Travel Venezuela, a backpacking guide

In this post we discuss Travel in Venezuela, this is a controversial country to travel and this article is just a report on our experience. What do things cost and what was our experience regarding crime, corruption, free petrol, empty shops and annoying police. We discuss some tourist attractions in Venezuela and some awesome activities we did traveling around this extraordinary country.

Venezuela, a country with a bad reputation

Venezuela must be one of the most unique countries I have ever been to. Since so few people travel here, most of what we heard, from its beauty to its dangerous reputation is a combination of myth and mystery. It is a country that has never been on my travel radar; Alya however has been talking about visiting the amazing mountains of Roraima for a while.

When we started to investigate heard many terrible stories about the dangers of traveling to Venezuela. It seemed like walking in the street was risking your life and that having foreign currency was a crime. Stories of police searching you and relieving you of “illegal” cash if you had US dollars. We met a fellow South African traveler that told us about an extremely beautiful country with super friendly people.

Our plan to travel to Venezuela

We traveled to Venezuela from Manaus in Brazil and  paranoia made us leave most of our valuables in Manaus. It sounded like we were heading to a war zone! If we took laptops we would have stayed in the country working for a while and if we had more money on us we would have gone to all the main attractions in the country.

Since we only planned to do the Roraima trek and go back to Brazil we only had about $180 USD each, this lasted a month! Since it is to expensive to draw money or pay by card this was all the money we had as long as we stayed in the country.

Budget for Venezuela Travel 

Our average budget was $6 a day each all inclusive. For this we were staying in private rooms, eating at a restaurants or street food 3 meals a day. Sometimes we even ate pizza, drank a cocktail or went to a fancy coffee shop. Here we did not really cook ourselves. Restaurants/street food is cheap and there is not much to buy in the supermarkets.

The Venezuelan currency issue

When discussing traveling to Venezuela the two most popular topics are currency and crime. The socialist policies of Venezuela led to a spectacular collapse of the local currency. In 2017, the official exchange rate was about $1=B10, on the black market you could however buy B3000 with $1 (2017)!

This means that a Coke will only cost 5c at the black market rate, but you will pay $33 for the same Coke at the official exchange rate! If you bring cash it is an unbelievably cheap country to travel. If however you draw money at an ATM or pay by credit card at the official rate it is maybe the most expensive country in the world.

The Economic crisis in Venezuela

It is a great country to travel for budget travelers with a couple of dollars in your wallet, but it is a country with big economic problems. Local people are still getting the same salaries in Bolivars as before the currency collapse. This meant the minimum wage was now $11 per month and a doctor I met was earning a monthly salary of $30! This does not really make sense since I paid a shoemaker $2 to fix my trekking shoes. Since he fixed at least ten pairs per day he was earning much more than a medical doctor!

ATM and paying by credit card in Venezuela

There are many ATM’s and they except cards in most places. If you draw money or pay by card it is at the official exchange rate you will be receiving up to 300 times less for your USD then you would when exchanging on the black market! (Dec 2017)

The only disadvantage of the exchange rate for travelers is that you have to bring all the cash for your whole stay with you when you enter Venezuela. Criminals know this, making you an obvious target.

Some interesting prices in Venezuela.

10 hour bus ride B1300 ($2), 600ml Coke B200 ($0.27), beer B35 ($0.05), Lunch (big meal, chicken, rice, salad, vegetables) B700 ($1), budget hotel double room B1700 ($2.40), fancy guesthouse on the beach B3000 ($4.20), Medium Pizza (wood fired) B1200 ($1.70)

This was in 2015, with the falling currency everything should be less than half these prices in 2017.

 Venezuela economic crisis

Unfortunately we found the rumors about empty supermarket shelves to be true.  When they do receive subsidized products, e.g. chicken or toilet paper people were waiting for hours outside supermarkets.

Customer service was terrible and somehow whatever you are looking for always happens to be out of stock. How not a single pharmacy in a city can stock tampons or the only McDonald’s in the country can be without fries will always be a mystery to me.

