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…
Must-see attractions in Caribbean Coast
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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…
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…
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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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…
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
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…
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…
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…
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…
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
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Fuerte de San Sebastián del Pastelillo
Cartagena
This fort, on the western end of Manga Island, was constructed in the middle of the 16th century as one of the town's first defense posts. It's quite…
