Isla De Margarita, Venezuela - Margarita Island

[cf_chuck]

Hi all,

 

I'm on a cruise that will visit Isla De Margarita in December, apparently the first visit by HAL at least in a while. Finding info on this port is a bit difficult, but I have this:

 

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-83582780.html

 

I've looked at my usual sources of information about ports, and haven't discovered much detail. The HAL site doesn't provide the usual shopping maps available for other places.

 

HAL has a number of excursions, all of which seem reasonably priced (by my HAL standard). Some of them seem to map to my interests.

 

My interests are mostly centered around the experience of the local culture including the arts and crafts of the region. From my experience, dealing with dock side vendors just doesn't quite satisfy.

 

So, the questions are, has anyone visited this destination? If so, do you have any recommendations? TIA

[tnsny1]

We went there twice several years ago, both times on the Volendam. We are beach lovers, the first time we took a ship's excursion which brought us to a very nice beach. If I recall, though, it was a fairly lengthy bus ride. I remember the island was experiencing a drought and we drove through a resort area where the golf course was totally brown. The beach was quite nice, though, with nice restaurants and bars with plenty of food and drink available. I remember a waiter walking the beach with trays of beautiful lobsters and shellfish trying to encourage business for his restaurant. Though we were warned by many Venezuelans vacationing there who were on the beach that crime is rampant-not to leave anything on our chairs when we went in the water. The second time we just stayed at the little shopping/swimming area near where the ship docked. Not much there. Hope this helps.

Paula

[pms4104]

Hi all,

 

I'm on a cruise that will visit Isla De Margarita in December, apparently the first visit by HAL at least in a while. Finding info on this port is a bit difficult, but I have this:

 

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-83582780.html

 

I've looked at my usual sources of information about ports, and haven't discovered much detail. The HAL site doesn't provide the usual shopping maps available for other places.

 

HAL has a number of excursions, all of which seem reasonably priced (by my HAL standard). Some of them seem to map to my interests.

 

My interests are mostly centered around the experience of the local culture including the arts and crafts of the region. From my experience, dealing with dock side vendors just doesn't quite satisfy.

 

So, the questions are, has anyone visited this destination? If so, do you have any recommendations? TIA

Never been there but, since it also is on our December itinerary, I did some googling awhile ago and came up with two sites that might be helpful to you...

http://www.margarita-island.com/ and

http://www.islamargarita.com/

[cf_chuck]

tnsny1

 

Thanks for the insight from experience.

 

camp637

 

Thanks for the links. What cruise are you on in December?

 

From the inputs it seems that this would be a good port to book an excursion. The port itself sounds bleak and there's nothing within walking distance. :(

[earl_m]

There is a beautiful beach , its about a 5 min. walk from the ship.

«you can see the beach from the ship«!!

[doone]

I was at this island this past winter on the Veendam. I agree, some beautiful beaches. There is a beach within walking distance of where you either dock or tender in. There is also an area here where you can buy some trinkets.

[Charliesmom]

We have been to Isla Margarita twice. We did get off the ship, but did not leave the area closest to the ship. We did some shopping at the native vendors. What we found there which we have not found elsewhere is genuine pearls at dirt cheap prices. We bought pearl necklaces 3 for $25.00 and a very long pearl necklace for $29.00.

 

The pearls really are real - probably don't have a great deal of nacre on them, but they are gritty against your teeth and they are knotted between the pearls as are expensive pearls.

 

If you have lots of gifts to buy, they are a great deal.

 

There are also vendors inside the terminal with fixed prices if you don't like bargaining.

 

Roberta

[Krazy Kruizers]

We have been to Isla de Margarita quite a few times. The beaches by the ship are wonderful. You do have to pay to rent a shell with 2 chairs. Sorry I don't know the current price as we chose not to get off the ship when we there on our Veendam cruise in March. I wrote about what happened the day we there. Will get the report here in a couple of minutes.

[Krazy Kruizers]

March 24 - Isla de Margarita

 

What a day this turned out to be for many people. Having been here many times before we decided that we would just go over and relax on the beach by the pier. The evening before our captain informed us that we would not be docked because of a ferry that was scheduled to be there from 9:30 - 10:30. Well that didn’t make any sense to me as I know that there is plenty of room for a ship and the ferry. Then early in the morning the captain was informed that the ferry had broken down and would be hours before it got here. So we would be able to dock from 7:30 - 9:30 to allow passengers to get off the ship for tours and whatever else they wanted to do. We kept debating whether we wanted to go ashore and then worry about the tender ride back. After a quick look at each other - off to our verandah.

 

At 9:30 we moved out to our anchorage point and tender service was stopped until about 10:20. At this time Pullmantur’s Empress arrived and took our docking spot!!

 

At 11:30 we noticed another ship approaching - Pullmantur’s Holiday Dream. They also had to anchor and they quickly began their tender service. As the pier can handle only 1 tender at a time, our ship and the Holiday Dream alternated drop offs.

