San Pedro de Majagua: Isla Grande’s Luxury Boutique Resort

After deciding on which of the Rosario Islands to spend a night on, the next most difficult decision was deciding on a hotel. With several options on Isla Grande, including basic accommodation ecolodges and luxury boutique resorts, there is something for everyone’s budget. We ended up making Isla Grande our splurge hotel for the trip and booked a night at the luxurious San Pedro de Majagua.

The Resort

San Pedro de Majagua was reminiscent of a White Lotus resort from the hit HBO series. After taking just over an hour long boat ride from Cartagena, we approached an island surrounded by bright, turquoise waters. As we pulled up to the dock and disembarked, we were greeted by the staff and handed welcome cocktails (see where my mind immediately went to White Lotus?).

It was too early to check in unfortunately, but the lobby held on to our bags while we explored the resort and sorted out which activities we wanted to book. It’s best to note that there is a near zero chance of ever getting an early check-in due to the limited amount of rooms San Pedro de Majagua has. There are actually only 17 rooms in total. The plus side, though, is the amount of personal attention you’ll receive from the staff since it is an intimate boutique hotel.

The Rooms

Once we were able to check in at 3pm, a bellboy took our bags and escorted us to our room. The rooms at San Pedro de Majagua are actually little duplex and triplex bungalows with thatched roofs scattered throughout the property. Since it’s such a small resort, they aren’t numbered, but named cute island themed names. Ours was “Tortuga” and just a short minute and a half walk from the lobby.

The room was very large with two beds, a queen and a full, and a spacious bathroom. There were complimentary chocolates and waters as well as a full mini bar, which was nice since there isn’t a store to buy drinks nearby like on the mainland.

The bathroom didn’t have a door, and for the life of me I don’t know what it is with hotel rooms in Colombia and their aversion the bathroom doors, since this wasn’t our first encounter with a door-less hotel bathroom. Other than the lack of a door, it was a luxurious bathroom with a spacious shower and fancy L’Occitane toiletries and an essential oil diffuser. The hotel provided bathrobes and umbrellas as well. That was first I’ve seen in a hotel, especially next to each other. Luckily, their was no rain during our stay, so no need to break out the complimentary umbrellas.

One of the major perks of San Pedro de Majagua is staying at the only hotel on the island with hot water. Our scuba instructor confirmed this is the case. So if you like hot showers, you’re hotel decision on Isla Grande just got a lot easier.

There was one annoying issue with the room, unfortunately. Remember those complimentary chocolates I mentioned earlier? Well, we weren’t the only ones who were happy to see chocolate. By the time we came back to the room after our second snorkel session of the day, ants had discovered the chocolate as well and were all over the wall leading up to the bed and on the sheets.

I quickly trashed the chocolate and tried my best to swipe off all the ants from the bed and the wall, but it was impossible to get rid of them completely for the rest of our stay. Luckily, there weren’t any more in the bed while we were sleeping, but I caught a few on the wall. Avoid leaving food out at all costs! We learned that the hard way. I’m sure this applies to all hotels on the island or any island, but it was a turn off.

The Restaurant

There is only one restaurant at the resort and two bars. The restaurant offers a nice variety of food and drinks. You just charge everything to the room, which makes it super convenient. I ordered salmon on a bed of quinoa, which was delectable and had an egg arepa for breakfast that was a perfect start to the day.

Keep in mind that any food on the island is not going to be as good as on the mainland in Cartagena (which set the bar sky high), since essentially everything has to be brought in by boat. The prices weren’t bad at all, but slightly higher than in Cartagena.

The Beaches

There are two private beaches at San Pedro de Majagua—one with music and one without. Both have their own bar and lounge chairs and beds. The actual beaches are rather small and, unfortunately, the day we were there the wind was unusually strong causing the ocean waves to be intense.

It was much calmer in the morning, but by the time we arrived, the beach was not enjoyable because of the strong winds. We ended up hanging out at Cocoliso’s property after snorkeling, instead, on the other side of the island where there were no winds. I’m not sure if this is a seasonal wind or if this is how windy it usually is. Based on other people’s reviews of the hotel online, I think we just had bad luck with the weather.

Activities

There is a Diving Planet dive shop right at the hotel where you can book snorkeling and scuba diving trips. You can read up more about it in my other Isla Grande article. In short, snorkeling is a must-do activity!

There is also an Eco Guide through which you can book a night snorkel session in bioluminescent plankton, nature walks, and tours of the Enchanted Lagoon.

And if that wasn’t enough, you can rent kayaks, bikes, and paddle boats as well through the hotel.

I should mention there is a free boat transfer offered by the hotel to a neighboring island with a marine aquarium called “Oceanarium”. I personally am not a fan of places like these, especially after doing one in Punta Cana. I can’t speak for this one in particular, since I did not visit it, but any establishment that makes dolphins do tricks for tourists, feels wrong in my book. It is highly rated on TripAdvisor, so it’s up to you if you want to check it out.

How to Get to San Pedro de Majagua

When you book a stay at San Pedro de Majagua, transportation to the island is not included in the price. You have to contact the hotel before your stay to reserve a spot on the one boat that departs at 8:30AM from La Bodeguita dock. We completely forgot to do that, but somehow they saved us a spot. The boat is shared with day trippers to the island as well, so it’s probably best to confirm with the hotel instead of what we did to make sure there is room.

You have pay a small tax at the dock (roughly $4 cash, if I remember correctly) and the rest you pay when you check out of the hotel before boarding the return boat between 2:30PM and 3PM. It ended up being roughly $44 for two guests round trip. I wish the hotel would just factor the price of the boat transportation into the room cost to make things a bit easier. I mean, how else are you going to get to the island?

San Pedro de Majagua was a lovely stay overall, despite a few hiccups like the ants and the wind. For just a little more money, it was worth it, in my opinion, to splurge on the nicer hotel versus some of the ecolodges on the island. It was safe, clean, and comfortable and close to some major attractions on the island like the Enchanted Lagoon. If you find yourself on Isla Grande, I definitely recommend checking out San Pedro de Majagua!