Comparison of Old City of Cartagena with Antigua, Guatemala

[davidnsteph]

We will be taking the Coral Princess next April on a full transit of the Panama Canal, and 2 of our ports will be Cartagena, Colombia and Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala.

 

We would greatly appreciate hearing from anyone who has visited both Cartagena and Antigua, Guatemala. Both are old Spanish colonial cities.

 

Which one did you like better? Did one impress you more than the other?

 

We appreciate any input.

 

DavidnSteph

[pilotdane]

My wife and I toured both cities. We did Antigua on your own and a Cartagena city tour (visits the fort, monestary and old walled city).

 

Antigua:

It was about a 90 minute bus ride to Antigua. We had an English speaking guide in addition to the driver. Not mentioned in the excursion description is that the bus drops you off at the "emerald museum" for a free tour. One the positive the "museum" has restrooms and they give you a free worry doll souvanier and a cup of coffee in a small souvanier handmade cup. Other than that you may want to bypass the emerald museum it's jam packed with tour guests and is a waste of precious time in this beautiful city.

 

There are lots of street vendors around the "emerald museum". They are everywhere for several hundred feed around the museum, but are very nice and polite. Just say "no thank you" and keep walking. Once you get 100 yards away from the "museum" the only other place there were walk up vendors was in the town square (the bus pick-up point), but there were only a few and again they are very nice, mild and non-threatening.

 

Walking the streets of Antigua was wonderful. It is a big tourist area for all nationalities so you will see a lot of other tourists walking around and many will be speaking Portuguese, Spanish, German... We were never heckeled or bothered. The locals were very polite and nice and just go about their business.

 

Keep your eye on the doorway of many shops. Many have a menu posted and if you go through the back of the shop there is a beautiful courtyard in the center of the building with a cafe/restaurant. It is a great place to sit down, enjoy the beautiful coutyard (yes, everyone I saw was beautiful) and try a local beer and food. The food was delicious and safe.

 

I wish we had more time in Antigua and I would love to go back. Bring your raincoat or umbrella so you can enjoy the trip if it rains.

 

------

Cartagena:

We did the Cartagena City Tour "A" which is listed as strenuous because of the walking at the fort and monestary. I would say the tour had easy & slow walking, but many poeple were stressed just getting on the bus. We had an English speaking guide. Get ready for street vendors everywhere you get dropped off. The vendors don't cause trouble but they are more persistant and less nice than those in Guatemala.

 

A 10-15 minute bus ride dropped us off right at the base of the fort. Get ready for the vendors. The fort was nice but I would have liked more free time to explore. The fort has several long dark underground passages (be warned if you are claustrophobic). There are good views for taking panoramic photos of the city and your ship in the harbor.

 

Another buss ride brough us to the monestary which has even better views than the fort. You are at the highest spot in the city. There are restrooms to the left when you enter the monestary.

 

Next was a 20+ minute shopping stop at a souvanier/crafts market. A good place to haggle for souvanier T shirts. My wife wanted more time here and less time at the last shopping stop.

 

Then we went to the historic walled city. It was beautiful and involved about a 30 minute walk through town. We walked very slow and stopped every 5 minutes (and still many complained that there was too much walking). At the end of the walk you stop for a free beer or other beverage and watch a dancing show. I would have liked much more time to walk the streets. It is a very beautiful city, but there are many vendors the whole way.

 

Finally the bus took us to a more upscale shopping center (surprise, surprise the tour company has their offices in this building) for about 45-60 minutes. Lots of jewelry, gift shops and street vendors.

 

Given the choice I would get a guide on my own to go where I wanted. A guide would be well worth the money to narrate and help keep the vendors at bay. In the end I was very surprised at how much I liked Cartagena. There is a safe/secure restroom, restaurant, duty free shop and souvanier shop in the port port. Do NOT plan on walking out of the port area. You will need at least a taxi. It is an industrial container port and the nice areas of town are a 10-15 cab ride away.

[grandmato4]

Thanks for the description of your tours. Do the street venders in Cartagena's old city accept US dollars?

[mii]

Thank you for the very informative description of the two ports. I am also on the same cruise as the OP and I was wondering the same things. Again thank you very much.

 

marilyn

[davidnsteph]

Pilotdane,

 

We really appreciate you taking the time to give a detailed account of these 2 ports.

 

DavidnSteph

[Grannycb]

Pilotdane gave a good description. We took tours in both locations. We more or less walked past the demonstration at the emerald factory. There is a nice little gift shop there where we bought some of our coffee and chocolate.

 

Which city did we enjoy best? That's hard because they were so different. Each had charming features. The food we had on our Princess tour in Guatemala was very good as was the food served in Nicaragua.

[pilotdane]

I tried to be impartial when writing about both cities. With Antigua I expected a nice Spanish style old city which is what I got. Cartagena totally surprised me. I did not expect to see a skyline like this at night.

[Grannycb]

Yes, the skyline was beautiful! It is worth getting up early to watch the approach to Cartagena. We enjoyed Cartagena so much we are going back next month to see more of the area.

[Hoyaheel]

Thanks for the description of your tours. Do the street venders in Cartagena's old city accept US dollars?

I noticed no one had answered this question--yes, we used USD in Cartagena. We bought some beer & t-shirts from street vendors and some coffee and embroidered children's clothing from some market stalls (one of the stops Pilotdane mentioned) using US dollars. I don't know that everyone will, so ask first, but we had good luck in the touristy areas.

[ericosmith]

Cartagena has a Hard Rock Cafe in the old city. Antigua does not.

[revrazorback]

Have never been to Guatemala but I spent 4 days in Cartagena, and the old city is beautiful. From what I can gather Cartagena is also about 200 years older for the most part. It was a major slave trading port for the Spaniards and Portuguese. There is a lot neat history, one place I can recomend is the Banco de Colombia Gold museum, it's not as extensive as the one in Bogota, but has some wonderful exibits that really get into the history of the area. If you don't mind a little hike up, also check out San Felipe de Barajas, it is an old Spanish fort. It's a little climb, but from the top you can really see the city.

 

I guess it all depends on how much time you have in port.

 

Hope I helped.

[davidnsteph]

Have never been to Guatemala but I spent 4 days in Cartagena, and the old city is beautiful. From what I can gather Cartagena is also about 200 years older for the most part. It was a major slave trading port for the Spaniards and Portuguese. There is a lot neat history, one place I can recomend is the Banco de Colombia Gold museum, it's not as extensive as the one in Bogota, but has some wonderful exibits that really get into the history of the area. If you don't mind a little hike up, also check out San Felipe de Barajas, it is an old Spanish fort. It's a little climb, but from the top you can really see the city.

 

I guess it all depends on how much time you have in port.

 

Hope I helped.

 

Thanks for sharing that. We will probably take a tour that includes San Felipe and other historic sites. Looking forward to finally seeing this port.

 

DavidnSteph

[Nancyquilts]

Have never been to Guatemala but I spent 4 days in Cartagena, and the old city is beautiful. From what I can gather Cartagena is also about 200 years older for the most part. It was a major slave trading port for the Spaniards and Portuguese. There is a lot neat history, one place I can recomend is the Banco de Colombia Gold museum, it's not as extensive as the one in Bogota, but has some wonderful exibits that really get into the history of the area.

Thanks for your reference to the Gold Museum - we didn't see it our previous time there, and that's something dh really wants to see. Nancy