frugal65

Visited Cartagena on April 2017 on ms Amsterdam. My wife and I (seniors) visited the old city by ourselves, no problem at all. We walked through the port terminal building, ignoring the taxi drivers offering tours and rides at inflated prices and walked 50 yards down the street outside. There we met another couple from the ship and shared a taxi ($10US for the 4 of us) to the Clock Tower Gate of the old city. From there we explored the compact and beautiful restored old city on foot. We visited the Gold Museum (free, with air con and toilets) and the next-door Emerald Shop, where a nice lady showed us their model emerald mine and told us about emeralds. We did not buy any there. We visited the cathedral and several scenic plazas and walked along the walls. We passed on the grisly Palacio de la Inquisición. We visited Mr. Emerald but as the store was full of people being herded along on ships tours we did not stay long. I had bought 50,000 Colombian pesos (about $18 US) before leaving Canada, and paid 20,000 pesos for a nice embroidered bag from a street vendor after a bit of haggling (He would have taken $US.) When we were ready to return to the ship we went back to the Clock Gate and offered another taxi 20,000 pesos to take us back to the cruise terminal. He accepted and gave us a bit of a tour on the way back. At the terminal the free small zoo is well worth a visit and we spent my last 10,000 pesos on a couple of cold beers. We also bought a small emerald pendant (on a credit card) in the terminal shop. In the old city the street vendors were doing their best, but were not a real problem. A firm "Non, gracias" worked OK. The numerous tourist police seem to have cleared out the beggars previous posters have reported. We only saw one. Go as early as possible and take water as the city does get hot as the sun gets higher!

Some information that I hope will be useful to somebody. I am a Canadian living in Metro Vancouver who will be cruising on the Rotterdam in March 2016 and as the ship will be visiting Mumbai I needed an Indian visa. I was told I would not be allowed to embark the ship in Singapore without one. I had read various postings online about some people's tribulations and delays in getting one, but in the end I found it to be a quite straightforward process. Note that eVisas are only (in Jan 2016) for people arriving at a named international airport. Passengers arriving on cruise ships must have a regular visa (whether they plan to get off the ship or not). The Consulate General of India website http://www.cgivancouver.org/pages.php?id=27 spells out the steps involved. They have farmed out the processing, checking and submitting of the application forms and paperwork to BLS International Services Canada Inc. http://www.blsindia-canada.com

I started by completing online and printing out the visa application form at https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/visa/. I chose to take it in person to the BLS office in downtown Vancouver to get some direct personal service, but I could have mailed it in or submitted it online. The staff in the BLS office were helpful and assisted me in getting all details correct and acceptable in one visit (after a one hour wait). I paid them $15 to take my photo of the size and aspect they required.

A lot of personal information is required on the application form and the one area that seems to throw some people for a loop is the Indian reference. I put down 'MS ROTTERDAM (CRUISE SHIP) with the address "MUMBAI CRUISE SHIP TERMINAL' with phone '022-081-1181047' (found on the internet). The officer reviewing my application accepted this but would have liked a copy of my cruise booking which I did not yet have. She settled for a copy of the cruise itinerary which she found online, printed out for me and attached to my application. She also, even though I would only be making one entry into India, changed my application from Single Entry to Multiple Entry. I don't know why, but I don't think it cost any more.

Since the visa time clock starts ticking the day it is stuck into your passport, make sure your visa will not expire until long after you have left India! I got a 6 month visa 2 months before my arrival in Mumbai for a one-day visit!

I picked up my passport with included visa from the BLS office one week after I dropped it off with my application. I paid $106.50 Cdn (cash or debit only), which included $15 for the photo. It also included a $20 "optional" courier fee which they insisted I pay even though I told them I would be picking up my passport at their office and did not want it couriered to my home. I consider this a rip-off by BLS, which marred their otherwise excellent service.

This was my experience in Vancouver. If you live elsewhere your mileage may vary?