Isla del Pirata — Hotel in undefined

We stayed one night here just to have experienced this kind of tourism. Islas del Rosario are heavily recommended while staying in Cartagena, and they promise a bounty island feeling. That must have been the case probably 20 odd years ago. Today, unfortunately it is almost becoming a tourist trap. It starts with the boat trip. In the morning all the tourists gather at the docks and are loaded like cattle. After an hour you arrive at the destination, being one of the islands, and the the tourist trap starts, everything is expensive, which is logic as all goods need to be shipped, expensive in the sense that it is reaching western European prices. So, take that into account when going here. Concerning the price for the boat trip don't fall in the trap of ordering it together with the hotel booking. Instead go to the docks and haggle a price there. This island for example is asking 180k per person. I bought it at the dock for 80k + the mandatory harbour tax of 23k.|All the above is my take on generally going to Islas del Rosario. Now my view on staying at Isla del Pirata.|Approaching this island gives indeed that bounty island feeling, getting on the jetty seeing the crisp white sand, huts with thatched roofs, azur water. Yes, it ticks all those boxes! Then you arrive around 10:30 at the reception where they speak a little English, just enough to understand that we have to wait for the room until 3pm. Not really a problem as you come here to enjoy the sun, swim and relax. At this time of year there are plenty of sunbeds available, even with shade. At 14:30 we were shown the hut. We booked a standard, but got a Jr suite instead, an upgrade. Gracias! We took a shower to rinse of the salt, only cold water, you don't need or want hot water here ;) At first sight the hut looked marvelous, another box ticked! However, a closer look showed that it is worn, not very clean and moist, normal with this humidity. The fans do a good job though to cool you down. As it is only this hotel in this small island you need to have lunch, diner and breakfast here. Breakfast is included, but limited: fruit, white toast bread, not toasted, and eggs your style. We had club sandwich for lunch which is ok. For diner we had fish of the day, but doubt if they were fresh.|We spend 400k on food and drinks, the stay: 300k, boat return 364k for 2 persons.|Only 3 stars because the accommodation needs...

I won’t come back, I’m terribly disappointed and a little offended with their actions.||I visited this island last year in September and it was extremely well maintained, they offered stellar customer service, good food and great ambiance. But not anymore.||We decided to come back now (Apr, 20, 2024) and were tremendously surprised with how they basically destroyed the island. I imagine this is all on their administration: first off, they cut off all the mangrove (I think this is actually illegal), creating imbalance and affecting the archipelago ecosystem. For god sake, this is a natural national park! ||They also cropped all the green vegetation around the commercial area, where visitors hang out. The front dock is rotting and there’s no sign of labor being done in that part. All the wood work was abandoned and it doesn’t look like it’s properly cleaned up to make it usable. The beds that were by the water were moved away from that part. It’s so regrettable what we saw. There are many paths where visitors used to walk to go around the island and they are all torn and people can’t step on them anymore. ||Where’s the hostess that used to welcome visitors with a nice smile and ask how we are doing? She’s gone. ||The music was off most of the time, and only until lunch they started blasting mariachi music. That was awful. ||We paid around $250 between the two of us to live such a bad experience coming from the high of last year. $250 for deep-fried fish, plantains and rice is a high price tag. We paid for a VIP day pass. C’mon! ||We also had a very horrible experience on the speed boat. It’s a 60-min boat ride between Cartagena and the archipelago. We were transported both ways on an boat with no cover/tent, directly exposed to the sunlight which was extremely ínstense (Cartagena is like 90°F on a good day), and as a result we got sunburned, despite us applying multiple layers of sunblock multiple times. If you’re a responsible company and you’re getting paid to offer VIP experience, please let your VIP paying customer get on first, not last.||Please do not go to this island, their Instagram pictures are from a different time when it was maintained in good conditions. Today it’s completely destroyed. Do not bite the bait! ||I’m not even going to spend more lines here writing about the nastiness of the bathrooms (just pee...

I won’t come back, I’m terribly disappointed and a little offended with their actions.

I visited this island last year in September and it was extremely well maintained, they offered stellar customer service, good food and great ambiance. But not anymore.

We decided to come back now (Apr, 20, 2024) and were tremendously surprised with how they basically destroyed the island. I imagine this is all on their administration: first off, they cut off all the mangrove (I think this is actually illegal), creating imbalance and affecting the archipelago ecosystem. For god sake, this is a natural national park!

They also cropped all the green vegetation around the commercial area, where visitors hang out. The front dock is rotting and there’s no sign of labor being done in that part. All the wood work was abandoned and it doesn’t look like it’s properly cleaned up to make it usable. The beds that were by the water were moved away from that part. It’s so regrettable what we saw. There are many paths where visitors used to walk to go around the island and they are all torn and people can’t step on them anymore.

Where’s the hostess that used to welcome visitors with a nice smile and ask how we are doing? She’s gone.

The music was off most of the time, and only until lunch they started blasting mariachi music. That was awful.

We paid around $250 between the two of us to live such a bad experience coming from the high of last year. $250 for deep-fried fish, plantains and rice is a high price tag. We paid for a VIP day pass. C’mon!

We also had a very horrible experience on the speed boat. It’s a 60-min boat ride between Cartagena and the archipelago. We were transported both ways on an boat with no cover/tent, directly exposed to the sunlight which was extremely ínstense (Cartagena is like 90°F on a good day), and as a result we got sunburned, despite us applying multiple layers of sunblock multiple times. If you’re a responsible company and you’re getting paid to offer VIP experience, please let your VIP paying customer get on first, not last.

Please do not go to this island, their Instagram pictures are from a different time when it was maintained in good conditions. Today it’s completely destroyed. Do not bite the bait!

I’m not even going to spend more lines here writing about the nastiness of the bathrooms (just pee...