Bocagrande Beach, Cartagena’s Most Popular Urban Beach

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Bocagrande, Cartagena’s modern beachfront district, is home to arguably the nicest beaches in Cartagena proper. Tourists from all over Colombia and the rest of the world have long flocked to the Bocagrande beaches in Cartagena to rub shoulders with the city’s well to do.

While Cartagena’s Bocagrande beach is mostly one large, continuous stretch of beach, there are different sectors, plus a couple separate beaches nearby off the main strip.

To be honest, I think the best beaches in Cartagena are outside the city, and I much preferred to escape to them rather than go to the beaches in Bocagrande during my 11 years living in Cartagena. However, Bocagrande’s beaches are still the easiest to access and pretty nice for a city beach, if often a bit overcrowded and not as nice as the islands nearby.

In this guide, I’ll go over the different sectors of the Bocagrande beach, including where I’d most recommend, as well as discuss if you’re better off escaping to the beaches outside of town instead and give you an idea of what to expect if you do decide to hit the Bocagrande, Cartagena beach.

Cartagena’s Bocagrande Beach Quick Tips

I’ll go into more detail about the different areas of the Bocagrande beach below, but I’ll cover some quick tips here if you’re in a hurry.

As I said in the introduction, I think most travelers will get more out of doing a day trip to the Rosario Islands, the island of Baru, or, at least, Tierra Bomba Island, just across the bay, all of which have less crowded beaches with fewer vendors than you’ll find in Bocagrande.

You can compare all the different beaches of Cartagena here.

Bocagrande does offer a lot of beachfront hotels, there are plenty of restaurants, and there is good shopping. I’ve seen it compared to South Beach, which is probably a little exaggerated, but it does have that sort of posh but also touristy beachfront strip vibe to it.

The most popular area of Bocagrande beach is known as Playa Hollywood, near the Hotel Caribe and Hotel Intercontinental, which would be my top two recommendations for beachfront hotels in Bocagrande.

It’s a wide stretch of beach, there are lots of chairs and a few small beach kiosk restaurants on the beach, and there are many more restaurants nearby. It also draws the largest crowds and has the most vendors, so come prepared for that.

To be honest, I like another, lesser visited beach in Bocagrande more.

I’ll reveal which beach that is as well as discuss the other sectors of the beach in Bocagrande in a bit more detail below after offering a few more recommendations for beachfront hotels and tips on dealing with vendors.

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Best Hotels on Bocagrande Beach in Cartagena

If you want to be beach front, while having lots of restaurants close by and easy access to all the Cartagena nightlife and things to see in the historic Walled City and Getsemaní, Bocagrande makes a good option for where to stay.

You can compare the pros and cons of the different areas in this guide to where to stay in Cartagena, by the way.

A lot of the nicer hotels on the beach in Bocagrande also have their own beach chairs and umbrellas, which can make it a little easier to enjoy the beach and not have to worry about negotiating with vendors.

I still generally encourage people to split their time between staying in the historic districts with a shorter complimentary stay in the Cartagena islands or maybe the beaches north of town, but I do think Bocagrande makes a good option if you want to be beach front your whole trip.

Here are a few of my top picks for beachfront hotels in Bocagrande:

• Hotel Intercontinental: Located right by Hollywood Beach in Bocagrande and next to the NAO mall near the heart of the main strip, the Intercontinental offers easy access to lots of restaurants and shopping nearby as well as a nice beach.
  • Check prices for rooms at the Intercontinental here.
• Hotel Caribe: One of Cartagena’s longest running luxury hotels, the Hotel Caribe has gorgeous architecture and a neat setting, including a small zoo of rescued animals, and a nice private beach lounge area. This is also just about the widest section of beach.
  • Check prices for rooms at the Hotel Caribe here.
• The Hilton: Located around the corner from the main strip by the Laguito lake, the Cartagena Hilton has a lot of family friendly amenities, and has a nice beach area that tends to get less crowded than the beaches on the main strip and feels almost private.
  • Check prices for rooms at the Hilton here.
• Hyatt Regency: Located near the entrance to Bocagrande, so much closer to the historic districts, the Hyatt has the best rooftop pools in all of Cartagena. The beaches on this end of Bocagrande are smaller, but they do get less crowded and were recently restored with new jetties.
  • Check prices for rooms at the Hyatt here.
• Hotel Estelar: The Estelar is located next door to the Hyatt and also offers a terrific waterfront view with a cool rooftop bar.
  • Check prices for rooms at the Estelar here.

