If you’re currently planning a trip in Colombia, surely you are considering including at least one of Medellín and Cartagena on your destination list.
They are the two most popular cities for international travelers in Colombia for good reasons after all!
Medellín is known for its lovely permanent spring climate, great restaurant scene, a fun nightlife, and many nearby sites, including relatively easy access to Colombia’s coffee growing region. It’s also the most modern city in Colombia.
Cartagena, on the other hand, is known for the charm of its colonial era architecture, year round Caribbean beach weather, and vibrant culture.
So, the real question is, why not include both on your trip?
If you would like to visit both Medellín and Cartagena, you’re in luck, because it’s relatively easy to get from Medellín to Cartagena. I lived in Cartagena for over 11 years, and got to travel Colombia extensively, including going to Medellín several times.
Here, I’m going to use that experience to help you figure out the best way to get from Medellín to Cartagena, including why (spoiler alert) taking a Medellín to Cartagena flight is the best option for most travelers.
However, don’t you worry, budget backpackers, I’ll discuss my tips for taking a Medellín to Cartagena bus too and even touch on making the Medellín to Cartagena drive.
So read on to learn all you need to know about how to get to Cartagena from Medellín!
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How to Get from Medellín to Cartagena – Contents
- Overview and Quick Tips
- How Far is Cartagena from Medellín?
- Why Flights from Medellín to Cartagena Are the Best Option for Most Travelers
- Tips for Taking a Medellín to Cartagena Bus
- Can You Rent a Car and Drive from Medellín to Cartagena?
How to Get to Cartagena from Medellín Quick Tips
Honestly, based on my several experiences traveling between Cartagena and Medellín, taking a flight from Medellín to Cartagena is by far the best option for the vast majority of travelers.
Buses from Medellín to Cartagena can take 20-24 hours!
So, you get basically an entire additional day to actually enjoy these two top destinations in Colombia by taking flights from Medellín to Cartagena.
Plus, if you manage to find a good price for a Medellín to Cartagena flight, you may end up not spending all that much more.
To help make sure you get a good deal, I’d recommend checking for flights from Medellín to Cartagena on an aggregator site like CheapOair or Expedia, but also checking directly with airlines who may have flash sales going on.
Now, if you do want to take the bus, it can be a good option on at least one of two conditions.
The first is, obviously, that you have the time.
Unfortunately, most of us don’t have unlimited vacation time, and you’re going to to have to weigh the cost benefit of saving a chunk of pesos against missing out on a day of enjoying your trip.
The other is if you do have the time to slow travel, there is at least one worthwhile stop that can break that long trip up and is totally worth doing (more on it and other possible stops in the Medellín to Cartagena bus section below).
You can get an idea of pricing, schedules, and even book some buses to Cartagena from Medellín at BusBud and Bookaway.
Finally, given how long the trip overland is, I generally don’t recommend renting a car and trying to make the Medellín to Cartagena drive unless you both have experience driving in Colombia and are going to make a stop along the way.
You can check out rental car prices here if you would like to do that.
Regardless of how you travel from Medellín to Cartagena, you’ll want to make sure you have a top notch experience in both. If you’d like some expert help, consider planning your trip with my partner travel agency BnB Colombia Tours. They provide high quality, mostly private tours with local bilingual guides and can plan every part of your trip starting with airport pick up upon arrival. They’ll even give you a discount if you fill out the form here.
If you’re more of a DIY planner, you could also check out their day tours (use the code ExploreColombia10 for a discount on those too!) or check out the top activities in Medellín on GetYourGuide and Viator as well as the top tours in Cartagena on GetYourGuide and Viator.
Also, please do check out all the content on the site, especially about Cartagena, but also elsewhere in Colombia (putting together some Medellín content is on my to do list!).
Especially before taking your trip from Medellín to Cartagena you’ll want to take a look at my guide to the best areas to stay in Cartagena, or just take a look at my picks for the best luxury hotels, most charming boutique hotels, or best hostels.
If you’re still on the fence about deciding the best way to travel from Medellín to Cartagena, below I’ll go over each of these options for Medellín to Cartagena travel below, along with the pros and cons, and some helpful tips for planning.
How Far is Cartagena from Medellín?
Cartagena is about 400 miles, or 650 km, from Medellín by road.
Since planes don’t have to worry about getting over or around the roots of the Andes, the flight time on flights from Medellín to Cartagena are about an hour and 15 minutes.
Driving yourself should take about 12 hours, according to Google Maps. However, based on my experience with Google Maps in Colombia, these times are often underestimated and based on the absolute best traffic conditions, which are rarely actually what you get.
Finally, taking a bus from Medellín to Cartagena should take between 20-24 hours depending on stops and traffic.
See, why I suggest taking a flight to Cartagena from Medellín?
Why Flights from Medellín to Cartagena are the Best Option
Those long travel times to get to Cartagena from Medellín are the main reason why I suggest taking flights from Medellín to Cartagena.
Medellín to Cartagena flights are, based on my own experience, and my best advice, by far the best option for the vast majority of travelers.
I’ve taken buses all around Colombia, and it is generally a good way to get around for cheaper than flying. For example, in my guide to traveling from Cartagena to Santa Marta, I whole heartedly endorse taking a charter van or bus.
Even for longer distances, doing something like an overnight bus can be a good way to save a bit and not have to sacrifice a full day to travel.
But this just isn’t the case with traveling to Cartagena from Medellín by bus, since it will take nearly an entire night and day to get there.
