The Rosario Islands lie 1 to 2 hours from Cartagena by boat, according to Parques Nacionales, and getting there involves more payments than most visitors expect. Three of them are fixed and collected by three different bodies before the boat even leaves. Most of the confusion about what the trip costs comes from those charges being quoted as if they were one.
Three charges, three collectors
Before the boat fare, a visitor to the Rosario Islands pays 18,000 COP to use La Bodeguita pier, 13,500 COP to enter the Corales del Rosario y San Bernardo national park, and a mandatory accident insurance sold by approved insurers. Each is collected by a different organisation, and the boat is paid separately to the operator.
These are the figures each collector publishes, verified September 2026:
| Charge | Amount | Who collects it | In force since |
|---|---|---|---|
| Use of La Bodeguita pier | 18,000 COP | Corpoturismo, which runs the pier for the city | 1 January 2026 |
| Entry to the national park | 13,500 COP | Parques Nacionales Naturales, under Resolution 551 of 2025 | 1 January 2026 |
| Accident insurance | not published by the park | Positiva or Zurich, the approved insurers | 1 March 2026 |
| The boat | not published by any operator on the pier’s list | the operator you sail with |
The pier fee comes from a Corpoturismo circular dated 23 December 2025 and addressed to operators and agencies. It is not on any of Corpoturismo’s web pages; it exists as a PDF. Corpoturismo describes it as what passengers pay for access to and use of the pier’s facilities, infrastructure and services.
A figure of 31,500 COP circulates online as a single “port tax”. It matches the pier fee and the park fee added together: 18,000 plus 13,500. No collector publishes that sum. Quoting it as one charge hides that the two halves go to different bodies under different rules, and a budget that lists a “port tax” of 31,500 COP and then a park entrance on top counts the park fee twice.
The park’s own page shows the other sector’s fee
Parques Nacionales publishes one tariff on its web page for this park: 11,000 COP, labelled for the San Bernardo sector. That is not the fee most Rosario visitors pay.
Resolution 551 of 19 December 2025, in force since 1 January 2026, sets two amounts for the Corales del Rosario y San Bernardo park. The San Bernardo sector pays 11,000 COP. The rest of the park, which is where the Rosario Islands and Playa Blanca sit, pays 13,500 COP. The page shows the first number and not the second, so the resolution is the document to go by.
The resolution places this park among those with a single fee. There is no separate rate for foreigners: a visitor from abroad pays the same 13,500 COP as a Colombian. The exemptions by age, for children under five and adults over 62, apply only to Colombians, foreigners resident in Colombia and citizens of Andean Community countries. A non-resident child or retiree pays the full fee.
Three other details of the same resolution matter on the ground:
- One payment covers four consecutive calendar days inside the park. On a package tour, it covers the length of the package.
- Payment is taken only at authorised points or online, and paying online adds the cost of the booking and payment platforms to the final amount.
- The amount is adjusted every 1 January. The resolution also defines high season for this park as 1 November to 31 January, 15 June to 15 August and Holy Week, but because the fee is single, the price does not change with the season.
Insurance your own policy does not replace
Since 1 March 2026 the park has required an accident insurance under Resolution 273 of 2024, and Parques Nacionales states plainly that a visitor without it does not enter. It also says this insurance is independent of any personal, international or credit card policy, so the travel cover you already have does not count.
The park does not sell the insurance and does not publish its price. It says the insurance is paid to the approved insurers and not to the park, and it names them as Positiva Compañía de Seguros and Zurich Colombia Seguros. Being exempt from the park fee does not exempt anyone from the insurance: Resolution 551 says so in as many words.
The only price attached to a named insurer comes from Zurich’s own announcement of the service in June 2026, as reproduced in the regional press, which put it at 8,800 COP a day. The park and the city have not published a figure, so treat it as the insurer’s announced price and confirm it when you buy.
