El Marqués Hotel Boutique, Cartagena

This place is MAGIC. Cannot recommend highly enough. It so far exceeded our expectations, from the location to the service, the amazing staff, and the FOOD. I was worried our room would be too small but it was perfect, and we were there for 5 nights! The A/C worked well, plenty of hot water and lots of privacy. The hotel has a few lounge areas outside the rooms which we also utilized. They're well shaded and just so beautiful. Everything about the place is picturesque and lovely. I cannot wait to return. We stayed at a large chain hotel during a different part of our stay, and El Marques was better by far, as it really felt authentic (not like you could have been anywhere). The onsite restaurant was our favorite in all of Cartagena (we ate dinner there twice!) and breakfast is delicious and made to order, and was included with our room rate.

This intimate boutique hotel has so much character! We had wonderful meals in the beautiful courtyard, and our room was small, but very comfortable. The staff was attentive, responsive, and very friendly. I will certainly stay there next time I am in Cartagena.

Perfection, this place is amazing!!!

Staff was a little slow, house keeping could have done a little more cleaning and refreshing rooms. Great restaurant connected to the hotel with amazing food and wine selection. Overall great experience. I would stay here again.

This hotel looks great and is excellently located. The problem is with the staff. They are not knowledgeable in the local area and have very little empathy for travelers. A few examples: 1) when asked about local restaurants, location of open ATM machines, transfers to other areas, or even where boats leave for the islands the staff had no idea. In some cases they pointed us to a destination that was flat out wrong - multiple times. 2) they wouldn't help us in any way when there were two weddings bumping loud music till 2am on either side of our room. They told us that that's what happens at this hotel. We didn't ask for a discount or anything, just empathy. Blank stares. 3) after returning from the Rosario Islands, we returned to the hotel to leave our bags for 30 minutes while we bought supplies for a long bus ride to Tayrona. They wouldn't let us leave our bags, and it didn't register at all that we'd spent over $2M pesos at their hotel just two days before. Incredible. Astrid and Laura were our concierges during this time and all around lousy hosts. Never to return here again, and neither should you.