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If you’re planning a trip to Cartagena, Colombia, you almost assuredly want to include some time to soak up the sun in the Cartagena islands.
After all, the best beaches around are in the islands of Cartagena.
However, you’ve probably also learned there are a ton of options to choose from among the islands near Cartagena. From day passes at beach clubs, to Cartagena island hopping tours, to overnight stays at hotels, it can be a tad overwhelming figuring out which is the best island in Cartagena for your visit.
That’s why in this post, I’ll be doing a practical and comparative guide to all the best islands to visit in Cartagena. That way, when you plan your trip, you can be sure you’ve chosen the best Cartagena, Colombia island for you!
Cartagena Islands: A Quick Overview
There are three main Cartagena island destinations. They are:
- The Rosario Islands
- Barú Island
- Tierra Bomba Island
I’ll cover each one of those main islands off Cartagena, plus a fourth option that is a bit farther away, in more detail in the sections below, but to start, I’ll give you a very quick rundown of these main islands close to Cartagena.
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I’ll make this simple: If you want to visit the best island off Cartagena, pick one of the places in the Rosarios Islands. Here’s where you’ll find crystal clear waters and the best overall Cartagena island experience.
If you have a group or the budget for it, a private rental is a great way to do them. You can get a quote from our local partner here.
If a private rental isn’t in the cards, our favorite place here is IslaBela, and you can book a day pass here or check the price of a room here.
For something more party oriented, you could do a day pass at Bora Bora, which also offers overnight stays now.
You can also do something like the Catamaran Tour or an Island Hopping Tour.
See more options for how to do what I consider to be the best islands near Cartagena in my complete guide to the Rosario Islands and in the detailed section on them below.
If you’re looking for the best island to stay near Cartagena with more upscale accomodations, pick Las Islas, Isla del Encanto, or the Sofitel Calablanca on the far end of Barú.
Also on Barú, you can find Playa Blanca, a gorgeous beach that can get overcrowded but can be done more cheaply. A day pass at Nena Beach or Mambo Beach Club is a good way to do this. You can also check the price of a room at Nena.
See more about Barú in the detailed section below and in my guide to Playa Blanca.
Finally, Tierra Bomba is a good option for some additional beach time or for those who aren’t big fans of long boat rides since it’s the closest of the islands off of Cartagena and just a short boat ride away.
Our favorite place here is Palmarito Beach, where you can book a day pass or check the price for an overnight room.
The newer Makani Luxury Wanderlust is a great luxury resort option on Tierra Bomba too, and they also offer a day pass. Blue Apple Beach also has a fun luxury but rustic vibe and also offers a day pass.
See more about Tierra Bomba in the complete section on it below.
Read on if you want some more help deciding, as I’ll cover each of these best islands near Cartagena in more detail below.
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The Best Cartagena Islands Detailed Guide
Let’s go through more details on what to expect, where to go, where to stay, and how to get to each of these best islands from Cartagena.
Rosario Islands: The Best Islands Near Cartagena
The Rosario Islands are a small chain of coral islands surrounded by crystal clear waters and located off the coast of Cartagena and, in my opinion, the overall best islands to visit near Cartagena.
As I said in the introduction, if you just want to visit just one island from Cartagena, choose an option in the Rosarios.
There are 28 islands that make up the chain, with the largest being Isla Grande, around which many of the others are clustered, although there are a few located farther away, including the island that is home to an Oceanarium where you can see dolphins and other marine life.
On or around Isla Grande is where you’ll find many of the popular beach clubs, hotels, and some private homes are located, including an alleged Pablo Escobar mansion. There’s also a small submerged airplane nearby that some claim was an Escobar plane too.
You’ve got a few options for how to do the Rosario Islands:
- You can book a day pass at a hotel or beach club
- You can do a shared boat tour
- You can spend the night at a hotel
- You can rent a private boat
I consider doing at least a day trip to these islands off the coast of Cartagena as all but an absolute must during your time in Cartagena.
For a more relaxed day, I’d recommend doing a day pass at IslaBela or the catamaran tour.