Bus tickets can not be bought a day in advance. I had to get up at 5 am and walk 3km to the bus station to ensure I get tickets for the evening’s overnight bus.

Our experience of the Venezuela Police

The police in Venezuela caused us some stress. We met more than one traveler that got robbed by Venezuela’s law keepers. There are constant road blocks and we had to get out of the bus up to five times, unpacking your entire luggage, during a 12 hour journey, in the middle of the night! We were never robbed or very worried, but I have heard some horror stories. I would recommend hiding your dollars (Alya stitched our extra dollars in her shoe).

Is Venezuela Safe to travel?

Statistics show that Venezuela is a very dangerous place so becoming a victim of crime in Venezuela is very possible. We did not have problems and never felt serious threat, but that was our experience. We did however avoid big cities as far as possible. Some of our friends traveled through the whole country for months. They were mostly hitchhiking and Couch Surfing and never had any crime problems. We heard stories of people that were robbed, so it is possible, being streetwise and careful here is a must. I don’t thinking walking around at night is a good idea and we did not do it. See what a fellow blogger says about safety traveling in Venezuela after three months in the country.

All details and tips on packing for a backpacking trip you’ll find in this post. ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓

Venezuela Destinations

Santa Elena

The town is the main entry point from Brazil. It is the best place to organize hikes to mount Roraima and the beautiful Gran Sabana area surrounding the town.

Santa Elena Venezuela Accommodation

We stayed in Michelle’s guesthouse, most tourists end up here, making it a great place to meet people. This is important since you need to be at least four people to hike Roraima. We paid B1500 ($2.50) per night for a double room with on suite bathroom, not luxury, but a good deal.

Staying in Santa Elena

For me the highlights of the town was the food.  A coffee shop that sold a mean double espresso for B150 ($0.35), a good Italian pizza place (medium pizza B700) and cocktails at Backpacker’s tours next to Michelle’s (B300/$0.42). The dollar exchange rate is not good in Santa Elena, but since it is on the border with Brazil the exchange rate for Brazilian Reales to Venezuelan Bolivars is good here.

We got stuck in Santa Elena for a week, waiting for two more people to complete a Roraima group. On a budget of $5 a day waiting is cheap, but takes some patience. Santa Elena is on the border with Brazil and petrol only cost B5 ($0.01) for a full tank. Many people fill their cars and smuggle the petrol over the border, selling it in Brazil.

La Gran Sabana – exploring tepui

The Gran Sabana is a beautiful area of wide open grasslands with tepuis (Table Mountains) all over the horizon. It is huge, about the size of Belgium. The whole area is protected in the Canaima National Park. Driving around the impressive plains there are waterfalls, rivers and swimming holes to visit. These structures scattered around the area sits  atop one of the world’s oldest geological formations. The cheapest full day tours we saw was with Backpacker’s tours for B8000 ($11.50) in a full Jeep. We were three people and paid a taxi driver we met at Michelle’s B6500 ($9) each to take us to the main waterfalls and sights that we could drive to within one day.

Mount Roraima Hike

At around 2,800 m this is the highest of the Table Mountains in the Gran Sabana. It is the most accessible for hiking and this unreal mountain is why we came to Venezuela. This unique landscape and strange rock formations feels partially prehistoric, partially fairyland. It is compulsory to have a guide when hiking Roraima.

Mount Roraima Tours

There are several agencies in Santa Elena that offer all-inclusive trekking tours of mount Roraima. Prices range between B63 000-80 000 ($90 -$115) per person for 5 days.

Hiking Mount Roraima with a guide.

We do not like organized tours and were lucky to meet Luiz (Vago L Suarez) through an Irish friend at Michelle’s hostel. He is an independent operator/guide, Luiz assisted us to rent all equipment and shop for food. Together with Martin and Jana, a Czech/Slovak couple we were a group of four and the trek cost us B28 000/$40 per person, all-inclusive for six days. We had a very good deal only having a guide and as per usual we carried our own stuff, cooked ourselves and pitched our own tents.

