Cartagena Columbia- Feb. with kids
 

Hello
We want to get away from the New England Snow this winter and a friend recommended Cartagena Columbia. We are a family of 4 and would travel in Feb. looking to stay on the beach and do a few day trips into town. My twin boys will be 11 years old for the trip. I have Hilton Points so was looking at the Hilton Conrad hotel but open to options.

Anyone have must do recommendations or great places to stay for the area? We are not night time party people, so don't need a vibranat city life.
All thoughts are welcome. Thank you!

You'll likely get more responses if you post this on the South America forum: https://www.fodors.com/community/south-america/

Colombia (please you need to fix the spelling of the country name, it's really important to Colombians!)

Moved to the South America Forum and tagged for Colombia

I can’t imagine a bigger contrast in weather in Feb than New England and Cartagena. We were there for a week or so in July and it was one of the hottest cities we have visited!

The beaches around Cartagena are not the best, but to be fair we are not really beach people. The Conrad is a fair way out of the city so not especially convenient but I assume it is close to the beach. Cartagena old town and the Getsemeni area are beautiful colonial areas. Lots to see and some great restaurants, but I am not sure how enthralling it would be for your 11 year olds.

There is a post re our time in Cartagena and lots of photos on our blog @ https://accidentalnomads.com/category/colombia/ the next post on is about a trip to Mompox which, if you are up for a bit of adventure, is a place I would highly recommend. I am sure the children would love the trips out onto the lakes, rivers and wetlands.

Cartagena is not the place to go if you want to spend time on a beach. Even a very small amount of research will tell you this. There are decent beaches in Colombia but none that I have found yet that are easy to get to -Tayrona, Bahia Solano or Playa Guachalito on the Pacific Coast or the gorgeous beaches all around Providencia Island -all take some planning to get to. A better idea would be to break up your trip into two parts- city and beach. Fly into Cartagena and stay for a few days in the old city (save your Hilton points for another day) to really experience the culture and then make your way to a good beach for the second half. You do not say how much time you have but I imagine it is limited so from Cartagena the closest and easiest option would be to arrange to take a boat to the San Bernardo Islands .
Regarding Mompos, Crellston, I'm sorry, I must disagree with you on that suggestion. Mompox/Mompos is difficult to get to, very hot and quite isolated. I cannot see the trek in and out to be enjoyable for 11 year olds.

No need to be sorry Bellalinda! Feel free to disagree as much as you want. These forums would soon become really boring if we all agreed on everything.

Thank you all for the feedback! greatly appreciated.
All the best