The largest and most varied of Colombia’s regions. Cartagena’s walled city draws most of the attention, and it earns it — but the Caribbean coast goes much further than that. Barranquilla brings carnival energy nearly year-round, and the river town of Mompox feels frozen a couple of centuries back.

Further out, La Guajira’s desert coastline is one of the more surprising landscapes in the country, and the islands of San Andrés sit out in the Caribbean Sea proper — a different kind of trip altogether from the mainland coast.

Includes: Cartagena · Barranquilla · Mompox · La Guajira · San Andrés