Hay Festival Cartagena 2027 runs 28 to 31 January
Four days, end of January, inside the walled city. Hay Festival's own site lists the 2027 Cartagena edition as 28-31 January 2027, and its tickets page says tickets become available in November. The 2026 edition brought more than 180 participants from 25 countries across literature, music, journalism, current affairs, philosophy, film and theatre, which is the scale to expect again: the programme goes up alongside the tickets, so November is when you plan properly.
We're not going to pretend to know the venue list before Hay publishes it. What we do know is where it all happens: inside the walls, in the old buildings and theatres of the Centro and San Diego. Which brings us to the only piece of festival logistics we can actually solve for you.
Stay inside the walls, or spend the week in traffic
Stay inside the walls. That's the whole tip. Hay days run long and overlap, and the gap between one talk and the next is rarely enough time to get a car in and out of the old town, which is closed to most traffic in stretches and busy in the rest. If you're sleeping in Bocagrande you'll spend that gap in a taxi. If you're sleeping inside the walls you'll spend it drinking something cold and getting to the next thing on foot.
We're at Carrera 7 #36-88, in San Diego, the quieter half of the walled city. Ten rooms. Plaza de San Diego, the square we sit on, is where you'll end up between sessions anyway: it's the small palm-lined plaza ringed with restaurant tables, and it stays busy into the evening rather than emptying out at dinner. Las Murallas, the city walls themselves, are a few minutes away on foot, and walking a stretch of them is the best thing you can do with an hour you didn't plan for. Getsemaní, just outside the walls past Parque del Centenario, is where the late half of the night happens if the talks have wound you up rather than down.
Booking with us for Hay week
Book direct and breakfast is included, which matters more than usual in a week when your first event might be at nine in the morning. A few things worth knowing before you commit:
- Deposit: with only ten rooms we can't hold dates without one.
- Cancellation: cancel in writing to hola@townhousecartagena.com at least 30 days before check-in and we refund 50% of the reservation total. Inside 30 days, we don't. Hay week is exactly the wrong week to gamble on this, so book the dates you'll actually use.
- Rate matching: if you find a lower rate on an OTA like Agoda, show us and we'll match it when you book direct.
- A quieter room: ask in the special requests field when you book and we'll do what we can. We can't promise silence in this building, and we'd rather say that now.
Where we'd put you when the talks finish
Head up to the rooftop, it's open till midnight. That's the room where the festival crowd and the town crowd end up in the same place, which is the point of us: this is a place to stay that's also a place the city comes to. Locals get 15% off up here too, so expect real company at sunset rather than a hotel bar full of people from your own flight.
A few house facts, said plainly. Kids are welcome on the rooftop until 8:00pm; after that it's adults only, and children under 12 are free during the day. Members Only kicks off around 9 on Friday and Saturday, so the 30th is going to be loud. If you want quiet and colonial hush, we're probably not your spot, and Hay week is not the week we'll be quieter. Downstairs, the Lobby Bar is the calmer option. For food, ask for whatever Chef Pedro is doing with the catch that day.
Getting in from the airport
Rafael Núñez (CTG) is a short hop from the old town, and we run transfers at a fixed price: 120,000 COP for up to four people, 200,000 COP for five or more. Book it with your room and someone's waiting for you, which is worth doing on a late-January arrival when everyone else is arguing about fares at the curb.
Driving yourself is the one thing we'd talk you out of during Hay. If you're set on a car, we can reserve a spot at a nearby garage for €15 per night, but the walls are not built for it and you will not use the thing once you're here.
One day off in the middle
Four days of panels is a lot of sitting. If you want a break, our beach club, Blue Apple Beach, is out on Tierra Bomba across the bay, and the boat ride is short enough that you can go for the afternoon and still make an evening event. Or just take the wall walk at sunset and call it culture.