Is the Tap Water Safe to Drink in Cartagena? Short Answer: Yes

Yes, you can drink it

Cartagena runs on a treated municipal water supply, and the consistent report from residents and from travel writers who've spent weeks here is that it's fine to drink, fine to brush your teeth with, and fine as ice (Along Dusty Roads, r/cartagena, TripAdvisor's Cartagena forum). This is not the case everywhere in Colombia, which is where most of the confusion comes from. Here in the city, it's a non-issue.

You'll still watch locals buy bottled by the crate. That's habit and taste, not a health warning. Both things are true at once, which is why you get such contradictory answers on the internet.

The honest caveat

We can only speak for the city's supply, and for our own building. If your gut is the kind that reacts to a change of continent, do the boring thing: drink bottled for the first day, then switch and see. Nobody's ever regretted that order. Start the other way round on day one, in this heat, and you won't know whether it was the water, the ceviche or the four hours you spent walking on cobblestones at noon.

The thing people should actually worry about

Dehydration, not bacteria. September afternoons here are hot and wet at the same time, and the walled city has almost no shade between about 11am and 3pm. You will drink more water than you expect to, and you'll feel it if you don't.

So: carry a bottle and refill it. Drink something before you go out, not after you get back. And when the sun gets stupid, that's the hour to come up to our rooftop, get in the pool and put a cold thing in your hand. It's open till midnight, so you've got options either end of the day.

Street juice is part of the deal in Cartagena and we'd never tell you to skip it. Order it and drink it fresh at the cart rather than carrying it around in the sun for an hour.