Cartagena · Things to do

The colonial ramparts run most of the way round the old town and are open to walk at the baluartes — Santo Domingo, Santa Catalina, San Ignacio, Santa Teresa. Late afternoon is the point: the sun drops into the sea off the western stretch and the bars up on the wall fill accordingly.

The fortress on Cerro de San Lázaro, begun in 1657 and never taken, with a network of military tunnels you can walk through. Open daily 7am to 6pm on Avenida Antonio Arévalo at Pie del Cerro; 38,000 COP for foreigners, 33,000 for Colombians with ID, and free for Colombians on the last Sunday of most months.

A coral archipelago inside PNN Corales del Rosario y de San Bernardo, reached by boat from the Muelle Turístico La Bodeguita on Avenida Blas de Lezo — one to two hours depending which island. A park fee is charged (11,000 COP for the San Bernardo sector) and an induction talk and registration are compulsory before you go in the water.

The neighbourhood immediately outside the walls, long avoided and now the most interesting part of the city to walk: umbrella-strung alleys, murals down the side streets, corner shops and washing lines. It is gentrifying fast, so go in daylight as well as at night, when it becomes somewhere else entirely.

The white-sand beach Cartagena itself does not have, on the Barú peninsula and now reachable by road over the Campo Elías Terán Dix bridge near Pasacaballos rather than only by boat. Day-trippers land mid-morning and leave by four, so staying a night is the difference between a crowd and an empty beach.