Yes. the entrance of this hotel doesn't look that fancy,... in fact we ended up here as our agent messed up our reservation at another hotel. someone told us to stay here. well, we were impressed. staff is very nice and polite. rooms are very comfortable and overall the architecture and decoration of hotel/rooms is very roomantic. You almost feel inside a Garcia Marquez's Noble.

I had a great time visiting the wonderful city of Cartagena. I was very pleased with Hotel Agua's excelent level of service and high quality everything!! We arrived and were treated like royalty we lacked nothing. The wonderfully restored house felt like a home away from home. We loved all the attention to detail and character and charm that was built in to the place. There is something to be said about a building that is over 200 years old and yet feels like it it was just a recetly built to look that way. From the modern A.C. and wifi, to the huge thick wooden door that must have been knocked by pirates in the 17th century. It was a great stay. We also had the wonderful pleasure to go to ther location In Baru island. The boat ride to Baru was scheduled by the main hotel and evertyhing worked just fine with out a glitch. We arrived in the Island and we greeted with delicious tropical drinks and offered food, other drinks and or what we wanted The level of comfort and security were great. I do have to mention that as we proceed with our story we are being charged for every thing we were comsuming. we thought it was included. The hotel did ask us several days in advance what kind of food we wanted to eat while we were there as the food has to be imported from the mainland. But to continue with the story. The bungalow we stayed at was the middle one with a great view. You dohave to walk up about 100 steps to get to it. But dont worry they bring everything to you. All the meals are carried up to your room and you dont have to leave the room if you don't want to. The view is incredible. The bed faces the glass flolding doors and to see the sunset is amaizing ( I have stayed in Hawaii, Key west, Numerous places throu out Florida, California) This by far is the most Romantic. The brezze is gentle and refreshing. The mosquitos are non excistent. The flora and fauna are comparable to much more remote areas of the world. We had a Great time!! The price was worth it for our honey moon. If you seek unique experience with out the cost of going to Bali or Thailand go to Colombia and have a great time. By t he way the food is fantastic!!!!! We don' even eat at places like olive garden because we are just snobish like that. But We ate some places that my wife would never step in to in the U.S. and had some of the best food we have ever tasted in our life. I did have to add 2 extra days to my excersice routine for about a moth lo loose the 4 -5 or so pounds we gained. HAHAH! Enjoy

we stayed for 5 days. 2 of which we went to the sister hotel in baru. let me start first with agua in cartagena. It was a very beautiful house. Upon entering, it seemed that their service, which they highly exault in reviews of themselves, was going to be just what we read in tripadvisor. It was not. We checked in and the receptionist could not seem to understand we had chosen 2 rooms. One for a teenager who just had to be alone and a larger room with one large bed for me and my traveling companion who also happens to be female. Then when we explained that we had known the rooms we chose before we made the reservation she seemed to calm down. I might mention here that not only had we called and asked several times for the largest suite or largest room they had to house all of us and this same person herself suggested the 2 rooms we got as there are no suites. Additionally, we called about 3 times to ensure we had the Baru reservations only to find out that thank God they had called for our food menu on the island because they had us for the wrong dates. Let me mention that staying at this "boutique" hotel was extremely expensive. Anyhow I digress, while we were getting the "tour" of the house which is beautiful and very well maintained, the receptionist explained to us that the library was actually the living room of the owner of the establishment and that he lived there. She then bent over slightly and said in a hushed tone that there were 2 male owners. I can only assume she meant they were partners. What sucks is that #1 she had to share that because I could care less and #2 her hushed voice seemed that I was supposed to feel as if it was a secret or something to be hidden. That was problematic considering that I myself play on that team. To continue, the larger room was nice but there is no tub in the shower and they had a roach problem. The smaller room was literally a square with a bed and a window that looked out to a wall. They said if we needed anything to call the kitchen but no one was ever around really at night. There was really no food or drink to be able to order in the house unless you wanted to make a huge production and call downstairs and wait forever. They did offer fresh fruit and water but no access to sodas or beer unless you called donwstairs which was unconfortable because basically this is just a house where the owners live and the nightwatch man doubles and the kitchen person and the receptionist. They told us to be ready to leave by 11 and so we packed everything except for a few things thinking we would have breakfast in 1/2 to 3/4 an hour then have about 15 minutes to get ready. we sat for breakfast at 10 and did not get the food till 10:50 then when i asked the receptionist if she could wait until 11:15 or if we could leave at a later time she said no and that was it. keep in mind we had asked to leave the next day but were told we could not because all the cabins in baru had been taken. this turned out to not be true. now they did send someone to help us pack and that was nice. when we got on the boat which by the way costs 150 U.S. per person each way, one of the owners was with us. he spent 3/4 of the time talking to the other couple which were 2 men we started to think that perhaps it was because we were 2 women with a teenage boy and that although we had all paid the same money for some reason did not command the same attention. however towards the end of the boat trip the owner did come and try to make small talk. so we chalked it up to paranoia. we were really wrong. additionally after all of the horrible hassle another boat ended up going to the island in the afternoon and it was carrying a colombian fashion designer. so then i thought, ok maybe it isn't about male or female maybe it's just about the whim and fancy of the owners. i can go on and tell you about how horrifying the service was at baru, how overpriced the food was, how basically we sat around and saw the help relax on the chairs of the hotel and then laugh and say they were on vacation too but you know the bottom line is that this place sucked. once again, the island itself was great and the cabin were phenomenal but just like the hotel it was all a facade. they dropped us off on the island and no one said anything except oh if you wanna go to the beach just ask. ok..ask who? where and when?
we went back to hotel agua where we complained and the other owner said yeah, we get that feedback alot. oh well, sorry what can you do. it was horrifying. really crappy and unprofessional service from the receptionist to the hotel owners. it's clear the owners really care about the appearance of their hotel i think because it's their home, other than that they dont really care to be hoteliers. I realize this is a boutique hotel but it really was the pits. to cap it all off they scheduled a tour of the city for us with a psycho tour guide who wore face makeup which is fine except for the fact that he was really inapproriate and unprofessional forcing me to go into a store and pushing me to buy an "emerald" and the final night when they scheduled a reservation and then didnt tell us where or at what time. don't go here go to casa pestagua which i checked out and looked as phenomenal but with much better service.

While the decor is beautiful, the hotel has some issues. One big problem is that the rooms are very small and common areas are not air conditioned. No one was using the beautiful sitting room or library because it was extremely hot! We stayed in our small room most of the time soaking up the A/C. They also lock you in at night so if you are an early riser and want to go out to enjoy the calm morning you have to wake somebody up to let you out. Same with the pool, the door to the pool area is locked and you can't go up to the roof early or late. You must also ring the bell for entry, no key to the hotel. They always know your comings and goings, no privacy anywhere in the hotel. The staff was nice enough but I felt uncomfortable. We were charged for water and for ordering extra pancakes at breakfast...