There are plenty of other options for hotels on or near the beaches of Bocagrande, but those are some of the highlights. You can see more options for beachfront hotels in Cartagena here if you’d like to compare.

Below, we’ll talk a bit more about general tips for enjoying the beach in Bocagrande, then go over the different areas of the Bocagrande beaches.

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What to Expect at the Bocagrande, Cartagena Beach

First things first, let’s talk about the reason I tended to avoid the beaches of Bocagrande when I lived in Cartagena: the vendors.

They can be absolutely incessantly obnoxious.

I’ll never forget going here to enjoy a Friday afternoon after work reading on the beach with a couple beers and being pestered constantly to get a massage, buy a bracelet, buy oysters, listen to a rap, and who knows what else. Some bracelet vendor kept trying to convince me for like 10 minutes, while making me a necklace with a single bead to I guess try to guilt trip me into buying something.

Yea, reading on the beaches in most of Cartagena, much less the Bocagrande beaches, is pretty much impossible.

I practically avoided the beach here like the plague after that and got my beach fix out in the islands or on other beaches around town.

So, you need to come prepared to deal with the vendors, especially in the most popular sectors of the Bocagrande beaches. I’ll give some tips on how to deal with them next.

I should say as well, that the beach here is not nearly as nice as the beaches out in the islands.

That doesn’t mean the beach here isn’t nice though.

They are perfectly fine, comparable perhaps to the beaches of Charleston, in my home state of South Carolina, but you won’t find white sands or crystal clear waters here as some less scrupulous websites might claim.

Confirm Prices and Don’t Be Afraid to Negotiate

First, make sure to confirm all prices for things like beach chairs, umbrellas or shade tents, and anything else you might buy on the beach.

There should be signs posted for the prices of these things near the street, but they are not always followed.

If you plan to eat and drink, I’d suggest seeing if you can get a discount or just have the chairs thrown in complimentary. No promises, that will work, but you could always ask.

If you are ordering food and drinks, I’d suggest asking if there are any additional service fees. It’s become fairly common to give a 10% tip in Cartagena, but tips are technically optional, and some less scrupulous vendors try to tack on service fees for carrying your food and drinks out to where you’re sitting on the beach and will still ask for a tip on top of that.

So, just make sure you are clear on all prices from the start.

There Are No Free Samples!

Also, be aware you will be approached by vendors selling things like oysters, bracelets, and other souvenirs as well as ladies offering massages. They can be pushy, so be sure to be more insistent with your own “No, gracias” if you’re not interested in what they’re selling.

It’s very common that some vendors will offer a “free sample.”

For massage ladies, that means they start to massage you, then just don’t stop and charge you once they do. For oyster or crab mongers, they feed you one and then several more in quick succession and then expect you to pay.

So, just only accept if you are, in fact, willing to pay for what they’re selling, and confirm the prices up front.

And, again, don’t be afraid to negotiate!

Bocagrande Beach Hours

Technically, all the beaches in Cartagena are open to the public from 8 am to 6 pm.

This has traditionally been laxly enforced, but it’s been a bit stricter under the current mayor, elected in 2024. My understanding is this is primarily due to safety concerns.

I’d suggest being prepared to leave the beach by 6 pm, and not trying to hang out on it late at night. It’s kind of a shame, because we used to occasionally hang out on Playa Hollywood at night renting a few chairs and drinking a few beers, and it was kind of nice since there was usually no one out there.

If you wanted to go for a walk, run, or early morning dip, I wouldn’t be too nervous about it, but if a policeman approaches and asks you to leave, just listen, as technically, they can fine you.

Facilities on the Beaches in Bocagrande

Around Playa Hollywood, there are a few public restrooms.

They’re not the cleanest or nicest, but they are decent enough.

There are plans to build newer ones along with showers at different point along the beach with a hope they are open by mid-2025.

Bocagrande Beach Sectors

So, all of the above applies to pretty much all of the Bocagrande beach, but there are some sectors that do get less crowded and have less vendors (but also less beach and fewer amenities).

