September 9, 2026
Cartagena’s airport, Rafael Núñez International (CTG), is inside the city. It sits in the Crespo neighborhood on the northern seafront, and the airport’s own line is ten minutes to the walled city and fifteen to the hotel peninsula of Bocagrande. That one fact changes everything about the ride in: there is no mountain, no hour on a highway, only a short drive with four ways to make it and a fare that depends on which door you walk out of and what time it is. We put guests in cars from this terminal every week, so here is the ride, option by option, with the 2026 fares, the bus almost nobody knows about, and the day-of-week and month-of-year details that decide whether ten minutes is really ten.
The short version
From the official taxi stands at the domestic and international exits, the fare is fixed by zone under the district’s 2026 tariff: 20,200 pesos to Getsemaní and the Marbella and Cabrero seafront, 24,300 to the Muelle de la Bodeguita by the Clock Tower and to La Boquilla, 28,500 to Manga, 34,400 to Bocagrande, Castillogrande and El Laguito, plus a 1,100 peso night surcharge from 7 pm to 5 am. Ride apps work in the city and pick up outside the terminal. The Transcaribe T102 bus stops a street away and costs 3,900 pesos with a card. A private transfer with a driver waiting inside the terminal starts at 49 US dollars with Safe Transfers by Cielo.Travel, our transfer company. If you are flying in from abroad, fill in Check-Mig before you fly and expect the automated Biomig gates on the way out.
Where the airport is, and why that matters
Rafael Núñez handled 7,756,298 passengers in 2025, a record and 3.27 percent more than the year before, of whom 1,752,903 were international; December alone moved 705,858 people through a single terminal. That terminal is one building with domestic and international areas under the same roof, each with its own exit to the street and its own authorized taxi stand. The airport runs 24 hours, the taxi stands run with it, the currency exchange is outside at the domestic and international exits, the tourist information desk and the tourism police point are in the domestic arrivals hall, the free wifi gives you thirty minutes, and there is no left-luggage service, which matters on your last day. The airport recommends checking in two hours before a domestic flight and three before an international one.
Two things are changing the place in 2026. The concessionaire, OINAC, is building a new international terminal, a larger apron and a bigger parking area under a program approved by the national infrastructure agency in March 2026, with a construction phase of about two and a half years and a target of eleven million passengers a year; by June the works had closed two lanes of Calle 70A, the airport’s access road, under a traffic plan agreed with the city. And a second airport at Bayunca, outside the city, is being studied, with a feasibility study due in early 2026 and years of approval and construction after that. Neither affects a trip this year beyond the traffic on the access road.
Option 1: the official taxi stands, with the 2026 zone fares
Cartagena’s taxis do not use meters. The district sets the fares by decree each year, and for trips from the airport the fare is a fixed price by zone, posted at the two authorized stands at the domestic and international exits. Under the 2026 tariff, Decreto 0051 de 2026, the zones that matter to a visitor are these: 20,200 pesos to Getsemaní, Marbella, El Cabrero, Torices and Crespo itself; 24,300 to the Muelle de la Bodeguita, the pier beside the Clock Tower, and to La Boquilla and the Zona Norte hotels around Los Morros and Cielo Mar; 28,500 to Manga and Pie de la Popa; 30,800 to El Prado and La Quinta; 34,400 to Bocagrande, Castillogrande and El Laguito. The table does not name the walled city separately: a hotel inside the walls falls between the Getsemaní and Bodeguita lines, so expect one of those two figures and ask the dispatcher which before you get in. From 7 pm to 5 am every fare carries a 1,100 peso night surcharge.
The way it works is simple. Walk out of either exit, go to the stand, tell the dispatcher the hotel, hear the fare, and get in the taxi they point you to. Pay in pesos, in cash, in small notes; the currency exchange is right there if you land without any. Ignore anyone who approaches you inside the terminal or on the sidewalk offering a car, a better price, or a friend with a taxi. The ride to the walled city is ten to fifteen minutes on an ordinary morning and twice that in the evening rush or on a cruise-ship day, along the seafront avenue past Marbella and El Cabrero to the walls. It is the right choice for a couple with normal luggage arriving in daylight, and the fare is small enough that the app saves almost nothing.
Option 2: ride apps
Uber, DiDi and inDrive all operate in Cartagena, and Uber’s own airport page lists taxi and larger-vehicle products for pickups at CTG, with the price shown up front before you confirm. The pickup is outside the terminal wherever the app directs you, not at the taxi stand. On a ride this short the app’s advantage is the fixed price on the screen and the record of the trip, not the money; it costs about what the stand costs, and the price rises with demand, which in Cartagena means rain, cruise days and December. The practical rules are the ones from our guide to whether Cartagena is safe: match the plate before you get in, keep the phone in your pocket on the sidewalk, and never accept a ride from someone who says the app sent them when the app did not.
Option 3: the Transcaribe bus, one street from the terminal
Cartagena’s bus rapid transit system, Transcaribe, runs a trunk route, the T102 Portal–Crespo, with stops on Calle 70 in Crespo a street from the airport, and it reaches the Chambacú and Centro stations on the edge of the walled city. The fare is 3,900 pesos since 23 January 2026 under Decreto 017 de 2026, paid with a Transcaribe card that you buy and load at any station; there is no station at the airport, so the local workaround is to ask another passenger at the stop to sell you a ride from their card. The route ran from 5 am to 9 pm on weekdays, 5:30 am to 8:30 pm on Saturdays and 6 am to 8 pm on Sundays and holidays when the newspaper El Universal published its practical guide in November 2024, and the stops in Crespo were reorganized that same month, so check the current schedule at the stop. It is a real option for one person with a backpack who lands in daylight and is staying inside the walls or in Getsemaní. It is not an option with suitcases, at night, or in the heat of the afternoon with a family, and the Centro station is still a walk of up to ten minutes from the hotels inside the walls.
