Is Cartagena's Old Town Walkable? Yes, and You Can Cross It in 20 Minutes

The whole historic centre sits inside the walls and is easy to cover without a guide or a taxi (TripAdvisor), and end to end it's about a twenty minute walk (Cartagena Old Town walking guide). We're at Carrera 7 #36-88 in San Diego, the northern corner of the walls. Plaza de San Diego, the square we eat in most nights, is right there. Las Murallas, the walls themselves, are a short walk from our door and you can walk along the top of them. Getsemani is out through the gate and across Parque del Centenario, which is the one walk you'll do at night as well as by day.

Two honest warnings. The first is heat. Twenty minutes at 11am in April is not the same twenty minutes at 7pm, and everyone who lives here plans around that: walk early, disappear in the middle of the day, come back out when the sun is off the streets. The second is the ground. The streets are old stone and uneven kerbs. Wheeled suitcases hate them, and so do thin heels. Wear something with a flat sole and take the taxi for the bag, not for yourself.

When we do tell guests to take a car: arriving from the airport with luggage, going out to Bocagrande, and heading to the pier for an early boat. Our airport transfer runs 120,000 pesos for up to four people and 200,000 for five or more. Everything else inside the walls, walk it.