If you book for IslaBela through our partners, you can take 20% off their listed price with code ExploreColombia20. You can also get that discount if you book the more upscale San Pedro de Majagua with them. You can also book a day pass at IslaBela on GetYourGuide.
You can book the catamaran tour on GetYourGuide or on Viator. You could also opt to do this multi-island tour and choose the “leisure” ticket option. It’s bookable on GetYourGuide and Viator as well.
For a more lively day trip to this Cartagena island chain, choose a day pass at Bora Bora Beach Club or the “party” ticket option of that multi-island tour linked above, which goes to party spot Cholón (see more details on it in the Barú section below).
You can compare more options for a day trip in my post on the best Rosario Islands tours.
If you have more than 4 nights total in Cartagena, spending the night out here is a great way to get some extra R&R. Due to the logistics of getting to and from these Cartagena islands, just don’t stay out here for your first or last night.
I’d again recommend IslaBela as my top choice, and San Pedro de Majagua is also well regarded. Bora Bora also offers overnight stays if you want a more lively atmosphere during the day.
You can compare more options in my picks for the best Rosario Islands hotels here.
If you want the best of all worlds, you can also do a private boat rental to go island hopping from Cartagena. This is one of our favorite things to do in Cartagena and one of the things we miss the most about living there!
Especially if you have a group of 5 or more, it can be very cost effective compared to shared tours. Plus, you can organize the day however you like.
Click here to learn about booking a private rental with our partner or check out my tips for renting a boat in Cartagena here.
Barú Island
Oh Baru!
Barú is a large peninsula about 45 minutes south of Cartagena that was severed from the mainland and turned into an island when the Spanish built the Canal del Dique to connect the Magdalena River to Cartagena’s bay in the 16th century.
I actually spent my first year living in Colombia, back in 2011, working as a volunteer teacher in the small town of Santa Ana on Barú. Back then, the only crossing was by ferry or small canoes, and the main way around the island was by mototaxi on the unpaved road.
Now, there is a paved road and bridge connecting it to the mainland, which means it can be reached over land much more easily, which has caused an explosion of tourism in the last decade or so, especially to Playa Blanca, the most famous beach on Barú.
Besides Playa Blanca, there are a few other sectors, if you will, on Barú. Below, I’ll discuss and give some tips for each area on this island by Cartagena.
Playa Blanca and Playa Tranquila
The most well known beach on this island off Cartagena is Playa Blanca, known for it’s long stretch of white sand beach and crystal clear waters. I’d say the vast majority of the time when people refer to Barú, there’s a good chance they are referring to Playa Blanca.
Back in the mototaxi days, Playa Blanca was lightly developed, with nothing more than beach shack restaurants serving fried fish and renting beach chairs with shade tents. Some places had hammocks to rent for the night for the intrepid backpackers that made the sojourn out here by a combination of bus, canoe, and mototaxi.
Locals would bus in on the weekends, and there were a couple large boat tours that brought people for day trips to this island from Cartagena, but once you got outside the main area by the entrance, most of the beach was unspoiled, lightly developed, and not very crowded.
However, in the years since the construction of the bridge, there has been a flurry of building, including larger beach bungalows and multi-story buildings that look almost like proper hotels, complete with bathrooms, beds, and balconies.
The number of people on the beach on any given day has also grown exponentially, and there are nearly always large crowds on the weekends, especially on Sundays and Monday holidays.
In short, the idyllic, unspoiled quality that made Playa Blanca so neat has been lost. In addition to the crowds, aggressive sales tactics and some vendors overcharging has given Playa Blanca a bit of a bad reputation.
Sometime along the way, Playa Tranquila began to be marketed as if it was a different beach.
It’s not.
It’s just the far end of Playa Blanca. There was a time before it was developed where perhaps it offered a distinct, more tranquil vibe, but it’s pretty much all developed now too.
While it still might generally get less crowded than the area right around the parking lot and entrance to the beach, the days of there being almost no one who ventured this far down the beach are long gone.
