Cartagena

Walk the walled city twice — once at seven in the morning when the light is low and the streets are empty, and once after six when the heat drops and the plazas fill. Between those two walks, go indoors: the Palace of the Inquisition and the Naval Museum are both air-conditioned and genuinely good. Add a day to the Rosario Islands by boat, and an evening in Getsemaní, which is where the city actually eats. The single thing most visitors get wrong is trying to sightsee at midday in 32 °C.

Two days covers the walled city, Getsemaní and San Felipe castle without rushing. Three is the right number if you want a full day on the Rosario Islands, which is the one thing that does not fit into a city itinerary. Beyond four days you are choosing to stay on a beach rather than to see a place, which is a perfectly good decision but a different one.

December to April is the dry season and the reason those months cost more. It is hot in every month — the temperature barely moves across the year — so the choice is really about rain and crowds, not heat. September and October are the wettest and the quietest, and the rain tends to come in short heavy bursts rather than all day. If you want the city without the cruise-ship crowds, aim for May or November.

Cartagena is not named in any UK FCDO warning, and the warnings for Bolívar department apply to the south of it, hundreds of kilometres away. The practical risks in Cartagena are the ordinary ones of a tourist city: overcharging, aggressive street selling in the walled city, and pickpocketing in crowds. The United States rates Colombia Level 3 country-wide, which is worth knowing, but it is not a statement about the old town.

Yes, with one condition: go privately or go early. The islands are a national park about an hour out by boat, and the difference between a good day and a bad one is entirely about the boat you are on and the time you leave. On a shared boat at ten in the morning you arrive with everyone else. There is a separate park entry fee, and it is not included in most quoted prices.

Getsemaní is where the city actually eats — the walled town’s restaurants are good and priced for the view, while Getsemaní, a few minutes’ walk away, is where the cooking is less polished and more interesting. Inside the walls the strength is seafood and the rooftops; outside, in Getsemaní and around the Trinidad plaza, it is street food and small kitchens. Book inside the walls in high season, and eat late — nine o’clock is normal.

It is the best part of the day and the reason to stay inside the walls rather than in Bocagrande. The heat drops around six, the plazas fill, and the walled city becomes a place people walk rather than endure. The evening divides: the walls and the rooftops for a drink at sunset, the old town for dinner, and Getsemaní — especially around the Plaza de la Trinidad — for where the night actually goes afterwards. It is louder, younger and cheaper than inside the walls.

Inside the walls if you want to walk out of your door into the city, and Getsemaní if you would rather be where people actually live and eat. Bocagrande is the high-rise beach strip — convenient, and a different holiday. We name the specific hotel in every quote rather than selling you a category, because in Cartagena the gap between two hotels of the same nominal rating is enormous.