Hotel Passion travel tips and stories. Vacations ideas, cruises, spa and resorts

In the heart of the old walled city of Cartagena is La Passion – a small hotel created with all the emotion and romance that its name implies. Overlooking the Caribbean Sea, Cartagena de Indias is one of South America‘s most beautiful and vibrant cities and this hotel captures much of the Colombian city’s spirit with its beguiling shabby-chic grandeur. 

The hotel is small, with eight high-ceilinged bedrooms. Except to find murals, ancient floor-to-ceiling windows, wicker chests, old-carved-wood headboards, Persian and Columbian rugs, Moroccan ashtrays, and lamps from Seville. You may get a vast concrete bathtub, fashionably flaking plaster, or grand French furniture. Amid all this period style there are still state-of-the-art features such as air-conditioning and plasma televisions.

La Passion is more than just a style. There is substance, too, especially in the rooftop pool that is subtly lit at night and gives striking views of the city’s monuments and the sea beyond. The hotel has its own speedboat that can whisk guests to nearby islands. There is even a small wooden fishing boat hung from the ceiling for guests to use as a swinging sofa.