Street Food Tour Cartagena

In search of cartagena’s best snacks

At one of the busiest stalls, two ladies made arepa con huevo, a specialty in Cartagena. The arepa is filled with meat and an egg is added before frying.

A tour where you taste Cartagena’s tastiest snacks -with lots of cheese- AND get introduced to the city? That seemed like a perfect idea to these “cheese heads”!

Chocolate Museum
The tour with Cartagena Connections began at the Chocolate Museum at Plaza Fernandez de Madrid in San Diego. Since we were early, we were able to look around the museum and taste chocolate first. From the Chocolate Museum, the walk headed toward Getsemaní with our German guide Jan. He has lived in Cartagena for years and knew many interesting facts about the city. Along the way we stopped at stalls, where Jan bought us snacks and where we could see people at work.

Queso, Queso y Queso
We watched Deditos de queso (cheese fingers) being rolled and ate Patacones con queso, green banana cookies with cheese. One of our favorite snacks was the Bocadillo con queso, Guava with a piece of white cheese.

Cartagena specialty
At one of the busiest stalls, two ladies made arepa con huevo, a specialty in Cartagena. The arepa is filled with meat and an egg is added before frying. What makes arepas extra tasty are sauces, such as the sweet salsa de piña (pineapple sauce) and salsa picante.

Salted mango
We tasted Buñuelos, small balls made of corn and cheese, and Mango Biche, green mango with salt. Fruit combined with salt didn’t sound very appealing at first, but it was a fresh change from all the cheese snacks.

Corozo ice cream
We ate Arepas de choclo, made with sweet corn and at the end of the tour we had a water ice cream made from Corozo. This is a red-purple fruit that grows high on the palm trees on the coast. Never knew this fruit was edible! The fruit resembles a berry and produces a deep purple color.

Café del Mural
After a lot of messing around with the ice cream, the tour ended at Café del Mural in Getsemaní, a café among colorful murals. With an old-fashioned jug of coffee, we recovered on the terrace from all the impressions of the first day in Cartagena.

Travel date September 2019
Updated June 2024

#NaarColombiaTips

  • Take the tour at the beginning of your stay in Cartagena. It’s a fun way to get acquainted with the city, and you’ll get tips for great eateries along the way.
  • Don’t plan an elaborate dinner the day of the tour. If you want to sample all the snacks, it’s pretty filling
  • At the chocolate museum, say clearly that you are coming for the street food tour and not for the chocolate workshop. Apparently we were not clear because the chocolatier was already coming to pick us up for the workshop!
  • We saved over 4€ per person by paying with COP instead of US$
  • We did the tour with Cartagena Connections. Check here all street food tours in Cartagena.

Want to know more about Cartagena? Then check out our Cartagena travel guide.