Decameron Baru - All inclusive

My overall review is 10/10. Loved Decameron Baru! We traveled via Air Transat Toronto -Cartegena. We arrived late evening, airport customs went well. The West Jet representative got us a private Taxi. It took about 1h30 to the hotel. The taxi driver did not speak English, so it was quiet. Our representative Jesuito was very good at the hotel -he was friendly and booked tours for us. Once at the hotel, we quickly checked in, although there was a language barrier, we were able to understand each other. Beach -Beautiful!! if you swim on the right side, where the pier is, in the morning or when not as wavy, you can see beautiful fishes swimming around you, there was numerous crabs on the rocks as well. Water was clear and warm. There was some 'rocky/shells' area on the beach, you can navigate around, same thing when you go in the water, worse when more wavy. We were up early, claimed our chairs around 6h30-7h00am. if you wait too long you risk on having a hard plastic chair instead-it happened once and was very uncomfortable. I definitely got bitten by mosquito's right before sunset... I would strongly advise to bring bug repellant for late afternoon/evening. Room-We had an ocean front room, got the preferred package. Worth it. We had water bottles, beer and soda refilled everyday. We even asked for extra water bottles at front desk and it got delivered every time. The room was nice and clean. Beautiful views. AC worked well, quiet -it had started leaking on the last day we were there. Bed was a bit on hard side. Food-It was delicious. We experienced the local Columbian food at the buffet, fresh fruit, diverse food daily, there was even an ice cream bar. Because of preferred package we could eat at the Italian restaurant for breakfast and lunch. I found the buffet was better for breakfast but the lunches were delicious at the Italian restaurant. The servers were great. Even if they had limited English, we were able to communicate easily enough. Friendly and by the end of the week they brought us our drinks without even asking. All of our interactions with staff in that restaurant was awesome! Thank you. There was staff that stood out at the Buffet, Roseta Del Rosa, she welcomed us on our first day, we learned a few more words in Spanish, she was awesome, warm and friendly -thank you! Drinks -Very good overall. We had preferred drink at the pool but there was not the premium alcohol we liked. Beer was good, their drinks were good and wine was good. This is a first for me at a resort. Best part is that I was not sick (I normally am with tourista gastro issues). Tours-we did the bioluminescent plankton -very cool, highly suggest, it was right behind the resort, maybe a 5 min boat ride. They spoke with us in English separately so we understood the instructions. Thank you! We bought the pictures. -We did the Rosario Island -Very nice, went to a aquarium on one of the island, 1/2 a day tour. The guide was very nice, she spoke to us on the side and provided great information. The tour ended on playa blanca, the beach itself is very nice, beautiful sand and clear warm water. It was a busy place, glad we visited but I wouldn't stay there very long, the merchants are on you to buy 'free' chairs and etc. It wasn't the cleanest in spots. -We visited Cartegena with private Taxi. The city is nice, many shops and little trendy/cute roads. It was a very warm and sweaty day. The Taxi driver was friendly enough, we spoke via google translate to understand each other, he did not speak English at all. He brought us I'm pretty to his friend who sold things that I explicitly stated we weren't interested... I requested several times that we wanted to eat at a local Columbian restaurant... he ended up bringing us to a developed part of town with high rises and a lot of American chains and dropped us of to an American restaurant, they did have 2 authentic Columbian meals. They were both good. Spa -We had a nice couple message. My massage was 'okay'. Pool -We went mostly to our preferred pool in late afternoon. the pool water was quite warm. The bar tender was nice. Wifi -we had wifi in our room and in the main area of the hotel. There lots of birds, iguana's, gecko's, the vegetation is beautiful, grounds are generally well maintained. I would definitely go back!

Highlight: Outstanding location! The beach and grounds are beautiful. The bioluminiscent tour and the Rosario Island tours from the front desk were amazing! Pros: - Oceanfront room was lovely. Great views. - Generally good food, some really great meals. Especially lunch at the "Italian" restaurant. (If you don't speak Spanish, you will not understand the menu - but the food will still be really good!) Cons: - A basic knowledge of Spanish would be very helpful at this location. Staff just does not know English. - It is a lengthy distance from the airport which adds time to airport transfers and excursions. - If you upgrade, you can have breakfast at the "Italian" restaurant, but they don't have a breakfast menu and you will be asked to "just order anything." This might be ideal, except the servers don't speak English. We found breakfast at the buffet to be quite varied, generally very tasty, and much easier to select. Considerations: - Upgrading was ideal for the room, but was not really worth it for the "premium alcohol." The only "premium" bar was at the "preferred" pool. If you do upgrade, consider having lunch at the "Italian" restaurant. It was wonderful. Also, they will provide you with additional bottled water if you request it at the front desk and persevere with your request. - When folks advise that you need to be up early (6:00 - 7:00 am) for beach chairs, it is entirely true. - The Spa was meh. Not sure I would choose that again. - The resort can be very loud. It seems to depend on the night. The entertainment seems to happen both at the main stage and in the lobby. If it is not in the lobby, the chairs on the deck are wonderful to looking at the stars in the dark night sky.

