For thousands of years, Cartagena has been a bustling and contested intersection of indigenous Americans, Africans and Europeans, the effects of which you will feel immediately in its architecture, food and people.

 

This UNESCO World Heritage Site on the Caribbean coast is thick with history. Explore its complex fortifications that warded off pirates and empires, and its meandering, cobblestoned streets and paths that lead to a multicultural treasure of shops and restaurants.

 

Offshore lies a collection of easily accessible islands rising out of the vivid blue-green sea where you can snorkel or just lie on a quiet beach.