Hotel Tropical Inn — Hotel in Cartagena

What shocks me most is the fact that this hotel has such high reviews.||||Positive highlights: the view of Cartagena skyline, the boat shuttle to the hotel, and the fact that the person at the reception was very helpful after we showed him the status of the room and explained we did not want to stay a second night. He actually arranged for a boat to take us back as soon as possible.||||On this part of Tierra Bomba, the beach is the local road... Motobikes are constantly driving by. The beach directly in front of the hotel is clean but just a few meters on either side it is treated like a dumpster. It is not possible to take a walk on the beach, also because the area close to hotel looks quite shady.||The whole hotel is in serious need of upgrade. The room was very disappointing (even without considering the price): bed sheets had multiple stains, toilet paper dispenser was nearly empty with no spare, wifi did not work in the room.||There were no other food options available, so we paid for well overpriced dinner (burger and sandwich, which were ok).||A party in the evening continued with ridiculously loud music and shouts until 2 am, making it impossible to get any sleep...

My daughter and I have just got back from a lovely stay at this hotel in Tierra Bomba. This beachfront hotel is everything you need if you're looking for some downtime outside of busy mainland Cartagena. The sea is turquoise blue (unlike the greyish Cartagena beaches!) Special mention to the wonderful staff at this hotel, in particular the receptionists Cesar and Luis who went above and beyond to make our stay extra special. The food was absolutely delicious every single day, we loved the fried fish and the ceviche. The hotel also organised our trips to other islands and would arrange for their little boat to take and pick us up from mainland Cartagena whenever we were visiting for the day. The only downside was that the hotel next door tends to pay very loud music on most evenings until about midnight, which was frustrating if we wanted an early night's sleep. Also worth noting that there is no hot water in the hotel, this wasn't a problem for us as the heat on the island was so intense that the last thing we wanted was a hot shower! Overall a very pleasant stay and we'll...

We stayed for the day at the beach and wanted to have a nice lunch and thought this hotel would be a good idea cuz it looks nice from outside.||It was not. We had to wait nearly an hour for our food, although we were the only guests at that time ordering. The food was of no good quality, more a cheap local food you can find in lots of cheaper places in the city, but for the prices they charged it was definitely not worth.||But even worse was the service. The waiter was in no way friendly or helpful. When asked where the food was after 40min waiting he just said the chicken was frozen. No sorry not other excuse. Same happens when ordering and nearly half of the drinks were not available. Gave us the feeling it was our fault that we ordered the wrong stuff.||If you are there just pass by and walk 5 minutes to one of the nicer beach clubs. Staff there is way more friendly and food...