Most of what a visitor needs to move around Cartagena is published somewhere, and rarely where they would look. Taxi fares are fixed by decree, but the price depends on where the ride starts. The bus terminal publishes no timetable. And the companies that sell the coast road to Barranquilla and Santa Marta do not charge the same.
A taxi fare depends on where the ride starts
Cartagena’s taxi fares are fixed by Decree 0051 of 20 February 2026, and the decree prices each ride by its origin, not its length. A ride to Bocagrande costs 12,250 COP from the historic centre, 34,400 COP from the airport and 45,500 COP from the bus terminal.
These are the decree’s fares to Bocagrande from the five origins it lists, verified September 2026:
| From | To Bocagrande | Section of the decree |
|---|---|---|
| Historic centre | 12,250 COP | I, from the Centro |
| Bazurto market | 20,400 COP | V, from Bazurto |
| Rafael Núñez airport | 34,400 COP | II, from the airport |
| Cruise terminal (Sociedad Portuaria) | 37,000 COP | VI, from the tourist dock |
| Bus terminal | 45,500 COP | III, from the Terminal de Transporte |
Distance barely enters into it. The airport sits in Crespo, yet a taxi from the airport to Crespo costs 20,200 COP, while the same neighbourhood from the historic centre is 12,250 COP, the city’s minimum fare. Ask for the fare from the point where you are standing, not from the map.
The minimum fare of 12,250 COP also covers the historic centre to Manga, Castillogrande, El Laguito and Marbella, and a night surcharge of 1,100 COP applies from 19:00 to 5:00. The decree reminds drivers that they must carry the laminated control card on the back of the front passenger seat, requires the fares to be displayed where they are clearly visible, and names the DATT, the city’s transit department, as the body that enforces it.
What its 23 pages do not cover is just as useful to know: nothing on luggage, the number of passengers, meters, tips, paying by card or ride-hailing apps. Every zone fare from the airport, and why two of them cover the walled city, is set out in the guide to getting from Cartagena airport into the city.
The bus terminal sits on the road out of town
The Terminal de Transporte de Cartagena has operated since 1 May 1994 in the Doña Manuela sector, on the right-hand side of the Cordialidad road towards Barranquilla, as the company that runs it describes the site. Its own offices give Diagonal 56 No. 57-236 in El Pozón as the address, while Berlinas del Fonce, Rápido Ochoa and Copetran give Carrera 95 No. 54-153 for their counters inside.
A taxi there is priced in the decree’s terminal section:
- 32,000 COP to or from the historic centre, San Diego, La Matuna and Getsemaní.
- 28,000 COP to Manga.
- 45,500 COP to Bocagrande, Castillogrande, El Laguito, Crespo and Marbella.
- To the airport, the decree gives two prices for the same run: 45,500 COP in the terminal section and 51,000 COP in the airport section.
By public transport, Transcaribe’s X104 route, Terminal-Pedro Romero-Centro, serves the terminal and stops at Chambacú on the way into the centre. Transcaribe announced detours on it in March 2026 for roadworks on Avenida Pedro Romero and has published no end date.
The terminal company publishes a taxi and bus stand open 24 hours a day, a left-luggage service with no price or hours given, free wifi in the Module 1 corridor, and a plain warning: do not board a bus outside the terminal. It does not publish its own opening hours, the destinations served, departure times or fares. Its list of transport companies, last changed in 2022, has 23 entries and includes neither Unitransco nor MarSol.
There is also a second terminal. The Terminal Satélite del Norte opened on 1 December 2020 in Tierra Baja, near Serena del Mar, and the taxi decree prices it separately, at 50,800 COP from the historic centre. The terminal company does not publish which bus companies leave from it, so say which terminal you mean when you get into a taxi.
The coast road: three operators, three prices
Barranquilla and Santa Marta are the next two cities along the coast road, and the operators that publish prices for them do not agree:
| Operator | To Barranquilla | To Santa Marta | Leaves from | What the price is |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Expreso Brasilia | 42,000 COP | 95,000 COP | its office in the bus terminal | tariff in force from 1 December 2025 |
| Unitransco | 42,000 COP | 95,000 COP | not published | tariff in force from 1 December 2025 |
| MarSol | 40,500 COP | 100,000 COP | its own office, Carrera 2A 43-111 | fare shown by its booking engine, September 2026 |
Each figure belongs to the company that charges it. Unitransco also publishes the return from Santa Marta to Cartagena at 89,000 COP, less than the outbound.