I tend to recommend spending a bit more for what I consider to be a better experience in the islands and don’t recommend going out to Playa Blanca much anymore to the average tourist, but this is still a gorgeous beach, and it can be done a bit more cheaply if you are on a tighter budget or if you want an additional beach day on a Cartagena island after doing the Rosarios.
It’s also a decent spot to end a day island hopping from Cartagena, whether it be by shared boat or a private rental, since food is generally cheaper here than out in the Rosarios.
Finally, it makes a good stop for lunch and afternoon relaxing if you want to visit the nearby Aviary, which is really well done and worth the visit if it interests you.
Booking a tour or day pass can be an easy way to have your transportation as well as lunch and beach chairs prearranged and included in the price so you don’t have to worry about negotiating it or the risk of being overcharged.
Nena Beach Club seems to be one of the more highly regarded places out on Playa Blanca today for organized day tours, and I see it recommended and generally well reviewed in my Facebook group a lot.
This day trip to Mambo Beach Club also has lots of good reviews and is priced relatively cheaply. I also like the idea of this tour that includes the Aviary and Mambo if you want to do the aviary.
If you’d like to go on your own, I’d recommend hiring a taxi or driver for the day, walking to the right after you come down the stairs from the parking lot and finding a place that looks good and not too crowded. Negotiate your lunch and beach chairs together. Be sure to verify prices on any drinks or other food, and ask ahead of time if there are service fees.
If you want to go to this Cartagena island for a day trip, I’d strongly encourage you to try to avoid weekends and holidays if at all possible. On weekdays during non-peak seasons, there’ll be fewer crowds and you’ll be able to negotiate better prices.
If you want to spend the night out here, be aware accommodations are generally pretty basic. Don’t expect to sit in the A/C all day. There’s no electrical lines or running water out here, although there are places that have water tanks with flushing toilets and showers.
If you want to book a place to stay ahead of time here, I’d recommend one of the following that all have a large numer of positive reviews up online: Nena Beach Club, The Wizard, La Cabaña Glamping Geronimo, or Hotel Calamari.
If you want something a bit luxurious, consider the Decameron Barú, and all inclusive resort located across a tiny little channel at the end of Playa Tranquila. I’ve heard mixed reviews it, and I get the impression it’s closer to a Latino Holiday Inn than Sandals, but they do have a privileged location and it could make a good choice for a family friendly all inclusive.
Or, you could just go on your own and walk down the beach until you find a spot you like, and ask to see the rooms. During non-peak seasons, you can probably negotiate on price this way as well.
Cholón
Cholón, known as Cartagena’s party island, is a small beach on a point at the western tip of a smaller island just off Barú.
It’s located farther southwest than Playa Blanca, and it’s not practical to try to get here over land.
It’s a neat spot, with palm thatch shelters built into the shallow, waist deep water, with boats tying up in a big circle all around it.
There’s a bit of a Spring Break vibe here, with people blasting music and having dance parties on their boats between dips on the water. It can also get very crowded nowadays.
If you want to do Cholón, you can include it as a stop on a private boat rental, pick the “party” ticket of the multi-island tour on GetYourGuide or Viator, or book a tour that spends most of the day at Cholón.
You can also click here to learn more about Cholón.
Agua Azul
Agua Azul is actually located on the same island as Cholón, just a bit to the west. It has a larger stretch of beach just on the other side of a little bay where boats can pull in and drop you off.
We’ve stopped here a number of times for lunch, swimming, and hanging out on the beach for a while when we’ve done private boat rentals.
The beach here is pretty nice, and there’s a cool little island in the background that makes for good scenery and photos. It’s always felt less crowded and more relaxed than Playa Blanca when we’ve gone. I think it works well as an alternative if Cholón is too crowded or turns out not to be your vibe too, since it’s so close.
I have heard of some reports of vendors overcharging or scamming people out here. Although we’ve never had that issue, it’s worth keeping in mind and being wary of.
Agua Azul Resort is also located here if you wanted to spend the night.
Tip of Barú (around the town of Barú)
I know, it’s a tad confusing!
The island is called Barú, but the town near the southwestern tip is also called Barú.
