From Maracay, you can visit a German colony that has been around since the mid-1800s. It is called Colonia Tovar and is one of the few places in South America where you can find German food and architecture.

Maracay is also close to Choroni, one on the most famous beaches of Venezuela. Choroni is a lazy kind of place where the local fisherman hang out and drink beer under the hot sun. The beach is a few minutes from the town of Choroni and there are a lot of young people in bikinis visiting on the weekends.

Caracas is the nation's capital and the heart of the country. About one out of every four Venezuelans lives in Caracas.  Caracas is dangerous however, and if you don't know the country very well you should probably just take a bus or airplane to another part of Venezuela until you understand some of the language and culture.

Otherwise, take a flight in the morning and stay at a nearby hotel. In most cases, plane tickets can be purchased the same day as the flight. On a final note, if you decide to venture into Caracas don't make a judgment of the city based on what you see in its outskirts. As is the case with most airports, the Caracas airport is located near run-down parts of the city.

Margarita Island is the largest tourist attaction in the country. People refer it to as "La Isla", almost a separate entity from Venezuela. Margarita probably has the most foreigners per capita of any other place in Venezuela. It is considered more of a place to visit than to live, but many foreigners live there year-round. 

Some Venezuelans jokingly suggest that Italians own half of the island and Germans the other half. The most famous beach in Margarita is Playa El Agua. It has great restaurants, vendors selling crafts and white sand.

Picture yourself on a beautiful white sand beach sipping on your favorite beverage and then jumping into the ocean. Later, you can take a ride in a mini-plane looking over the island from a few hundred meters above. While at Playa El Agua, look for the "buhoneros", walking vendors who sell everything from necklaces to beautiful stone carvings which make great souvenirs. 

An important note for Margarita Island is please, please, please don't patronize the strip clubs as you will give your countrymen a bad reputation. Instead, you can go shopping. Margarita has the cheapest manufactured goods in the country and a lot of nice crafts, and it's Sambil mall offers world-class shopping.

If you would like to take an organized excursion while in Margarita, contact Dominique at Holiday Tours.  She is a Venezuelan-born Swiss woman who speaks Spanish, French and English. Her office at the beautiful Porlamar Hilton in Margarita is replete with posters of various destinations around Margarita and Venezuela. She can organize boat tours to the island of Coche, snorkelling at Los Frailes and Jeep Safaris, as well as longer excursions to the Orinoco Delta, the Amazon and Los Roques. Give her a call at 0295-262-6878 to get information or make a reservation. The international country code for Venezuela is 58. Her email is chamadomi@cantv.net.

I haven't mentioned other worthwhile parts of Venezuela due to a lack of familiarity.  However, I have been told dozens of times to visit Barquisimeto, Los Roques (an elite version of Margarita Island), Valencia, the Amazon and of course the huge national park known as "La Gran Sabana".  La Gran Sabana is known mostly for Angel Waterfall, the tallest waterfall in the world, but the park is very expansive and would take at least a week to explore. I don't really recommend Maracaibo as a tourist destination. It is hot, muggy and not particularly attractive, apart from its beautiful women. Maracaibo reminds me of Houston.

Getting Around :Getting around Venezuela is fairly easy. Most cities have an airport and one-way flights can be purchased the same day for around $100 or less in most cases. In some cases you might have to make a connection in Caracas, but in many cases there are direct flights. 

A cheaper way to travel is by bus which costs less than $20 between most cities. There are dozens of buslines, but I recommend Flamingo or Pelicano if you are travelling to or leaving from Caracas because it has its own private bus station in Parque del Este which will save you a lot of stress and hassle by avoiding the larger bus terminals in Caracas. When travelling by bus make sure to ask if the bus has a bathroom, because otherwise you might be very uncomfortable until the next stop which could be several hours away. The other thing to note is to be sure to take a blanket or at least a heavy jacket. For some reason, the busses turn the air conditioning up very high and if you don't have a jacket or blanket you will be very cold. 

In extreme cases, you can take taxis between cities. This option is more expensive than taking a bus but might make sense if you need to get somewhere in less time than a busride but don't want to pay for airplane tickets for three people. A taxi between Merida and Caracas costs around $150 and travel time is about nine hours.

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