La Veranda

This hotel is a hidden gem, and I plan to return some day (hopefully soon). I enjoyed the pool, the hammocks, and the restaurant. Esteban (the host) made us feel welcome and we enjoyed his activities. I wish I'd shortened my time in Cartagena and spent more time here! Be aware that you will need to get a moto from Minca center to the hotel. It's $5,000 pesos and yes, they can transport your suitcase! There is a beautiful waterfall a short "hike" from the hotel. Bring pesos and stay as long as you like - they have the large net hammocks to lounge in.

Nothing!

I stayed in the 4-bed dorm with AC, which is a short walk away from the main building, downhill. That makes it much more quiet, and the beautiful balcony outside with hammocks made me spend a lot of time there. The shower that is shared with the other dorms on the same floor has hot water. The pool is lovely, the food is a bit pricy but delicious. The terrace by the pool provides gorgeous sunset views. Tropical birds fly around it, it’s a great birdwatching spot in the morning. Staff is helpful and friendly. If you walk it, Minca is about 15-20min away downhill, and for about 7000cop you can get moto rides back up. So the location of La Veranda is actually quite good. Secluded, but not too much. I think the only thing missing is them having their own moto service.

Some personal things; the music in the restaurant was very loud and always pop music, a bit disturbing. There were ants in the shower sometimes, other times not. Curious creatures. The restaurant is quite expensive compared to Minca prices. The mosquito net in our 4-bed dorm was pretty torn up and needs replacement. Lastly, there’s a lot of couples staying at this place. I made friends, but it may not be the best place to stay for solo travelers.

Blissful serene hillside setting with stunning 360 degree views. Lovely deck. Excellent dishes and nice ambiance at the onsite restaurant. Good access to the sites while having welcome distance from packed and noisy Minca town 2km away.

The bedroom is more than adequate, but has some rough edges (like weak lock on door, bare floor, basic bathroom) that you have to expect when you're staying off the beaten track.

The property was very nice and had different areas to hang out in outside of the bedroom, e.g restaurant, pool, co-working and some hammocks. WiFi worked well throughout the property which was very important for us as we had to work while there. The room was lovely and as described, everything was very clean and in good condition. The staff were friendly and helpful. The property had lovely views over the mountains and down to Santa Marta, and we got amazing sun sets! The food was very nice.

We had a bit of a strange first impression of the property after arriving, firstly the music playing was all in English and quite old, one of the members or staff asked us if we had any song requests and when I asked for music in Spanish we were told that the staff weren’t permitted to play music in Spanish which we thought was really weird for a hotel in Colombia. Of course it’s a tourist destination but I think most tourists would still like to feel like they are in Colombia and not in the US. Overall if felt quite Americanised. They did start playing music in Spanish on our last couple of days as there were more Colombians at the hotel. The restaurant was very nice and the food was really tasty however we felt like it was very overpriced. The menu was very limited despite having a lot of options. I’m vegetarian, there were only two options for me to choose from but really only 1 which I was actually interested in eating, and 2 out of the 3 days we were there they didn’t have the ingredients to make the dish I had ordered. The staff were understanding and I managed to request to swap chicken for a fried egg in the chicken burger but this was still charged full price. On my last day as they had so few ingredients to make dishes I was able to order a selection of sides, but these were not shown on the menu, had I know I would have done that earlier rather than eat an egg sandwich for dinner three nights in a row. Also despite them having a full breakfast menu on the menu the breakfast that is included in the stay is a limited option of eggs and arepa or bread and some fruit. I had expected to be mable to select a breakfast item from the menu as part of the included breakfast. There is also a 10% service charge added to every bill and all food ordered is added to a tab which you pay at the end of the stay. I didn’t like this as you don’t get to see an individual receipt for each meal at the time.