Isla Margerita (Venezuela) - Help needed

We might go on a cruise this december with Isla Margerita as a port of call. I looked into it and it looks like there are no bord tours for this

port. And in my caribbean cruise guide book that port doesn't show up as well.

Can anybody help what there is to see and do ?

We stopped there on a So Caribbean cruise several years ago, and there were limited options for excursions. As we often do when visiting a port for the first time, unless there is something we know is historically important to see there, we took a "Highlights of _____" excursion, and there really was not all that much to see. It's a rather arid island, and some of it looked like desert terrain.

At the end of our tour, there were some straw markt stalls on the pier where we bought a few pearl jewelry items, that were made with local pearls.

It has been quite a while, but on a Princess port stop in 2008, we took the ship's "Natural Wonders of Isla Margarita" tour (4.5 hours). It visited

• La Restinga National Park, with a small boat tour through winding mangrove-lined channels -- pleasant;
  
• Marine Museum -- small but quite interesting, at least to this biologist; and
  
• something called the "Tropical Labyrinth" (details of which I've forgotten).
  

All told, I believe we were reasonably pleased.

John

Hi!

I'm originally from Venezuela and I can tell you that it might not be so easy to get English speakers there for a tour.

Last time I went I met a friend, Miguel (miguelrojas52@gmail.com), who has a small travel agency.

Contact him, he speaks english, I'm sure he will organize a nice tour for you. Tell him you know Carlos Segnini, from Trinidad and Tobago. He will remember me.

If you have any more questions about Margarita, let me know...

Cheers!

PS: What kind of tour do you want? There are nice beaches, you can swim with dolphins, there are some old Spanish forts and towns, big malls for shopping, water-parks, all-inclusive day-passes to hotels, catamaran cruises to deserted keys, and many more things you can imagine.

The port is a bit grim and industrial, surrounded by scrubland and a long way from anywhere.

Three prospects come to mind.

1. Your ship will berth or tender by a small but very pleasant beach. A few stalls, a bar, very relaxing.

2. Restigna nat park is a reasonably short drive - I feel sure your ship will offer an excursion, including a boat ride through the mangroves. You can get a taxi (plenty lined up at the port) to take you there, but I'm told the park isn't worth visiting unless you take a boat trip. If you want to go there under your own steam, best research whether there are boats, guides etc available.

3. We negotiated a taxi which gave us a tour, including an exceptionally good and well-serviced beach on the other side of the island.and ended at Porlamar, the island's capital NB stalls, taxis etc at the port and beaches accept USD, but in Porlamar you'll need Venezuelan currency or plastic. For a beer or whatever, doubtless your driver would help with local money.

The island isn't the best, folk are quite poor, prices are very low.

Ships tend to bunker there, because fuel is cheap

Won't be the highlight of your cruise, but it'll be enjoyable

JB :)

It was quite some time ago, but we took a tour that went to the main town; it really wasn't that great and we wished we had just spent the time on the small beach near the ship, as many people did. At that time there wasn't that many alternatives.