Marsol or Berlinastur: Which shuttle is best for Cartagena to Santa Marta?

The Cartagena to Santa Marta shuttle options are Berlinastur and Marsol.

The Caribbean coast of Colombia is one of the top backpacker destinations in South America. You can visit the magical colonial city of Cartagena, go on a four-day jungle trek to the Lost City, or relax on amazing beaches like Parque Tayrona or Costeño Beach. If you want to fully explore this region, sooner or later you’ll need to make the trip from Cartagena to Santa Marta, the major transport hub for the beaches and mountains.

 

In this post, I’ll cover the two most popular transportation options — and a few alternatives — to help you decide which best fits your travel style.

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. If you decide to purchase through these links, I receive a percentage of the sale at no additional cost to you, which helps me keep this site up and running.

 

What to expect on your bus from Cartagena to Santa Marta

 

The bus to Santa Marta from Cartagena is a five-hour trip, minimum.
No matter what the tour companies tell you, the bus from Cartagena to Santa Marta will take at least five hours.

 

While you have a variety of bus and shuttle options to get between the two major Caribbean coastal cities, a few things are the same across the board.

 

For one, your journey is going to take at least five hours. All the shuttle companies, hotels, and tour agencies will tell you it’s a three-hour trip, but that’s simply untrue. The main thing that adds time to your trip is a stop in Barranquilla, halfway between Cartagena and Santa Marta. It’s the largest city in the area and the traffic is horrible.

 

Second, road safety in Colombia leaves a bit to be desired. Speeding on long, straight stretches of road like the one from Cartagena to Santa Marta is very common, as is passing across a double-yellow line on blind curves. You’ll feel safest if you travel during daylight hours.

 

Finally, space is a luxury on Colombian transportation. Pack light — preferably carry-on-only. On one of my shuttle trips, one woman’s massive rolling suitcase had to go on the roof, even though it was raining.

 

Cartagena to Santa Marta shuttle companies

 

The bus Santa Marta Cartagena route is covered by two shuttle companies.
The Berlinas Santa Marta shuttles are one of the two best companies that cover this route.

 

While it’s not the only option, the vast majority of travelers take a shuttle bus to get from Cartagena to Santa Marta. These are minibuses that hold 15-20 people, including a couple passengers sitting up front.

 

The two main companies offering this option are Berlinastur and Marsol Cartagena. There are pros and cons of each, as I’ll cover below.

 

Both companies use vehicles with air conditioning and windows that open. Both are equipped with televisions, typically screening awful music videos or Colombian films with English subtitles. And neither sells more tickets than there are seats in the van. (In other words, you’re guaranteed to get a seat.)

 

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So which company is better? Read on to find out!

 

Marsol Cartagena: The upscale option

 

The Cartagena Santa Marta bus with Marsol is very convenient.
Marsol Cartagena is convenient, but pricier and slower.

 

If you’re looking for convenience for your bus to Santa Marta from Cartagena, Marsol is the shuttle for you.

 

Pros of choosing Marsol

 

Marsol’s biggest selling point is it offers door-to-door service. You will be picked up at your hotel in Cartagena and dropped off at your hotel in Santa Marta. No taxis to bus stations or getting lost and asking for directions.

 

Marsol’s vans are pretty nice. The seats are large and comfortable, and you get a decent amount of leg room. The air conditioning in my van worked well.

 

Marsol also makes a snack/restroom stop at a very clean and nice gas station halfway through the trip, just outside of Barranquilla. Sure, it adds a bit of time to your journey, but it also allows you to stretch your legs without worrying about the bus leaving without you.

 

Cons of choosing Marsol

 

The biggest downside to Marsol is the time it takes to drop everyone off at their various hotels. It’s slower than just going to a bus station. I was the last one off my shuttle (staying at the amazing Masaya Hostel in Santa Marta), and it took 45 minutes to drop off all the other passengers first.

 

This is compounded by the fact that traffic in Santa Marta is horrific. When you’ve already been on a bus for five hours, you don’t really want to keep sitting in traffic four blocks from your hotel.

 

Another issue is cost. The price for the Marsol shuttle is 55,000 pesos. You can go to/from either airport for a bit less, or on to Parque Tayrona for a bit more.

 

Additionally, some travelers report reckless driving and breakdowns when using Marsol. My personal experience was that the driver was very conservative by Colombian standards, but I can’t speak for all their drivers.

 

Finally, shuttles only depart every hour and pick you up within a half-hour window. You must reserve a shuttle the night before — your hotel can do this for you, but it means you have to know your travel time the night before.

 

Berlinastur: The budget option

 

Berlinastur Santa Marta to Cartagena is faster than Marsol on the same route.
What Berlinastur lacks in comfort it makes up for in speed.

 

If you’re pinching pennies while backpacking Colombia, want to travel as more locals do, or want to get to your destination a bit faster, Berlinastur is the shuttle company for you.

 

Pros of choosing Berlinastur

 

The two biggest advantages to Berlinastur are price and efficiency. The shuttle costs only 40,000 pesos from Colombia to Santa Marta, and unlike with Marsol, you get dropped off at a bus station — no driving all over Santa Marta dropping people off. This makes the journey a bit shorter.

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Additionally, you can just roll up to a Berlinastur office and buy a ticket right when you want to leave. Buses depart every 15-20 minutes and you don’t need to reserve in advance. This is especially helpful if you’re passing through Santa Marta on your way between, say, Tayrona and Cartagena — you may not know exactly when you’ll arrive in Santa Marta.

 

And since Berlinastur is cheaper and its stations are convenient to residential areas, more local Colombians use it, while Marsol is more oriented toward travelers. This is a great opportunity to make bus friends — many Colombians are very friendly and excited to tell travelers about the best restaurants/bars/coffee shops/attractions in their cities.