In theory, I guess, you could break the beaches of Bocagrande into block by block, or maybe jetty by jetty, sectors, but I think the most useful way to break it down for you all reading this is to break them into four larger sectors:

• The Beaches Near the Entrance of Bocagrande
• Hollywood Beach
• Laguito Beach
• Castillogrande Beach

Beaches Near Entrance to Bocagrande

The beaches of Bocagrande start around where the Hyatt Regency, the Hotel Estelar, and Plaza Bocagrande Shopping Mall are located.

It actually used to be mostly rocks here, but they’ve recently worked on new jetties to recuperate some beach.

Immediately past this, there’s sort of a curve where there is a bit more beach, as you can see in the photo above. Then, you have several sections of thinner beach between jetties before you get to the larger beaches near the end of peninsular.

There is another slightly larger beach area between Calle 12 and Calle 8 around where the Hotel Decameron and Hotel Capilla del Mar are located.

Away from directly across the hotels, you can occasionally find the beaches in this are a little more relaxed and less crowded.

Playa Hollywood

Well, to be honest, I’m lumping Playa Hollywood and some surrounding beach sectors together. Technically Playa Hollywood is the beach just past the Hotel Caribe.

It’s the largest and widest section of beach.

The areas in the blocks preceding up, starting around the Hotel Intercontinental and Calle 6 are also generally a bit wider than the beaches closer to the entrance of Bocagrande.

This entire area is where the majority of the hotels in Bocagrande are located, so it tends to be the most crowded area of the beach but also where there are more shops and restaurants nearby. There are a few little beachfront bars and restaurants too, like the long running Kiosco El Bony.

While I do think this is the nicest area of beach in Bocagrande overall, I would probably avoid it due to the crowds and higher concentration of vendors on weekends. Weekdays, especially in the morning, might be a bit more relaxed, but I’d still choose either of the places below over it most of the time.

Laguito Beach

El Laguito is a large lake, or lagoon, located at the end of the Bocagrande peninsula, and the area around it is often referred to as Laguito.

Past Hollywood Beach, you’ll round a corner and be on the Playa de Laguito, or Laguito Beach.

There are a handful of restaurants and surf schools. By the way, you can take surf lessons here if you’re interested.

To be honest, I think the beach here is less nice than the other areas, but I do like that it gets less crowded. While it varies depending a bit on the time of year, usually the sun sets directly in front of the Laguito beach too, so it’s a great spot for just hanging out and enjoying the sunset. You can get a nice view of Tierra Bomba across the bay here too.

We’ve always thought El Muelle, which has some beachfront seats and a deck overlooking the beach has pretty solid drinks and food too.

The beach doesn’t run continuously here. It starts off wide and narrows as you walk farther away from the tip of the peninsula.

There are a few other smaller beach spots if you walk back out to the road and continue farther down, culminating where the Hotel Hilton is near the start of Castillogrande.

It’s probably worth pointing out that Colombian law makes all beaches public, but because there’s little else on the corner where it’s located, the Hilton’s beach does feel very semi-private. While you won’t be able to use any of the hotel’s chairs or facilities, you can come here and enjoy the beach even if you’re not a guest.

The semi-private feel here also makes it a good option for those that want to stay on the beach and have less crowds than the other beachfront hotels in Bocagrande.

Castillogrande Beach

Castillogrande is actually my favorite of the Bocagrande beaches, and, along with La Boquilla, my top recommendation for a beach in town proper.

Castillogrande is a narrow peninsula that juts off the main Bocagrande peninsula into the inner bay. It has some of the newest and nicest apartment and condo buildings in Cartagena and is mostly residential and home to the very well to do.

That means there aren’t any hotels here nor much in the way of restaurants, but the Laguito area and even the main strip of Bocagrande is not far away.

The beach here is pretty long and wide and generally much less crowded than the main beaches of Bocagrande around Playa Hollywood.

If you arrive behind the hospital, you’ll see the boats that take people to Tierra Bomba (itself a nice beach escape from Cartagena), but if you walk a little further down the beach, you’ll find chairs and shade tents for rent.

For a relaxed day, it would be my top pick among the Bocagrande beaches.

Which Area of Cartagena’s Bocagrande Beach Will You Visit?

Now you have a complete guide to what to expect on the beaches of Bocagrande in Cartagena. While I’d still strongly encourage you to get out to the islands for your beach fix, if you decide to stick around town, I hope this guide helped you decide the best spot to hang out with some sun and sand in Bocagrande.

Most importantly, I hope you enjoy it. I’d love to know about your experience in the comments.

Cheers and Happy Exploring!