Is Cartagena Safe for a Bachelorette Party? An Honest Answer

In short: the US State Department currently rates Colombia as a whole Level 3 — Reconsider Travel (advisory dated 31 March 2026). Four departments are rated Level 4 — Do Not Travel: Arauca, Cauca (except Popayán), Valle del Cauca (except Cali) and Norte de Santander, plus the strip within 10 km of the Venezuela border. Cartagena and the department of Bolívar are not among them. The advisory does contain one warning aimed directly at what your group is planning to do, and it is about boats, not the city. That is the part worth reading twice.

What follows is the useful version of the safety question, from someone who lives here and takes groups out every week. I run tours in Cartagena, so read this knowing I have an interest in you coming — which is exactly why everything below is checkable against the primary source rather than my opinion.

What Level 3 actually means

The State Department has four levels: exercise normal precautions, exercise increased caution, reconsider travel, and do not travel. Colombia sits at three, applied to the whole country, citing crime, terrorism, civil unrest, kidnapping and natural disasters.

Two things about that rating matter for your decision:

It is country-wide, and Colombia is enormous. The four Level 4 departments are on the Venezuela border in the northeast and in the southwest of the country — hundreds of kilometres from Cartagena, which sits on the Caribbean coast. Judging Cartagena by conditions in Arauca is roughly like judging Miami by conditions somewhere on the far side of the continent.

Level 3 is not unusual for a destination Americans visit in volume. It is a real signal and should not be waved away, but it is a country-level risk rating, not a statement about the Walled City on a Saturday night.

Check it yourself before you travel — advisories change. The primary source is the State Department's Colombia travel advisory page.

The warning that is actually about your trip

Buried in the advisory is a specific caution: be careful on small tourist boats off the northern coast between Cartagena and the nearby islands, with the risk noted as heightened in December and January.

That is the boat day. That is the single item on your itinerary the US government singles out, and in my experience it is also where almost everything that goes wrong on a bachelorette trip here actually goes wrong — not in the city, on the water.

Why December and January specifically: that is when the trade winds pick up on this coast. The sea gets rough, the maritime authority closes the port when conditions turn, and the boats that shouldn't be out are the ones that go out anyway.

What this means practically for your group:

• Ask the name, length and year of the boat before you pay. If nobody can tell you, nobody has a boat yet.
• Ask what happens if the port closes. A real operator has an answer and it is in writing.
• Confirm there are life jackets for every passenger and a radio on board. Ask. It is a normal question.
• If you are travelling in December or January, treat a cheap boat quote as a warning rather than a bargain.
• If the captain says the sea is bad, the day is cancelled. Any operator who pressures a captain to go anyway is the wrong operator.

What actually happens to groups here, ranked by how often

This is the honest ordering, from the most common to the least, based on what groups report and what I see.

1. Persistent vendors on the public beach

By a wide margin the most common complaint, and it is fair. It is concentrated in two places: the public beach in Bocagrande and the streets around the Torre del Reloj and Plaza de los Coches. A massage, bracelets, sunglasses, photos. It is not dangerous, it is relentless.

What works: a firm no, gracias without breaking stride. What doesn't: stopping to look, which opens a negotiation, or accepting anything "free". Inside the rest of the Walled City and in Getsemaní it is calm.

2. Taxi and price disputes

Street-hailed taxis here don't run on meters, so the price is agreed beforehand or it is agreed afterwards at a disadvantage. Use a ride app. This removes the entire category.

3. Boat and rental scams

The pattern is always the same: full payment up front, to a personal account, no contract, no name of the boat, and a WhatsApp number that stops answering. It works because it happens weeks before the trip when nobody is checking. See the section above.

4. Drink safety at night

The advice is the same as any nightlife city and it is worth stating plainly rather than euphemistically: watch drinks being poured, don't accept drinks from strangers, don't leave the group, and don't go back to a stranger's apartment. Scopolamine-related robberies are a documented risk in Colombian cities and they overwhelmingly target people who left with someone they just met.

5. Phone snatching

Ordinary opportunistic theft, worst when a phone is out on a quiet street at night. Keep it in a bag rather than a back pocket, and don't stand still filming on an empty corner.

The practical rules that cover most of it

• Use a ride app instead of hailing cars on the street. One rule, one whole category of problem gone.
• Stay in the Walled City or Getsemaní if you want to walk everywhere at night. Both are busy and well lit.
• Don't take bags to the public beach. Beach clubs have lockers or will hold things at the bar.
• Keep the group together at night and agree in advance where you'll meet if phones die.
• Have a local number that answers. Whoever organises the trip should be reachable during it, not just before it.
• Carry a little cash and leave the rest at the house. Cards work in most restaurants and clubs.
• Dress for the night, not the beach. Not a safety point exactly, but clubs turn people away for beachwear, flip flops and caps, and a group split up at a door at midnight is how nights go wrong.

What I would tell a friend

A group of women walking from a restaurant in the Walled City to a rooftop at eleven at night is an ordinary thing that happens hundreds of times a night here. That is the honest picture of the city centre.

The risks that are real for your specific trip are not the ones that make people nervous. They are: a boat you booked from another country and never verified, and a night where the group split up. Both are avoidable in advance, and both are decided before you land.

And if a bridesmaid has already dropped out over safety worries, the useful thing to send her is not reassurance — it is the actual advisory, so she can see that Bolívar is not on the Level 4 list and decide with the same information you have.

How to check the operator you book with

In Colombia every legitimate tourism provider must be registered in the Registro Nacional de Turismo and keep it active. Ask for the RNT number, look it up on the official RNT portal, and confirm three things: that it exists, that it is active, and that the registered name matches whoever is invoicing you. That third check is the one almost nobody does, and it is the one that catches people showing you someone else's registration.

CABÚ Viajes is RNT 215668, registered in Cartagena de Indias.

Sources

• US Department of State, Colombia Travel Advisory, Level 3 — Reconsider Travel, dated 31 March 2026, including the Level 4 department list and the caution regarding small tourist boats between Cartagena and the nearby islands in December and January. travel.state.gov
• Registro Nacional de Turismo de Colombia — the official register where any operator's RNT can be verified.

Keep reading

• Nonstop flights to Cartagena from the US
• Just got engaged? The month-by-month plan
• Cartagena vs Nashville, Scottsdale, Miami and Cabo
• How boat rental scams work here
• Choosing a boat in Cartagena

Frequently asked questions