Hotel Almirante: Great service!

We couldn’t be happier with our stay at Hotel Almirante. The food was great, awesome location, and the staff was on point. Would definitely recommend staying here! It’s a short, $2-3 cab ride to the walled city, and there’s lots to explore on the Boca grande as well. Jonathan was an awesome server at the hotel restaurant and Raul was a great cab driver (hotel has their own cabs). All in all was a great trip and will definitely return for the ceviché alone (+uno agua sin gas, uno agua con  [... read more]gas)!!!

Be Live Experience Cartagena Dubai: Be Live Dubai Cartagena

This hotel pretends to be 4 stars...it is rather 3 stars! Although the personnel is examplary, remarquable, absolutely diligent and really 'there' for clients, and although beds were comfortable, management is failing in various ways: lack of towels in room (impossible to obtain after several requests); water over flowing in room after taking shower (reported but repair possible 'only if client present', thus making client waste vacation time and responsible of security); food in restaurant rat [... read more]her poor in choice, re-used and re-served 2-3 days in row...etc. etc.

Cartagena Plaza: Very good hotel

Very good, except hotel elevators and annoying vendors on the beach. Elevators are extremely slow, better go stairs. Vendors - that's a story by itself! Coming every 5 secs, really really annoying. Other then that - 5 stars!

Hilton Cartagena: Fabulous service

The hotel facilities are beautiful and pristine. The pool area is well maintained. The rooms look just like the photos. We had the best filet mignon in the dining room - excellent food. But the best part of our stay were the staff. Rafaela at the jewellery store is the most lovely woman. When I was sick, she took me to see the nurse and even offered to go to the pharmacy with me. The front desk staff were efficient and well informed with answers to all our questions. In particular, Andres [... read more] Filipe was very professional, friendly and helpful.

Cartagena Plaza: Great view, great location

The rooms were very nice, and the hotel in general was very clean. The beach area is close by however there are people trying to sell you day trips and items every 10 seconds (even if your eyes are closed trying to have a nap), not the hotel’s fault. Food in the buffet was always edible but nothing really wowed us. Coffee and wine service at breakfast/dinner is very slow, we had to ask for it each time or go without.

Hotel Capilla del Mar: Loved this hotel and city

The hotel overall was fantastic and the service was so good, the food at the hotel was also very good. I cant wait to return, they made our first time in colombia the best vacation ever! Thanks Capilla del mar from Canada

Hotel Capilla del Mar: Beautiful hotel

Capilla del Mar is a lovely hotel. It has a great location on Boca Grande beach. It is clean and the staff are very friendly. I only had breakfast at the restaurant onsite but it was delicious. Your choice of fresh juice and eggs made to order, along with fresh bread, fruits and other various breakfast options. The front lobby isn’t large but who hangs out there anyways? The pool is quite small so that would be a negative for me but overall I would recommend it!!

Decameron Baru Beach Resort and Spa: Not alot to do

No consistency at the bars. Ask for a drink at one bar and like it then order from another bar and totally different. Not enough water tours. You have to have at least 10 people before they would send out any tours, so that meant you had to hire private and quite costly.

Be Live Experience Cartagena Dubai: Cartagena 'Dubai', good hotel, so so package

"Dubai" hotel in Cartagena de Indias is reasonably good as a hotel itself, with good service level and friendly personnel. It offers a comfortable stay in a city on a waterfront (with immediate access to public beach strip) and within 20 minutes walking distance to old town section. We purchased an all-inclusive package with that hotel. Turns out it's not really all-inclusive (there was no evening entertainment, no typical in other countries beach support in form of included umbrellas, sunbeds  [... read more]or water sports). It was only hotel+meals set. There were 3 meals provided, which were decent, tasty and healthy, but the selection, especially on 2 weeks long stay, was rather limited. The most boring was breakfast, daily the same: 4 trays of eggs in different format, two trays of cheapo hotdogs and occasional tray with pancakes ... luckily there were also regular fruits and cookies. Asking for a drink (being free in all-included deal) at a pool bar was almost making you feel guilty (I even got an attitude lecture from one bar tender that I should speak Spanish) - despite wearing all-inclusive bracelets we were always asked for a room number, we had to sign receipts, and even once they asked for a passport number (imagine, bar tender checking your ID). They were also regularly running out of ingredients needed for their drinks, so selection was often limited. In a 4 star hotel like "Dubai", supposedly prepared to serve an international tourist, you would expect to have somebody being able to speak English. During 2 weeks of my stay there I met only two people that could speak very basic English (looks like the entire Cartagena has an allergy to English). This hotel (and the city in general) seems to cater mainly to their 99.9% Spanish speaking Latino tourists. So again, the hotel itself is good, but as an all-inclusive package they have lots to learn from resorts in Mexico or Cuba.

