ECO HOTEL PUNTANORTE — Hotel in Isla Tintipán

Pros - stunning location on a spit at the northernmost point of Tintipan island. The water is turquoise blue and when you get off the boat here you feel like you've been marooned on a desert island. This is an ideal spot to relax and get away from it all. Carlos is a very welcoming host and makes some really good home cooked food. He was also fantastically tolerant of our poor Spanish as he speaks pretty good English. The "on land" and online (via Facebook) service provided by Fredy was super, again our lack of Spanish meant that we were struggling to work out arrangements for getting to and from Tintipan. Fredy was really helpful at sorting this out for us.||Cons - At $440k (£120/€140/$150US) per night (including 3x meals per day) for two people staying here and additional for getting to and from the island, mean that this isn't cheap by Colombian standards and as a consequence I would have expected more for my money. We didn't come to Puntanorte expecting 5 star luxury but the rooms are in serious need of a refresh. They desperately need a lick of paint and/or new furniture. From a service point of view it was slightly disappointing that nobody came to remake and clean the room during our stay. It was also disappointing that there was no offer made of trips for snorkelling or swimming elsewhere. This was never presented to us as an option so we didn't really feel we could ask. Finally, and perhaps most irritatingly, the website states that soft drinks are included in the price. This isn't the case in reality and we were charged for this. As there was no signal or wifi on the island I didn't have this information at my disposal when we visited to point it out to Carlos but since leaving we have reviewed this and feel that we shouldn't have been charged. These weren't expensive but, this and the other bits and pieces mentioned above did leave a sour taste in the month and me feeling a little ripped off.||Overall - I would recommend to others for the experience of staying here but I would make it clear not to expect luxury accommodation. This is basic hostel standard accommodation in a stunning location charged at a high price. Other options in the area include an actual hostel and luxury hotels so I guess Carlos is playing it down the middle price wise relative to the local market. I probably wouldn't visit again but I'm pleased that I came. Could be significantly better value for money.||Top tips - if possible try to take a trip to Tintipan from Rincon or Cartagena. We travelled to the island from Tolu which is a bit of a dump and really not worth visiting. Make sure you take all the cash you need. Make sure you take water shoes as it's pretty spiky under foot...

In my thirty years of living between Cartagena and the US, Hotel Puntanorte is by far the best experience I've had at either the Islas del Rosario or San Bernardo Archipelago. My wife and I just spent 5 incredible, reasonably-priced days in awe of what we experienced.

The basics: this is not a luxury hotel, it's rustic and simple in the best ways. Puntanorte feels more like a family run B&B where the family also lives on-site. You're on a national park, so mosquitos and jejenes come with the territory, but luckily they're only active around 5am and 5pm, and rooms also have mosquito nets. There are three tiny beaches around the site with white sand, and great snorkeling areas around the property itself.

Rooms: You have two choices, Cabins or Mirador rooms. We stayed in one of the 4 adjoining but private overlook/Mirador de Venus rooms, built over the main kitchen building (other guests were very polite and had music off before 10pm, and the sound of the adjacent waves drowns out everything else), and each have access to electricity and plumbing. You get gorgeous sunrise AND sunset views right from your balcony. The other rooms are more private, larger cabins built out over the water, which don't have electricity but do have access to plumbing. If you're OK with charging your phone at a central charging station in the main area, the cabins are where it's at.

Aside from stellar service, the absolute best thing about Puntanorte is the FOOD. Owner/chefs Carolina and Carlos and their daughter Juana have built a sea-to-table menu that holds up to some of the Michelin star spots we've enjoyed around the world. Get the lobster and the crab, just do it, as well as the sopa de camarones and the fish of the day. Even the hogao for the patacones and coconut rice are world class. Try the lulo cocktail too, Fernando has an amazing secret cocktail menu. They served us an off-menu scampi on our second night that was creamy and sublime, like a restaurant family/staff meal.

The tours are incredible. The grandson Miguel took us out snorkeling and to an unforgettable night-time bioluminescent plankton experience, better than the ones I've seen at the Islas del Rosario.

We'll be back next year with the rest...

Puntanorte is a small, famliy-run hotel with several simple rooms on one end of Tintipan island. Three generations of the family are there working at the hotel. The food was the real standout feature. we stayed for four days and had every meal there. Each one was different and we had many choices. Yes, you do need to love seafood, because thats what there is. it gets brought in fresh every day. We did have some other options, but never took them up on it. All the food is made fresh and the patacones right out of the fryer are the best. We had lobster, prawns, crabs and many other excellent dishes. The portions were good and we always had enough. The prices are reasonable (and posted) and quite similar to the nearby hotels.||there is a small beach for the hotel that gets no day trippers, so its quiet and nice.||The rooms are basic and no AC. on days when the breeze blows, thats great. when it doesnt, you'll need the fan inside your mosquito net. the power in one room had trouble, so sometimes there was no fan. its a tropical island with many mangroves, so there are lots of sand flies and mosquitos. you definitely need DEET and if there is no breeze may need to retreat during the morning and evening hours when the bugs are out. There are boats you can pay to use, but the paddles are home made. ||The staff are happy to arrange trips to snorkel the reef or visit nearby sights. The snorkeling at the reef is nice and interesting, but not at the same level of amazing as more world famous places (Captain Cook, Hawaii or Cabo Pulmo, mexico, for instance)||you can arrange boat transportation from cartagena and the trip is about 2...