walking from clock tower to Las Bovedas

[Capt. Orca]

I downloaded a few maps and it looks like the walk from Coach Sq. and Bolivar plaza to Las Bovedas is pretty easy. Is that misleading? I know if it's really hot, all bets are off, but do people go back out to the clock tower and grab a cab to the shopping at Las Bovedas? Once there, are there cabs outside to take us back to the ship?

 

Any suggestions or experiences would be appreciated.

[Mercruiser]

I am presently on the Celebrity Millennium for our 15-night Westbound Panama Canal cruise. (See my signature line link for more info.) We just got done visiting Cartagena last Thursday. We started at the clock tower and worked our way over to Las Bovedas. It is an easy trip to make. Just be sure to have some bottled water with you, or buy it from any of the many street vendors.

 

This is a really easy place to explore on your own. No need to pay the cruise line > $100 per-person for a tour. My wife and I spent $61 for both of us on taxis and museum admissions.

Be sure to pick up a free map from the tourist info booth right on the cruise ship pier. (It's the same one as on my Cartagena page.)

[CruisinGerman]

Unless you had a gourmet lunch someplace in one of the luxury hotels like the Charleston Santa Teresa or Sofitel Santa Clara, how did you spend $61?

 

A taxi from the street outside of the port to old town is $4 (7,000 pesos). Same thing back from old town to the port. Don't let them try to rip you off and say it costs $15 or $20 because it doesn't.

 

So now that we have $8 in roundtrip transportation which is what you should be paying -- where did the other $53 go?

 

Cartagena is a beautiful place -- but the people are quite tricky and will try to rip you off if you do not know in advance what things cost in Colombia. As a generalization, things in Colombia cost about five times less than what they cost in the United States, and about eight times less than what they cost in Europe.

 

Kind regards,

 

Gunther and Uta

[Mercruiser]

Unless you had a gourmet lunch someplace in one of the luxury hotels like the Charleston Santa Teresa or Sofitel Santa Clara, how did you spend $61?

 

A taxi from the street outside of the port to old town is $4 (7,000 pesos). Same thing back from old town to the port. Don't let them try to rip you off and say it costs $15 or $20 because it doesn't.

 

So now that we have $8 in roundtrip transportation which is what you should be paying -- where did the other $53 go?

 

Cartagena is a beautiful place -- but the people are quite tricky and will try to rip you off if you do not know in advance what things cost in Colombia. As a generalization, things in Colombia cost about five times less than what they cost in the United States, and about eight times less than what they cost in Europe.

 

Kind regards,

 

Gunther and Uta

Here is the cost breakdown for two people:

Taxi to Fort $10

Fort admission $17.50

Taxi fort to clock tower $3

Claver church admission $8

Inquisition museum admission $13

Taxi to ship $10

Total $61.50 for two

IMHO, The biggest rip-off to worry about is the cruise line tours. So what if the taxi driver gets a couple of extra dollars? The cruise line tours cost double what they should.

[CruisinGerman]

I agree with your comments about the cruise line tours. However, we were just on Grandeur in Cartagena, and the RCCL tours appeared to be less expensive than what you are quoting from Celebrity.

 

Glad you had a nice day in Cartagena. It really is a beautiful place and I hope it continues to clean its image so that more international visitors spend time there.

 

Hope you are having a nice cruise.

 

Kind regards,

 

Gunther and Uta