Cartagena Ship Excursions

We will be sailing on Celebrity Reflection April 1-12, 2019 and porting in Cartagena April 5th (our first time to this port). We generally book a combination of private vs cruise ship excursions and sometimes even go on our own. Can anyone comment on having experience with the following ship excursions: CA09 Best of Cartagena $64 per adult for 4 hours (Like small groups, would like entrance into the fort included, do not want to be mauled at a shopping court); CA52 Medieval Cartagena Carriage Tour $64 per adult 2.5 hours (when booking for 2, does it mean we will be the only 2 in the carriage? Are we able to get out to take pictures? Does this tour take us back to the ship as it states it stops at the shopping area?); CA22 Cartagena City HOHO Tour $45 per adult 4 hours (Like that we can avoid what we don't want to see, is there narration on the tour?).

Am open to any other recommendations. Have looked into Dora and ShoreFox. Dora appears to have many great reviews but not sure I am impressed with the transportation vehicle she uses and the way her tours expose their guests to the street vendors. I prefer a tour that is rich in history and culture and am not much of a shopper or foodie.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

D&D from Minnesota

We will be sailing on Celebrity Reflection April 1-12, 2019 and porting in Cartagena April 5th (our first time to this port). We generally book a combination of private vs cruise ship excursions and sometimes even go on our own. Can anyone comment on having experience with the following ship excursions: CA09 Best of Cartagena $64 per adult for 4 hours (Like small groups, would like entrance into the fort included, do not want to be mauled at a shopping court); CA52 Medieval Cartagena Carriage Tour $64 per adult 2.5 hours (when booking for 2, does it mean we will be the only 2 in the carriage? Are we able to get out to take pictures? Does this tour take us back to the ship as it states it stops at the shopping area?); CA22 Cartagena City HOHO Tour $45 per adult 4 hours (Like that we can avoid what we don't want to see, is there narration on the tour?).

 

Am open to any other recommendations. Have looked into Dora and ShoreFox. Dora appears to have many great reviews but not sure I am impressed with the transportation vehicle she uses and the way her tours expose their guests to the street vendors. I prefer a tour that is rich in history and culture and am not much of a shopper or foodie.

 

Thanks for any help you can provide.

D&D from Minnesota

We did both C52 and C22. The carriage tour in the early evening was quite worthwhile. Bus to the carriages; 4 in the cart with about 10 horse driven carts through the old city and by the wall. Lots of photo ops from the carriage (we had a professional photographer in our carriage and he was never short of opportunities). Very enjoyable. The city tour next morning from the ship to a shuttle boat taking us to the downtown area, then a guided walking tour through the old city; very hot but there's shade through the streets and a park nearby beside a beautiful church (if open, a wedding the day we were there).

We used Martin from Cartegna tour guides. Took us all around new and old city.

Next day my friends did the catamaran tour via celebrity and they really enjoyed.

We did the HOHO a couple of weeks ago and it was terrible. The story is too long to go into detail suffice it to say we, along with others got a full refund. As we were there overnight the following day we got a taxi into the old town and wandered around on our own.

We overnighted in Cartagena and used Marelvy and she was EXCELLENT. She had a beautiful bus for us (air conditioned) and took us to great spots. Everyone there knows her and she is well respected in the community.

I’d bypass the ship’s excursions and contact her....she will be better and cheaper than anything you’ll find through X!

We overnighted in Cartagena and used Marelvy and she was EXCELLENT. She had a beautiful bus for us (air conditioned) and took us to great spots. Everyone there knows her and she is well respected in the community.

 

I’d bypass the ship’s excursions and contact her....she will be better and cheaper than anything you’ll find through X!

I agree! We used MareIvy for 2 tours when we overnighted. Highly recommend - more personal and cheaper than ship excursions.

We were in Cartagena in February - and did our first day with Dora. We really enjoyed the tour and the van was very nice. If you get several people from your role call together you can customize your tour. We really prefer private tours to ship's tours. If you don't like being mauled at a shopping court you may want to reconsider the carriage ride. When we were there, there was as many street vendors as there were tourists - they walked down the street at the same pace as the carriages!

Cartagena was beautiful, clean, and safe - very different from my trip there in the 70's. Can't wait to go again. Bring back coffee - everyone I gave it to loved it!

My sisters and I took a terrific tour in 2016 with a group called Friends for Colombia, a nonprofit whose goal is to introduce visitors to the good works they can help with in Cartagena. We toured a poor part of town, where the foundation is working, visited a day-care center and a senior center and called at a house where the owner has learned to support his family by raising vegetables for high-end restaurants. The foundation seems to do great work, and we were very pleased to see a side of the city most tourists never glimpse. Clearly not all cruise passengers would enjoy such a thing, but the three of us learned a huge amount and found it really rewarding. Here’s the TripAdvisor site:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g297476-d5505083-Reviews-Friends_For_Colombia_Tours-Cartagena_Cartagena_District_Bolivar_Department.html

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We did a private tour with another 2 couples from our cruise back in 2014. Cartagena is best experienced in a small group setting. We were not with Dora, but unfortunately I do not remember the name of who we were with. We traveled in a small van, which was quite comfortable and air conditioned. Traffic is horrific (no stop lights, and stop signs are a "suggestion"). We had a separate driver so our tour guide could talk to us and not have to focus on driving (do remember her name was Mercedes). They made sure we got to a couple places before the masses arrived (like the monastery on top of the hill). The big buses were arriving as we were leaving. Also drove past the fort and spent time in the old walled city. If you are there overnight, take advantage of it. Wish we had more time there!