Hotel Caribe by Faranda Grand: Great authentic Colombian hotel

Great friendly service at an authentic Colombian resort. We were upgraded to a superior room on arrival. Grounds are peaceful and beautiful. Breakfast was very good with lots of options. Would definitely stay there again. Thank you to all staff

Hotel Caribe by Faranda Grand: Great place to relax

Great Hotel with decent rooms, garden and swimming pool. The garden with macaws, tucans, deer and sloths is a great place to recover from a night in Old Cartagena, which is only 3 km away. Good size and clean swimming pool. The beach is just across the road. A bit crowded on the weekends but still fine. You can mix with locals and get a sense of life in the city. Hope to go back. No complaints.

Cartagena Plaza: Very good location

The hotel room was very big on the second floor and beds extremly clean and lots of big fluffy pillows .The location has lots of bars ,restaurants, huge and modern shopping centers and several high end hotels just a few blocks away.Food in the buffet was really good and with lots of flavor.looks like more than 95 percent of guest are all spanish guests .Even the travel rep at this hotel speak only spanish and wasnt able to answer all my questions.All the souvenirs stores communicate only in span [... read more]ish or the odd english words.Overall it is a very beautiful city with tons of historical sites especially the walled city and San Felipe castle.Travelling around night and day very safe.Taxis very cheap approximately $5Can. on most trips.Beers in bocagrande approximately $2.25Can.Sightseeing tours and sunset cruise very spectacular and cheap.I will advise any english speaking person to learn a bit of spanish before travelling to Cartagena colombia to make communication easier.It was a challenge for me even attending a spanish school in Guatamela for 3weeks of total immersion.

Hotel Almirante: We stayed a week

This review is based on my week-long stay at this hotel in April, 2019. We had the all-inclusive package. First, I want to say that this is not really an all-inclusive resort. It’s a hotel that offers an all-inclusive option. But don’t expect lots of coordinated activities, multiple restaurants, etc. And because most people there are not all-inclusive customers, you have to constantly give your room number and sign for meals, etc. That said, in general my wife and I had a great time. [... read more] First of all, the beaches in Columbia are beautiful, but because they are all public, when you are on the beach you are constantly propositioned by people selling things: statues, hats, sunglasses, bottles of water. I like that people have freedom to make a living, but the sellers were so persistent that my wife and I ended up staying by the hotel pool most of the week instead of on the beach. There is a pool table in the hotel that’s free to use when they don’t have a conference in there. My wife and I played it a lot. The location of the hotel is good. There are lots of shops and restaurants around. The old city can be reached by the always-available taxis for about 10k pesos ($5 Canadian; $3.5 USD). There is a “solarium” on the 15th floor. It’s basically a rooftop with fake grass and some outdoor lounge chairs, and a shower. It’s nice if you want a quiet place to read. The pool is great, but it can be loud because they play music there. On the afternoons and the weekends, the pool might be too loud to concentrate on a book. The pool is great. There’s a bar, a shower, a ping pong table, and a small but nice pool with a great view of the beach and the old city in the distance. The “snack” you can get there consists of an overcooked hot dog (no bun or condiments) and two big heated up frozen french fries. When it arrived at our table, we laughed out loud. There is a shallow part of the pool for little kids. But this is the only thing there is for kids to do at this place. The food in the restaurant was great. We were on the all-inclusive package, which means we got a breakfast buffet, which was great, and then, for lunch and dinner, an appetizer, entree, and dessert from a limited menu. In general, that’s way too much food! We only got all three the first time. At the end of this review I talk about the different dishes. Though the menu was limited, we were there a week and didn’t get bored of the selection. If they have enough people at the hotel, they’ll have a buffet for lunches and dinners too, but this only happened once to us (Saturday night). Colombians eat rather late; restaurants don’t even open until 7pm. The wait staff is lovely. Keep in mind that their English is very poor. The only staff who speak English pretty well are the receptionists and the bartender. The room was pretty standard, comfortable, with a desk, and TV. It was very quiet--much quieter than the echoey hallway room we had in Cancun. The window of our room didn’t open, which meant our room got pretty stuffy. The room has a minibar with expensive snacks and water. They charge you about 10k pesos for a bottle of water, even if you’re on the all-inclusive package, which I think is pretty ridiculous (you can ask for several bottles of water at the bar and bring them up and don’t get charged on the all-inclusive.) At the end we got jerked around a bit and it pissed me off. We ordered a latte and a pina colada to drink while we waited for our shuttle to the airport. I told the bartender we were going to check out, and we’d be back for the drinks. He rang us up for the drinks AFTER we checked out, so we had to pay for them. I felt insulted that they tried to wring $14 out of me after we were there for a week as all-inclusive guests. I complained to the manager, who said sorry at first, but then explained that the drinks could not be charged to the all-inclusive account because we’d checked out, so no problem! The bartender should have charged the room before I checked out, and failing that, the manager should have comped the drinks and refunded us. As it was, I left the hotel with a bad taste in my mouth. But overall we had a great time. I don’t think we’ll go back, but only because I think we’ve seen enough of Cartagena--you can see it in 3 days. We had a week with a little bit of sightseeing and lots of reading by the pool, so the time was perfect for us. Menu items we tried: Appetizers: Ceviche: excellent! My wife had this many times. It’s an appetizer, but enough for a light meal. Fish soup: Delish! Cilantro and fish in a south-american flavoured soup Meat soup: also good. I got this twice. Tuna salad: Just a salad with what appears to be a can of tuna in it. Unimpressive. Cesar Salad: overdressed, but ok. I only got it once. Entrees: Seafood and rice (Rice Cartagenera): Good! Shrimp and coconut rice: This coconut rice is the bomb. Excellent. Fliet Mignon: Pretty good. Baby beef: Tough. I ordered it medium rare, and it came well-done. Chicken Milanese: Excellent. I got this four times. I don’t know what they put in the breading, but it’s excellent. American Chicken: mediocre. Chicken stuffed with Shrimp: Wife liked it, I didn’t. Desserts: Tiramisu: just okay Chocolate cake: a little dry Ice cream: standard, but good. Chocolate or coconut. Flan: coconut flavoured. Good.