 

Then at 12:15 our captain announced that the ferry was on it’s way here and all tender service would have to be stopped for awhile. At 1:45 the captain announced that tender service would resume in 5 minutes. We went to the aft of the ship at 2:30 -- what a sorry sight we saw on land -- hundreds (and I mean hundreds) of people who had been waiting for the better part of 2 hours in the hot sun for a tender to get back to the ships, standing in a line. The tenders were jammed with people -- many standing just to get everyone back to the ship so that we could leave on time.

 

Through a private source we understand that a couple of the people that the captain had invited to dine with him in the evening really jumped on him for the mess that we had at the island. Some people said they stood for over 3 hours!!

[Bettyboop66]

I have to agree about the great deals that you can find on the pearls there. I got my daughter a necklace and earrings she was 20 at the time and lets just say that I was her favorite person for a long time. They really are wonderful. Other than the shopping area right at the pier we didn't go anywhere else. We chose to enjoy the less crowded ship pool. have a great time.

[anotherdayinparadise]

It's been 4 years since we docked at this port on a Princess cruise, but found great deals on Murano glassware and local art. They also sold pounds of coffee and cigars at one of the vendors with really good prices if you like strong coffee and cigars. I also bought pearls for gifts and wished I had bought more once I returned home. I would absolutely go there again. :D

[cruz chic]

I've been there and it's not my favorite place. I agree with the others that there is a beautiful beach right by the docks. The shopping is much better at the docks then it was in the city where they would not take american dollars. I wished I would have stayed near the docks instead of heading out on a tour.

[cf_chuck]

To all that replied,

 

Many thanks. I'm just as confused as I was before asking:confused: but it sounds like checking out things around the port isn't as dismal as I thought. I appreciate very much the inputs.

[pms4104]

camp637

 

Thanks for the links. What cruise are you on in December?

We're on the 14-day Statendam sailing ex FLL December 6,

[cf_chuck]

We're on the 14-day Statendam sailing ex FLL December 6,

 

 

So am I. Looks like there are 4 CCers on that cruise so far. :)

[Toad]

One of our favourite ports. Few years back we went on a horseback riding excursion through HAL that was wonderful. I do not believe it is still offered. However you can book it independently. We have gone to the beach right near the port a couple of times and had a great time. We are not big shoppers so I cannot address that part of your concerns. We have shopped the vendors by the ship and had fun, butt I cannot remember if we bought anything.

[Softball20]

We were there a few years ago, on Princess, I think. I loved it. We did do an excursion that took us to a couple beaches well away from the port area. Beautiful. I have to admit, it was one of the party bus type tours, but it was a lot of fun. We did have some time for shopping and got some great Venezulan pearls. There were some local craft type vendors set up close to the ship when we got back. I think it was pretty new as a port at that time, at least for the ship we were on. I would go there again anytime!

[BirdExotic]

We have been there and the ship was there over night.......we were warned to stay aboard as there was alot of violence [both political and criminal] and on deck we did hear gun fire. During the day when we did go ashore we found a rather depressed area and alot of anti U.S. feeling encouraged by the government........ Stay with your tour groups!

[iceman93]

I think that was where I did a "swim with the dolphins" excursion that also included a bus tour and shopping. I have good memories, particularly of the driver who kept reminding us that most Venezuelans don't like Chavez and definitely don't share his opinion of America!

[Islandbuoy]

Been there 3 times. Went to the beach all 3 times. It's quite a long ride to the beach on the Atlantic side of the island , but woth it. Last two times we've taken the "cheeva" (spelling?) they feed you rum and play salsa music to & fro. Waves are pretty strong @ the beach, some of the Europeans are topless.

 

We'd do it again!!!

[GAJE]

We were there in January, but we did not do any excursions. Someone at our dinner table did the dolphin experience. She loved it, but got some really bad insect bites(mosquitos?) in the dressing room afterwards. These bites looked terrible and necessitated a trip to the ship's infirmary. Four to five days later these bites looked almost as bad as they did originally and were as itchy.

[LAKEMI1]

THE PEARLS!! Any type of pearl and any color of pearl. THIS IS THE PLACE TO GET THEM. When we were there a couple of years ago, there was not much by the ship dock and we ended up taking a "party bus" to a beautiful beach on the otherside of the island. The island seemed very poor and I had always thought of going there for a weeks vacation---but after seeing what we did and realizing there did not seem like much to do, I will just stick to a visit from the cruise boat. Would love to go back for the pearls (bought some beautiful strands--but long for the brown strand). Enjoy the time you have here and have fun.

[ookpik]

We did this tour too.."Rumba on the Cheva" Great fun and then bought

pearls pearls pearls..(Only the pink pearls are the local ones;the others

being fished out a few years ago) still beautiful tho' they come from China

in exchange for Venezualan oil

[timespliters]

We will be their 5 March 09 but dont know what we will do