Since its inception, Cartagena, Colombia has meant many different things to many different people. In its colonial age, it was a coveted pirate port, an outpost for religion and culture, a spigot from which Spain siphoned material wealth from its new colonies. Even today, to paint a picture of Cartagena means reconciling competing identities: colorful historic capital, gleaming metropolis on the cutting edge, and party destination du jour in the Americas.
One thing is undeniable: Cartagena is booming, with international arrivals soaring an estimated 52.4% over 2022 figures. The city’s growth as a travel destination brings with it everything from life-changing economic opportunities to environmental and sustainability challenges, and everything in between.
Now, a collective of local business owners known as Nuestra Cartagena is coming together to bring clarity and color to Cartagena as a travel destination. In the process, they’re showing sides of one of Latin America’s most talked-about tourist spots that many may have never otherwise seen.
Destination: Cartagena, Colombia
Alluring for its strategic position on the Caribbean, “Cartagena has always been coveted, by colonial power, pirates, buccaneers and everyone in between,” explains Kristy Ellis, long-time expat, tour guide and founder of Cartagena Connections. Fast forward a couple of centuries from its early days, and it’s still just as coveted a destination, set to surpass even last year’s historic high visitor numbers.
The city began to see a massive uptick in arrivals as Colombia’s internal tensions cooled in the past two decades, drawing hotels and resorts slowly, then all at once. The tide still hasn’t stopped; earlier this year, the new boutique hotel Casa Carolina debuted in one of the city’s oldest buildings, while the long-awaited Four Seasons Cartagena prepares to open its doors at the entrance to the colonial-era Walled City within the next few months.
Cartagena courts a refined luxury tourism sector drawn to its rich historic value and Caribbean coastline, but it also draws a crowd here to party, with all the excesses that entails. The stereotypes that accompany the partying crowd feel particularly piercing to the locals who love the city, they say. However, all types of travel have their upsides and downsides, be they ethical, sustainable, or somewhere in between.
A New Narrative
Nuestra Cartagena emerges as a collaborative effort to navigate those upsides and downsides as equitably and sustainably as possible, in a way that keeps all of Cartagena’s communities in mind. “Tourism has transformed Cartagena over the years in many ways,” explains Portia Hart, the visionary hotelier who spearheaded the creation of Nuestra Cartagena. “Now, it’s about making sure that tourism to Cartagena is having the impact it should, and can, if we think critically about it.”
A British-Trinidadian transplant who grew up in the U.K., Hart has spent more than a decade in Cartagena. It’s been long enough to have seen the boom that transformed the city into what it is today and all the incredible and the less-than-incredible effects that come with it. Connecting with dear friends in the hospitality space over the city’s growth, Hart noticed a common desire to find solutions to pervasive problems, and theorized that using their collective impact, they could make real change.
“We have a deep desire to show off what makes the city special to us,” she explains. After all, Nuestra Cartagena means Our Cartagena in Spanish. However, Nuestra Cartagena is more than just providing an insider peek into the city; it’s about highlighting the good work, sustainable focus and community-driven mindset of everyone involved.
Every business that joins Nuestra Cartagena must have sustainability and ethical tourism built into its mission. From a business perspective, the collective helps hold each other to high standards and share impact. From a tourism perspective, it helps locals know where to recommend visitors spend time and money while visiting the city. Locally-owned, community-minded businesses run by people spending day in and day out in the city benefit in the process.
Meet Nuestra Cartagena
Among the businesses that comprise Nuestra Cartagena are, unsurprisingly, some of the coolest places in the city, including hotels, shops, tour operators and even non-profits. Cartagena’s increasingly diverse culinary scene is well represented, including destinations like El Beso and Salon Tropical in the newly-hip neighborhood of Getsemaní.
In the historic Walled City, Casa Bohème transforms a historic building into a new destination that defies definition. It is at once a restaurant and cafe, with delicious Colombian coffee and Mediterranean-inspired bites, and a wellness space with regular yoga classes, sounds healing sessions and more. Come in the evening for dimly-lit lounge vibes, live music and DJ sets. If ever there was a place to encapsulate the totality of Cartagena in just one location, Casa Bohème might be it.
Nuestra Cartagena also includes Hart’s Townhouse Hotel, home to a stunning rooftop bar and pool and Members Only, a jazz club tucked away on the first floor. With its marked environmental and ethical focus, Casa Carolina is also a member of Nuestra Cartagena. Owner Caroline Tchekhoff brought a wellness space into the hotel, then used it as a springboard to launch community yoga classes held in the adjacent plaza, facing Cartagena’s centuries-old cathedral.
Hart and Tchekhoff are not alone; Nuestra Cartagena also has an outsized representation of the women entrepreneurs who are driving some of the most important and impactful developments in the city. “Nuestra Cartagena is open to everyone, but we are just lucky to have a city that is powered by some incredible women, with interesting and impactful stories and a great vision for what Cartagena can be,” says Hart.
One of them is Carmen Ángel, whose first eatery, Carmen, quickly became one of the best restaurants among the burgeoning culinary scene in Medellín and earned a spot on the World’s 50 Best Discovery list. Now, her Cartagena outpost highlights its own unique a menu with a marked Caribbean influence, prioritizing fresh tropical ingredients sourced from the surrounding region. Many of the farming communities her operation supports are recovering from years of Colombia’s internal conflicts.
Unexpected Impact
Blue Apple Beach, Hart’s trailblazing hotel and beach club, sits along the sands of Isla Tierra Bomba, just a twenty-minute boat ride from Cartagena. At the property’s boutique, guests find pieces created by local designers and artisans, from beachwear and bathing suits to bags and jewelry.
Among the products, one recurring pattern stands out, emblazoned on postcards, handbags and even the beach-ready ponchos provided to guests in every room: a painting of a woman, part of a larger work by Cartagena artist and close friend to Nuestra Cartagena, Diana Herrera Ordosgoitia.
“The woman portrayed in the painting is a real person,” explains Emma Ángel, Blue Apple Beach’s boutique manager, “and she actually gets a portion of the sales we make every month from the products that feature her.”
This is the Nuestra Cartagena way: finding the very best and most innovative ways to make Cartagena’s booming travel business a tool for holistic community development, rather than keeping it concentrated in the hands of just a few. Cartagena benefits, certainly, but travelers do too, seeing the city through local eyes and being a part of loving it back.