Besides the town, there are a number of resorts and beach clubs out here. This area is actually the part of Barú that I think offers the best experience on this Cartagena island, away from the crowds and vendors at Playa Blanca and Cholón.
The nicest resort out here is Las Islas, on a tiny island off Barú and sort of across from where Cholón is located. It has amazing looking luxury bungalows.
We really enjoyed Isla del Encanto, also on this far end of Barú proper (Read my review of Isla del Encanto here). Unlike the beach shack hostels on Playa Blanca or the more rustic bungalows out in the Rosarios, rooms here are furnished like a more modern resort, and the beach is gorgeous. They also offer day passes.
Casa Cordoba Barú also has great reviews, as does Aura Hotel, and I’ve heard really good things about the newer Sabai Beach Hotel, all located nearby.
There’s also this neat private Barú tour that goes to the town here, then the mangroves out in the Rosario Islands, including a bit of culture, nature, and beach time that would be a unique way to do the Cartagena islands.
Tierra Bomba
Tierra Bomba is an island located at the entrance to Cartagena’s bay.
There are some pretty decent beaches here, and its closer proximity to the city makes for a much quicker boat ride. Boats also can return later in the day or even into the evening, meaning you can get more out of a day here too. Not to mention, Tierra Bomba can also be done more cheaply.
The trade off is the water here is not crystal clear. It’s prettier than the beaches in town, but nothing like what you’ll find out in the Rosarios and Barú.
If you’ve already done the Rosarios and want some additional beach time without breaking the bank to go to the nicer spots on the far end of Barú, I’d choose Tierra Bomba over the longer trip to Playa Blanca.
Unlike the Rosarios and Barú, which pretty much require a full day, you can also do a half-day trip across to Tierra Bomba, and since the currents are not so strong in the bay, you can also come back by boat in the late afternoon or evening and not have to return in the afternoon like you do from the farther islands from Cartagena.
Like Baru, there are a few sectors to Tierra Bomba, including publicly accessible beaches and also some beach clubs and hotels set apart on their own that offer a bit higher end and more private experience.
I’m going to primarily focus on the beaches, but there are also some well regarded ATV tours on Tierra Bomba if you’re looking to do something a bit extreme while also visiting some of the beaches on this island off Cartagena.
Punta Arena and Northeastern Coast of Tierra Bomba
A lot of the beach clubs and hotels are concentrated around the area known as Punta Arena, almost a straight shot across the bay from Bocagrande on the northeastern side of Tierra Bomba.
I like this area for its neat view of the city’s skyline and modern skyscrapers in Bocagrande, Castillogrande, and Manga. Plus, it’s only about a 10 minute boat ride across.
To get to the places on this part of Tierra Bomba, you’ll get boats from the Castillogrande beach behind the hospital in Bocagrande.
Be aware when you arrive behind the hospital, you’ll likely be approached by numerous vendors, who often come right up to your taxi. This can be jarring for some. They’re harmless, but can be a bit, let’s say insistent.
If you’ve booked a day pass or stay at one of the beach clubs or hotels, your transportation should be included, and they should provide you with information on how to get the boat. So, just tell the vendors you’ve already got a reservation.
Palmarito Beach is our personal favorite beach club and hotel on this part of Tierra Bomba (Read my review of Palmarito Beach here). It’s actually set apart a bit farther up than Punta Arena, which gives it a sort of private beach feel. They offer overnight stays and day passes.
Namaste also is a nice spot, and Fenix Beach is very well regarded and a tad more luxury. Eteka Beach, which is adults only and Vista Mare are two other good options in this area.
If you’re going on your own, you can pick someone to negotiate with as you get out the taxi or walk down to the beach and negotiate by the boats. I recommend arranging your return trip and time with the same boat. Once across, you can negotiate lunch and beach chairs, if you want them, with a place directly there.
Bocachica
Bocachica is the town and beach on the southern tip of Tierra Bomba.
This is where the main channel entering the bay has been located since the colonial era. There are several neat and well preserved forts here, and they are some of Cartagena’s best hidden gems, in my opinion. You can learn about the forts of Bocachica here.
