Budget · 3-hour walk · Cartagena
The walled city in three hours
The clock tower gate, the colonial squares and the ramparts, then the artisan quarter and the fortress.
Cartagena's old town is entirely enclosed by 16th-century walls you can walk on top of, and the whole of it is about a kilometre across. Do it late in the day: the Caribbean sun on those streets between eleven and four is punishing, and the walls at sunset are what people remember.
The route, stop by stop
-
Torre del Reloj
The yellow clock tower over the main gate, and the only way in through the walls until the 19th century.
15 min here Walk here → -
Plaza Santo Domingo
The oldest church in the city on one side and a reclining Botero bronze in the middle.
25 min here Walk here → -
Las Bovedas
Twenty-three vaulted storerooms built into the walls as a magazine, later cells, now craft shops.
20 min here Walk here → -
Getsemani
Just outside the walls and until recently avoided. Now the best street art and the best street food in the city.
-
Castillo San Felipe de Barajas
The largest Spanish fort in the Americas, with a tunnel network built so defenders could hear attackers approach.
More in Cartagena
Every walking route in Cartagena, or the full Cartagena guide for where to stay and what a day costs.