Weird question. Best way to see Venazuela?

[Ideb]

On our Carnival cruise we will only be in port from 7:00 am until 3:00 pm. I've seen videos that show you can go to the end of the island to Baby beach and also to a mountain that has steps you can climb to the top and look over and see the mainland, Venezuela. I can't find an excursion on Carnival's website that goes to either of these 2 places. Since the ship leaves so early, what would be the best way to do this? Taxi? Private tour? I'm not sure about renting a car for such a short amount of time.

[TTEllis]

You can't go anywhere near Caracas or mainland Venezuela much less see it. You can't get past the oil platforms. Best you get is a dim light on a clear evening.  There's nothing to see, forget about it. Be a good tourist and go to the beach. I would love to go back it's certainly not worth dying for though.

 

[Tapi]

I wouldn’t waste my time. What you may be able to see (if anything) will be no different than seeing any piece of land from far, far away. You’ll see oil rigs in the distance that belong to Venezuela but that’s about as much as you’ll see from this country. 
 

There was a time decades ago when cruises would stop in La Guaira, Venezuela and you could tour Caracas. I sailed there several times on cruises from San Juan. It was a wonderful port of call and an exciting city, but unfortunately things have changed drastically in a fairly short amount of time. Maybe some day, things will be the way they used to. But for now, it’s not worth it. 

[TTEllis]

Excuse me? "The oil platforms belong to Venezuela"? Yes they did a long time ago. Not anymore. Wait a minute your right the oil platforms do belong to Venezuela the oil underneath them belongs to the United States. US Navy frigates as far as the eye can see protecting the oil, what comes in and what goes out. It's called a gauntlet. 

I not only saw it I have pictures on one of my phones. 

It was a very very humbling experience(that's what they call it, a humbling experience) in this case very very. 

 

[Ideb]

21 hours ago, TTEllis said:

You can't go anywhere near Caracas or mainland Venezuela much less see it. You can't get past the oil platforms. Best you get is a dim light on a clear evening.  There's nothing to see, forget about it. Be a good tourist and go to the beach. I would love to go back it's certainly not worth dying for though.

 

I don't want to go there. I just want to see it from Aruba. Well, actually I don't even want to do that but I have a family member that really wants to so I would like to make it happen for them.

[TTEllis]

Go to Eagle Beach please and forget about your "family member" who wants to see nothing. 

If that's how you choose to spend your day on Aruba when you walk out of the port area they'll be dozens of tour guides ask them the same thing you asked us. 

They'll take you wherever you want to go. Have a nice time. 

[TTEllis]

Btw if you can find a tour guide who will take you to a place on the island where you can see Venezuela.

When you get back please post a review and share with us what you saw. Thanks!!

[EatonDoolittle]

@IdebI know this doesn't help, but if you can enlarge this a bit, you can see Venezuela on the horizon. Taken from a resort in Curacao. I would guess that if you did find a driver to take you to a vantage point in Aruba, this is about what you would see. 

 

You can also watch the map channel on the cabin tv (if your ship has a good one), during sail in and sail out to see if/when you get nearer to the Venezuelan mainland. 

 

 

 

[TTEllis]

1 hour ago, EatonDoolittle said:

@IdebI know this doesn't help, but if you can enlarge this a bit, you can see Venezuela on the horizon. Taken from a resort in Curacao. I would guess that if you did find a driver to take you to a vantage point in Aruba, this is about what you would see. 

 

You can also watch the map channel on the cabin tv (if your ship has a good one), during sail in and sail out to see if/when you get nearer to the Venezuelan mainland. 

 

 

 

Which resort was that? I was at The Santa Barbara on Curacao in 2018 that looks just like it. I know all those beaches look similar, but that looks like the coast of the Santa Barbara. Thanks 

[Hatteras51]

Mt. Hooiberg is the mountain with the steps. You can see it off in the distance when driving towards San Nicholas, on the way to Baby Beach. I've never climbed it, but I'm sure that you can see some great views from there. I have seen Venezuela from the beaches in Aruba several times,  but the conditions have to be just right. I vacation there for two to three weeks every year, but have only seen it a few times. 

[Plato123]

We visited Caracas in 2016 on a Pullmantur cruise.  As we are Canadian we did not require a visa at the time. For safety reasons we were on a ship excursion for the visit and it was a bit scary as there were very young men in uniforms and machine guns on almost every street corner.  Thankfully we were driven around in a convoy of white Toyota land cruisers with hard bench seats and drove up a mountain to a national park then back down on a gondola ride where we got back in our Toyotas and back to the ship.  An interesting experience.