4 days in Cartagena Colombia

This year my girls turned 10 and to celebrate this momentous occasion my parents surprised them with a Mediterranean cruise during their spring break.  I know – these girls really lucked out in the grandparents department!  And while they were cruising the Mediterranean Victor and I decided to take advantage of our kids-free time (which was so strange but so wonderful at the same time!) and headed to Cartagena, Colombia for a few days.  Colombia has been on my radar for a couple of years – we briefly considered going there in the fall of 2016 but then decided to go to Ireland and Scotland instead.  I did some preliminary research back in 2016 and Cartagena kept coming up as a cool destination…It’s been on many Top Destinations lists, my cousins visited it and loved it and when I’ve heard that it was a foodie capital of Colombia I knew that we had to go.  And Cartagena did not disappoint!

It was a super short trip – just four days – which I feel was a perfect amount of time to see what Cartagena has to offer.  I knew it was pretty but I did not realize just how pretty it was!  We’ve been to a lot of colorful places all over the world: Burano in Italy, La Boca in Buenos Aires Argentina, Guanajuato in Mexico and most recently Havana in Cuba but Cartagena is definitely very unique among them.    All colors of the rainbow, beautiful details, lush wines and Bugambilia flowers everywhere – this place is really a feast for the eyes! Streets were clean, buildings very well maintained and it seems that everywhere you looked belonged on pages of a travel magazine!

All we wanted to do was to relax and eat good food and that’s exactly what we did.  We meandered narrow streets of Old Town:

and ventured out to Getsmani, which was not as touristy but pretty cool nonetheless:

we saw some cool people:

 

and bought stuff from street vendors:

We did just a bit of sightseeing:

but mostly we just relaxed, got enough sleep, hung out by the pool, ate delicious food and tried lots of exotic fruit, took lots of pictures and enjoyed time together!

So if you are thinking of a warm destination that’s a bit off the beaten path I cannot recommend Cartagena highly enough!

Practical Info

Getting There

Super easy flight from JKF – direct and just under 5 hours!  And there are only one hour behind us in New Jersey so there is no jet-lag!

Hotel

We wanted to say in the Old town and when I was doing my research a lot of friends recommended that we stay at the Sofitel Legend Santa Clara.  This hotel looks beautiful online and having gone there for dinner I can attest to that… but I wanted to stay at a small boutique hotel so after hours and hours reading and comparing reviews on expedia and tripadvisor and checking out what seemed like hundreds of photos I decided on the Ananda Boutique Hotel and I am glad I did.  The location of it was perfect (right in the heart of old town) and it has so much charm and personality!  It also has two very cool pools (one at the rooftop overlooking the city) and a spa (their ‘chocolate ritual’ of a massage, chocolate scrub and a chocolate wrap is AWESOME!).  So I would highly recommend it!

Restaurants

Reading about regional foods and specialties is literally the very first thing I look at in any guide book so it is no surprise that I spent a lot of time researching restaurants in Cartagena.  I asked my friends for recommendations, consulted Tripadvisor, read Conde Naste and Travel and Leisure articles and as a result a long list of must-visit restaurants was created.  I’ve made dinner reservations for every night we were in Cartagena (with two reservations for our last night because, you know, a girl gotta have options!) and we methodically worked through my list.  The food was great and creative and I think we gained at least 5 lbs in 4 days we spent in Colombia.  Here are restaurants that we went to and liked:

La Civecheria – I think it came into fame when it appeared on one of episodes of AnthonyBourdain’s  “Parts unknown” and we figured that if it was good enough for Anthony Bourdain it was good enough for us.  This place is known of its ceviche and ceviche we got… we got a whole lot of other things including a giant mixed seafood grill platter that was big enough to feed a family of 5!  Overall I felt that the food there was good but honestly I don’t think it was the best we’ve ever had.  I would still recommend this place if you are looking for a casual place with cool history.  They open for lunch at 1 PM – we got there at 12:45 and were able to get a table outside before a long line formed!   So if you are thinking about going I would recommend making a reservation.

