Cartagena · Backpacking
ON A BUDGET
Sleep in Getsemaní, eat in the market and treat the walled city as a place to walk, not stay.
Sleep in Getsemaní
The old working quarter just outside the walls has every hostel worth the name, plus street food, murals and a square that runs all night.
What a day costs
About 90,000–170,000 pesos, roughly $22–42: a dorm 45,000–75,000, a menú del día 15,000–25,000, buses under 3,000 a ride.
Transcaribe and the Barú boats
The Transcaribe busway runs on a rechargeable card from the terminal to the old city. Boats to Playa Blanca and the Rosarios leave from the Muelle de la Bodeguita.
Free by day
Walking the full circuit of the city walls at sunset, the Bazurto market, and the plazas of the old town cost nothing beyond the sweat.
Plaza de la Trinidad
Getsemaní's church square fills after dark with buskers, beer sellers, dance circles and every backpacker in the city. Free, loud, and the default meeting point.