Do You Need a Car in Cartagena? No, and Here's What to Do Instead

Short answer: no

You don't need a car in Cartagena, and most days you won't want one. We're on Carrera 7 in San Diego, inside the walls, and you can cross the whole Old Town on foot in about twenty minutes. Renting a car to do that means paying for a thing that spends its holiday parked.

What the streets are actually like

Narrow, cobbled, mostly one-way, and full of people walking in them. That's the charm and it's also why driving here is a chore: you'll spend the trip reversing out of alleys and looking for somewhere legal to leave the thing. Walking is faster than it sounds because everything is close together, and the shade sits on one side of the street in the morning and the other in the afternoon. Pick the shady side and you'll be fine.

If you do turn up with a car

Park it and forget it. There are several parking options near us, and we can reserve you a spot in a nearby garage for 15 euros a night. What we can't do is keep it outside the front door: this is not a street with a driveway on it.

Getting in from the airport

Take a taxi or book a transfer in advance. Ours is 120,000 COP for up to four passengers, and 200,000 COP if there are five or more of you. Either way it's a short ride, and then you're on foot for the rest of your stay.

The days you'd think you need a car

Beach days. You still don't. The beaches worth your time are across the water, so they're a boat trip rather than a drive, and a rental car sitting in a garage while you're on a boat is just an expensive souvenir. For anything genuinely out of town, hire a driver for the day or take a taxi. Cheaper than a week of rental plus parking, and nobody has to stay sober.

If you want the longer version of moving around the city, we wrote one.