48 Hours in Cartagena's Walled City: The Plan We'd Text You
By Townhouse Cartagena ·
Quick answer
Two days is enough for the Walled City if you stop trying to see all of it. Day one: the free Museo del Oro Zenu on Plaza de Bolivar (Tue-Sat 9am-5pm, Sun 9am-2pm, closed Monday), lunch, a long flat nap through the worst heat, then the city walls at Baluarte de Santo Domingo for sunset. Day two: sloths and iguanas in Parque del Centenario in the morning, our rooftop pool in the afternoon, then Getsemani and Plaza de la Trinidad after dark, where the street food carts and performers set up. We're on Carrera 7 in San Diego, so every one of those is a walk, not a taxi.
Two days sounds short. It isn't, as long as you stop trying to tick off the whole city and accept the one rule everybody learns the hard way: you do not walk around Cartagena between noon and three. The heat wins. Locals know this. Plan around it and 48 hours is plenty.
We're at Carrera 7 #36-88, in San Diego, inside the walls. That matters for a plan like this because almost everything below is a walk from our door rather than a taxi you have to negotiate. Getsemani is the only stretch where you'll want to think about the hour you're heading back.
Here's what we'd send you, in the order we'd send it. Live Cartagena the way we do: slowly in the afternoon, loudly after dark.
Day one: the old stuff, then the walls
8:30am
Breakfast with us, then out before the heat
Breakfast is included when you book direct with us, and on day one you should eat it early and get moving. The morning window from about 8 to 11 is the only comfortable time to be on foot, so don't waste it scrolling in bed.
9:30am
Museo del Oro Zenu, Plaza de Bolivar
Free, air conditioned, and small enough that you're out in under an hour, which is exactly why it's the right first stop rather than a whole morning. It's the Zenu goldwork collection at Carrera 4 #33-26, on Plaza de Bolivar. Open Tuesday to Saturday 9am to 5pm and Sunday 9am to 2pm, closed Mondays. If you land on a Monday, swap this to day two and go see the walls first.
11:00am
Wander the streets between Plaza de Bolivar and San Diego
This is the part people photograph: balconies, bougainvillea, doors painted colours no committee would approve. There's no route. Head roughly north and let the streets bend you back toward Plaza de San Diego, the small square we sit beside. Do it now, not at 2pm, when the same walk is a punishment.
12:30pm
Lunch, then horizontal
Eat, then come back and lie down or get in the pool. We're not being cute about this. The middle of the day is genuinely unpleasant outside and every plan that ignores it ends with someone sunburnt and grumpy by 4pm.
5:00pm
The walls at Baluarte de Santo Domingo
The best free thing in the city. You climb up onto Las Murallas, the 17th-century walls that ring the old town, and walk them as the light goes. Baluarte de Santo Domingo is the bastion everyone aims for because Cafe del Mar sits on top of it, open 5pm to 2am daily. You do not have to buy a drink there to use the wall, and plenty of people don't. Get up there by five if you want a spot facing the water.
8:00pm
Back up to our rooftop
Our rooftop is open till midnight and it gets loud after dark, which is the point. It's adults only after 8pm. Locals get 15% off up here too, so expect real company at sunset rather than a room of people who all arrived on the same flight. This is a place to stay that's also a place the city comes to.
Day two: animals, water, and Getsemani after dark
8:30am
Parque del Centenario
There are sloths in it. Actual sloths, plus iguanas and squirrel monkeys, in a public park at the edge of the old town on the way to Getsemani. Go early while the animals are moving and the park is quiet, look up rather than around, and give it twenty minutes. It's a free ten-minute detour that people pay for tours to replicate.
10:00am
Ask what Chef Pedro is doing with the catch that day
Second morning is when you should eat properly instead of running. Ask for whatever Chef Pedro is doing with the catch that day. It changes, which is the reason to ask rather than read a menu.
12:00pm
Our rooftop pool, through the worst of it
Same rule as yesterday, better executed. The rooftop pool is where you sit out the midday heat instead of fighting it. Children are welcome up here until 8pm, and under-12s are free during the day, so this is the part of the plan that works with kids.
6:00pm
Walk to Getsemani
Getsemani sits just outside the walls and it's the neighbourhood that hasn't been polished flat. Street art, music coming out of doorways, cheaper drinks than inside the walls. Head over in the early evening when there's still light, not at midnight for your first visit.
8:00pm
Plaza de la Trinidad
This is the square Getsemani revolves around, and it only makes sense after nightfall, when the food carts and street performers set up and people sit on the church steps to eat. Skewers, empanadas, arepas, sold from carts and from tables residents put out front. Bring small cash. It's the least hotel-shaped meal you'll have here and usually the one people talk about afterwards.
