The dates: 9 to 17 January 2027
Nine days of classical music, and the festival's own site (cartagenamusicfestival.com) puts it plainly: from 9 to 17 January 2027 the festival turns the walled city into its stage. This is the twenty-first edition. Programme and ticket details come from the festival directly, and we'd check there rather than anywhere else, including here.
What it is, in case the name undersold it: an international academic-music festival, chamber and orchestral programmes, held in the old buildings of a Caribbean port town in the driest week of the year. It's a strange and very good combination. It is also, quietly, one of the two reasons January is the month the walled city is full of people who came for something specific.
Why staying inside the walls decides your whole week
Because the concerts are inside the walls and so are you. Evening programmes finish late, the old town's streets are narrow and largely shut to cars, and the difference between a five-minute walk home and a twenty-minute taxi hunt is the difference between going to the second concert of the night and going to bed.
We're at Carrera 7 #36-88, in San Diego. It's the northern, quieter end of the walled city, and it's where we'd want to be after a concert rather than in the middle of the noise. Plaza de San Diego is our square: palms, restaurant tables spilling out, still busy at 11pm on a weeknight. Las Murallas, the walls themselves, are a couple of minutes away, and the sunset walk along them is the thing every guest tells us about afterwards. If you want a full day away from the programme, Museo del Oro Zenú is in the Centro and it's small enough to do properly in an hour, which is the right size of museum for a festival week.
What we'd tell you to book, and when
Book the room before you book the concerts. January is the month Cartagena is busiest with people who planned ahead, the music festival takes the first half and Hay Festival takes 28-31 January, and we have ten rooms total. That's not a sales line, it's just the arithmetic of a small house.
- Breakfast: included when you book direct through our website. Useful when your day starts with a matinee.
- Deposit and cancellation: we can't hold dates without a deposit. Cancel in writing to hola@townhousecartagena.com 30 or more days before check-in and we refund 50% of the total. Within 30 days, nothing back.
- Found it cheaper?: show us a lower rate on an OTA like Agoda and we'll match it when you book direct.
- Late start the next morning: late checkout is 100,000 pesos when we can do it. Early check-in is free but never guaranteed, so if you're landing at 8am and want a bed, buy the night before.
After the last piece
Head up to the rooftop, it's open till midnight. That's where we'd end a concert night, and it's honestly the loudest room in the building rather than the calmest: Members Only kicks off around 9 on Friday and Saturday, and locals get 15% off up here, so it's a real crowd and not a hotel-guest holding pen. This is a place to stay that's also a place the city comes to.
If you want the opposite of that, the Lobby Bar downstairs is the quieter one. Either way, ask for whatever Chef Pedro is doing with the catch that day. And if you want a day off the programme entirely, our beach club, Blue Apple Beach, is over on Tierra Bomba across the bay.
Getting here
From Rafael Núñez airport (CTG), our transfer is a fixed 120,000 COP for up to four people and 200,000 COP for five or more. Add it when you book. Don't rent a car for this trip: the walled city is not built for one, and while we can reserve a garage spot nearby for €15 a night, you'll leave it parked all week.