Old Cartagena Off the Path: 6 Day Itinerary
Six days covers the walled city, Getsemani, San Basilio de Palenque and San Diego’s balconies, then adds a Day 6 for museums a second time and a chiva party bus night out. Day 1 orientation, Day 2 La Popa and the fortress, Day 3 Getsemani, Day 4 Palenque, Day 5 San Diego and Manga, Day 6 museums and the chiva. The 5 day version drops Day 6; the 7 day version adds a full flex day.
Book these before you go
- Book a walled city walking tour , better with a guide who knows which bastion beats Cafe del Mar
- Compare Old City and Getsemani rates before you book, rooms fill fast in dry season
- Book Castillo San Felipe tickets to skip the gate line in peak hours
- Book a San Basilio de Palenque day trip , fixed-departure group tours fill ahead
- Book a chiva party bus night , shared evening slots fill first
| Day | Focus | Travel time | Daily cost (COP) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Walled city, Las Bovedas, quiet sunset wall | Walkable, no transfers | ~120,000-180,000 |
| 2 | La Popa, Palace of Inquisition, Castillo San Felipe | Taxi to La Popa ~15 min, fort ~10 min | ~150,000-220,000 |
| 3 | Getsemani street art, slave-trade history, rooftop bars | Walkable from the Old City | ~130,000-200,000 |
| 4 | San Basilio de Palenque day trip | ~1-1.5 hr each way by tour van | ~300,000-350,000 |
| 5 | San Diego balconies, Manga’s quiet streets | Walkable + short taxi to Manga ~10 min | ~110,000-170,000 |
| 6 | Gold Museum, Naval Museum, chiva party bus night | Walkable by day, chiva pickup at hotel | ~150,000-230,000 |
Day 1: The Walled City, Las Bovedas and a Sunset Without the Crowd
Land at Rafael Nunez International (CTG), 15-20 minutes from the walls, and take the fixed-rate kiosk taxi, roughly 20,000-30,000 COP, to a hotel inside the walls or in Getsemani. Walk the Old City’s plazas, cathedral, Plaza Bolivar, then Las Bovedas, originally munitions storage and later a dungeon before the hammock sellers moved in. As evening cools, skip Cafe del Mar’s packed rooftop for a stretch of wall 200 meters further along, same sunset, a fraction of the crowd.
Day 2: La Popa’s Morning View, the Inquisition’s Darker Rooms, San Felipe at Last Light
Start early at Convento de la Popa, roughly 4,500-11,000 COP (sources disagree, confirm at the gate). Back inside the walls by midday, visit the Palace of the Inquisition, roughly 19,000-24,000 COP, where the lower rooms hold the actual instruments the Spanish Inquisition’s Cartagena tribunal used. Save Castillo San Felipe de Barajas for late afternoon, entrance a disputed 38,000-50,000 COP, since the fort has almost no shade at midday.
Day 3: Getsemani’s Street Art, Sober History and Unmarked Rooftop Bars
Getsemani’s murals trace to Calle Sierpe, where the first pieces appeared before the Cartagena Urban Culture Festival, running since 2013. Walk it in the morning, then reckon with why it and the walls above it exist: Cartagena held Spain’s monopoly on the slave trade into Spanish South America for two centuries, an estimated 120,000-plus enslaved Africans passed through this port. A Four Seasons opened here on 2 April 2026, a real marker of the neighborhood’s gentrification. At night, ask your hotel concierge which unmarked rooftop door is worth knocking on.
Day 4: San Basilio de Palenque, the First Free Black Town in the Americas
About 50km southeast, San Basilio de Palenque is where escaped enslaved people built the first free Black settlement in the Americas, a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage site with its own language, Palenquero, still spoken today. Organized tours run roughly 300,000-350,000 COP per person including transport, lunch and a guide. Start early, the round trip plus a proper visit eats most of the day.
Day 5: San Diego’s Balconies and Manga’s Quiet Streets
San Diego carries the densest run of overhanging colonial balconies in the walled city, worth a slow morning walk before the heat sets in. In the afternoon, cross the short bridge to Manga, a quiet residential island with a handful of boutique hotels and none of Bocagrande’s resort-strip feel.
Day 6: A Second Museum Pass and a Chiva Party Bus Night
Use the extra day for what a shorter trip skips: the Gold Museum’s pre-Columbian collection and the Naval Museum’s history of the port that once moved Spanish gold and enslaved people through the same walls you’ve been walking. In the evening, book a shared chiva, the open-sided, brightly painted party bus that tours the city’s zones with live music and drinks included, roughly 50,000 COP per seat for a 2-3 hour shared ride, or about 650,000 COP for a private full chiva if your group is large enough to fill one.