 

Cons of choosing Berlinastur

 

Berlinastur is definitely the budget option for trips from Santa Marta to Cartagena (and the reverse). And it’s painfully obvious when you see their vehicles.

 

The vans are not in great shape. Seats may be broken, the leg room is significantly less than Marsol’s, and the vans clearly haven’t been cleaned in ages. What’s more, the air conditioning on my van didn’t work particularly well — making it sweltering with 20 people inside.

 

Berlinastur also does not make a dedicated restroom/snack stop. You’ll stop at a bus station in Barranquilla, where you can get out and use the restroom. But be absolutely sure you know which of the many vans is yours and that the driver knows where you’re going. You don’t want to be left behind!

 

But the biggest downside to Berlinastur is the buses depart from the company’s offices, which are not exactly central in either city. In Cartagena the biggest station is near the airport, a 15-minute/10,000 peso cab ride from the Walled City. The Berlinastur Santa Marta offices are scattered all over the city.

 

You’ll have to add a taxi trip to your journey on each end. That adds 15,000-20,000 pesos to the cost of your trip. It’s still cheaper than Marsol if you’re in a group, but about the same if you’re on your own.

 

So, which shuttle should you choose for your Cartagena to Santa Marta trip?

 

Berlinas Santa Marta would always be my second choice compared to Marsol.
I would recommend Marsol Cartagena over Berlinastur.

 

While neither shuttle company is perfect, I had a better experience with Marsol than Berlinastur — and I’d recommend it to anyone else traveling from Cartagena to Santa Marta.

 

I really appreciated the convenience of the door-to-door service with Marsol. The last thing I wanted to do when I got off my uncomfortable, hot Berlinastur bus was haggle with taxi drivers. And since I was traveling alone, the taxi cost made my trip equal in cost to the Marsol trip.

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However, if you’re only transiting Santa Marta on your way to Parque Tayrona (i.e. you don’t need to go to the city center in Santa Marta), I’d actually recommend Berlinastur instead. It has an office at the Mamatoco roundabout outside Santa Marta. From here, you can hop on a bus to Tayrona without dealing with Santa Marta’s traffic. This can save you up to 90 minutes.

 

Other Caribbean coast transportation options

 

The other transportation option in Caribbean Colombia is very cheap and very slow local buses.
If the shuttles are too slow, you can fly or hire private transportation between Cartagena and Santa Marta.

 

If you’re reading this post and you’re like, “Both of these options for a bus to Santa Marta from Cartagena sound awful. What else can I do?” I have good news for you. With either more money or more time, you can completely avoid a Cartagena to Santa Marta shuttle.

 

First, you can fly between Cartagena and Santa Marta. This is obviously quite a bit more expensive. And it won’t save you a lot of time when you consider getting to and from the airports. (The Santa Marta airport is 45 minutes outside the city center.) Delays on domestic flights in Colombia are quite common as well.

 

Second, you could hire a private shuttle or taxi between the two cities. This is likely to be very expensive, depending on your haggling skills — upwards of 300,000 pesos. But it will be faster and is worth considering if you’re in a group, especially if you have children.

 

Third, on the other end of the budget spectrum, you could take a big local bus from Cartagena to Santa Marta. This costs just 20-30,000 pesos (depending on the company). But it will add a lot of time to your trip. For one, you’ll have to go to Cartagena’s main bus station, 45 minutes outside of the city center. Then, you’ll stop much more often along the way to pick up additional passengers. And many of these buses take the long way around to Barranquilla — adding 2-3 hours to your trip. Expect this to be an all-day journey.

 

No matter which transportation option you choose, the trip from Cartagena to Santa Marta is an essential part of the Colombia backpacking experience. And for all the hassle of the journey, it’s well worth it. When you’re trekking through the jungle on the way to the Lost City or relaxing on one of Colombia’s most beautiful beaches, you’ll be glad you endured the shuttle trip.

 

Have you traveled from Cartagena to Santa Marta with Berlinastur or Marsol? What was your experience like? Leave a comment and tell me about it!

 

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Berlinastur and Marsol both run a shuttle bus from Cartagena to Santa Marta on the Colombian Caribbean coast. But which one is better to use during your Colombia travel? Read on to find out. #colombia #travel

 

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[…] all of the long bus journeys I was on in Colombia — Cartagena to Santa Marta, Bogota to San Gil, and San Gil to Medellin, this was the only one that was truly uncomfortable. […]

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[…] after lunch, catch your shuttle to Santa Marta — it’ll take about five hours. Have dinner and wander around the pedestrian streets in […]

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[…] most common minibus route for travelers to encounter is the route from Cartagena to Santa Marta. You may also use them between Medellin and […]

Amy Henschke
4 years ago

Thanks for this great article! I am currently in Cartagena and was just wondering about some of the exact things that you talked about. This will make planning my trip much easier!

Sarah
Sarah
4 years ago

Thank you for the information, really useful! I was wondering if you knew if the Berlinastur Shuttle bus would have room for 2 carry-on suitcases? As we have bagpacks and suitcases but not sure if it is too much to bring. Thanks!

nluquet
nluquet
4 years ago

Hello,
Thanks for your helpful posts on Colombia.
We took the MarSol shuttle from Santa Marta to Cartagena on Dec 23. Paid 52K per person. The driver was late, grumpy and overall drove like madman, but our main issue is that we got a bunch of cash stolen from our backpack (cash was left in a pocket due to unusual circumstances). The bag was in the locked trunk at all times and only the driver had access to it. Pretty shitty for a wannabe private tourist service.

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