The Heroic City, as Cartagena is known, adds to the charms of its colonial architecture, the attractions of an intense nightlife, cultural festivals and lush landscapes. The city’s beaches invite you to sightsee, rest and have fun with the refreshing breeze and warm waters of the Caribbean Sea.
In addition, Cartagena has an excellent gastronomic offer and an important hotel and tourist infrastructure.
This fantastic destination holds the secrets of history on its walls, on its balconies and on its narrow stone paths that inspired Gabriel García Márquez, winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize for Literature.
Framed by a beautiful bay, Cartagena de Indias is one of the most beautiful and best-preserved cities in America; a treasure that, today, is one of the most visited tourist destinations in Colombia.
The time in Cartagena de Indias is enviable. The city is warm and hot most of the year. The temperature generally ranges between 23 and 30º C. It is true that throughout the year you can enjoy a very good climate in Cartagena, but the best time to visit the city is between the end of November and the end of April. it hardly rains in that season.
Citizens of some countries need to present a tourist visa that must be processed before the Colombian embassies or consulates abroad. In the following link, you can verify if you require a visa or not.
Check the countries that require a visa at cancilleria.gov.co
The official currency is the Colombian peso, abbreviated COP. The daily price of the peso fluctuates, however, the average is approximately 3,392 to 3,394 Pesos per Dollar.
The city has 4 important tourist areas:
- Historic Center and Gethsemane
- Modern Zone (Bocagrande, Laguito and Castillogrande)
- North Zone (Airport)
- Manga (Port)
Within each of the sectors, all distances can be covered on foot, and additionally, the city has establishments for renting bicycles and segways.
In case you want to move to another area, we recommend taking a taxi service, identified with yellow colour, in which the journeys last no more than fifteen minutes.
For those who wish to take an alternative type of transport, the city has double-decker Red Buses, Trolleybuses, Chivas (typical bus), and cars, where you can take a tour of the city and its main monuments.
Currently, there are no vaccines required to enter the country. However, the Colombian authorities will require the yellow fever vaccine if you are going to visit tourist sites such as the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta National Park, Tayrona Park and the different Amazon reserves.
So that you do not have setbacks during your trip to Colombia, it is important that you take into account some recommendations regarding health and vaccinations.
Likewise, to have more information, you can visit the page of the Ministry of Health and Social Protection: minsalud.gov.co
Get to Know Cartagena de Indias ¡Vive la magia!
Santa Catalina de Alejandría Cathedral
Like many cathedrals, this is a basilica, church composed of 3 naves or elongated spaces and separated by columns facing the altar. It is a masterpiece of the master-builder Simón González who designed the model for some Andalusian basilicas and the Canary Islands. Construction began in 1577, although it was only completed 84 years later, overcoming incredible adversities
It has 150 years of history. It housed the Agustinos Descalzos parents. Today it is the main headquarters of the University of Cartagena, one of the oldest academic centres in Colombia. It was founded in 1825, it has an interior patio with a garden and the Florentine-style dome stands out.
It is the parish church of the colonial neighbourhood San Diego and it makes an angle with the square dedicated to the hero Fernández de Madrid. The full name is Saint Toribio de Magrovejo and it is another authentic example of religious architecture dating from 1665. Although small, it is cosy and beautiful inside, where the beautiful handicraft work of the main altar, carved in black lacquer, stands out. and covered in gold foil
San Felipe de Barajas castle
The Castillo San Felipe de Barajas is a military fortress in the city of Cartagena de Indias built by the Spanish during the colonial era in what is now Colombia. It was the largest of the Spanish fortresses built on the American continent. Construction began in the year 1536 with the name of Castillo de San Lázaro, expanded in 1657. It was built on the Hill of San Lázaro and from there dominated any attempt to invade the city, either by land or advancing through the Bay from Cartagena in the Caribbean Sea.
The 23 vaults are located between forts Santa Clara and Santa Catalina. They were built between 1792 and 1796 and were used as ammunition depots. During the Republican era, the vaults were used as prisons. Today they are a set of warehouses where you can find a variety of craft shops.
Gabriel García Márquez MONUMENT
In the Cloister of Mercy, in the Historic Center of Cartagena, are the ashes of Gabriel García Márquez, who died at the age of 87 on April 17, 2014. The ashes are contained in a floating platform on which a bust is found. of Gabo’s image. This monument was sculpted by British artist Katie Murray.
Built on the ruins of the old Church of La Merced (1625) to commemorate the Centennial of Independence in 1911. In 1998 it was restored under the direction of Cartagena architect Alberto Samudio Trallero as a cultural centre for performing and musical arts. Theatre built in the shape of a horseshoe with boxes and balconies divided by lattices from scratch, which look like lace, originally served as ventilation. Stairs and sculptures of Italian marble with the curtain of Boca and ceiling beautifully created by the Cartagena artist Enrique Grau.
It was originally called Boca del Puente and was built as the main entrance to the walled city. The lateral arches were used as a chapel and a weapons room. When the closing of Calamari ends around 1631, Cartagena acquires the main door. It was the only entrance to the city proper. Against its narrow vault, it unloaded the bridge that was already known as San Francisco, for the convent in Gethsemane the design was not very significant, militarily, it was overshadowed by the vital door of the Half Moon, much more exposed and better defended. In the year 1704 the door is made of three bomb-proof vaults, today all open, but where originally only the middle one was used for citizen traffic. The two sides used as an arms vault and opened exclusively towards the central one, in the same way, the space was left to finally put the watch on.
The Colombian president and poet Rafael Núñez lived four times in this House. It is a sample of the Creole and Antillean-style wooden architecture of the 19th century that today has its doors open to the public as a museum where personal objects and some works of its authorship are exhibited.
It is a cultural institution and has been operating since 1979. It is located in the Plaza de San Pedro Claver, next to the church and the convent of the same name.
It is responsible for preserving and disseminating the various manifestations of the visual arts and educating the community for its full appreciation.
The headquarters where the Museum of Modern Art of Cartagena de Indias works is made up of two buildings: one built in the second half of the 17th century, by the Spanish Crown so that the first Customs Office of the Port of Cartagena de Indias would function.
The second was built in the late nineteenth century as an extension of the warehouses located there.
It was inaugurated in 1994. It gathers pieces of the fortified monuments of Cartagena and site museums in the Bastion of Santa Catalina and Fort of San Bernando de Bocachica, Castillo San Felipe de Barajas, Battery of Ángel San Rafael, Cordillera Walled, Fort of San Fernando, San José Fort and the Isla Tierrabomba Historical Park. This museum is located at the bottom of the Santa Catalina bastion. It is a sample of the interior of the wall that borders the city.
The Zenú Gold Museum is part of the Banco de la República’s network of Gold museums and opened its doors to the public in 1982. Through its rooms a representative sample of the societies of the different goldsmith archaeological zones of the Colombian territory, its systems of thought, forms of social organization and adaptation to environmental conditions, particularly in the plains of the Colombian Caribbean.
Palace of the Inquisition and Historical Museum
In September 1610 the inquisition was established in Cartagena de Indias to judge crimes against the Christian faith. The Penas del Santo Oficio court adopted this palace as its main seat, which is one of the most elegant and characteristic buildings from the colonial era of the city. The palace is today a museum where you can visit what were once prisons and torture chambers, in addition to finding historical documents that specify history in the Historical museum installed in this same place.