Cartagena
Cartagena's old city is its principal attraction, particularly the inner walled town, consisting of the historical districts of El Centro and San Diego…
Must-see attractions in Caribbean Coast
Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas
Cartagena
The greatest fortress ever built by the Spaniards in any of their colonies, the Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas still dominates an entire section of…
Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino
Santa Marta
This hacienda is where Simón Bolívar spent his last days in 1830 before succumbing to either tuberculosis or arsenic poisoning, depending on whom you…
Parque Nacional Natural Tayrona
Cabo San Juan del Guía is a beautiful cape with a knockout beach. It's also by far the most crowded area of the park, although lack of road access deters…
Parque Nacional Natural Tayrona
Santa Marta & Around
This dazzling slice of mountainous jungle, vast boulders and golden-white sand makes up one of Colombia's most stunning national parks and is a popular…
Casa Museo Gabriel García Márquez
Santa Marta & Around
This excellent museum is housed in a reconstruction of the house where García Márquez was born in 1927. The original house was sold by the family and…
La Guajira Peninsula
This exceptional and extremely remote beach at the very northern tip of the South American continent is La Guajira's highlight. Massive sand dunes drop…
Santa Marta
Oro (gold) is only half of what this fabulous museum is about. Housed in the impressively renovated Casa de la Aduana (Customs House), which features in…
Islas del Rosario
The most developed of the islands, Isla Grande is indeed also the biggest. There's a large lagoon perfect for swimming in the unbelievably blue waters,…
Cartagena
The Palace of the Inquisition may today be one of the finest buildings in the city, but in the past it housed the notoriously grisly Inquisition, whose…
Convento & Iglesia de San Pedro Claver
Cartagena
Founded by Jesuits in the first half of the 17th century as Convento San Ignacio de Loyola, this convent later changed its name to honor Spanish-born monk…
Cartagena
On a 150m-high hill, the highest point in Cartagena, stands this convent. The views from here are outstanding and stretch all over the city. The convent's…
Cartagena
Work on Cartagena’s cathedral began in 1575, but in 1586, while still under construction, it was partly destroyed by the cannons of Francis Drake. The…
Santuario de Fauna y Flora Los Flamencos
Riohacha
Pink flamingos inhabit this tranquil, 700-hectare nature preserve in great numbers: up to 10,000 in the wet season (usually September through December)…
Cartagena
Previously known as Plaza de la Yerba, the triangular plaza just behind Puerta del Reloj was once used as a market for enslaved people. It is lined with…
Cartagena
Originally called the Boca del Puente, this was the main gateway to the inner walled town and was linked to Getsemaní by a drawbridge over the moat. The…
Parque Nacional Natural Tayrona
From Cabo San Juan del Guía a scenic path goes inland and uphill to the small indigenous village of Pueblito, providing some splendid tropical-forest…
Cartagena & Around
This intriguing 15m mound looks like a miniature volcano. However, instead of erupting with lava and ashes, it spews forth lukewarm mud that has the…
Tolú
This 1800-hectare nature reserve is a part-freshwater, part-saltwater bog with five varieties of mangroves. The red mangrove's roots twist and tangle in…
Cartagena
Getsemaní, the outer walled town, is less obviously impressive than Cartagena's old city but has some charming parts and is well worth exploring. In…
La Guajira Peninsula
Pilón de Azúcar looms over the eponymous beach and provides the area's most telescopic viewpoint, with the whole of Alta Guajira displayed before you and…
Parque Nacional Natural Tayrona
This gorgeous boat-in beach on Bahía Neguange used to be known as Playa del Muerto (Beach of the Dead) – little wonder they decided on a name change. It's…
Cartagena
The Museum of Modern Art is a perfectly sized museum, housed in a beautifully converted part of the 17th-century former Royal Customs House. It presents…
La Guajira Peninsula
Playa del Pilón, far and away the most beautiful beach in Cabo, is a vivid orange-sand beach lapped by surprisingly cool waters and framed by low, rocky…
Parque Nacional Natural Tayrona
Cañaveral is as far as you can go in the park by road. From the car park a trail leads west to Arrecifes and Cabo San Juan del Guía. The beaches in…
PNN Corales del Rosario y San Bernardo
Islas del Rosario
This collection of 27 white-sand coral islands is usually visited on a day trip by boat from Cartagena. While many of the islands are uninhabited, several…
Minca
Founded in the late 19th century, this family-run coffee plantation offers interesting 40-minute tours (usually available in English) in which the coffee…
Caribbean Coast
Dating from 1613, this unusual riverside church is undoubtedly the most striking building in Mompós, with its wide-eyed lions and griffins, its strange…
Parque Nacional Natural Tayrona
La Arenilla is an attractive beach in a tiny cove framed by massive boulders, with chunky sand and glints of fool's gold dancing in the water. It has a…
Cartagena
Formerly the Plaza de Inquisición, this leafy and shaded plaza is surrounded by some of the city's most elegant balconied colonial buildings. It's one of…
Minca
This lovely spot is a 1½ hour walk from Minca – or a 10-minute moto-taxi ride (COP$9000) – and is a surprisingly impressive set of two waterfalls, with…
Minca
This small coffee, cacao and fruit farm is a family-run, organic business that visitors are welcome to tour to see the various stages of growth, harvest…
Caribbean Coast
Most of the tourism infrastructure if the Islas de San Bernardo is on Isla Múcura, where tours stop for three hours of free time. Here you can rent…
La Guajira Peninsula
This gorgeous bay has several islands, to which boat trips are often made on tours. A large colony of flamingos also calls the shallow waters of this…
Parque Nacional Natural Tayrona
As you might guess from the name, La Piscina boasts calm waters that are reasonably safe for swimming and snorkeling. Snorkeling gear costs COP$30,000 per…
Caribbean Coast
This island has the best beach and is also the best place for snorkeling. There's also a fairly odd aquarium here where many of the day trips end.
Parque Nacional Natural Tayrona
The longest beach in the park and the first place you can turn in for the night, Castilletes can be found some 4km from the El Zaíno park entrance, just…
Islas del Rosario
The smaller neighbor to Isla Grande has several stretches of gorgeous beach, a huge lagoon perfect for swimming, and a handful of hotels and guesthouses.
Cartagena
Reputedly the oldest church in the city, Santo Domingo was built in 1539 in Plaza de los Coches, but the original building succumbed to fire and the…
Cartagena
The Old Town is surrounded by Las Murallas, the thick walls built to protect it. Construction was begun toward the end of the 16th century after the…