Carmen – one of the top rated restaurants in all of Cartagena – definitely need a reservation.  It is located in Old Town and has two areas – in the courtyard under giant trees and inside.  We opted for a tasting menu with wine pairings; being a man with great self control my husband insisted that we get a 5 course tasting menu (instead of a 7 course I was thinking about) and I am glad he did – between several compliments of the chef and palatte cleansers it was waaaayyy too much food.  The food was very good but I think my fav were the compliments of the chef – maybe because as the dinner progressed I got fuller and fuller:)  Still – a very nice experience so I would highly recommend it.

Don Juan – several people recommended that we checked out this place so we decided to go there for lunch one day… The second you step in the restaurant you feel like you are transported to a place in NYC – with its cool modern design, interesting decor, crisp white table cloths and smartly dressed people.  It did not seem very touristy and the food was really good.

1621 – I think this may’ve been our favorite restaurant of the whole trip.  It is located in the Sofitel Legend Santa Clara hotel and is absolutely stunning.  You can choose between seating inside a really cool decorated room or outside in the courtyard… We chose to sit outside because a wonderful night – it was really cool sitting surrounded by lush trees and tropical vegetation.  We were still kind of full from lunch so decided to go for the a la carte menu – the food was really good – especially Victor’s prepared table-side ceviche.  The highlight of the dinner was when we chatted with the chef who came by to say ‘hello’.  Highly recommend this place and definitely make a reservation.

Alma – located in a boutique hotel Alma is definitely worth a try.  Cool decor, great service and delicious food!

Marea by Rausch – this is one place that Victor and I did not agree on – he loved and me – not so much… The location is cool – it is across the river from the Old city so the view from the restaurant is pretty spectacular (make sure you ask for a table outside).  But I thought the decor and service was a bit tired… my food was fine but I think by this time this dinner came around (it was our last meal of the trip) I was tired of eating fancy rich meals every time so that may’ve had something to do with it…

Sights

We did not want to see and do everything there was to see and do in Cartagena – we just wanted to meander pretty streets, relax by the pool and eat great meals… so we did not do many touristy things.  We did go to Castillo San Fellipe  because my father-in-law told us we had to:)  It was an easy cab ride from old town and I am glad we did – it was a giant fort with cool views of the sea and old town, with lots of interesting and dark tunnels… so if you feel that you need to hit at least one touristy sight go there.  We rented an audio guide and learnt a bit about the history of it – although now, just a couple of weeks later, I hardly remember anything I’ve learnt!

One day we ventured to Getsemani – this is a less touristy area; it felt a lot of gritty and less polished than Old town and had a very different feel than Old town.  If I am being honest I did not want to go there – I would’ve been happy just hanging out in old town… but Victor wanted to explore so being a good wife that I am I agreed to go – although I whined and complained all the way there!  But then he brought me to a very cool square and all my whining and complaining stopped:)  It had some of the coolest street art we’ve ever seen!

 

Chocolate Museum  – when I’ve heard from people sitting next to us at breakfast that there was a chocolate museum I knew that we had to go there!   The museum itself is ended up being more like a shop with a couple of rooms where you can sample and buy a whole lot of chocolate related things and a little cafe.  They offer tours and chocolate making classes that I wanted to take but timing did not work out for us and we ended up just buying a whole bunch of chocolate products (chocolate pasta – meh, chocolate passion fruit spread – YUM!) and drinking Mayan chocolate which was SO GOOD!.  If making chocolate something that sounds interesting to you check out their class schedule before heading there to make sure you don’t arrive in between classes.

Safety

You may hear mixed things about safety in Colombia in general but at the time of our visit to Cartagena (April 2018) we went really safe… I am a bit paranoid about safety but even I felt perfectly fine going for a run on my own at 7 in the morning.  People are friendly and nice.  We walked all over Old town and checked to Getsemani and it was fine.  We took taxis and that was fine as well.

Misc

We drank bottled water – just to be on a safe site.. We bought and ate a whole lot of exotic fruit – and it was DELICIOUS!  We drank coconut water straight from coconuts – a great way to quench your thirst!

Hope this help you when you are planning your own trip to Cartagena, Colombia. And if/when you go I hope you love this beautiful city as much as we did!