This is an amazing hike, truly unique and one of the most beautiful places that I have ever been.  For all about our Roraima trek see our next entry, Roraima trek on a budget, lost world in Venezuela

You can contact Luiz on his Facebook page Trekking Roraima Pemonpe

Margarita Island

We started getting some serious saltwater withdrawal symptoms. After hearing stories about idyllic tropical islands and perfect white beaches we decided to head to Isla Margarita in the Caribbean Sea. It was not the perfection we were hoping for, but the water was warm and clear (26C), it was awesome to run on the beach every night and we were staying in a very fancy guesthouse by our standards for $4 a day!

The Venetur is a five star hotel on the beach and the honeymoon suite went for B8800 $12.70/R195) per night! We took an overnight bus from Santa Elena to Ciudad Bolivar for B1300 ($1.85/R28) connecting with a bus to Puerto La Cruz B750 ($1/R15) from Puerto La Cruz we took a very fancy ferry for 4 hours to Porlamar on Margarita Island for B750 ($1/R15) where we spent our first night (hotel double room B1900/$2.70/R42).

Playa El Agua

We went to Playa El Agua,  the most popular beach and surfing destination on the island and stayed in El Poso Guesthouse close to the beach. It was nice to be the only guests and we ended up staying here for a week. We had a beautiful room, satellite tv, swimming pool and a nice kitchen, for $4 a night it was a great deal.

The beach is nice and we went for a 10km run on the beach every night. It was not a beautiful area. Being a bit dilapidated with a lot of broken down buildings. The only restaurants or shops on the beachfront is a Chinese restaurant and a Subway franchise, with probably the best priced Subway sandwiches in the world at B400 ($0.57/R8.00), pity they never had cheese. As for surfing, it was a beach break that closes out almost immediately so not really surfable. There were some softboards to rent on the beach. Playa Parguito, the beach the beach next to Playa El Agua is a beautiful beach, it was empty and very nice for swimming.

The wifi at the guesthouse was good and I spent a lot of time in a hammock next to the pool listening to the rugby world cup games being streamed on radio through my phone.

Other Venezuela Attractions

Angel Falls

is the highest waterfall in the world and the main reason many people come to Venezuela. Ciudad Bolivar is a good place to organize the trip from, the best price we could find was in Santa Elena with Turistico Alvarez (Francisco Alvarez works with Michelle’s guesthouse), they also have an office in Ciudad Bolivar at the bus terminal. He offered B120 000 ($170) for the 3 day tour including flights, canoe rides, accommodation and all meals, we would have to make our way to Ciudad Bolivar by bus. I regret missing out on Angel Falls, beautiful jungle, light trekking, nice canoe ride and many opt to fly over the falls in a Cessna for an extra $50.

Los Llanos

The vast plains of Los Llanos is cowboy country (well cowboys wearing boardshorts and peak caps) and the place to see wildlife in Venezuela, caimans, capybaras, piranhas,  birds and it is famous for anacondas. Many tour offices in Ciudad Bolivar guaranteed us to see anacondas, this is not cool since I suppose they have an anaconda lying somewhere that the guide pulls out and you can stroke. The best price we could find in Ciudad Bolivar was B35 000 ($50) for a 3 day tour. Unfortunately we were very low on cash at this stage and I will have to pay 5 times as much for a similar experience else ware in South America.

Lake Maracaibo Lightning storms

Every other night over Lake Maracaibo, a chemical reaction occurs between the mangrove water and the air to create silent lightning storms, called Catatumbo lightning. We did not go here, but go and look on google image, the lake is close to Merida and it looks amazing!

Los Roccos

these sandy Caribbean islands is the top place to go in Venezuela for amazing beaches, island hopping, good diving and snorkeling. Unfortunately it sounded very pricey and we decided to give it a miss.

Merida

Some fellow travelers spent quite a lot of time in Merida, renting an apartment here and could not stop raving about the place. They spoke about an amazing student, party town with many surrounding hikes and it is a great place to go to do adventure activities e.g. cannoning, canopy, paintball, mountains, skydiving and paragliding.

 Related article – 29 Places not to miss in South America

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