Pueblo Caribe International Beach Resort

After reading these reviews you would think this is some kind of hell hole!! BUT ITS NOT!! This plase is just paradise !, and i found every member of staff to be friendly, the cascada bar was certainly the best area to be, lovely and quiet, And the beach bar in the evening was fantasctic - a fish restaraunt followed by a night club. If you are thinking of staying here then do it !!!!! the trips were great value - we did dolphins, Jeep safari , horse riding , shopping Sambill mall was fabulous - all that shopping under one roof!. The local people outside the hotel were lovely - but you need to make the effort to talk to them , they dont bite and are very keen on learning English, if you stay here you will love it !!

We had an amazing time at the Pueblo Caribe. We were the only Canadians on site! You should know a little bit of Spanish is you are going here (or bring a dictionary). The beach is amazing. If you are going here it is for the beach! Very private and absolutely beautiful. Beautiful water and nice soft sand. Go check out El Agua beach one day as well. Rent an umbrella for two for only 7 bucks for the whole day. It should only cost 5 bucks for a cab and cheaper on the way home. DO THE JEEP TOUR! I didn't know if I would want to spend one of my days driving around.....but it was absolutely amazing. The beaches they take you to and the sites you see are gorgeous. Lunch was on the beach and really yummy. Plus it was only 50 dollars. Book it off the beach guy not the hotel. It was cheaper! La Coche Island...THis island is gorgeous. It is a super fun tour filled with lots of dancing on the boat and a lot of relazing on the beach. You can do nothing or do a lot. It is great! I highly recommend this tour. We paid 35 american dollars. The first night they put us in a room with a broken A/C, broken TV and no balcony. It was terrible. They quickly fixed us up with a nice room on the fourth floor with a balcony for our 11 remainder nights. It was a basic room....but who cares because you never spend anytime in your room anyways. We had an amazing view from our balcony and enjoyed sitting out on it before dinner each night. THIS IS NOT a five star hotel. It is a basic 3-4 star. It is well worth the trip and the stay. They have a new part that was partially open during our stay. Try and book this area if you can. THe staff is awesome. Make friends with the bartenders...they speak english and are super fun! Go to Venezuela. YOu will love it!

Just returned from Margarita! What a beautiful unspoilt island. We had a fab time. Hotel great, large spacious room, we had 2 double beds (with room for 2 more!!) in the Cascada pool area. Beautiful setting. Rooms cleaned every day with lovely decorations made from the towels most days, so cute. The cascada pool still has a problem with some people getting ear infections, which they were rectifying at the time. I took my earplugs for safety reasons if I swam in the pool, but the sea is the best anyway. You have to swim between the red flags on the beach, or paddle. It is not suitable for swimming really as the waves are too strong and undertows. A few people who strayed out of the area had to be rescued because they got into difficulty. I dont think I would let children swim in the sea, very dangerous with the strong waves, but good fun for playing in. Be warned it gets very hot, so start off on factor 30-40 and work downwards. No problems with mosquitos, just the odd bite but didnt see any at all. Food excellent, you couldnt get better choice for every meal. Breakfast - cereals, toast, freshly made omlettes, eggs, bacon, the odd stew!! Fresh fruit, what more can you want. Similar choices for lunch and dinner. No stomach upsets at all. The beach bar restaurant is also excellent, we got to use it 4 times in our 2 week stay, you have to book in advance at reception. We walked for around 6 miles down to the end of Playa el agua, miles of deserted unspoilt beaches, the odd swim in the sea to cool down. Lots to explore the other way too, so dont just sit about on the beach, get out there. We used the local buses to go to Porlamar, the flea market and Pampatar. An hours ride for 1,500 bolivars (32p!!) The venezuelans love their music and salsa, so it was great to mix with all of them, so friendly and happy people. Try the beaten up old american chevvies for a taxi ride, we used one to get to Juan Griego, its worth the experience!! At 15,000 bolivars for 3/4 hour ride (£3.75) cant be bad. By bus you have to go into Porlamar then out again which takes time. The only trip we did was the land cruiser one around the island, which was a great all day trip as you get to see the place and the peninsula, a ride around the lagoon in a boat, lunch, all you can drink all day for £30! Would have liked to do Angel Falls but too pricey, but maybe next time we will. We changed our dollars at the hotel but you can get a slightly better rate at shops etc, but you are only talking pennies. 2,150 at hotel, 2,300 or 2,400 at shops. If you think 4,000 bolivars to the pound then thats a good way of approximating prices. Everything is really cheap there, you have a job spending your money!! So it wont hurt to tip the bar staff, beach staff, etc now and again, they really do appreciate it. I hope it doesnt get like Mexico with all the americans there tipping left right and centre. The entertainment at night is a bit cheesey, but good fun. The south americans loved it, but if you can speak a little spanish it helps. Cant wait to go back to see more of this beautiful unspoilt island.