Especially if you are traveling directly to Cartagena from Medellín, I just don’t think the time you’ll lose is worth the relatively nominal amount of money you’ll save taking a bus.
After all, time is an extremely valuable thing in and of itself while on vacation!
Flights from Medellín to Cartagena aren’t really all that much more expensive either.
I just took a quick look while writing this and can find one way flights from Medellín to Cartagena for as low as $50 USD. Buses I can book online run about $35.
I tend to think $15 bucks is more than worth getting an extra 18+ hours of time to enjoy!
Granted, it’s worth pointing out you can probably find a slightly cheaper bus by going to the terminal and that the cheapest flights usually aren’t at the best times and probably have some taxes or fees added on.
Still, you should easily be able to find a one way Medellín to Cartagena flight in the $100 dollar range, and round trip you should be able to get one for $200 or less.
By the way, to get the best prices on a flight from Medellín to Cartagena, I’d recommend checking out large aggregator booking sites like CheapOair and Expedia, but also checking out the websites of airlines.
Avianca and LATAM regularly run flash sales that have really cheap prices for flights from Medellín to Cartagena.
While they often have peak seasons and weekends blacked out on those sales, if you have any flexibility at all, they can be a great way to take a flight to Cartagena from Medellín at prices pretty close to what you’ll pay for that long ride on the bus to Cartagena from Medellín.
They are also often better deals getting one way tickets, so they actually work particularly well if you are flying into Medellín then flying out of Cartagena to end your trip.
By the way, if you are going to take a flight from Cartagena to Medellín, do check out my guide to the Cartagena airport. You can also book a private transfer to or from the airport in Medellín and in Cartagena with my partner travel agency (don’t forget the ExploreColombia10 discount code!).
You can also check out this Wikipedia guide to the Medellín airport.
Tips for Taking a Medellín to Cartagena Bus
Ok, if you do have the time to slow travel and really need to save a few pesos, I’ll go over how to take a Medellín to Cartagena bus in this section.
I want to start by saying that if you do want to take a bus from Medellín to Cartagena, I’d highly encourage at least one stop along the way to break that trip up a bit, and there are a couple worthwhile stops that I think will let you get more out of your trip.
The top stop I’d recommend if you take a bus to Cartagena from Medellín is the San Bernardo Islands. These are the sister island chain to the better known Rosario Islands closer to Cartagena.
You can access the San Bernardos from Tolú, which is probably the easiest because it’s along the route most Medellín to Cartagena buses take.
Or, you can also access them from Rincón del Mar, which does require arriving to San Onofre and getting another form of transportation.
Rincón del Mar is a bit of a hidden gem beach town that I would recommend over more well known destinations like Palomino if you want a few laid back beach days at a relatively cheap price. You can read more about it in my guide to Rincón.
If you want to spend a couple nights more cheaply and do a day trip to the San Bernardos, Rincón is the best bet because it’s much prettier than Tolú.
If you want to spend the night in the islands themselves, go to Tolú as there are more options for boats out to the islands.
If you do spend the night in the islands, you also have the option of arranging boat transportation to Cartagena. The most popular boat company is called Tranq It Easy and offers daily boats.
Of course, you can also head back to the mainland and continue over land too. From Tolú, it should be pretty easy to get a bus to Cartagena at the terminal. From Rincón, head back to San Onofre, then get a ticket to continue your Medellín to Cartagena bus journey.
Coveñas is another possible stop along the route buses from Medellín to Cartagena take, but I don’t think the beach there is as nice as Rincón or the islands, so I’d just recommend doing one of those.
Of course, you can always also take a direct bus from Medellín to Cartagena.
As I mentioned above these take roughly 20-24 hours depending on traffic. Most of them are fairly comfortable with reclining seats, and some companies offer seat upgrades that recline more fully.
While you can generally get lots more options and even better prices at the bus terminal (ah by the way, you’ll want to go to Terminal del Norte in Medellín), you can get an idea of what’s available and even book online at BusBud or Bookaway.
One final word of advice, these nicer direct buses from Medellín to Cartagena tend to have the A/C cranked up pretty high, so having along a sweater or hoodie isn’t a bad idea.
Can I Rent a Car and Make the Medellín to Cartagena Drive?
Yes, you can.
But, I don’t recommend it, at least for most travelers.
First, it is a 12+ hour drive from Medellín to Cartagena. While not horrible, it’s pushing the limits of what you can do in one day.
But more importantly, you’ll be on some winding mountain roads for part of the trip, and Colombians generally drive quite aggressively. That includes buses and truckers passing people on two lane highways as well as people passing them.
If you have experience driving in Colombia and are comfortable with that, I say go for it.
Although, honestly I’d probably still suggest just flying unless you’re going to stop at one of the places mentioned above.
If you do want to try to drive to Cartagena from Medellín, you can check out prices for rentals at Rentalcars.com.
Ready for your trip from Medellín to Cartagena?
Now you know all about your options for how to get to Cartagena from Medellín. I really encourage most people to just pay up a bit more to do the flight from Medellín to Cartagena unless you do want to stop in the islands or Rincón.
However, regardless of which way you choose to travel from Medellín to Cartagena, I hope this guide was helpful and, more importantly, you have a safe trip and fully enjoy both cities!
Obviously there is tons of great content on this site to help you plan in Cartagena, but also you’ll find lots of info on other places in the Other Destinations section (I know, I know, I need to work on some content for Medellín!, it’s on my list).
Cheers and Happy Exploring!
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.
