Is this a good plan for Cartagena?

We will be in Cartagena on a Tuesday from 8-5 and as with my other posts, I would love any input from those who have visited this port before on our DIY plans, again I just haven't found an excursion from RCI that I was entirely happy with. The one thing I haven't been able to find online are the opening hours for the Roman Forum ruins (not the theater), so I am assuming that it opens more like 10 like the theater but if it opened earlier I would change times to do that first.

I am currently thinking that we would walk around a bit and try to start with the Roman theater and museum right when it opens, get some chocolate and churros, then visit the Roman Forum ruins.

Then head to Calle Major to walk around a bit and get some lunch--I would love restaurant recommendations in the area.

If time and interest permit, I am thinking about the Casa de la Fortuna or the Spanish Civil War Museum.

All thoughts greatly appreciated! Thanks!

I am not much direct help with Cartagena, having only visited there once.

I imagine you have these tourism links with your current planning, but just in case thought to link them.

http://www.spain.info/en/que-quieres/ciudades-pueblos/otros-destinos/cartagena.html

http://www.cartagenaturismo.es/_x3YQ2iNhIBpzoH2NOxrCGCJqYJNXKQlm

Cartagena is not large, so you will have plenty of time. An hour for the Amphitheatre and museum should be ample, unless you want to study every individual artefact on show. The ruins, from memory, will not take you long to visit.

The Calle Major - 30 minutes to slowly walk the length of it.

As for eating - go down one of the side streets, away from the tourist restaurants in the main tourist area.

The trip around the bay in the tourist boat is a nice way to spend an hour or so.

No real need to book a tour, Cartagena is one of the easiest DIY ports of call I have visited.

Have a look at this...

http://solentrichardscruiseblog.com/2015/08/07/one-way-to-do-cartagena/

We will be in Cartagena on a Tuesday from 8-5 and as with my other posts, I would love any input from those who have visited this port before on our DIY plans, again I just haven't found an excursion from RCI that I was entirely happy with. The one thing I haven't been able to find online are the opening hours for the Roman Forum ruins (not the theater), so I am assuming that it opens more like 10 like the theater but if it opened earlier I would change times to do that first.

 

I am currently thinking that we would walk around a bit and try to start with the Roman theater and museum right when it opens, get some chocolate and churros, then visit the Roman Forum ruins.

Then head to Calle Major to walk around a bit and get some lunch--I would love restaurant recommendations in the area.

If time and interest permit, I am thinking about the Casa de la Fortuna or the Spanish Civil War Museum.

 

All thoughts greatly appreciated! Thanks!

See my blog for those places only open on weekends...

http://solentrichardscruiseblog.com/2015/08/07/one-way-to-do-cartagena/

I'll start a new thread on Cartagena so others can benefit.

Thanks for the help and information, as indicated Cartagena was a very easy and interesting DIY city and we had a great visit. We got off the ship, took a few pictures in the pretty square and checked out the City Hall building and headed over to the Roman theater museum since even though it was only 9:30 we saw some people lined up and figured we would get our tickets and be ready for right when it opened at 10. Well, even though the people at the tourist information booth off the ship said it didn't open until 10, apparently since they knew that the ship would be docking earlier the museum decided to open early so we were able to get right in, it was interesting and the theater was pretty spectacular. The people at the ticket stand in the museum were also really helpful about helping us figure out a combination ticket that made the most sense based on what we wanted to do. After the museum and theater we headed to the Concepcion Castle, our tickets included the elevator up and we walked around the area looking out over the city and explored the castle, then we went down and walked around in search of lunch and came upon a tapas place that based on my pictures was called El Barril and that was a great experience. It was a hot day and this was a cool indoor place. The owner (at least I think he was the owner) spoke little English and we didn't speak much Spanish but we managed and just kind of communicated that we would like him to bring us things that he thought were good, and we ate a wide variety of sometimes who knows what and it was great. He couldn't have been nicer and they had some conquistador getup that they put on our teenage son which even he had fun with. They made a special coffee and before we left he was giving us all kinds of local liquor (no charge) to try. Would highly recommend it, we found it on a side street while on our way to the Roman ruins (which we had also included in our ticket). The Roman ruins were also really interesting, not a ton of description but some, reminded me somewhat of Pompeii for some reason, After this everyone was ready to head back to the ship, but it was a great port and a great day. Excursions and guides are definitely not needed here, unless you want to have a lot of historical background (we saw an excursion group at the theater museum from our ship and I think that is the difference would be, they got I am sure more detail than we got from reading the information in the museum)