República Hostel Cartagena

The hostel is in a great location, but overall, it feels overrated. If you're looking to socialize with other travelers, this might not be the best choice. While the hostel team organizes activities, they don’t actively promote them, and the staff seems unmotivated. We joined the bar crawl they organized and paid 50,000 COP, but it wasn’t worth the price. It was poorly organized, and it almost felt like the hostel team just wanted an excuse to go out partying themselves. The common areas could also be cleaner, and it's clear that the hostel needs some maintenance.

Stayed in a 14-bed dorm—clean, well-maintained, and comfortable. Each bed had a fan, curtains, and the room had great AC. Bathrooms were inside and outside the room, and the showers were top-notch. Friendly staff and a nice pool made the stay even better. And nice rooftop as well! I can really recommend it!

location is great, right in the centre of old town. Beds comfortable and spacious. A lot of showers & kitchen to cook as well as a bar and little pool plus lots of seating outdoors. Things to note: Kitchen facilities aren't open for guest use until 10am (I think this is ridiculous) what if people wanted to make brekky before heading out for the day? Or have a transfer and can't eat before.. just silly. Pool on the roof is dirty af. Top bunk beds though comfy are a pain in the a*se to get out of. They also close the bathrooms at like 9am for an hour or so which is SO ridiculous.. this is prime time for people to wake up and go 💩 😂 Staff on reception are friendly and helpful but rest of the staff are quite miserable.

Hostel is overrated. They cancel events and rather chill in the pool which is disrespectful. The kitchen and bathrooms are dirty. Didn't feel like people wanted to socialize. Very loud music and they close the kitchen after around 11 so you cannot access water at night or aufter going out.

Pros: centrally located, has pretty spacious bunks that are made of concrete so they don’t carry sound / movement with a fan, outlet, and light, and they have some activities but mostly pub crawls. Cons: ac turns off at 10am and back on at 6pm and it’s usually brutally hot in Cartegena, the pool is pretty murky (I didn’t trust it to swim in), there is one water filter and you have to ask the bar to fill it up, and the kitchen is pretty bare bones / old things (only like 3 forks).

Pretty much one of the worst hostels I’ve stayed in travelling the Americas. Staff are unmotivated, unorganised and slow. Had to give all my information twice to check in, they had no leeway to be able to check in earlier even though everything was ready previously. Facilities are pretty unimpressive, the pool under maintenance and the rooftop pool was pretty gross, wouldn’t dare go in. Rooms are tiny, no space to move around, the top bunks are by the ceiling making them pretty dangerous to climb up and down to with minimal hand rails. AC is nowhere to be found during the day when it’s needed the most. little fans in beds barely do the job at keeping you cool in the horrific heat that Cartagena has. Pretty horrified at my experience here.

Pros: - Good to meet other travellers. - Pool Cons: - Employees don’t seem to care to much about customer service (I got the wrong bed and many in my dorm were stuck without a room key for hours) - Cold Showers - Bunk Bed so high if you fall down you’ll die - Weak AC. We were boiling in our dorm. For 45000 COP its worth it I guess, but I rather put 15000 COP more and stay at Selina.

Great social hostel, activities everyday where you get a chance to meet people. The staff are really helpful, welcoming & lovely. Facilities are great too- kitchen, seating area, terrace and a pool! Even though we were in a 14 bed dorm I still felt like I had a lot of privacy since we had our own privacy curtains. Really enjoyed my stay here and would recommend as it is in a great location!