Margarita Island Review

[GiniB]

I was on the 1/31/05 sailing of the Empress of the Seas. I wanted to get in this quick review. I will also be reviewing all of our other stops and the ship itself.

 

Margarita Island is geographically very pretty. The dock where the ship comes in is on the dry side of the island, flat with not much to see. But the road system is fantastic, smooth and well-maintained. A cab ride from the pier to the very northeastern point on the island takes about 45-50 minutes.

 

If you don't speak Spanish, I highly recommend that you take an organized tour. Most of the cab drivers speak little or no English.

 

The beach right by the ship was fairly clean (especially for being located right on a busy harbor), the water was shallow, warm and very calm, and you can't beat the 5 minutes it took to get there from the ship.

 

We were looking for a bit more adventure, so I negotiated with a cabbie (I speak passable, if not fluent, Spanish) to take us to Playa del Agua for the day. There were 4 of us and both my husband and the other man with us are over 6'5" so we made sure the cab wasn't too small before leaving...no worries there. Almost all the cabs were huge. We were in an old Lincoln Continental that didn't look or sound great, but had killer air conditioning! Anyway, I negotiated with him to take us straight to the beach (a 45 minute drive), stay there while we played for 4 hours, then take us back via the "scenic" route, pointing out cool stuff along the way and stopping when requested. The cost for this whole excursion was $100 total.

 

The drive to Playa del Agua was smooth and quick. The drivers aren't as bad there as in some countries. We were stopped about 3 times by armed police officers who looked us all over then let us go. Couldn't get the driver to really tell us what that was all about until the drive back. Apparantly, Venezuela is nominally a democracy, but is run by the military and the police. Corruption is rampant and the citizens are pretty scared of the police. While we were at the beach, a military helicopter landed on it and about a dozen armed police/military men got out, patrolled the beach (eyeballing everyone as if they were criminals), got back on the chopper and departed...weird.

 

Playa del Agua was absolutely gorgeous! The beach is clean, huge (both length and width, I'd estimate several miles long by 100 yards wide). We were there on a weekend so it was busy, but not overcrowded. We rented umbrella-sheltered chairs with facial shades for $10 per couple for the day. We also had our own waiter who fetched ice cold beers for us before we even knew we needed them. When we were hungry a menu was brought, we ordered and they brought out two small tables with table cloths and silverware and served us right on the beach. The water there is a bit rougher than some folks might like, but if you're a decent swimmer it would be fine. We enjoyed body surfing in it. The sand was white and powdery. By the way, our final bill for about 20 beers (we didn't count, but we were all drinking them fairly steadily), and 4 grilled chicken sandwiches with fries (both of which were fantastic), was $61...I almost choked! Needless to say we tipped the waiter very well!

 

There were many strolling vendors on the beach (they come over on the ferry from mainland Venezuela each day), but if you politely say no (or pretend to sleep behind your sunglasses like my friend did) you'll not have any problems with them.

 

On our return trip, we took the "long way" back. We went through Manzanillo (another gorgeous beach with much calmer water), and several smaller towns and villages, stopping to see shops or take pictures quite often.

 

The people were all very friendly (except for the police) and wanted to chat, but unless you speak Spanish, you won't understand them (that won't stop them from chattering at you though!).

 

Overall I enjoyed the visit. Would not hesitate to visit again if it was part of a cruise itinerary, but probably wouldn't go there for any length of time just because my husband was uncomfortable about the security issues (he's a retired military police officer).

 

Any questions? Please send them my way!

[pcumberl]

Very nice review. Thanks.

 

If it weren't for the wierd aspects of the police/military, I'll bet a lot of readers would like to spend their day there just the way you did. Then again, maybe that's just another interesting aspect of the cruise to look forward to. Did they ask for ID's from you or harrass you at all? I assume they did of the driver to some degree.

 

~Paul

[crisp1]

Gina, I must say you're adventurous, my dw would have freaked with all the military. Unfortunately for us, we'll only be spending 4 hrs total in Isla Margarita ( port change). We'll most likely have to catch a little time on the beach and spend mo money in the market. thanks for sharing your experience

[GiniB]

No, the police didn't even speak to us. They just glared at us and it was a little disconcerting and intimidating (which I think was the whole point). It actually didn't bother me as much as it did my husband.

 

I hope my review didn't discourage anyone from touring M.I...it is beautiful and I wouldn't have missed it for anything. Just felt I had to disclose the whole experience, warts and all.

 

Gini

[SqueakyDust]

Thanks for the 'warts'n'all' info.

This is one of the stops we'll have in December, and as we're taking kids I think we'll stick to the 'local beach and straw market'

[pcumberl]

..we'll stick to the 'local beach and straw market'

Have you tried looking at tours provided by the ship? There's a great review of one here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=96615&page=2&pp=25&highlight=Isla%20Margarita%20Restinga%20Lagoon

 

I'll be trying to get on this one next month.

 

~Paul