WorldColombia › Bolívar › Hilton

Hilton 46.8

#4278 of 5756 surf spots in the world · 🇨🇴 Colombia · Bolívar · near Cartagena

Very consistent, wind is the enemy here, no off season.

Works all yearWarm waterIntermediate
Hilton, Colombia
Photo: Bernard Gagnon · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Surf score46.8 /100
Surfable days86% of the year
Clean days0% groundswell + friendly wind
Groundswell0% period 11 s+
Typical size1.1 m 3.7 ft median
Water29°C boardshorts

Best time to surf Hilton

The best time to surf Hilton is October. It rarely works. In October the water sits around 30°C, so pack boardshorts, and the typical wave is 0.6 m. The nearest airport is CTG (8 km) and the nearest town is Cartagena (5 km).

MonthSurfableCleanSizeWaterSuit
Jan98%0%1.5 m28°Cboardies
Feb100%0%1.8 m28°Cboardies
Mar100%0%1.5 m28°Cboardies
Apr97%0%1.2 m28°Cboardies
May88%0%0.9 m29°Cboardies
Jun89%0%1.1 m29°Cboardies
Jul99%0%1.2 m29°Cboardies
Aug82%0%1.0 m29°Cboardies
Sep52%0%0.6 m30°Cboardies
Oct43%1%0.6 m30°Cboardies
Nov81%0%0.9 m29°Cboardies
Dec99%0%1.4 m29°Cboardies

What is under Hilton

Eight kilometres out along its swell window the sea floor sits over 57 m. Alongside the bank the survey finds a channel, 252 m against 57 m, deep enough to bend swell onto one peak instead of spreading it along the beach.

Depth 8 km out57 m
Depth 4 km out36 m
Channel beside it252 m

Measured, not estimated: NOAA ETOPO 2022 global relief at 15 arc-seconds, about 460 m per cell, sampled along this spot’s own swell window. At that scale the survey sees passes and channels; it cannot see a reef ledge, so nothing here is said about how the wave breaks.

Why 46.8

Seven parts, each normalised 0 to 1 and multiplied by its weight; the sum is scaled so the best spot in the world scores 100. Wave quality and what the spot does on its best days carry more than half of it, which is what separates this from a ranking of where the water is warm.

Wave quality 34.7%
8.4
Best days 22.4%
8.0
Clean days 18.4%
0.0
Consistency 10.2%
10.2
Season spread 4.1%
3.7
Water comfort 6.1%
6.1
Access 4.1%
4.1

The detail

Faces 337° with 42% open water around it. Friendly morning wind 82% of days. Mean peak period 7.1 s. Days over 3 m: 0%. On its best tenth of days it reaches 1.8 m, with a peak period of 8 s. Mellow days (0.4 to 1.2 m): 54%. Months that work: 11 of 12. Coordinates 10.394, -75.557 (OpenStreetMap).

What it costs to be here

Living here
€1,160/ month
typically €1,020 – €1,300
Rent, one bedroom€603
Groceries€240
Eating out€135
Getting around€80
Phone + internet€86
Renting by the month, cooking most days, local transport.
One month here
€2,250/ month
typically €1,980 – €2,520
Somewhere to stay€1,320
Eating out€474
Car, transfers, fuel€308
Data + extras€141
Short stays, eating out, a car or transfers.
49% cheaper if you live here instead of visiting

Airport and town on the doorstep, so the local estimate is 23% above the country average. Estimate: World Bank PPP price level for Colombia (2025, United States = 1.00) applied to a fixed surfer basket, then adjusted for how remote the spot is. Your own number moves with the season and how you live.

Our own project · Sumba, Indonesia
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Sumba has eight spots in this ranking, the best of them inside the world top 50. A cabin is €11,500. The land it sits on is separate, from €6,500 (€9,950 oceanfront), on an 80-year lease that extends at the end. Water, septic and electricity are another €6,500, and furniture is on top, so a finished cabin lands around €28,000 plus the land, payable in instalments.

Eco Beach City is run by the same people as SurfRanking, so treat this as our own advert, not a recommendation. It is an off-plan property in Indonesia: take your own legal and financial advice before paying anything.

Spots nearby

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