The park reports 11 first aid points operating across Playa Blanca, Barú, Isla Grande, Isla Múcura and Isla Tintipán.
One pier for passenger boats, and a longer list for everything else
For anyone buying a seat on a boat, the departure point in Cartagena is the Muelle Turístico La Bodeguita on Avenida Blas de Lezo, opposite the Parque de La Marina. DIMAR, the maritime authority, stated in a 2021 circular that it is the authorised point for commercial public passenger transport to the Rosario and San Bernardo archipelago, and Corpoturismo calls it the only pier authorised for departures.
DIMAR’s general list of authorised departure points in Cartagena is longer. It names La Bodeguita alongside the Muelle de Los Pegasos, the Club de Pesca and several marinas, as separate places. The other points on that list are not where commercial passenger boats leave from, and DIMAR adds that recreational yachts may not be hired out at all. If someone offers a seat from somewhere else, that is the rule to remember.
Corpoturismo publishes the practical hours in its frequently asked questions, a document that still carries a 2025 label:
- The pier doors open at 7:00.
- Ticket desks work from 7:00 to 19:00 at Gate 1 and from 16:00 to 20:00 at Gate 4.
- Advance sales run at Gate 1 from 10:30 to 15:30.
- A pier ticket is valid for seven calendar days from the day it is printed, within the same year.
Ahead of Holy Week 2026, the city and Corpoturismo asked passengers to arrive at least 45 minutes before their departure time and to carry an identity document, and projected more than 21,000 passengers in about 520 departures from this one pier. Corpoturismo also publishes a list of the operators sailing from La Bodeguita. It gives names, phone numbers and WhatsApp contacts, and not a single price.
Getting to La Bodeguita
From Rafael Núñez airport the taxi fare to the pier is fixed. Decree 0051 of 20 February 2026 sets 24,300 COP from the airport to Muelle de La Bodeguita, with a night surcharge of 1,100 COP between 19:00 and 5:00. The same decree requires taxis to display the official tariff where the passenger can read it, and fines drivers who do not. How the airport’s other zone fares work is set out in the guide to getting from Cartagena airport into the city.
The decree contains a second “tourist dock” that is easy to confuse with the first. Its section on the “muelle turístico” refers to the Sociedad Portuaria, the terminal where cruise ships berth, and prices that dock to the airport at 37,000 COP. That is not La Bodeguita. If you arrive by cruise ship and want to go to the islands, the ship’s terminal and the island pier are two different places.
When the boats leave, and why nobody publishes the return
Parques Nacionales gives the departure window for boats as 8:00 to 10:00 in the morning, and the crossing as one to two hours depending on the type of boat and the stops. For the return it gives no time at all: it defers to the harbour master and to the state of the sea.
That deferral is the most accurate thing on the subject, because no current written rule is published. The windows that do exist in writing are older and disagree with each other:
- DIMAR’s notices of 2021 had boats leaving for the islands before 10:00 and back at the pier by 17:00, or by 15:00 from Playa Blanca and Cholón, and by 15:00 inside the bay under a yellow flag.
- A city notice of March 2024, citing the maritime authority, gave 16:00 as the usual return time.
- The Cartagena harbour master’s page on DIMAR’s site carries no notice with a 2025 or 2026 window.
What does apply every day is the flag. Corpoturismo sets out the three the harbour master uses: green for navigation without restrictions, yellow for navigation with caution or partial restrictions, and red for a total stop. The flag is not a formality. During a cold front in February 2026, departures to the islands were suspended and resumed on 13 February under a yellow flag, with Corpoturismo warning that conditions could change again if the harbour master decided so.
The park asks passengers to wear a life jacket and stay seated on board, and to check that the boat is not over capacity. Plan the day around the morning departure, and treat the return time as something you confirm at the pier that morning.