MarSol is the only one of the three that gives a journey time. Its booking engine shows 2 hours 30 minutes to Barranquilla, arriving at its office on Calle 93 47-13, and 5 hours to Santa Marta, arriving at Carrera 4 24-20. For a Friday in late September it returned a dozen departures to Barranquilla between 6:00 and 19:00, and departures to Santa Marta at 6:00, 8:00, 10:00, 12:00, 14:00 and 16:00. That is what the engine showed for one date, not a published timetable.
MarSol’s conditions are specific. It asks passengers to carry a printed voucher, even when the ticket was bought on its own website or on platforms such as Bookaway or redBus. It allows one checked bag of up to 15 kg plus a hand bag, and children pay from the age of three.
Expreso Brasilia allows up to 40 kg of hold luggage in two pieces of at most 70 x 50 x 30 cm on its buses, plus one hand bag of 10 kg, and charges excess at 1,000 COP per kilo with a minimum of 10,000 COP.
Berlinas del Fonce runs a third format under its Berlitur brand: 16-seat vans on the Vía al Mar, with up to 23 departures a day between Barranquilla and Cartagena. It publishes neither the price nor the timetable. What waits at the other end of the road is covered in transportation from Barranquilla and transportation from Santa Marta, and the direct trips from the airport in Cartagena airport to Barranquilla and Cartagena airport to Santa Marta.
Mompox, Medellín, Bogotá and further afield
For Mompox, one operator publishes a fare. Unitransco charges 137,000 COP from Cartagena and 140,000 COP back, in its tariff in force from 1 December 2025. Expreso Brasilia’s list from the same date does not include Mompox at all, and Unitransco does not publish where its buses leave from in Cartagena.
Brasilia’s list gives Cartagena to Medellín at 268,000 COP and Cartagena to Bogotá at 347,000 COP, with the reverse trip from Bogotá at 368,000 COP. Berlinas advertises Cartagena to Bogotá “from 150,000 COP” without a date, which is a starting price rather than a tariff, so the two cannot be compared. Rápido Ochoa, which sells Medellín from counters 75 to 78 at the terminal, titles its fares page as updated for 2025, but the latest fare notice it links ran from 15 December 2023 to 15 January 2024. How those cities work on arrival is covered in transportation from Medellín and transportation from Bogotá.
Brasilia’s tariff also lists Riohacha at 105,000 COP and Valledupar at 109,000 COP. Those routes are covered in Cartagena to Riohacha and Cartagena to Valledupar.
The yellow fever card at the ticket window
Two of the operators ask for proof of vaccination against yellow fever. Expreso Brasilia requires the card or certificate to buy a ticket at the window or to board with a digital ticket for as long as the national health emergency over yellow fever remains in force, and offers a signed declaration to travellers without it. Unitransco’s homepage, updated in September 2026, says you must carry the card or certificate to travel.
The emergency was declared by the Health Ministry in Resolution 691 of 2025, which ties it to containing the virus until at least eight epidemiological weeks pass without human cases or cases in animals. A ministry circular of January 2026 still referred to it. If you have the card, carry it when you take a bus out of Cartagena.
Transcaribe: 3,900 COP, and one card per person
Transcaribe, the city’s mass transit system, charges 3,900 COP a trip in 2026, set by Decree 017 of 15 January and in force since 23 January. Since late August 2026 it has accepted contactless Visa cards, and Visa on Apple Pay or Google Pay, with no registration, top-up or PIN.
The rule that catches groups is in Transcaribe’s own guide to paying by card. The validators accept only one payment per Visa card per hour, so if you travel together, each person has to pay with their own card or their own phone. Transfers between routes in the same direction are free within 90 minutes, but only with the same means of payment, and Transcaribe warns that a physical Visa card and the same card on a phone count as two different means. For the first three months the open payment works with Visa only.
Transcaribe’s own card cost 6,000 COP the last time the system published a price, in May 2024, and was sold at station ticket offices. No route stops at the airport, although the system’s manager said at the launch of card payments in August 2026 that visitors could leave the airport and board with their own cards: the T102 runs through Crespo past the airport without stopping at it. In the July 2024 route leaflet, the T103 from the Portal runs through La Bodeguita station to Bocagrande, sharing the road with other traffic on the last stretch.
