firm no is normal and expected.