Must-see attractions in Caribbean Coast

  • Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas

    Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas

    Cartagena

    The greatest fortress ever built by the Spaniards in any of their colonies, the Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas still dominates an entire section of…

  • Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino

    Santa Marta

    This hacienda is where Simón Bolívar spent his last days in 1830 before succumbing to either tuberculosis or arsenic poisoning, depending on whom you…

  • Old Town

    Cartagena

    Cartagena's old city is its principal attraction, particularly the inner walled town, consisting of the historical districts of El Centro and San Diego…

  • Cabo San Juan del Guía

    Parque Nacional Natural Tayrona

    Cabo San Juan del Guía is a beautiful cape with a knockout beach. It's also by far the most crowded area of the park, although lack of road access deters…

  • Casa Museo Gabriel García Márquez

    Santa Marta & Around

    This excellent museum is housed in a reconstruction of the house where García Márquez was born in 1927. The original house was sold by the family and…

  • Parque Nacional Natural Tayrona

    Santa Marta & Around

    This dazzling slice of mountainous jungle, vast boulders and golden-white sand makes up one of Colombia's most stunning national parks and is a popular…

  • Playa Taroa

    La Guajira Peninsula

    This exceptional and extremely remote beach at the very northern tip of the South American continent is La Guajira's highlight. Massive sand dunes drop…

  • Museo del Caribe

    Barranquilla

    A very smart, modernistic, multimedia-heavy permanent exhibition detailing the culture, history, nature and people of Colombia's Carribbean. You're…

  • Palace of the Inquisition. detail

    Palacio de la Inquisición

    Cartagena

    The Palace of the Inquisition may today be one of the finest buildings in the city, but in the past it housed the notoriously grisly Inquisition, whose…

  • Interior of Dome at the Convento de San Pedro Claver, Cartagena, Colombia

    Convento & Iglesia de San Pedro Claver

    Cartagena

    Founded by Jesuits in the first half of the 17th century as Convento San Ignacio de Loyola, this convent later changed its name to honor Spanish-born monk…

  • Cartagena, Convent of Santa Cruz de la Popa, Convento de Santa Cruz de la Popa, located at the lookout that provides scenic panoramic views of Cartagena.

    Convento de la Popa

    Cartagena

    On a 150m-high hill, the highest point in Cartagena, stands this convent. The views from here are outstanding and stretch all over the city. The convent's…

  • Iglesia De Santo Domingo

    Iglesia de Santo Domingo

    Cartagena

    Reputedly the oldest church in the city, Santo Domingo was built in 1539 in Plaza de los Coches, but the original building succumbed to fire and the…

  • Cathedral Santa Catalina de la Alejandria, Cartagena, Bolivar, Colombia

    Catedral

    Cartagena

    Work on Cartagena’s cathedral began in 1575, but in 1586, while still under construction, it was partly destroyed by the cannons of Francis Drake. The…

  • Las Murallas

    Cartagena

    The Old Town is surrounded by Las Murallas, the thick walls built to protect it. Construction was begun toward the end of the 16th century after the…

  • Museo del Oro Zenú

    Cartagena

    This museum is like a miniature version of Bogotá's world-class gold museum, the Museo del Oro. Though small, it offers a fascinating collection of the…

  • Santuario de Fauna y Flora Los Flamencos

    Riohacha

    Pink flamingos inhabit this tranquil, 700-hectare nature preserve in great numbers: up to 10,000 in the wet season (usually September through December)…

  • CARTAGENA of INDIAS, COLOMBIA - JANUARY 28, 2012: Fresh fish is cleaned and cut by a vendor in Bazurto market on January 28, 2012 in Cartagena, Colombia. Bazurto is a major urban market, colorful, chaotic and full of life. (Photo by Kaveh Kazemi/Getty Images)

    Mercado Bazurto

    Cartagena

    For adventurous souls only, Cartagena's labyrinthine central market, 4km outside the old city walls, is both dirty and enthralling – an all-out assault on…

  • Plaza de los Coches

    Cartagena

    Previously known as Plaza de la Yerba, the triangular plaza just behind Puerta del Reloj was once used as a market for enslaved people. It is lined with…

  • Monumento a la India Catalina

    Cartagena

    The monument at the main entrance to the Old Town from the mainland is a tribute to the Carib people, the group that inhabited this land before the…

