Isla Margarita

Thanks to Abraham and Omar for showing us around!

beautiful island.
beautiful beaches and really nice people.

Lots of great and diverse beaches, and a really nice Spanish language immersion school called CELA. It’s a great place to learn Spanish, make friends from different parts of the world, and hang out on the beach with them. I recommend it.

When traveling to Margarita Island, get U.S. dollars before you go. Don’t bother with travelers checks or Euros or whatever, just $50s and $100s in USD.

US money is very popular on the black market. You can buy 4,000 bvs for 1 USD. BUT you can only get this rate on the street with crisp 50s or 100s. The offical rate is about 2,100 per 1 USD. Without shopping around you can easily get 3,000, even with singles or 20s.

I had to sleep in an airport here years ago because the Venezuelan airline overbooked the plane by 50 people. and we got pickpocketed. but it had beautiful beaches, a wonderful atmosphere, and the best barbequed chicken i have ever tasted. It definately had its touristy places, but it was still possible to find places off the beaten path.

Packagey, touristy, all inclusive, unsafe, unrecommended

It’s been 10 years since I’ve visited this island, but a lot of it was still under development. There wasn’t much to do other than lounge around, so I’d love to hear from someone who’s visited recently!

The second island we visited on the 2005 cruise… When we first disembarked, we were a little disappointed because it seemed like the only things to do were to walk around the thatch-roofed shops in Guamache (which were nice, but I wanted to get away from all the other cruise ship passengers and not spend a ton of money), or sit on the tiny beach-esque area within odor distance of the cruise ship. We eventually gave into the sales pitch of a crazy guy wearing lots of gold chains, and signed up for the “Taste of Margarita” sightseeing van tour. It actually turned out to be a great decision – the real beauty of Margarita is far away from the cruise ship terminal.

Margarita is very much a part of Venezuela – lots of local flavor. We visited the fishing village of Juan Griego, the wide, wonderful, sandy Playa Manzanillo (deep tans and thongs galore!), breathtaking vistas, and a huge cathedral in Asuncion. We drove thru checkpoints (guards with rifles! whoa! not something you see on your average cruise vacation), and saw about a million stores with big banners advertising Polar Ice. Definitely one of the most interesting (and outside of Guamache, least-touristy) islands I’ve been to.

When I visited there, friend Miggie from Caracas came along and already had it all worked out, so no complaints—we went from the hotel to said beach, to a spot in front of the beach bar she and her family had enjoyed in a previous visit. I then spent a brilliant afternoon lazing under an umbrella on a gorgeous day, having a Polar or two as the time went on, just enjoying the view and the whole experience. To die for.

Es una isla muy linda, solo fui a la playa de pampatar y es preciosa. La ciudad es muy bonita.