Uncover The Hidden Gems Of Cartagena

Colombia’s ancient port city is home to numerous experiences that you won’t find anywhere else – and a visit here isn’t complete without getting hands-on with at least a few of them. Culture Trip’s curated list for Cartagena takes you to the very heart of the city.

Whether you want to make chocolate, take to the seas in a kayak, improve your rumba or salsa technique, or enjoy the city’s street food scene, here’s an enticing look at how to get the most enjoyment Cartagena has to offer.

Activities

This city tour is designed for you to live the experience of knowing Cartagena de Indias from the Caribbean on board a kayak discovering magical places of the city; you will navigate through the pier the Pegasos from where you will have a unique view of the Clock Tower, the camellon of the Martyrs and the Convention Center. After crossing the Roman bridge you will enjoy the lagoon of San Lázaro and its mangroves that extend along the only portion of the wall over the sea until you reach the island of birds, an island of mangrove inhabited by countless birds that accompany our passage with their melodious songs.

Tours

Visit the city’s most alluring galleries as well as the studios of talented local artists to discover why Cartagena is becoming such a cultural hotspot.Explore Getsemani, Cartagena’s emerging cultural quarter, learn about the barrio’s street art scene and the graffiti gallery that has given a face to the neighbourhood’s most revolutionary former resident, Pedro Romero.Visit the studios of local artists that have made Cartagena and the thriving streets of Getsemaní their muse and pick up a little something worth taking home with you and hanging on your wall.Given the healthy returns being posted by Colombian art in auctions around the world it would be foolish to go home without a little cultural loot of your own.

Tours

Cartagena’s rich tradition of music and dance is interwoven into the fabric of life on Colombia’s Caribbean coast. As well as sightseeing in the old city, sampling ceviche and cruising through the Rosario Islands, dancing simply must feature in BIG FAT CAPITALS on your holiday hit list. Interacting with Cartagena culture with our feet is a whole lot more satisfying than reading it in a book; that is why you will get in this tour a combination of dance lessons (so you learn how to hit the dance floor), alcoholic drinks in bars (so you let yourself relax into a more social experience), and the best live salsa music in town in the Salsa House in Cartagena, known as ¨El Manicomio de la Salsa¨ because it is the meeting point for salsa lovers including musicians and dancers.

Activities

In Cartagena there are some buses called Chivas Rumberas; probably you have noticed the bright, colorful buses painted at full volume of Latin music. It is full of people who seem to be having a great time. The tours of Chiva are emblematic of Cartagena and you really have not visited Cartagena without getting on board and experiencing a Chiva rumbera. The colorful bus of Chiva will take you and your companions on tour through the streets of Cartagena. We present to you everything that needs to be seen in our city and, in the meantime, you will have a lot of fun!

landscape with balloons floating in the air

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Culture Trip launched in 2011 with a simple yet passionate mission: to inspire people to go beyond their boundaries and experience what makes a place, its people and its culture special and meaningful — and this is still in our DNA today. We are proud that, for more than a decade, millions like you have trusted our award-winning recommendations by people who deeply understand what makes certain places and communities so special.

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