Hilton Hotel Cartagena, Colombia Review

By Mighty Travels Premium August 7, 2014 11:22 AM UTC

Book Hilton Hotel Cartagena, Colombia here.

For my stay in Cartagena I was initially considering a non-chain hotel (the city does not have a lot of chain hotels) but discovered that the Hilton Hotel & Resort Cartagena was just 16,000 Hilton HHonors points and $65 a night. Given that regular redemptions are 40,000 points and room rates around $300, this would give me almost 1.5 cents per Hilton HHonors point - a good deal.

The hotel is located at the end of the Playa Bocagrande - Cartagena's version of a city beach. It felt a bit like Copacabana - a long stretch of beach with high-rises behind. The Hilton sits on a little peninsula and has a really quiet spot with fewer obnoxious salesmen working the beach. Bocagrande is a bit of a touristy beach town but has some good local chain restaurants including Crepes & Waffles and Juan Valdez Café. Also it's just a 5 minute drive from Bocagrande to Centro Historico - the picturesque old town of Cartagena.

The hotel has a great collection of adult and kids' pools just off the beach. Given the super-high humidity and soaring temperatures, this was an awesome relief - but too bad the pools close at 8PM. On the last day of my stay, the Venezuelan President attended a conference at the hotel and security was beefed up tremendously with battle ships just outside the hotel. This meant almost-empty pools for me - bonus :)

I really liked my room. It was spacious, had very effective AC and great bedding and covers. The view from the 10th floor across to the next island was outstanding.

The hotel has an Executive Lounge with great views of the water inlet especially during the early sunset. Complimentary local beers and wine were served and appetizers were served at 6.30PM every day - they were 'meh' - just about edible.

Food served in the main breakfast room wasn't great. There was a large selection of items but only the bread seemed of high quality. I did not like most of the other items sadly.

The resort clearly caters to (mostly Colombian) families spending time at the beach and so the breakfast choices seemed to be aimed similarly.

The internet is free for all guests but clocks in at a slow 1.6 MBit.

Overall, I liked my stay. The staff were friendly and mostly fluent in English. The location of the hotel is really fantastic. I just would have wished for better food and faster internet to round up the experience.