Palenque and Afro-Caribbean culture

From Muelle de la Bodeguita, just outside the walled city, a speedboat takes about 45 to 50 minutes. A catamaran needs around an hour and a half, and the cheapest large boats two to three hours each way. Most tours leave between 7:50 and 8:30 in the morning and are back between 3 and 4 in the afternoon, so a day trip really is a whole day.

Two things that are almost never in the ticket price. A dock tax of roughly 17,000 to 31,500 Colombian pesos per person is charged when you board, and it varies by pier. The Corales del Rosario national park charges foreign visitors around 28,000 pesos, usually in cash. Beach clubs then bill food and sunbeds separately. Budget the equivalent of 10 to 15 euros on top of whatever you booked.

You can, but you should know what you get. Bocagrande and Marbella have grey-brown sand, noticeable waves and a lot of vendors. The white sand and clear water people come for are an hour away by boat, on Barú and the Rosario Islands. If a beach day is the point of your trip, plan a boat or a van, not a walk from your hotel.

December to April is the dry season and the sunniest stretch – and also the windiest. The trade winds make the bay choppy, and island boats do get cancelled or turn back. September and October are the wettest months, October the wettest of all, but the rain comes as downpours of twenty or thirty minutes and then the sun is back. Mid-February to mid-March is the best compromise: dry, and the Colombian school holidays are over.

Both work and they are not the same trip. The road across the Barú bridge takes a van about an hour and a half and involves no dock tax at all. The boat is faster but adds the dock tax and is the uncomfortable option when the wind is up. On a windy day in February the land route is the one that actually arrives.

Rafael Núñez airport sits inside the city, in the Crespo district – between three and seven kilometres from the walls depending on where you measure. Off-peak that is about ten minutes by taxi; in rush-hour traffic count on twenty-five to thirty. It is one of the shortest airport transfers of any Caribbean city, which is why the transfer is the single most reviewed item in our whole listing.