Experience the best of Barranquilla

Barranquilla stands where the wide Magdalena River meets the Caribbean, and its port made it a gateway to Colombia in the early twentieth century. A riverside promenade, the Gran Malecón, runs along the water, and the city's streets carry art deco buildings and the 1920s mansions of El Prado from that prosperous era. The Museo del Caribe explains the region's history and cultures.

Carnival, held over the four days before Ash Wednesday, is the great festival, with parades of costumed dancers, floats and music, and is recognised by UNESCO as intangible heritage. Shakira was born in the city, and the writer Gabriel García Márquez worked here as a young newspaper columnist. Nearby is the old pier at Puerto Colombia, Santa Marta lies to the east, and Cartagena, with the Totumo mud volcano on the way, to the south-west.

Breakfast is arepa de huevo, a fried corn cake with an egg inside, along with butifarra sausages, cassava bollo and fresh fish from the river and the sea. Cumbia and salsa fill the evenings. The heat stays steady all year, and the driest months, from December to April, run straight into carnival season.