Where to Shop in Cartagena's Old Town: Three Places, and What They're Actually For

Name: Las Bóvedas
Price range: Free to walk through

By Townhouse Cartagena · October 21, 2026

Quick answer

For souvenirs in Cartagena's Old Town, go to Las Bóvedas: 23 vaulted arches built into the wall at the north end of the walled city, between the forts of Santa Clara and Santa Catalina, now craft and souvenir shops, free to walk through. For sweets, it's Portal de los Dulces, the arcade of sweet stalls facing the Clock Tower. For actual brands and air conditioning, La Serrezuela, a shopping centre built inside a former bullring in the Centro Histórico. That's the whole map. Go to Las Bóvedas in the morning, because the vaults face the sun and the sellers get harder work in the afternoon.

A seller standing in front of a wall of paintings in Cartagena. — Craft and art sellers in the Old Town. · Photo by Mauro Lima on Unsplash

Shopping in the Old Town is smaller than the internet makes it sound. There are three places that matter, they do three different jobs, and once you know which is which you can do the lot in a morning.

We're on Carrera 7 in San Diego, at the northern end of the walled city, which puts us closest to the one you probably came for. Las Bóvedas is our end of town, built into the wall itself. The sweet stalls are down at the other end by the Clock Tower, and the air-conditioned option sits in between.

Two things we tell guests before they go out. First, go early. Almost all of this is under open arches or awnings, and by noon you're shopping while sweating, which shortens everyone's patience including the seller's. Second, prices here are opening positions, not labels. A polite counter is expected at the craft stalls and unwelcome at the brand shops, and you'll know instantly which one you're in.

What's genuinely worth carrying home from this city: the woven caña flecha hats and baskets from the Zenú tradition, hammocks, and coffee. What isn't: the mass-printed tote bags that are identical in every stall in every vault, which is fine if you know that's what you're buying.

And if the shopping gets away from you, we're four floors up with two plunge pools and a bar that opens at 8am. Head up to the rooftop, it's open till midnight.

Las Bóvedas

· North end of the walled city, our end of town, built into the wall between the forts of Santa Clara and Santa Catalina · Free to walk through

This is the one to do properly. Las Bóvedas is a row of 23 vaults set behind 47 arches, built into the city wall in the 1790s as storerooms and later used as cells, and now every arch is a craft or souvenir shop under a bright yellow facade. It costs nothing to walk the length of it, and that's a legitimate way to spend twenty minutes even if you buy nothing. What to look for: woven caña flecha hats and baskets, hammocks, and small paintings. What to walk past: the identical printed t-shirts, which occupy about a third of the arches. Go in the morning. The arches are shaded but the plaza in front of them is not, and the sellers work harder for a sale in the afternoon heat, which some people find charming and some find exhausting.
Portal de los Dulces

· The far end of the walled city from us, facing the Clock Tower · A few thousand pesos a bag

Sweets, and only sweets. The entire stretch under this arcade is stalls selling traditional sweets of the region, right opposite the Torre del Reloj, and it's less a shopping trip than a five-minute stop you fold into walking past. Buy a mixed bag of the coconut sweets and eat them the same day: this is confectionery made to be sold on the street, not vacuum-packed for a suitcase. Do ask the price before they start scooping, and know that this is the busiest pavement in the walled city, so it's not somewhere to linger with luggage or a pram.
La Serrezuela

· Centro Histórico, between us and the Clock Tower · Brand prices, no bargaining

This is where you go when you want a fixed price, a card reader and air conditioning. It's a shopping centre built inside a former bullring, with the old circular structure kept and roofed over, so the building itself is worth the ten minutes even if the brands don't interest you. There's a food hall, Tentadero, if the shopping turns into lunch. Our honest view: nobody flies to Cartagena to visit a mall, but at 2pm in the rainy season, when the craft stalls are miserable and the streets are running, this is the sensible place to be and we send people here without embarrassment.

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