Cartagena has a reputation for cruise-ship prices, but the city locals use costs almost nothing: free beaches north of the walls, a gold museum with no ticket booth, market plates for COP 15,000 and TransCaribe buses at COP 3,000 flat.
Two blocks of dense jungle between the walls and Getsemaní holding wild three-toed sloths, red howler monkeys, iguanas and cotton-top tamarins. No gate, no ticket, open around the clock; the sloths still move before 10:00.
The Banco de la República's gold museum on Plaza de Bolívar: around 600 Zenú pieces, filigree nose ornaments and Sinú river funerary ceramics. Entry is free every day it opens, Tuesday to Saturday 09:00–18:00, and it is air-conditioned.
The island district of early-1900s republican mansions, 20 minutes on foot over the Puente Román. Free to wander, and the 1743 Pastelillo fort at the point has an open esplanade over the fishing fleet with no entry fee.
The beach cartageneros use after work, 15 minutes north of the Torre del Reloj along Avenida Santander. Dark sand, pelicans diving, no loungers to rent and almost no vendors working the sand at this end of town.
The city's working market 3km southeast: thousands of stalls of yellow snapper, ñame, sapote and butifarra sausage. Breakfast of mote de queso or fried mojarra with coconut rice costs COP 12,000–18,000 at the comedor counters inside.
Getsemaní's long-running corrientazo canteen. The menú del día runs about COP 20,000 and brings soup, fried fish or stewed beef, coconut rice, a patacón, salad and a jug of limonada. Plastic chairs, ceiling fans, a queue from 12:30.
The arcade on Plaza de los Coches where around thirty vendors sell cocadas, alegrías de ajonjolí and caballitos de papaya from glass jars. Single sweets go for COP 1,000–2,000, so a full mixed bag costs less than one tinto in Bocagrande.
The cheapest dinner in Cartagena: arepas de huevo, carne en palito with yuca and butifarra grilled on cut-open oil drums along the street from 18:00. Most items run COP 3,000–8,000 and a full plate rarely passes COP 15,000.
Cartagena's highest point at 150m: the 1607 Augustinian convent with a bougainvillea cloister and a terrace taking in the bay, the walled city, Manga and Bazurto. Entry is about COP 15,000 and it opens 08:30–17:30 daily.
The calm residential beach at the tip of the Bocagrande peninsula, used mostly by Cartagena families on their lunch break. Free, shallow, sheltered by the bay, and the one city beach where vendor pressure drops to almost nothing.
Wooden lanchas cross to Tierrabomba island in about 15 minutes for roughly COP 12,000 each way — the cheapest boat ride out of Cartagena. Clear water, Bocachica's Fuerte de San Fernando and beach shacks frying whole fish for COP 20,000.
The seafront promenade where the city jogs, walks dogs and watches the sun drop into the Caribbean for nothing. Ceviche carts along the rail charge about COP 10,000, and the TransCaribe bus back to the Old City is COP 3,000.