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A great way to explore a fascinating city

For my port stop in Cartegena, I once again used a site called GuruWalk, where guides offer walking tours of the city and you pay only a tip at the end; there’s no cost upfront. Our tour, Free tour Cartegena, historical base of Spain, was so good that we each wound up tipping our guide 30 euros, and we felt like we had gotten a bargain.

Like many European ports, our ship docked right in town, and we walked off the ship and about 10 minutes further to meet our tour guide at a clearly-marked location that had been sent in my confirmation email from GuruWalk. For the next two hours, he walked us through streets in a carefully-planned route that allowed him to tell us all about the city and its history.

As a coastal town in Spain, Cartegena has a fascinating history of rule by multiple different peoples. It has a long Roman heritage, but it wasn’t until the late 20th century that they discovered an extensive network of Roman ruins beneath the city’s buildings, including a theater that would have held nearly 7000 people.

The ruins are being carefully excavated and preserved, making them available to the public. In one clever location, they actually have the ruins available for viewing in the basement of an art gallery building, which made for a nice respite from the heat outside.

Our tour guide, Bruno, had strategically designed the tour so that we took two brief trips inside buildings (with AC!). This was a godsend during our hot day in late July.

I really loved all of the street art on Cartegena’s buildings and doors. Many of them used American icons (real and fictional). Here are a few of them:

The tour took about two hours and ended at the main street of town, so we could explore and have lunch, do shopping, etc. before we headed back to the ship.

This was my second experience with GuruWalk, and they’ve both been great. I definitely recommend that you check this tour out if your ship stops in Cartegena!