Venezuela Discovery Guide
Why Visit Venezuela the Smart Way
Read the security section before planning anything. Venezuela has been through a prolonged political and economic crisis, most governments advise against all or all but essential travel, and that advice normally voids travel insurance.
What the country holds is extraordinary. Angel Falls drops 979 metres from the rim of a table mountain — the highest uninterrupted waterfall on earth, so tall that much of the water turns to mist before reaching the ground.
It stands in Canaima National Park, a UNESCO-listed expanse of savanna and tepuis: sheer-sided sandstone plateaux, among the oldest exposed rock formations anywhere, whose summits have evolved in isolation for millions of years. Roraima is the one you can walk up.
Beyond that: the Caribbean cays of Los Roques, the Orinoco delta, the Andes rising above 4,900 metres, and the plains of Los Llanos, which for wildlife rival anywhere in South America.
How to Experience Venezuela
Angel Falls and Canaima
Reached by light aircraft to Canaima camp, then several hours upriver by motorised dugout through rapids, then a walk to the viewpoint. Usually sold as a two- or three-day package with a night in hammocks. The lagoon at Canaima, with its own line of waterfalls you can walk behind, is part of it.
Roraima
A six-day guided trek from Paraitepui across savanna, up a natural ramp through cloud forest, and onto a summit of black rock, pools and carnivorous plants. No technical climbing, but wet, cold and genuinely demanding. Pemon guides and porters are mandatory.
Los Llanos
The flooded plains of the interior, reached from Barinas or San Fernando, where cattle ranches take guests. Capybara, caiman, anaconda, giant anteater and extraordinary birdlife, seen from horseback and boat — the best wildlife watching in the country by a wide margin.
Los Roques
An archipelago of cays and reefs off the coast, reached by light aircraft, with white sand, bonefishing and diving.
The Andes
Paramo moorland, colonial villages and the highest and longest cable car in the world, climbing above 4,700 metres.
Where to Find Authentic Cultural and Historical Character
Venezuelan culture is Caribbean rather than Andean in temperament — warm, loud, informal and musical — and it is currently a culture in diaspora.
The exodus
Somewhere around seven or eight million Venezuelans have left since 2014, one of the largest displacements in the world and the largest in the history of the Americas. Almost every family is split across borders, and this is the fact that shapes conversation more than any other.
Oil, and what it did
Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves of any country, and the twentieth century here was shaped entirely by that — rapid urbanisation, a wealthy oil middle class, and an economy that never developed much else. The collapse of that model is the crisis.
Music and baseball
Joropo, the harp-and-maracas music of the plains, is the national form, and salsa and gaita are everywhere. Baseball, not football, is the national sport, and Venezuela has produced a remarkable number of major league players.
El Sistema
The publicly funded youth orchestra programme, founded in 1975, has taught music to hundreds of thousands of children and produced conductors and players of international standing. It is the country’s proudest export.
Indigenous peoples
The Pemon in the Gran Sabana, the Warao of the Orinoco delta, the Wayuu around Lake Maracaibo and the Yanomami in the Amazon, among others.
Regions
Travel Profile
- Regions 9
Responsible Travel Tips
The most useful thing a visitor can do in Venezuela is put money directly into local hands. The economy has contracted severely, several million people have left the country, and a guide, a posada owner or a boatman is supporting an extended family on it.
Book through Venezuelan operators and community guides rather than foreign intermediaries. In Canaima and the Gran Sabana, tourism is largely run by the Pemon, whose land it is, and guiding, boat transport and lodging are their principal income.
The tepui summits are extremely fragile. The ecosystems on top are endemic and slow-growing, there is no soil to speak of, and everything — including human waste — has to be carried off Roraima. Guides enforce this; cooperate with it.
Illegal gold mining has done severe damage in the Gran Sabana and the Orinoco basin, with mercury contamination and violence against indigenous communities. Do not buy gold.
Fuel, water and electricity are all unreliable and rationed. What a visitor consumes comes out of a short supply.
Best Destinations By Month
December to April is the dry season and the general travel window: clearer skies, better roads, and the Andes and Los Llanos at their most accessible. In Los Llanos this is when wildlife concentrates around shrinking water and viewing is at its best, which makes it the outstanding time for that.
May to November is the wet season, and this is where it becomes counterintuitive: Angel Falls is at its most impressive in the rains, roughly June to November, and in the driest months it can reduce to a thin ribbon. More importantly, the river journey up to the falls needs enough water to be navigable at all, so trips are often not run in the driest weeks.
Roraima can be climbed year round; it is wet on top in any season, and the drier months are marginally less so.
Carnival before Lent and Easter week are the big holidays, when transport fills and much closes.
As with everything here, availability of flights and fuel affects timing more than weather does.
Travel Cost Levels in Venezuela
What a day costs, by how you travel
Relative cost across the country
Lowest — the Andean towns, the interior and most of the mainland outside the capital
Average — Caracas, Maracaibo and the coastal towns
Highest — Los Roques, and any itinerary involving charter flights into Canaima
Hyperinflation has made the local currency unusable for planning; the economy is effectively dollarised and visitors budget in US dollars.
