4 Days in Cartagena: The Walled City Base
Four days covers the Walled City, Getsemani and the one day trip that fits the CITY theme best: San Basilio de Palenque, the Afro-Colombian heritage town that goes deeper into the history the fortifications and Getsemani only gesture at. Want less or more? Drop to the 3-day version or step up to the 5 , 6 or 7-day plan, all built on this same spine.
Book these before you go
- Walled City or Getsemani hotel: check current listings on Booking.com
- A walled-city walking tour: browse options on GetYourGuide
- Castillo San Felipe history tour: search dates on Viator
- San Basilio de Palenque day trip: browse fixed-departure tours on GetYourGuide
| Day | Focus | Travel time | Rough daily cost (COP) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Arrival, Walled City orientation, Getsemani sunset | CTG airport to center, 15-20 min | 150,000-300,000 |
| Day 2 | Castillo San Felipe, La Popa, Palace of the Inquisition | Everything walkable or a short taxi | 150,000-300,000 |
| Day 3 | Getsemani street art, MAMC, Plaza de la Trinidad night | On foot from the Walled City | 120,000-250,000 |
| Day 4 | San Basilio de Palenque day trip | 1-1.5 hours each way by tour van | 150,000-250,000 |
Day 1: Arrival and the Walled City
- Land at Rafael Nunez International Airport (CTG) and take the fixed-rate taxi kiosk in arrivals, roughly 20,000-30,000 COP to the Walled City or Getsemani, a 15-20 minute drive.
- Spend the morning or late afternoon in San Pedro and San Diego, the two historic zones inside the main walls: Plaza Bolivar, the Cathedral of Cartagena, and the colonial mansions along Calle Santo Domingo. Skip the midday hours, the heat is genuinely rough.
- Stop at Las Bovedas, a row of former munitions vaults now a free artisan market.
- In the evening, walk into Getsemani for dinner and finish on the walls near Baluarte Santo Domingo for sunset.
Day 2: Castillo San Felipe and the city’s history
- Start at La Popa monastery, the hilltop convent and the city’s highest point, for cooler morning views; entrance fees are reported 4,500-11,000 COP, verify on arrival.
- Midday, visit the Palacio de la Inquisicion, roughly 24,000 COP admission (some sources cite 19,000-22,000 COP).
- Late afternoon, head to Castillo San Felipe de Barajas, the largest Spanish fortress built in the Americas. Go after 3pm; reported gate prices run 38,000-50,000 COP for foreign adults, verify before you go, and an audio guide adds roughly 15,000 COP. The complex is part of the 1984 UNESCO listing .
Day 3: Getsemani, deeper
- Walk the mural-covered streets radiating from Calle Sierpe, developed by the Cartagena Urban Culture Festival since 2013, plus the quieter San Diego lanes inside the walls.
- Visit the Museo de Arte Moderno de Cartagena (MAMC) for Colombian contemporary art.
- Treat Getsemani’s gentrification honestly, a Four Seasons opened here on 2 April 2026, a real marker of how fast the neighborhood is upmarketing.
- At night, Plaza de la Trinidad has the city’s most authentic street-level energy, vendors, live champeta, and a younger crowd than the bars inside the walls.
Day 4: San Basilio de Palenque
- Take a fixed-departure day tour to San Basilio de Palenque, a village founded by Cimarron (self-liberated enslaved people) in the 17th century and the only surviving palenque in Colombia, recognized by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2008.
- The village is roughly 1-1.5 hours from Cartagena; go with an organized tour rather than freelancing transport, since visits are best done with a local guide who can introduce you properly.
- Learn about Palenquero, the only Spanish-lexicon creole with Bantu grammar in Latin America, and the community that the palenquera fruit-sellers you’ll see back in Cartagena trace their heritage to.
- Return to Cartagena by early evening for dinner inside the walls or in Getsemani.
Four days is the point where the CITY family and a beach trip genuinely diverge: this itinerary stays on land, see our Cartagena beaches and islands guide if Rosario Islands or Playa Blanca need to be part of your trip instead.