Recently spent 3 nights at Raul’s apartment located in the Bocagrande section of Cartagena. While Raul was an outstanding host who was generally responsive, there were certain aspects of my stay that left some things to be desired. Unfortunately, much of this was outside of his control, but I want to make sure future guests have a thorough understanding of the pros and cons before booking their stay here. If all you need is a place to sleep, this could be a great spot. However, if you plan to use any of the amenities, as I did, be prepared for some pretty major obstacles.
The Pros:
- Really nice high end luxury building located across the street from the Ocean
- Apartment is well equipped w/ towels and toiletries, includes washer & dryer in-unit
- AC works great
The Cons:
- For my entire stay only 1/2 elevators was running. This is a major pain in the @ss when it happens at my apartment building at home, which is 12 stories tall. So imagine what the wait times were like here, given the Murano Elite stretches 40 stories high. Nearly every time I wanted to go up OR down there was a significant wait involved, and the A/C isn’t really on in the hallways, making it that much more uncomfortable and inconvenient.
- COVID amenity reservation policy combined with lack of English speakers = no bueno; You have to book the pool(s) in advance with the front desk, who speaks little to no English. Additionally, I went during the rainy season, which made it very difficult to predict a day or more in advance when the weather would be conducive to swimming. Finally, the rooftop pool was close for "maintenance" my entire stay except the day of my departure.
- The beach area directly across the street is under construction; not necessarily a huge issue but it does take away from the view, and also means you have to walk a bit down in the oppressive heat to get to the first entry point
- As other reviewers have noted, Bocagrande is not the world’s prettiest beach. Suffice to say there are plenty of beaches in the US that blow it away. Furthermore, the “vendors” (if you can even call them that) will pretty much harass you nonstop if it’s obvious you are a gringo or otherwise not from there. I have been all over the world and experienced similar behavior in places like Jamaica, but I have to say, Cartagena takes this to a WHOLE NEW level. Be prepared to be solicited by nearly every person peddling anything that crosses your path at any time.
