Private City Tour of Cartagena

Nico & our driver were the very best & made the tour so enjoyable. Very accommodating personalized tour.

We very much enjoyed our time and Cesar was a fantastic guide. I would highly recommend this tour. Thank

My wife and I decided to go on a private tour in Cartegena as the cruise tours we’re already booked. It was relatively easy to book online and as this was our first Viator booking we were pleased to get a 10% discount booking with Sion Tours through the Viator app. We were met outside the pier’s exit by a lovely young lady who walked us to the staging area where we met our guide. Let me first list the positives of our trip: 1. They were there to greet us on time 2. Our guide, Roquey,seemed knowledgeable and had several areas of expertise. He was a tour guide, an attorney, and a pastor (which intrigued me because I too am a clergyman) 3. He clearly knew his way around Cartagena and we were amazed at how many people seemed to know him. 4. He was well aware of the history of Cartagena and Colombia and was able to answer our questions competently. 5. He made sure to have plenty of water in a cooler which was absolutely necessary because of the heat and humidity. Now for the negatives. 1. He spoke with a thick accent that made it difficult to understand sometimes (but to his credit we are grateful that he would repeat himself when something was not clear). 2. The BIGGEST issue was that it was very clear that he steered us to several merchants with which he had connections. Interestingly, my wife was looking to buy a piece of embroidery that our daughter wanted, and he asked “How much do you want to spend?” My wife answered “Not more than $100.” We were looking around for a few minutes and then saw a piece that we were interested in. When we asked the price, we thought it was odd that she immediately said $100! Surprise, surprise! We decided to go check to a few other shops and saw that the prices were much more reasonable— and it seemed clear that he wanted his cut (or kickback from the first vendor). Notably, while he was with us at the first shop, he never joined us at any of the other shops. In fact, he stuck around the first shop while we went elsewhere. We then went to the Old City and he took us to an Emerald Museum… which was also a retail establishment. We didn’t buy there either, and at that point he simply disengaged and showed little interest in us after that. Walking back to his car, he just walked ahead of us and didn’t have much interaction with us. Everything after that, he had little to say. I would not recommend Roque or Sion Tours based on our experience.

An excellent tour of the key points of the city with valuable historical context. Cesar was outstanding!

This was an excellent, comfortable and very informative tour. Nico is very friendly and knowledgeable. He’ll look out for your best interests every step of the way. He also speaks great English, so don’t worry if you don’t know Spanish.

Old Town, trip to mountain top church, and various neighborhood viewings, and old fortress were great highlights.

Marcos was our tour guide & we had an amazing driver also. We loved it. Money well spent. We only had 24 hrs to spend in Cartagena and this tour made it worthwhile

Niko did an awesome job showing us Cartagena. He was very thorough in describing their history and culture, and showed us several beautiful sights and neighborhoods that we would have never found on our own.

Sonny was a great guide. Everyone at every location knew him, and as a history teacher and a Cartegena native, he was deeply knowledgeable about the city. It was a great introduction to Cartegena!

Our guide was friendly and knowledgeable. I would like to have spent as little more time in the old town area, but overall was very nice. Loved stopping for a coffee!