5 Romantic Things To Do In Cartagena, Colombia

Lonely Planet calls Cartagena the undisputed queen of the Caribbean coast…well that was before these two greedy queens sashayed their way into Colombia’s most touristic city.

Cartagena’s old town is a UNESCO World Heritage site, a maze of pretty cobblestone alleys and colourful colonial style buildings. There’s plenty of romantic experiences to enjoy here and this is our 5 favourite following our trip there in May 2017:

1. Evening horse & carriage ride

The quaint historical old town makes for the perfect romantic evening walk together. However, a more unique way of doing this is by horse & carriage. The old town dates back to the 1500s when the city was an import Spanish colonial port, so exploring it on horse & carriage adds to its ancient colonial atmosphere.

We booked our horse & carriage ride with GoBe online beforehand, which saved us a great deal of time.

2. Stay in a romantic boutique hotel

Although Cartagena is very touristy compared to other cities in Colombia, the advantage of this is there are a number of romantic boutique hotels to stay to suit all budgets. Hidden gems we like to call them.

We use Tripadvisor to seek them out and scour the reviews to get a feel for it.

For our romantic week in the city, we tried the plush Hotel Quadrifolio, located right in the heart of the Old Town and the more affordable but just as charming Les Lezards guesthouse in the super cool Getsemani neighbourhood. Both are exclusive with only a handful of rooms available and also have a rooftop Jacuzzi.

You can read more about the best places to stay as well as our take on the gay scene in our gay guide to Cartagena.

3. Boat trip around the islands of Cartagena

Cartagena is surrounded by the Rosario islands, an archipelago of many small coral islands with secluded white sandy beaches. Our trip coincided with Sebastien’s 35th birthday so we decided to rent a yacht for the day. The islands are around 1-2 hours away by boat so it makes for the ideal day trip.

Our favourite beach was Agua Azul on Baru island, where you can also find coco loco cocktails - a fresh coconut mixed with rum and served as if it was picked straight out of the tree! For more information, read our day trip boat ride story around the Cartagena islands.

We used This Is Cartagena who we found on Tripadvisor and were impressed by the excellent reviews. They also have a useful section on their website showing the events happening each week in the city.

4. Sunset drinks at Santo Domingo bastion

Cartagena old town is west facing, which means stunning #sunsetporn every evening. One of the best spots is along the Santo Domingo bastion, where you can grab a drink, find a spot and take in the beauty together.

There’s also places you can sit down and drink together like Cafe del Mar, but they come with a high price tag and gets very busy.

5. Romantic dinner at a gourmet restaurant

To make Sebastien’s birthday that extra bit special, Stefan sought out the city’s best fine dining restaurants. He was spoiled for choice with places like La Vitriola, Carmen and El Boliche offering taster menus and really delicious food.

We eventually chose Carmen and had their 5 course tasting menu with wine pairing. It was perfect! Every dish was bursting with flavour and the wine pairing, spot on. Some of our favourite dishes included the fresh octopus, ceviche and beef carpaccio.

This was on par with some of the best Michelin restaurants we’ve been to back home in Europe and made for the perfect conclusion to a unique birthday holiday in this very romantic city.