Oh man, I LOVE this place!…read more Every time I visit family, I spend my lazy afternoons here. The baristas here are funny and quirky, the coffees are (not only real, non-watery-sugary-gross-American stuff) delicious, and the pastries and ice cream cups aren't too shabby either. I introduced my friend to this place, and we went on almost a daily basis. It's a great place to relax and chat. The only con is, if you sit outside, they charge you 0.15 euros per item you consume. But I don't care because I love this place, and I like to sit inside with the funny waiters anyway!

AVOID this rip-off place for food. After spending a wonderful day in the beautiful city of…read moreCartagena with my family (husband, parents and 5 year old son) we decided to look around for a nice little restaurant for dinner. Unfortunately we were a little early (18h) and were about to head home when my Dad spotted Il Café di Roma. The waiter Hicham seeing $ signs and easy targets dragged us in. Warning bells should have gone off at that stage however we were hungry and he said they did paella. We asked the price and he told us €13 per plate which we thought was pricey but decided to go with the Marisco, the Valenciana and the Mixta. All 3 paellas were bland and tasteless and the portion size small. We also ordered 2 pizza slices (we were 5 people) and were charged €8 a slice! The pizza slices were good but no way were they worth €8. But what I feel most angry about was that I asked for a side salad - I never thought to ask the price of the salad - big mistake - he charged €9 for a couple of lettuce leaves, some tomato pieces and a couple of olives - this is what I found the most offensive. Another thing is that there were no prices marked on the menu for the food, probably so that they can raise the price depending on the diner and rip off tourists. As regular visitors to Spain and Cartagena we have never been ripped off so we were shocked at this experience. We also ordered a bottle of wine and 2 desserts. The whole bill came to €92.15. To make matters worse my son got sick on the way home and I attribute this to the dessert he ate which was probably lying around for days. Please do not make the same mistake we did - AVOID EVITAR. I regret that I didn't complain there on the spot in the restaurant however I was with my family and didn't want to upset them.

I did my usual of going off the main tourist route and found this really delightful home…read morebakery/cafe which was populated by lucky locals. It's not geared for tourists despite being only a few metres off the main thoroughfare so that was what I wanted. The master baker is also the shop assistant who sells all his own work to greedy gluttons like me. When I walked in, my interest was first to ensure there was a proper coffee machine as none would be a deal breaker. Yes it had. Then I scanned the sweet and savoury goodies on display and absorbed the wonderful smell of a great bakery. It was plain to see there was great skill at work here and you could feel the sense of pride that the baker has as we discussed the fresh goodies before me. He beamed as I asked him about his speciality of meat in pastry with a sugar dusting. I was conscious of my location - southern Spain with North African influences. I've had pounded pigeon brik in Morocco - a fried savoury dish but dusted with sugar which was delicious. Our attention turned to his sweet treats and with real difficulty that gluttons understand we chose three pastries and two darn good coffees. Everything was perfect. Locals kept coming in to take goodies home, batches of school kids came by as they were on a school project which challenged them to find the place with a pastry/meat/sugar dish and as these noisy yet polite students mobbed the cafe every few minutes the proud owner just beamed with delightful pride at their attention and curiosity. We left happy and next time I will try his speciality - even gluttons can't eat everything. This city is old. It is beautiful and it essentially has one quite long cafe/bar/restaurant laden Main Street with more than a smattering of fashion shops with hordes of males loitering outside while wives/girlfriends were inside shopping likely oblivious to time. It is also remarkable that the main shopping centre is only a few metres walk away from impressive Roman ruins and less than 10 minutes walk away from a marvellous historic, now modernised port. So in a few footsteps one can go from the modern capitalist world back thousands of years of human life and just remember nine tenths of all whoever lived are now dead. Isn't that amazing? So I noted that crowds of tourists were flooding Main Street particularly as several thousand folk had arrived in cruise ships - I saw that nestled in with these awesome craft in the port was the Vibrant Curiosity, a megayacht, owned by German entrepreneur Reinhold Würth. Her accommodation includes a master stateroom with its own office, a private exterior deck area with whirlpool, one VIP suite with his & her bathroom, 5 double suites, 2 of which occupy the uppermost deck, and 2 further double guest cabins. The yacht has a crew of 26. It has a top speed of 20 knots, a cruising speed of 17 knots, and a range of 5,500 nautical miles at 14 knots.A helicopter and helipad are located on the top deck. Isn't it amazing what can be packed into an hour exploring?