Cartagena, Colombia

Amarla Boutique Hotel Cartagena

Price per night from$338.64

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (inclusive of taxes and fees) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (COP1,236,060.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Amarla Boutique Hotel Cartagena Photos

Style

Bienvenido a la familia

Setting

Walled City wonder

Explore

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In an 18th-century townhouse down an Old Town mews, Amarla Boutique Hotel Cartagena is an intimate, adults-only retreat enveloped in a stillness rare for its high-octane neighborhood. An abundance of immersive experiences gets you well-acquainted with Cartagena’s colorful culture and love for the locale. It's an admiration you’ll feel back at base, too, where seven rooms nod to native birdlife, a low-key restaurant dishes seasonal staples, and a rooftop pool admires Santa Catalina’s chronicled form. 

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A traditional enyucado cheesecake, handmade by the hotel’s chef

Facilities

Photos Amarla Boutique Hotel Cartagena facilities

Need to know

Rooms

Seven, including one suite.

Check–Out

11am, and check-in is at 3pm. Both are flexible, subject to availability and an additional charge.

More details

Rates at Amarla include a daily à la carte breakfast.

Also

Unfortunately, this historic hotel is not suitably adapted for guests with limited mobility.

At the hotel

Concierge, living areas, courtyard, rooftop terrace and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: 43-inch TV, air-conditioning, minibar, free bottled water, bathrobes, slippers and bespoke bath products.

Our favourite rooms

You'd think such a select line-up would make decisions easier, but at Amarla each room (named after a native bird) comes with its own alluring design. Toucan has our hearts fluttering for its garden-facing balcony, and small-but-sweet Hummingbird has beautifully restored brick walls and beamed ceilings. For more space, Heron and Parakeet have been combined to create a two-bedroom retreat nesting with an adjoining library.

Poolside

Watching over the Walled City’s historic roofs from its top-floor perch, the outdoor pool is open for swims at all hours. A curvaceous collection of day-beds and seating surround its checked form, and a rainforest’s worth of greenery shades sunnier spots from Cartagena’s heat. There’s a small bar, too, should you prefer to refresh with a sip over a dip.

Spa

There isn’t a spa at Amarla, but staff can arrange for reflexology, hot stone, lymphatic drainage or traditional Thai massages to be set up in your room or under the pavilion on the rooftop.

Packing tips

Blazing reds, greens, blues and yellows to bring surrealist Rafael Espitia’s vivid colors of Cartagena to life.

Also

This boutique Cartagena stay has a Smith-approved sister hotel in Panama City’s Casco Viejo.

Pet‐friendly

Dogs aren’t allowed at Amarla Boutique Hotel Cartagena. See more pet-friendly hotels in Cartagena.

Children

This city escape is over-18s only.

Food and Drink

Photos Amarla Boutique Hotel Cartagena food and drink

Top Table

Find a romantic, shaded seat nearest the peace lilies and hanging vines; or anywhere on the rooftop will offer accompanying city skylines.

Dress Code

Amarla’s familial feel eschews formality for more relaxed threads.

Hotel restaurant

It’s less restaurant, more family dining at Amarla. An open-plan atrium — fringed with native trees and a scattering of tables for two — makes up the space, and comforting wafts of home cooking scent your surroundings. Breakfast is a delectable spread of exotic fruits, huevos how you like ’em, crispy flatbreads and Colombian coffee. Your in-house chef draws on local influences for lunch and dinner, too, with traditional Caribbean flavors brought to a seasonal rotation of regional produce.

Hotel bar

There's a small bar up on the rooftop for cocktails and Santa Catalina sightings until 10pm, but otherwise you’ll have to source your Coco Loco’s from one of the Walled City’s many nearby bars.

Last orders

Breakfast is served from 7am to 10am; after this, an all-day service runs till 9pm.

Location

Photos Amarla Boutique Hotel Cartagena location
Address
Amarla Boutique Hotel Cartagena
Calle Ayos 4–29 El Centro
Cartagena de Indias
Colombia

Amarla Boutique Hotel Cartagena sits between a maze of colonial streets in the Walled City’s historic center.

Planes

Most flights touch down at Rafael Núñez International Airport, which is a 15-minute drive from the hotel. The Walled City is pedestrianized, so private transfers can be arranged from the airport to its Torre del Reloj gates, where staff will meet you (and collect your luggage) for the final five-minute walk.

Automobiles

Narrow streets mean most of the Walled City is car-free, and the rest of Cartagena is walkable, so a set of wheels won’t be needed. If you are driving, you’ll need to park outside the gates at one of the long-stay underground carparks.

Worth getting out of bed for

Amarla may showcase Cartagena’s quieter side, but its signature surrealism that author Gabriel García Márquez was so apt at depicting sits on your doorstep. Guided historic tours of the city take you on a three-hour route around the Walled City’s kaleidoscopic Centro and San Diego neighborhoods.  

Champeta and salsa dance classes will have you sashaying like a local in no time; and rum and coffee tastings showcase another side to this city’s time-honored talents. Lessons in cigar-rolling with a local torcedor offer a hands-on introduction to the craft behind Colombia’s tobacco trade, and cooking classes teach you to guisar with skill. Staff can even arrange fruit tastings at a local market or up on the rooftop, if you'd rather your immersion be a touch sweeter. 

Local restaurants

Street vendors could keep you satiated for weeks around here, but should one too many arepas de huevo have you in search of something more formal, allow us to direct you to Celele. This revered restaurant started as a pop-up supper club, founded by a duo of chefs who famously search the coast for obscure, sustainably made ingredients to use in their traditional dishes. Now, it's fine-dining menus feature similarly low-profile produce, infusing Colombian flavors with Arabic, African and European influences. Set in a converted colonial mansion around the corner, Candé pairs its authentic Caribbean fare (costeño cheese, slow-cooked stews, fried plantains) with a famously spirited atmosphere. 

Local cafés

Colombian coffee is well-loved for good reason, and at Nia Bakery its complex blend comes with home-baked pastries and hearty brunches. 

Local bars

In the Plaza de San Pedro, El Barón starts its day as a café before transforming into a happening cocktail bar come evening. For more creative concoctions, three-floor Alquimico is celebrated for its quirky takes on the classics and into-the-night DJ sets. 

Reviews

Photos Amarla Boutique Hotel Cartagena reviews

Anonymous review

By Mr & Mrs Smith

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this homey hotel in Colombia and unpacked their bottles of La Hechicera and Wayuu-made mochila bags, a full account of their colorful break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Amarla Boutique Hotel Cartagena… 

Cartagena’s infectious spirit has been well-documented for decades: Gabriel García Márquez mused that even its ‘shadows seem to shine’ and Enrique Grau captured its vibrant heritage in his revered portraits. But behind its lucent architecture and serenaded streets, adults-only Amarla Boutique Hotel Cartagena reveals the city’s quieter side.

Once an 18th-century townhouse, this former family home still retains its inviting feel. Careful restorations have set its seven individually designed suites around an open-plan atrium, where original stone, hanging vines and dappled sunlight set the scene for andante living. A small restaurant downstairs serving Colombian classics makes dining a cozy affair; and up on the rooftop, an alfresco pool provides a quiet perch from which to watch the Old Town. Should all that soothing whet your appetite for adventure, Amarla’s in-the-know concierge team is on hand to arrange everything from rum and coffee tastings to high-tempo salsa lessons.

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Price per night from $338.64

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