Option 4: a private transfer, with the driver inside the terminal
Our transfers are operated by Safe Transfers by Cielo.Travel, our transfer company. A private transfer from Rafael Núñez to any hotel in the walled city, Getsemaní, Bocagrande, Manga or the Zona Norte starts at 49 US dollars, with the driver waiting inside the terminal with your name on a sign, your flight tracked so the driver is there when you actually land, the price fixed in dollars when you book, and vans for groups. It is the choice we make for our own guests, and it earns its price in four situations: a night arrival, when the taxi queue is long and the surcharge is on; a family with small children and more bags than hands; December and Holy Week, when the frontage of the terminal is a crowd; and a first trip to Colombia, when the value of walking out to a person who is expecting you is worth more than the difference from a taxi. Book it at Safe Transfers, Cartagena airport transfer.
People also ask about walking, because the airport is close enough to make the question reasonable. The answer is no: it is a few kilometers along a road built for cars, in thirty-plus degrees, with bags.
The clock and the calendar
The airport says ten minutes to the walled city, and at six in the morning it is. Budget twenty to thirty in the evening rush, on Fridays, and on days when a cruise ship is in port, and more in December, when the terminal handled 705,858 passengers in 2025 and the taxi queues are long. The works on Calle 70A add a few minutes at the airport end. None of this is Bogotá traffic; it is a short ride that occasionally becomes a medium one, and the fix is to leave the hotel earlier on departure day, not to change how you travel.
Departure is where the road matters more than the terminal. Crespo is reached by one artery from the walled city, along the seafront and through the Crespo tunnel, and when it slows there is no fast alternative. The airport’s own minimums are two hours before a domestic flight and three before an international one; in December, add thirty minutes for the road. Because there is no left-luggage service at the airport, a late flight after a noon checkout means asking your hotel to hold the bags, which most hotels do.
Arriving from abroad: Check-Mig, Biomig, customs, pesos
Migración Colombia asks every traveler entering or leaving Colombia by air to pre-register the trip with its Check-Mig form, free on Migración Colombia’s own site, between 72 hours and one hour before departure; do it before you fly to Colombia and again before you fly out, and keep the confirmation on your phone. Rafael Núñez has Migración Colombia’s Biomig automated gates, which read the face or the iris; foreign adults can use them on the way out of the country without prior enrollment, and on the way in you go to an officer. After immigration and customs the international exit puts you on the sidewalk with the currency exchange beside you and the international taxi stand in front of you. Change a small amount for the taxi and the first day, and let the ATMs in the city do the rest; the fares above are in pesos.
Where you are going, and what to do first
If you have not chosen where to stay, the airport’s position helps: the walled city and Getsemaní are ten minutes away and are where the first evening belongs; Bocagrande is fifteen minutes and is the beach-and-tower option; the Zona Norte beach hotels around Los Morros are a short drive the other way, past La Boquilla, and are the furthest from the walled city. For what to do once the bags are down, our guide to things to do in Cartagena is built around the heat and the hours; for the beach question, which is complicated here, our guide to Cartagena beaches.
What we do differently
We do not run the taxi stand or the bus; we run the alternative. Our transfers, by Safe Transfers by Cielo.Travel, put a driver inside the terminal with your name, and our tours in Cartagena, starting with the private city tour, pick you up at the hotel with a guide who lives here and a car between stops. The point of both is the same as the point of this page: nobody in our care negotiates at a curb.
Questions travelers ask
How far is Cartagena airport from the Old City?
The airport is in Crespo, inside the city, ten minutes from the walled city and fifteen from Bocagrande by its own account; add ten to twenty minutes in the evening rush, on cruise days and in December.
How much is a taxi from Cartagena airport to the Old City in 2026?
The fare is fixed by zone under Decreto 0051 de 2026: 20,200 pesos to Getsemaní and 24,300 to the Muelle de la Bodeguita by the Clock Tower, with hotels inside the walls falling between those two lines; 34,400 to Bocagrande; plus 1,100 at night from 7 pm to 5 am. Confirm the figure at the stand.
Can I use Uber at Cartagena airport?
Yes. Uber, DiDi and inDrive operate in Cartagena and pick up outside the terminal where the app tells you to wait. On a ten-minute ride the saving over the official stand is small; the advantage is the price on the screen.
Is there a bus from Cartagena airport to the city?
Yes, the Transcaribe T102 Portal–Crespo trunk route stops on Calle 70 a street from the terminal and reaches the Chambacú and Centro stations at the edge of the walled city for 3,900 pesos with a Transcaribe card. There is no station at the airport, so you need a card or a passenger willing to sell you a ride from theirs.
What is the airport code for Cartagena, Colombia?
CTG. The airport’s full name is Aeropuerto Internacional Rafael Núñez, in the Crespo neighborhood of Cartagena de Indias.
Do I need Check-Mig to fly into Cartagena?
Yes, for entering and leaving Colombia: Migración Colombia’s Check-Mig pre-registration, free on its own site, completed between 72 hours and one hour before your flight. Rafael Núñez also has Biomig automated gates, which foreign adults can use on departure without enrolling.
Is it safe to take a taxi from Cartagena airport at night?
Yes, from the official stand at either exit, which runs 24 hours with the fixed zone fare plus the 1,100 peso night surcharge. Do not accept a car offered inside the terminal or on the sidewalk. At night a pre-booked transfer with the driver inside is the simpler option.
Plan it with us
Our transfers from Rafael Núñez are operated by Safe Transfers by Cielo.Travel, and every tour we run in Cartagena is private, with hotel pickup and a guide who lives here. Write to us on WhatsApp with your flight and your hotel, or start with our Cartagena tours page.
