Venezuela Travel and Backpacking
Venezuela is a record breaking county; Venezuela boasts South America’s largest lake and third-longest river, the highest waterfall in the world, the longest of all snakes, and some of the most spectacular landscapes you’ll ever see.
In the west of Venezuela there are the snow-capped peaks of the Andes; Amazonian jungles in the south; the Gran Sabana plateau, with its strange flat-topped mountains, in the east; and miles of white-sand beaches fringed with coconut palms on the Caribbean coast.
Venezuela may seem to have it all yet it receives little tourism, more people visit Columbia each year.
Getting around Venezuela
The main way to get around in Venezuela is by bus, the buses are generally pretty good, some with large seats (3 across rather than the conventional 4). We generally traveled over night, saving money on accommodation. Buses are pretty good value too, you can look up some journey prices here. A trip from Caracas to Ciudad Bolivar will set you back Bs62.400 which is about £14.50, not bad for 591km on a pretty nice looking bus. One thing to remember is that these buses get very cold with the air conditioning at night, so where trousers, socks and a jumper!
Where to stay in Venezuela
Posadas Hostels are great places to stay, there cheap and good places to meet people, in Caracas we stayed in a homestay which was a great introduction to Venezuela.
Venezuela Highlights & Things to do
Check out highlights and Things to do in Venezuela below
Drinking on the wall, Puerto Columbia – Friday Photo
One of the great things about Puerto Columbia is the way everyone gathers along the wall by the sea, drinking beers and eating from the stalls.
Salto Angel – The Angel Falls, Venezuela
Setting of from Ciudad Bolivar the flight in the tiny one prop five man plane to Canaima is a memorable one. The flight offers great views of the surrounding Grand Sabana and fantastic views of the lagoon at Canaima as [...]
Merida to Ciudad Bolivar
After wandering around the delightful city of Merida, failing to get more ice cream and settling for the cake and coffee on offer next door in the cafe we headed for the 2.30pm bus to Barinas.
Its a highly recommend bus journey [...]
Cycling in the Andes, Merida
A nice thing to do whilst in Merida is to hire a mountain bike and go for a ride. We hired bikes for half a day from Fanny Tours. We got a lift half way up one of the roads [...]
Puerto Columbia to Merida
From Puerto Columbia we took the bus via Maracay to Merida, a Venezuelan city sitting at the foot of the Andes
Day 5
After the beach in morning, we caught the bus to Maracay (6,000 Bv each 2 hours), joined forces with [...]
Stars on the wall posada, Puerto Columbia
Also known as the pants ladies hostel this would have been an okay place to stay (its was fairly cheap), but purely based on the fact we were made to feel as we’d invited ourselves to stay round someones house [...]
Caracas to Puerto Columbia
Day 2
Following the daughter of Casa Luisa owners, Carolina’s advice, we caught the bus to El Hatillo, a very colourful and pretty suburb of Caracas. Carolina shared a taxi with us to Caracas bus terminal and kindly accompanied us to [...]
Friday Photo – Venezuela School Bus
Keeping on the Venezuelan theme, another photo from the fantastic country. Old American school buses are the main way to get around in Venezuela, travelling in one is a great experience, each one more elaborately customised and music pumping [...]
Friday Photo – Waterfall, Canaima National Park, Venezuela
One of many fantastic waterfalls you’ll see on a boat trip through Canaima National Park to see Angel Falls
Spaghetti and Cheese Ice Cream, Merida, Venezuela
Things to do in Merida – Eat strange flavoured ice cream
Merida has an ice cream parlour that boasts the greatest number of different flavours of ice cream in the world. I tried spaghetti n cheese and the salmon ice cream [...]