If you really want to explore the fort, make sure that your tour includes admission although its not hard to pay the admission when you get there. Just make sure that your tour allows enough time for you to climb around and all over the fort.

It is usually tropically hot...this can impact how fast you can explore the fort. I clearly remember walking past folks who were huffing and puffing from the steep slopes and the heat.

Take water with you.

We'd been in Cartagena several years ago and I must say, there have been a lot of changes and for the better.

This time, we took a free walking tour of the Walled City ... got the information on how to sign up ahead of time from these threads. We caught a cab outside the small zoo area. At first, they tried to tell us the cost would be $20 but from these boards and even on the ship, we learned that was too much. Keep walking until you get one for $10. Someone will take you for that price. On the way back, it was even cheaper but it helps to know a little Spanish as there were many people in the area of the Walled City that didn't speak any English.

So, the tour starts at the Naval building way in the back and the guides are multilingual. We took the one in English and had no problem understanding the guide. It was one of the best tours we took on the entire trip. Be warned, it is excruciatingly hot in Cartagena and even though you might think the morning tour would be cooler, the breeze doesn't pick up until the afternoon so if you could make that one, it might be preferable.

If you are interested, I will look up the company that hosted these tours. Students give these tours and there is no requirement to tip them at the end of tour. They don't hound you for tips but do accept them. For what we got, a very healthy tip was still a great bargain. It really was quite interesting.

Dora worked with me for our Cartagena stop and she was one of our best guides ever. We toured with a group of 12 in a very clean and comfortable van. We never had a problem with street people, she made sure of that.

What I will add to the discussion was an ongoing email correspondance between us. We wanted to climb the fortress to the fort and tour and she was adament that we not do so. She was right! She gladly leads tours of land tourists who have had a chance to adjust to the heat and humidity. Cruise passengers don't have time to do so.

She customized our tour, changed the restaurant to one of our choosing, and provided our group with a detailed history and political insights.

We were just talking about a land trip to Columbia and Dora would be my first contact.

We just got off Reflection and very much enjoyed pur day in Cartagena. In my opinion tou don't need a tour. Just outside of the port gates we got a taxi. For $20 he took 4 of us to the Castillo San Felipe, dropped us off at the city center for a few hours, took us to La Popa and then back to the ship. We let the pier at 8am and got back at 2:30pm. It was a great day and an incredible bargain.

If you want to try something a bit different, how about http://www.segwaycartagena.com/ ? We loved it and we are still one of the couples on the title page photos!

Simon

We were on Reflection earlier this month and did the "Cartagena Just For You" (6-person max) tour. It was enjoyable, but with a little effort and research, we could have done better. On the other hand, we had plenty of OBC, so it was free! :-)

We just grabbed a taxi at the port and got a very nice tour with just the two of us and the tour guide. Only issue was his English was a little rough (as is my Spanish!) but overall we managed and it was very nice. I had been afraid of going there (it is Columbia after all!!) but they do their best to keep that part of the country safe to keep the tourists coming back. Turned out to be one of our favorite ports ever.

Could you please give more info about "Cartagena Just for You" ? We too have OBC to use up.

I think the poster was asking about Cartagena Spain, not Cartagena Columbia.

I think the poster was asking about Cartagena Spain, not Cartagena Columbia.

Nope. OP's cruise is an Eastern Caribbean, with a port call in Cartagena, ColOmbia.

OP: Dora herself was our guide a little over a year ago; small group from our Roll Call. She was excellent, I don't recall any negatives about the van (it certainly was air conditioned).

When you tour the old city, are you sometimes walking on streets were vendors may ask you to buy their stuff? Of course. A simple "no, gracias" should suffice. Not sure how you can bubble wrap yourself so as not to "expose yourself" to local folks trying to make a living if you really want to see and get a sense of a place.

I, too, would love to hear more about the "Just for You". We don't have all of that OBC yet have signed up for this tour in Jan off of Reflection. It isn't cheap so would really like to know more about the research.

Bob

I've made a Google Map with a few notes showing our route when we did the "Just For You" on April 6 from Reflection. There were six of us, plus the guide (Ingrid) and driver (Sammy) in the van; it was comfortable and I felt safe. We stopped and toured at La Popa; we stopped at but only saw the outside of Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas; we walked through part of the Old City for about 90 minutes (including a refreshment stop); we drove through the new city and stopped for some photos; and then we went back to the ship. No shopping involved.

I thought it was a good tour, and Ingrid was a good guide. But, since we booked it through the ship, it was on the pricey side - you could probably book independently for less (paying actual money instead of OBC).

Hope this helps.