Driving: pico y placa, and a 24-hour version in season
Private cars in Cartagena are under pico y placa by Decree 0015 of 2026, in force from 16 January 2026 to 22 January 2027. On weekdays that are not public holidays, cars may not circulate from 7:00 to 9:00 or from 18:00 to 20:00 on the days set by the last digit of their plate, on every road in the district:
| Day | Until 2 October 2026 | From 5 October 2026 to 22 January 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | plates ending 9 or 0 | plates ending 1 or 2 |
| Tuesday | 1 or 2 | 3 or 4 |
| Wednesday | 3 or 4 | 5 or 6 |
| Thursday | 5 or 6 | 7 or 8 |
| Friday | 7 or 8 | 9 or 0 |
In three seasons the restriction runs for 24 hours, from 6:00 to 6:00 the next day on weekdays: Holy Week, the middle of the year, and the year-end season from 11 December 2026 to 22 January 2027. The city’s announcements give no exception for rental cars.
Taxis have their own rotation, also from 6:00 to 6:00 on weekdays, announced month by month. Motorcycles of any kind are barred from the Centro, San Diego, La Matuna and Getsemaní until 4 January 2027.
Leaving the cruise terminal
The Sociedad Portuaria Regional de Cartagena, which runs the cruise terminal, places it 3.2 km from the historic centre and says it receives 97 per cent of the passengers who reach Colombia by sea. Its page for passengers lists a tourist information point, wifi and first aid. It says nothing about taxis, pickup areas or walking out of the port.
The taxi decree fills part of that gap. Its section on the Muelle Turístico of the Sociedad Portuaria fixes 37,000 COP to the historic centre, Bocagrande, Castillogrande, El Laguito, Crespo, the airport, the Castillo de San Felipe or the Convento de La Popa, and 49,000 COP an hour for a taxi kept moving or waiting. The same decree also lists a “Terminal Marítimo (Manga)” at 12,250 COP from the historic centre, without saying whether it is the same place.
That dock is not the one for the islands.
Boats to the islands leave from La Bodeguita
Boats to the Rosario Islands and Playa Blanca leave from La Bodeguita, which Corpoturismo runs for the city and describes as the only pier authorised for departures. Three charges apply before the boat fare: 18,000 COP to use the pier, 13,500 COP to enter the national park, and a mandatory accident insurance sold by the insurers the park approves. A taxi from the airport to La Bodeguita is 24,300 COP under the same decree. Who collects each charge, and what nobody publishes about the boats, is set out in the guide to getting to the Rosario Islands.
Corpoturismo also lists Tierra Bomba and the inner bay among the destinations served from the pier, without publishing a fare or a schedule for either.
What nobody publishes
A city with this much regulation still leaves gaps, and they are the questions visitors ask most:
- The bus terminal’s hours, destinations, departure times and fares. The terminal company publishes none of them.
- Which companies leave from the northern satellite terminal.
- A current Transcaribe card price or timetable. The latest card price is from May 2024 and the route leaflet from July 2024.
- Where Unitransco’s buses leave from in Cartagena.
- Anything from the cruise terminal about taxis or pickup.
- A price or timetable for the Berlitur vans.
- Taxi rules on luggage, tips, meters or apps. The decree is silent.
The routes along this coast are collected in the Caribbean coast guides.
Fares are fixed by Decree 0051 of 2026 and depend on where the ride starts. The minimum is 12,250 COP, which covers the historic centre to Bocagrande, Manga or Crespo, plus a night surcharge of 1,100 COP from 19:00 to 5:00.
32,000 COP to the historic centre, San Diego, La Matuna or Getsemaní, and 45,500 COP to Bocagrande, under the terminal section of Decree 0051 of 2026.
Expreso Brasilia and Unitransco publish 42,000 COP in tariffs in force from 1 December 2025. MarSol's booking engine showed 40,500 COP in September 2026, leaving from its own office rather than the terminal, with a journey of 2 hours 30 minutes.
95,000 COP with Expreso Brasilia or Unitransco, and 100,000 COP with MarSol, whose booking engine gives a journey of 5 hours.
Yes, with a contactless Visa card or Visa on a phone since late August 2026. Each card pays once per hour, so every passenger in a group needs their own card. The fare is 3,900 COP.
No. No Transcaribe route stops at Rafael Núñez airport; the T102 runs through Crespo past the airport without stopping at it.
Expreso Brasilia asks for it to buy or board while the national health emergency lasts, and accepts a signed declaration from travellers without it. Unitransco says you must carry it to travel.
37,000 COP from the Sociedad Portuaria's tourist dock to the historic centre, Bocagrande or the airport, under Decree 0051 of 2026.
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.
