Colombia · cars
Car rentals in Cartagena
Rent a car at Cartagena's airports and city pick-up points. Expedia Cars compares rates across every major rental company. Full insurance options at the counter.
- ✓Airport and city pick-up locations across Cartagena
- ✓Every major rental company in one search
- ✓Pay-later and flexible plans shown per booking
- ✓Optional full insurance at checkout — no surprises at the counter
What first-timers get wrong in Cartagena
Taxis do not use meters, so agree the fare before the door closes or use an app instead. The palenqueras in white and flowered dresses sell fruit and charge for photographs, so ask the price before lifting a camera. Rosario island tours add a dock tax on the day that never appears in the advertised price. Beach massages that begin free do not end that way.
What's actually worth your time in Cartagena
Walking the top of the seventeenth-century walls at sunset costs nothing and is the single best hour available here. Castillo San Felipe de Barajas earns its ticket for the tunnel network cut beneath the ramparts. Getsemani, immediately outside the walls, is where people actually live and drink. Bocagrande's high-rise beachfront is not the postcard. Playa Blanca on Baru is beautiful and relentlessly hawked from end to end.
What things cost in Cartagena
The Museo del Oro Zenu charges nothing, while San Felipe is around thirty-five thousand pesos for foreigners. A cart arepa costs a couple of thousand. Dinner in the walled city runs sixty to a hundred and twenty thousand a head, and the same food in Getsemani costs roughly half. A cross-town taxi is fifteen to twenty-five thousand if you settle it in advance.
Cartagena with kids, realistically
Older children take to San Felipe's tunnels, while small ones will not survive midday inside the walled city, where shade is scarce and the cobbles destroy a pushchair. Plan mornings and evenings only. The Aviario Nacional on Baru walks you through large flight cages. Playa Blanca is calm and shallow if you arrive early, before the vendors and the day boats turn up.
When the weather turns in Cartagena
Between August and November the streets flood within minutes of a downpour and drain nearly as fast. Indoor options are compact: the Palacio de la Inquisicion, the Museo del Oro Zenu, the naval museum, and Abaco, a bookshop and cafe on the corner of Calle de la Iglesia. Boats out to the Rosario islands are cancelled outright once the sea turns choppy.
When to go to Cartagena
| Best months for cars-in | Avg daily high | Rain days |
|---|---|---|
| February | 32°C / 90°F | 2 days |
| January | 32°C / 90°F | 4 days |
| December | 31°C / 88°F | 9 days |
The month to avoid is May — around 31°C (88°F) with roughly 22 rain days. Prices and crowds track the weather here: February is the sweet spot, May the month most people skip.
Pack for peak season: Light, breathable clothing — linen and technical fabrics earn their keep, High-SPF sunscreen, sunglasses, and a refillable water bottle, Comfortable walking shoes — every guide on this site assumes you'll use them.