Overall we had a nice and relaxing vacation at Decameron Baru. Resort grounds: Large property and well maintained, lots of steps and walking but we liked it. Resort staff: Overall good service and friendly staff. As always some are more likeable and enjoyable than others. Most staff only have limited English skills as well. Room: Spacious and clean, comfortable mattress and pillows, short on luggage racks and almost no closet space, all TV programs are in Spanish so we did not partake. No big deal! Restaurants; 1 Buffet, 3 a la cartes. The buffet was a large, open air restaurant but with netting to keep birds and other animals out. Reservations for the a la cartes had to be made the day of dining at the front lobby. It just required lining up and waiting to see the person taking the reservations. Food quality: Hate to say it but it was pretty bad. Colombian food is bland to begin with but the cooks at this resort could really do with some training. The pork was always dry and hard, the beef was tough and undercooked and the chicken was always slimy and undercooked. Each time I ate at the beach bar for lunch - I had to send the food back to request that it be cooked longer even though I asked for that in the first place. I did not see pepper the whole week we were there. We did find hot sauce but when others saw it they also used it and then it was done and they didn't have any more! Lastly I really expected the coffee experience to be better. We did have coffee at the lobby bar in the morning and it was a notch above the dismal coffee at the buffet. Beach: Private beach that was quite rocky - I am surprised they haven't cleared those rocks away. But being a private beach there was no worries leaving your bag on your chair while you swam. The water was nice and calm as well. There were some vendors off to the side of the beach and they did not pester you! It was really refreshing. There was a shortage of beach chairs and palapas so you had to be down at 6 am to get chairs and a palapa. If you arrived at 8-9 am you would get the last of the chairs but would have to struggle to get tree shade. There was a beach bar and a beach grill with tables and chairs with a limited menu. Upgrade: We took an upgrade package Standard Plus and it was hundreds extra. They claimed better food, room location, private pool and premium drinks. We were given gold bracelets and did not experience any value for the upgrade. We were placed on the third floor with a pool view while another couple we met who didn't upgrade had ground floor overlooking the garden and pool. There was absolutely no difference in food. On a few occasions we had breakfast at the Italian restaurant that converted to breakfast in the mornings. There was no menu and with limited English speaking waiters we had to guess what we could order. The food tasted the same as the buffet. The private pool was full of parents yelling at their kids half way across the pool while they laid in the sunchairs. And lastly we were served the same liquor as everyone else. The upgrade was a scam - don't bother.

It’s been a great experience. Everyone has been so nice, and everyone has been super sweet to our group. Thank you for being so cool and nice.

This place is Magical, the views, the food, the people!!! Can’t wait to come back! I felt just like at home, it was safe, friendly and Amazing 🤩

Overall the stay and service was good, but some things could be improved. One night the service from one of the barmen in the main lobby's bar was poor, he was rude. In one of the buildings we saw the same dirty dishes from room service out of a room the whole time we stayed at the hotel. Raccoons 🦝 are beautiful, but the hotel must do something about them, they badger guests in the main dining hall to steal food.

I had a special spot for decameron hotels in my heart but decameron baru was honestly an expensive bad experience. I would not recomend it and wouldn’t go again.

I would say that the amenities are four star, but the experience closer to three star. Very nice pools (especially the premium plus) and generally clean with nice grounds. A variety of restaurants, but the quality of food is subpar for the price. It depends what you value, but we value food above most else. Also, I was surprised how rocky the beach was as most resorts will clear the beach front. Other beach near the hotel strip in Cartagena was pure sand and much nicer. There were also a lot or people hounding you on the beach and other areas of the resort to buy excursions, massages, etc. it was very annoying and indicative of a 3-star experience. Also, as a non Hispanic, I found the vast majority of the staff did not speak any English. In that vein, the vast majority of the guests seemed to be Colombian. I would not recommend this resort unless you speak Spanish. If you do, you would probably enjoy it more. Also, if you like to spend a lot of time by the pool, then the Premium Plus is well worth it IMO. Unless you like the same few bad cover songs blaring on the speakers all day.

Very good service. i would like to have coffee at the room, the drug store should have more supplies. Other than that it was really good

Stayed for 4 days and 3 Nights in one of the best location in the hotel. However regardless breakfast, dinner, snacks the service time was too high. More than 30 minutes waiting for being attended and served. People that come later were served first, unorganized staff, too much delay, this made us think that we wouldn’t take another visit again.