Cafés & Coffee Shops Centro Historico

Not a destination for specialty coffee seekers. Come here for something else entirely: the feeling of stepping into a place that feels like it has always been there, in the way that the best bookshops do. Walls of floor-to-ceiling books, classical music, a beautiful colonial corner setting, and the kind of atmosphere that makes you want to stay longer than you planned. In a city that Gabriel García Márquez called home and used as the backdrop for Love in the Time of Cholera, a bookshop café that captures his literary spirit feels less like a tourist stop and more like a pilgrimage. Browse the books, order something, and let the afternoon go slowly. That's the whole point.

Cafés & Coffee Shops Getsemaní

Amé is one of the most exciting new openings in Cartagena. Run by Natalia Martínez, the city’s most celebrated pastry chef and the name behind the desserts at Cartagena’s top weddings and events, it’s a café that shows a completely different side of her talent. The menu goes well beyond pastry, but the pistachio croissant alongside an espresso is how we’d start every morning here if we could. On Calle Larga in Getsemaní.

Cafés & Coffee Shops Centro Historico

One of the best specialty coffee roasters in Cartagena, housed in a beautiful colonial building in the Historic Center. Época sources beans from eight local Colombian coffee farms, roasts in-house, and takes the craft seriously enough that the owners are in the café most days. If you want to explore beyond standard Colombian coffee profiles, this is the place to do it: they run limited edition roasts and more inventive specialty offerings alongside their core menu. Great for brunch too, with a full food menu and bottomless brunch on weekends. Two floors, with the second accessible via a narrow spiral staircase. Locations also in Barranquilla and Medellín.

Cafés & Coffee Shops Getsemaní

Café Rialto sits inside the Four Seasons Cartagena, which opened in early 2026 inside a collection of beautifully restored historic buildings in Getsemaní, including the 1920s Beaux-Arts Club Cartagena designed by French architect Gastón Lelarge. The café itself occupies a space with a striking past: not long ago, the floor above housed a brothel. Now it's one of the most polished café interiors in the city, fully air conditioned, with custom La Marzocco espresso machines and every preparation method you could ask for.

Cafés & Coffee Shops Centro Historico

You're in Colombia, so drink the coffee. But know this: Colombian coffee has two very different faces. The best of it gets exported, and what stays behind for local consumption is often over-roasted, loaded with sugar, and sold by street vendors in little thermos cups. It's not great. The good news is that Cartagena, precisely because it draws so many visitors, has developed a genuine specialty coffee scene with excellent cafés and roasters who take the craft seriously. The difference between a good cup and a bad one here comes down entirely to where you go. We have a full guide to the best cafés in Cartagena coming soon. In the meantime, ask a local or the team at Magno, and skip the street thermos.

Cafés & Coffee Shops Centro Historico

The name means once upon a time in Spanish, which sets the tone before you even walk in. Érase Un Café is tucked along Calle de las Damas in a passage that connects one block to the next, easy to miss, part of the charm. The interior is decidedly its own thing: mismatched seating, eccentric decor, the kind of space that takes itself just seriously enough to be endearing. The coffee is genuinely good, prepared with care and a serious espresso setup. But the real reason to come is the desserts. They make beautifully crafted showpieces that look like tropical fruits, maracuyá, orange, each one filled with mousses and creams that are as good as they look. Order a dessert and pair it with a coffee. That combination is the whole point of the visit. Two locations in the Walled City.

Cafés & Coffee Shops Centro Historico

One of the most photogenic spots in Cartagena and one of the hardest to find. Just B is tucked inside Casa Carolina (formerly Casa Pombo) on Calle del Arzobispado, and you'd walk past the entrance without knowing it was there unless you were looking. Once inside the hotel, you cross stepping stones over a pool to reach the tiny café space beyond. Worth every second of the search.

Cafés & Coffee Shops Centro Historico

If you want serious Colombian coffee in Cartagena, this is the place. Rather than feeling like a polished, trend chasing café built for tourists, this place feels unmistakably Colombian. You feel it in the décor, which draws from traditional Paisa culture while giving it a thoughtful modern edge. The coffee follows the same philosophy: genuinely excellent, and a true reflection of why Colombian coffee remains some of the most respected in the world.

Cafés & Coffee Shops Mango

María Julio is not in the Walled City, not particularly easy to get to, and the seats are not comfortable. None of that matters once the coffee arrives. Tucked into a far corner of Manga, this is a specialty coffee roastery that offers a personalized, unhurried tasting experience built around single-origin Colombian beans. The staff are deeply knowledgeable and genuinely passionate about what they're serving. Take a cab or Uber rather than walking. The trip out there is worth every minute of it.