  • Puerta del Reloj

    Cartagena

    Originally called the Boca del Puente, this was the main gateway to the inner walled town and was linked to Getsemaní by a drawbridge over the moat. The…

  • Plaza de la Aduana

    Cartagena

    This is the largest and oldest square in the Old Town and was used as a parade ground. In colonial times all the important governmental and administrative…

  • Iglesia de la Santísima Trinidad

    Cartagena

    This church dates from 1600 and definitely looks like it, with peeling painted walls and a rather gloriously ramshackle air. While the church itself is…

  • Pueblito

    Parque Nacional Natural Tayrona

    From Cabo San Juan del Guía a scenic path goes inland and uphill to the small indigenous village of Pueblito, providing some splendid tropical-forest…

  • Volcán de Lodo El Totumo

    Cartagena & Around

    This intriguing 15m mound looks like a miniature volcano. However, instead of erupting with lava and ashes, it spews forth lukewarm mud that has the…

  • Getsemaní

    Cartagena

    Getsemaní, the outer walled town, is less obviously impressive than Cartagena's old city but has some charming parts and is well worth exploring. In…

  • Casa de Rafael Núñez

    Cartagena

    This charming mansion, just outside the walls of Las Bóvedas, was the home of the former president, lawyer and poet Rafael Núñez. He wrote the words of…

  • Museo del Oro

    Santa Marta

    Oro (gold) is only half of what this fabulous museum is about. Housed in the impressively renovated Casa de la Aduana (Customs House), which features in…

  • Ojo de Agua

    La Guajira Peninsula

    This remote-feeling and craggily beautiful crescent-shaped dark-sand beach is bound by 5m-high cliffs where iguanas roam. The beach gets its name from a…

  • Pilón de Azúcar

    La Guajira Peninsula

    Pilón de Azúcar looms over the eponymous beach and provides the area's most telescopic viewpoint, with the whole of Alta Guajira displayed before you and…

  • Playa Cristal

    Parque Nacional Natural Tayrona

    This gorgeous boat-in beach on Bahía Neguange used to be known as Playa del Muerto (Beach of the Dead) – little wonder they decided on a name change. It's…

  • Museo de Arte Moderno

    Cartagena

    The Museum of Modern Art is a perfectly sized museum, housed in a beautifully converted part of the 17th-century former Royal Customs House. It presents…

  • Playa del Pilón

    La Guajira Peninsula

    Playa del Pilón, far and away the most beautiful beach in Cabo, is a vivid orange-sand beach lapped by surprisingly cool waters and framed by low, rocky…

  • Iglesia de Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo

    Cartagena

    Erected between 1666 and 1732, this gorgeous church received a full renovation in 2015. Its ceiling is covered with Mudejar paneling, while its pink-and…

  • Las Bóvedas

    Cartagena

    The bóvedas are 23 dungeons built between 1792 and 1796 and hidden within the 15m-thick city walls. They were the last major construction project carried…

  • Cañaveral

    Parque Nacional Natural Tayrona

    Cañaveral is as far as you can go in the park by road. From the car park a trail leads west to Arrecifes and Cabo San Juan del Guía. The beaches in…

  • Palacio San Carlos

    Caribbean Coast

    A former Jesuit convent that's now the town hall, this fine building dates from 1600 and has a notable statue of a freed slave with broken chains outside…

  • Arrecifes

    Parque Nacional Natural Tayrona

    Coming from Cañaveral, it's a pleasant walk 2.5km west along a trail to Arrecifes, where there are budget lodgings and eating facilities. Bear in mind…

  • PNN Corales del Rosario y San Bernardo

    Islas del Rosario

    This collection of 27 white-sand coral islands is usually visited on a day trip by boat from Cartagena. While many of the islands are uninhabited, several…

  • Museo Naval del Caribe

    Cartagena

    Opened in 1992 on the 500th anniversary of Columbus' arrival in the New World, the Naval Museum occupies a great colonial building, which was once a…

  • Finca La Victoria

    Minca

    Founded in the late 19th century, this family-run coffee plantation offers interesting 40-minute tours (usually available in English) in which the coffee…

    • placement: fullWidth
    • path: Destinations/POIs/superzone
    • possible size: [970, 250], [970, 90], [728, 90], [300, 250], [320, 50], [1, 1],
    • targeting:
      {
        "position": "superzone"
      }