Unimpressed - Rupert Johnson. Date of travel: Apr 2006
The place is a complete hole!! It's horrible. Whatever that guide says, think the exact opposite, I kid you not. If you are intending to come, expect dirt, grime, daylight robbery, gun crime and knifings!! The result: army officials patrolling the streets with semi automatic weapons, oh and they themselves are probably corrupt so trust no one! Stay as short a time as possible in this place the rest of the world forgot a long, long time ago.

Caracas, Isle de Margarita - Seka Zaba. Date of travel: Jul 2005
Junk. Pure Junk. Filth, dirt, intimidating to say the least. Big illusions of grandeur on these sites that lie to people. Venezuelans must have relatives in States and Canada that are paid to tell lies about this city they call a vacation paradise. Save your money. We rented the nicest villa on Isle de Margarita (the absolute nicest) and it was nothing but a HOLE up close. The bugs will eat at your body while you sleep and there is always something crawling around under your sheets. You will not sleep but scratch all night and your eyes will be open in fear all night at what will be clinging to your ceilings and walls when you turn the light on. Don't want to hear any of this? Good then go ahead and waste your money in Venezuela. I for one will NEVER EVER EVER go there AGAIN, and I literally kissed the ground when I arrived back to my humble abode here in Canada. My kids hated it, the beaches are ALL terrible except the one, where the Biggest Fanciest Hotel is, and thats where we were robbed. Every beach has a bunch of young hoods watching from a nearby cliff, and when you leave anything on your blanket when you go for a swim, they swoop down, grab your purse or snorkel equipment and take off. The only people who were nice to us in Venezuela were the cops, whom we had to search for for 2 hours after we were robbed on the beach. They will charge you 10 times more for ANYTHING when they find out you're a tourist, although Canadians are treated with a molecule of more tolerance IF they actually believe you're not American. And lastly.....Americans.....we love you, well er...er... o.k. we like you, but PLEASE stop pretending to be Canadians when you travel, you're ruining it all for us, we deserve our reputation. Whats up with that? What happened to "we're proud to be Americans. Stop it. This vacation will never happen again, and if I can save somebody out there from losing their "precious" holiday time and money. DO NOT VISIT THIS GOD FORSAKEN PLACE...NOT NOW...NOT EVER...... p.s. I remember being "defensive" to a guy who wrote something similar just days before we planned our vacation in Venezuela...and I remember thinking how this "guy" is trying to ruin our holiday, and who the hell does he think he is? And now I understand that this fellow who wrote all the bad stuff about Venezuela was only trying to save those of us who go to these forums to find information about perspective vacations. So take this advice. Anybody putting up any positive reviews about Venezuela is PAID to do so, even though they will deny it. Yeah maybe decades ago things were different but there has been NO MAINTENANCE to any aspect of Venezuela since then, NONE. Don't let the Bolivar fool you, you will pay much much more for everything. Seka Zaba Tour Operator: self