Playa Blanca by road, and the one thing you cannot do there
Playa Blanca and Barú belong to the same national park, and they can be reached by road. Parques Nacionales describes the route across the Campo Elías Terán Dix bridge near Pasacaballos and through the villages of Ararca, Santa Ana, Playa Blanca and Barú. It also names Playa Blanca as the main point of entry to the park, which received 1,246,374 visitors in 2025.
The taxi decree prices that road from Cartagena’s historic centre:
| From the historic centre to | Taxi fare |
|---|---|
| Pasacaballos | 47,300 COP |
| Barú bridge | 91,200 COP |
| Playa Blanca | 141,800 COP |
| Barú village | 219,300 COP |
The decree sets no fare from the airport to Playa Blanca or Barú. It does not say whether those fares include a toll, although it does mark the toll as included for another zone. None of the bodies involved publishes the 2026 toll at Pasacaballos or states that the route crosses it.
Road access changes one plan many visitors make. The park does not allow boarding boats at Playa Blanca for other sectors of the park, which includes the islands. Playa Blanca is somewhere you arrive by road, not a place to pick up a boat onward. The city opened a new boat landing there on 7 October 2025, 300 square metres in a T shape with room for 16 medium boats at once.
What to bring, and what to leave
The park asks visitors to carry identity documents and valid medical insurance, and recommends vaccination against yellow fever. Single-use plastics are prohibited inside Colombia’s protected areas, and so is collecting or buying shells, starfish or fragments of coral.
The 13,500 COP park fee pays for entry and nothing else. Parques Nacionales says transport, accommodation, restaurants and day passes are paid separately to authorised agencies and operators.
What is not published
A trip that looks thoroughly regulated still has gaps, and they are worth knowing before you set a budget:
- The boat fare. No operator on Corpoturismo’s list publishes one.
- The insurance price, from the park or the city. Only the insurer’s own announcement gives a figure.
- The park’s daily capacity. Parques Nacionales asks visitors to contact the park about capacity, available places and dates before paying, and gives no number.
- A return time for 2026. The park delegates it to the harbour master, and the harbour master has published none.
- The Oceanario’s entry price. The aquarium on Isla San Martín de Pajarales publishes its hours, 9:00 to 13:30 every day, and asks visitors to write for a visit, but gives no price.
How the pier, the airport and the city’s buses fit together is covered in the guide to transportation from Cartagena, and every route on this coast is collected in the Caribbean coast guides.
The fixed charges are 18,000 COP to use La Bodeguita pier and 13,500 COP for the national park, both in force since 1 January 2026, plus a mandatory accident insurance whose price the park does not publish. The boat is paid separately to the operator, and no operator on the pier's list publishes a fare.
That figure matches the pier fee of 18,000 COP and the park fee of 13,500 COP added together. They are two separate charges, collected by Corpoturismo and by Parques Nacionales, and no collector publishes the sum as one tax.
No. Resolution 551 of 2025 sets a single fee of 13,500 COP for this park. The age exemptions for children under five and adults over 62 apply only to Colombians, foreign residents and Andean Community citizens.
Yes, since 1 March 2026, and the park says visitors without it are not admitted. It is sold by the approved insurers, Positiva and Zurich, and travel or credit card insurance does not replace it.
From La Bodeguita, on Avenida Blas de Lezo opposite the Parque de La Marina. DIMAR names it as the authorised point for commercial passenger boats to the islands, and its doors open at 7:00.
No current rule is published. Parques Nacionales says the return is set by the harbour master and the state of the sea, so confirm it at the pier on the morning you travel.
No. Parques Nacionales does not allow boarding boats at Playa Blanca for other sectors of the park. Boats to the islands leave from La Bodeguita in Cartagena.
About Voytara
Voytara publishes informational guides on how transportation works across Colombia, using figures taken from the operators and authorities that publish them. Every figure on this page was read from its issuer in September 2026 and is named with the body that published it. Where an issuer publishes nothing, this guide says so instead of estimating. Voytara does not sell transport services or operate tours.