To get here, you’ll generally need to take boats that leave from the main Muelle de Bodeguita docks. There are public boats that stop at the town of Bocachica itself, a short walk from the main fort and public beach. There are a few nicer beach clubs nearby that should be able to arrange transportation for you too.
Honestly, I would probably not come here just for the beach. It’s fine, but the beaches on the other side of the island are better. Coming out here for a fish lunch and an afternoon swimming and lounging after visiting the forts if you want to see them works well though.
There is this cool pirate ship tour that stops at the forts and the beach here, which would be a fun way to do this too.
The nicer places located nearby on up the western coast of the island are worth visiting for their own sake too.
Blue Apple Beach has a really nice set up with a nice pool and great food and drinks (Read my review of Blue Apple Beach Club here). They also have day passes.
Amare, located in a bit of an isolated area farther up has nice reviews and has overnight stays as well as day passes.
The newer Makani Luxury Wanderlust (what a name!), has a really impressive resort style set up, and is the most luxurious place on Tierra Bomba. You can also book a day pass at Makani.
San Bernardo Islands: Farthest Islands From Cartagena
I debated rather to include the San Bernardo Islands in this guide.
They are located pretty far to the south of Cartagena and are best done as a multi-night trip, although I’ve seen a few day trip options.
The main two islands in these best islands around Cartagena are Mucura and Tintípan.
Nearby, you’ll find the tiny Santa Cruz del Islote, where there is a small town that makes it one of the most densely populated islands in the world.
Finally, a bit closer to shore, there is Isla Palma, which has a gorgeous little beach peninsula.
These Colombian islands near Cartagena are easiest to reach from the small towns of Tolú and Rincón del Mar, both much closer to these islands than Cartagena. Day trip options and boat transportation out to the San Bernardo Islands can be arranged from both.
Stopping in one of these towns and doing the islands is a good way to partially break up the long overland trip from Cartagena to Medellín.
Tolú is a bit easier to reach over land via bus, but Rincón is nicer if you plan to stay for any time beyond using it as a jumping off point to reach the islands. Read my guide to Rincón del Mar here.
If you spend the night in the islands, there is a speed boat named Tranq It Easy that does daily trips to and from the San Bernardo Islands from Cartagena and is the easiest option to just go spend a few nights and come back to Cartagena.
As you can read in my San Bernardo Islands guide, we really enjoyed these islands. However, I have it on good authority that they’ve become more crowded in recent years.
I’d personally recommend definitely sticking to one of the closer islands to Cartagena discussed above for just a day trip or 1 night stay. I have heard of at least one day trip to Isla Palma from Cartagena though, but it sure sounds like a very long day.
If you do want to spend the night, I’d recommend considering Hotel Punta Faro, Hotel Isla Mucura, and Dahlandia on Mucura or Hotel Puntanorte, El Embrujo, and Sal Si Puedes on Tintipan.
You could also opt to stay in the famous backpacker party spot Casa en el Agua, surrounded by water.
Finally, there is a neat hostel called Mistica Island Hostel on Isla Palma a bit south of Tintipan and Mucura, where there is a gorgeous beach that used to be part of a big resort if you’re looking for something unique and cheaper.
Which Cartagena Island Will You Choose?
Now you’ve got a complete guide to all the best islands to visit from Cartagena! I hope you found this guide useful in planning your own trip or trips to the Cartagena islands.
Most importantly, I hope you have a wonderful time no matter which place or places you choose to visit. I’d love for you to share in the comments where you went and what you thought.
Cheers and Happy Cartagena Island Hopping!
Want to connect with me and fellow travelers to Cartagena and Colombia?
Click here to join the Cartagena, Colombia Travel Tips Facebook Group
It’s a great place to ask questions, share tips, and get inspiration!
Planning a trip to Cartagena?
Be sure to check out the rest of the site to help you plan!
In particular, you might want to check out my complete guide to planning a trip to Cartagena, my guide to the best areas to stay, my list of over 75 things to do, my picks for the best Cartagena tours, the best day trips from Cartagena, my suggested packing list, my guide to the Rosario Islands, and my guide to all the beaches of Cartagena.
