Museo Naval del Caribe — Attraction in Cartagena

We are not sure why this museum has such high reviews.

All the signs are in spainish apart from a few sporadic English translations. We were told this before purchasing the tickets and continued as we often visit museums in spainish and use translation apps to translate any text.

The ground floor room was full of a lot of information. There were huge amounts of text and the room seemed to have little order. The layout of the text made it impossible to translate using an app. We could not decipher and information.

The first floor is really focused on the navy. There are detailed profiles on specific ships and naval officers. Too much detail, in our opinion. Some of the displays were also not working.

We did enjoy the life size models/replica helicopters, submarine, and boat on the first floor. These were interactive, allowing you to flick switches, spin steering wheels and press buttons.

I would recommend visiting the castle and watching the introductory video there. This provided a clear and simple understanding of the...

I was really looking forward to this museum and had high expectations. Unfortunately these weren't met. Upon arriving we were met with a very rude lady on the reception who could barely even manage to speak to us. The museum itself is mainly huge boards of writing. Very few things are translated into English meaning if you don't understand Spanish visiting this museum is completely pointless. The translations are also very poor. Lastly, the toilet was probably one of the most disgusting toilets I have ever been to. I'll spare the details but it wasn't pleasant. All in all, this museum is not worth visiting. I can often look past dirty toilets and rude staff, albeit extremely annoying, but the fact that I visited a museum and learned absolutely nothing due to them not catering for English speakers (and not warning of this prior to entry) is...

Full-stop, this is a must-do for anyone interested in military/naval history, or even local history, given the walled city's past. Twice the number of displays and information than the three other museums I went to combined. Thoroughly enjoyed learning the history of the peoples and countries of the Caribbean, building and defending Cartageña, the development of the wars, the navy and their tactics, and loved the pieces on display, especially the hall of military history upstairs. They've got some interactive pieces that were very well-designed and executed (the mast is a great example!), though a couple needed attention (like the light-up map on the 2nd floor). Regrettably, I started feeling unwell and had to cut my tour short, but I laid eyes on most of it. Highly...