Hotel El Prado in Barranquilla is a historic hotel in a beautiful colonial building located on spacious, fenced-off grounds on Carrera 54 in the El Prado neighborhood. The highlight is the large semi-Olympic swimming pool. Hotel El Prado is one of Barranquilla’s most famous hotels and is well known among locals. Because of its romantic atmosphere, it often hosts events such as weddings.

Hotel El Prado is part of Colombia’s national heritage. The hotel opened in 1930, during Barranquilla’s glory days, when the city became a very important international trade center and was called the “Golden Gate” of Colombia. 

We visited hotel El Prado in september 2023, as we wanted to taste a bit of the atmosphere of those days long ago. We walked through the gardens and had drinks and dinner at the pool bar. Besides the pool bar, there is a pizzeria and restaurant la Cabaña, for traditional Colombian food.

We didn’t stay overnight, but we we will certainly consider this for our next trip to Barranquilla. The hotel offers accommodation in neoclassical rooms, that look very comfortable and the hotel and its gardens seem like a very relaxing place to spend a few nights.

The idea to build a luxury hotel for the flourishing Barranquilla, came from American Karl Parrish, who also initiated the construction of the el Prado neighborhood, where the hotel is located. At the time, Hotel El Prado was Latin America’s first luxury hotel with private rooms with private bathrooms and telephones. Numerous celebrities stayed at the hotel such as Greta Garbo, Celia Cruz and star soccer player Pele.

The hotel has a troubled history, as in the 1980s and 1990s the hotel was claimed by drug lords who turned it into an operations center and used it for money laundering. As a result, regular guests stayed away. After the government seized the hotel because of skyrocketing debts, the hotel was neglected for years.

In 2016, an agreement was signed with the Marriot hotel chain to operate the hotel. The injection of capital from this partnership gave the hotel a new chance to flourish. Renovation work started and now Hotel El Prado is once again the elegant, iconic hotel of the 1930s.