Hotel Caribe by Faranda Grand: This is NOT a 5-star hotel!

The public grounds were very nice and the inclusion of the deer, sloths, macaws and toucans was delightful - in fact, the only good thing about this hotel. The room we were assigned was OK at first glance, but we had to request additional hangers and have someone get the TV operational. No coffee maker. The bathroom had one towel ring (for 4 towels!), no hooks and did not have robes as advertised. The light over the bath flickered all the time. We asked for someone to come to the room and di [... read more]scussed all these things with him, but nothing changed. The pool was large and enabled lengths to be swum. Someone skimmed out superficial surface rubbish everyday, but it didn't appear to be chlorinated and at times had so many people in it one wondered at the cleanliness and hygiene, as there were many children in and out, including babies in diapers, although there was a small children's pool attached to the larger one. A noticeable oil sheen on the water didn't seem to be filtered out at any time. There were only four covered sunbeds around the pool (much in demand) and other chaises under trees or without shade. Lots of clean towels most of the time. We did try to use the hotel beach section as well but found it to be extremely hot and without shade although there were many more sunbeds available, most were empty. The location of the hotel is very poor in an area where the sidewalks are badly damaged, the traffic is unbelievable and one has to take great care when walking as it is so easy to trip and fall. We did see one accident like this. The only transport available is via taxi as you need a pass to use the buses. We learned that this hotel is part of a time share company and as Easter week approached, hundreds more people arrived at the hotel and the hotel made no provision of extra staff to cope with this tsunami of people. It became very overcrowded and noisy. Breakfast, which had been reasonable prior to this time, became a zoo. A buffet breakfast was available which was repetitive and boring, and very often there were no coffee cups or cutlery, and no-one serving coffee. If you wanted sugar or salt, you had to ask as they were never on the tables. Bad service all around. The biggest problem was getting our room serviced. It became so bad that we had to ask someone in management to intervene as we would come back to our room late in the day and find it had still not been made up. The last two days were the worst as on the penultimate day nothing had been done by 6.00pm. We complained but refused to allow someone in when they finally appeared, just made the beds ourselves. The rating on this hotel is totally incorrect.. Absolutely nothing takes it into the category that is advertised. Totally misleading. I do NOT recommend this hotel at all.

Hotel Capilla del Mar: Amazing hotel and great staff

Hotel is very clean, friendly staff and in the great area of Cartagena. Staff at the reseption is very helpful. Food at the restaurant is great. Everything what we ask from the hotel staff we got it. Pool is not large but has a great view over the beach.

Hotel Capilla del Mar: Nice quiet

Hotel was clean and quiet. Breakfast is fresh and lots to choose from. Rooms are comfortable and kept clean. Hotel restaurant has a variety to choose from. Door men are polite and accommodating. The location is great and accessible to downtown area.

Hotel Caribe by Faranda Grand: Awesome place!

5 star hotel -- very good for value -- close to town, your own private beach, amazing pool area. The staff are very friendly and helpful for anything we needed. I would recommend this hotel to anyone.

Estelar Playa Manzanillo: The worst experience ever

This Resort has adjoining doors to each room that offers no sound insulation at all. You can hear a pin drop next door. We had to change room 3 times with the last room having no hot water. This hotel was sold to us as 4 1/2 star is a lie. Best I would give it would be 2 stars. And to top it all off they gave me food poisoning on my last day.

Cartagena Plaza: Nice Hotel and Amazing Staff

The location of the hotel is just perfect, Bocagrande is a very nice place to be in if you want access to the beach, restaurant and shops. Our stay was just fantastic, the hotel is clean, staff are very friendly and helpful. The breakfast was very good too. I would definitely recommend it. I would give it a 4.5 stars out of 5. I would have loved the rooms to have balconies but other than that it was perfect. I would definitely stay here again.

Decameron San Luis: Beautiful resort in the calm quiet part of San Andres

After staying at this resort during the first week of February 2019 with my boyfriend, I can say that we made the right choice in picking this resort in San Louis, the quieter part of San Andres. The food was delicious, the staff was helpful and the resort was kept clean at all times. The nightly entertainment was great and was different every night. There is a beach right in front of the hotel, and other ones minutes away. The beaches around the hotel are rocky, however a few minutes away,  [... read more]you can find beautiful sandy beaches. There is a lot to do on the island as well, and definitely worth the trip.