Free guided tours in the city of Cartagena in 2024

During the reminder of 2024, there are several guided tours which can be contracted on any date and at any time by groups of between 2 and 29 people.

These tours are all free of charge except where admission fees to museums and other establishments are payable, and most of them can be held in English: see below the list of registered guides and the languages they offer.

The locations are in many different towns and cities of the Region, and while it is to be expected that Murcia and Cartagena feature prominently, there are also other fascinating visits in Lorca, Cieza, Caravaca and more.

The tours listed in Cartagena are the following:

1- The mediterranean port of Cartagena ("Cartagena, puerto del Mediterráneo")

A 2-hour tour that includes the Plaza del Ayuntamiento , Plaza Héroes de Cavite, the seafront Paseo Alfonso XII, the Museo Naval and the ARQUA national underwater museum.

In the 16th century, Cartagena was named the home of the Royal Galleys of Spain, and two hundred years later towards the end of the 18th century it became the navy's Maritime Capital of the Mediterranean. These two honours led to the city being endowed with a fantastic range of castles, fortresses, an arsenal and even defensive walls to protect the most important military port of the Spanish Mediterranean.

In the decades that followed, the industrialized mining boom brought economic prosperity to go along with the military prestige, and this opulent status is reflected in the palatial residences which still line the streets of the Calle Mayor and others in the old centre.

2. Roman Cartagena ("Uno de Romanos")

After a brief period of Carthaginian rule in the 3rd century BC, it was the Romans who consolidated "Carthago Nova" as an important trading and military port, and this tour takes visitors to some of the many vestiges of the centuries of Roman rule over the following centuries.

The Romans captured the city during the Second Punic War, when the Carthaginian Hannibal, son of Hasdrubal, set off from Cartagena on his framed journey with the intention of overthrowing the authorities in Rome itself. 

This great power struggle is a part of Cartagena's history of which the modern-day population are proud, and the annual "Cartagineses y Romanos" are now among the most important dates in the calendar. The route of the "Uno de Romanos" tour takes in many of the Roman remains which have been, and are still being unearthed in recent decades, such as the Punic Wall and the Casa de la Fortuna. 

The quality and quantity of these remains has led to Cartagena becoming one of the most important cities in Europe for archaeologists, and this is your chance to see why!

3. Modernist Cartagena

Another 2-hour route which takes visitors to many of the splendid buildings which appeared in Cartagena in the late 19th century, when the city at last returned to being a wealthy and important port after decades, even centuries of relative obscurity. This was due in part to Cartagena being chosen as the main Spanish navy base in the Mediterranean - the Navy's "Mediterranean capital" - and in part to the resurgence of mining brought about by the Industrial Revolution, which made it possible to extract minerals which had previously lain untouched. 

High-ranking navy officers and those who profited from the mines built a series of palatial Modernist residences in the city, and this tour in the old centre includes the room  in which Isaac Peral's pioneering submarine is displayed, the Palacio Consistorial in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento, the Calle Mayor, the Plaza del Rey, Plaza de San Sebastián and Plaza San Francisco.

The route begins at the tourist at the Plaza del Ayuntamiento before heading to the seafront to visit the Peral submarine, and finishes on the Palacio de Don Camilo Aguirre, a luxurious mansion which gives us an insight into the well-heeled lifestyle of the bourgeois of Cartagena well over a century ago.

CONTACT YOUR TOUR GUIDE

-Natalia Bustamante (Spanish/French/English): nabuste@hotmail.com, 679630549.

-María Inmaculada Arres Serrano (Spanish/English/Italian): mariainmacuada.arres@gmail.com, 628438273.

-Tudmir Servicios Turísticos (English): info@tudmirst.com, 691022019.

-Marián Herrero Martínez (Spanish/English): marianherrero@gmail.com, 661471640.

-Mayca Dengra Romero: info@visitasguiadasmurcia.com, 610689900/ 969219099.

-Miguel Ángel Pomares Aroca (Spanish): info@guiasmur.com, 616717888.

-Carolina Gutiérrez Martínez (Spanish): caro.gurierrez.martinez@gmail.com, 620442311.

-José Antonio Gázquez Milanés: info@stipaturismo.com, 658641101. 

-Yolanda Riquelme Marcos: yorimarcos@hotmail.com, 686199961.