We got back from the Pueblo Caribe on the 8th June, and we, like you are now, read these pages religiously for about a month trying to gauge exactly what we could expect form the hotel. All I can say to you is, if you haven't yet booked the hotel, don't. Don't get me wrong, it's not a hell hole or anything, and to be fair, looking around the hotel you kind of think it ain't bad at all. But scratch the surface and that's when the problems come to light. For instance, we moved room three times, the first time because we were right next to the La Cascada bar and the noise was horrendous. We duly complained and were moved to a room away from the bar that was a bit nore spacious but smelt constantly musty (it was only later in the holiday that we discivered some guys had moved out just before beacuse they complained of the smell!). To top that, we were awaken at 6.30am in the morning with the sound of drilling and sawing, believe it or not there was a workshop attached to the back of the room!. You'd think that was reason enough to move, but probably the worst thing about it was the infestation of cockroaches. We moved to our third room, and although while it was relatively quiet, and didn't smell damp, we still had cockroaches aplenty. Over the course of our two week stay we had to remove six cockroaches from our rooms, and we were not the only one's, a couple next door to us caught five over the two weeks and a feew others caught three or four. But to be fair some of the guys there were lucky and did'nt have any, so it maybe that a lot of us were unlucky, but from the number of people we spoke to, and saw, moving rooms, I would suggest that was probably not the case. Outside of the rooms, things were much better. If you are a brit reading this, then you consider yourselves very lucky, as you will be staying in by far the nicest part of the hotel. This is known as La Cascada, and is all situated around a pool with a pool bar. Walking around the rest of the hotel you do feel extremely lucky to be based where you are, as the rest of the hotel isn't half as pretty. My experience fo the staff was very mixed. Some were very friendly and some were as miserable as sin! One of the very few that were generally firiendly was a guy called Karym, but he got promote while we were there so he's not even bar staff anymore!. Also, if you're a bloke then expect to do quite a lot of lip biting as your wife/girlfriend/significant otherwill get letched at by pretty much every male member of staff! get's a bit annoying after a while as it's so blatant. Food was ok, nothing more or nothing less than you would expect for an all inclusive. Pretty much the same things available every night, does get a bit boring after about a week, but what was available tasted pretty good. The beer was nice and the cocktails were great, but don't expect much from the staff waitning on the tables, you'll be the only one doing the waiting! The beach ain't the best you'll come across on your travels. It's pretty small, and the sea is as rough as i've seen it anywhere, and I surf! Fly tipping also seems to be the islanders favourite pastime, i've got to say that they have become pretty damn good at it!. There is rubbish everywhere on the island, not just on El Tirano beach, so this is not the hotels fault at all. The dogs that live on the beach are cool though, there was even a litter of puppies when we were there. On the whole we didn't spend much time on the beach, mainly round the pool as it was so nice. The 'A La Carte' restaurant on the beach, which you can go to free twice on your holiday, is a joke. We have never experience service as bad as we did when we ate down there, the food was no better than up at the buffet, and the menu was hilarious! check out the descriotion for the griled chicken! By far the best part of our holiday, and I mean by far, was the excursions. They were all amazing, but by far the best was the orinocco Delta/Canaima trip. Words cannot describe how good this trip is. It's a one night trip, you spend the first day in the jungle at this remote camp, absolutely in the middle of nowhere. You go kayaking up the river (think mosquito coast), piranha fishing, cayman hunting at night. It is absolutely beautiful and to see the monkeys etc in the trees in their naturak habitat is amazing. The next day you fly to Canaima, where the Angel Falls are, and you walk by these massive waterfalls, and then fly past Angel Falls on the way back. This is one trip that you must do!!!!! we persuaded a middle aged couple to do it, who had their reservations, but were blown away by it and smiling from ear to ear for the rest of the holiday. We also did the jeep Land Safari and the trimararn trips (you will get wet!!!!) Try to do these before you go on the Canaima trip though, otherwise it will take the edge off them. Our rep, Jose, was also very good. Extremely friendly and alwayd ready with advice. There isn't a lot to do outside of the hotel in the area, so unless you are prepared to get a taxi to one of the towns for instance, don't expect there to be much to do in the evenings (the shows at the hotel are hilariously bad!). Overall my advice would be to definitley go to Margarita, but if you can, try and get yourselves in anither hotel. We met people on the trips who were staying at Languna Mar, and they all rated their hotel very highly (couldn't believe we had cockroaches etc). Just get yoursleves out and about as much as possible as there is a lot to do and see on the island. if you do got to Pueblo Caribe, don't be afraid to kick up a fuss if you are not entirely happy with you room. You won't be the first, or the last to do so, it was a case of musical rooms while we were there. I would give the hotel 4 out of 10 but the island and the excursions 8 out 10. I hope this helps. If anyone wants more advice from a 29 and 26 yr old couple, just E-mail me on Leach_graham@hotmail.com, and I'll be happy to answer any queries you might have about any of it. I kow from experience how helpul these sights can be.

I travelled to Margarita Island during "spring break" in February. I went with a few college friends and we had a great time. Although there were several problems with the hotel, we made the best of our situation. ARRIVAL: When we first arrived at the hotel (7am!) we had to wait until 3pm to check in. After a long night flight, waiting several hours before check in was not fun. When we did check into the hotel, the power and water went out for several hours at a time. We had to ask for soap/towels etc, and there was no phone/hair dryer in the room. FOOD: There was a large selection of food including a pasta, hamburgers and fruit. i recommend the restaurant on the far side of the pool--the food is much better over there. I was completely turned off the closer restaurant after the first day. The food was bland, odd and did not taste very good. With your stay, you get to go to the restaurant on the beach (once) where you can choose dinner from a menu--this included steak and fish was was very good. Warning: If you are a dessert lover like me, you WILL be dissapointed. PEOPLE/NIGTLIFE: The staff were great and very entertaining. If you tip the bartenders, they will treat you well and if you take the time to talk to other staff, they will remember you and try to make you happy. There were games set up during the day (water polo, darts, dance lessons etc) which were fun. At nighttime the entertainment group put on different shows which were very entertaining...we had a lot of fun watching them. After the show, these entertainers got a group together (usually the younger crowd) and took us to a disco. We usually paid 10-20 dollars which included transportation and drinks for the night. We were taken on a "party bus" which held dozens of people, with loud music playing. The discos and bars were extremely fun on the island: we met tons of other Canadians and everyone seemed to speak English at the discos. Very similar to North American city nightlife. DAY TRIPS: We went shopping at the market which was good. Items were very cheap. We also went to the mall where there was a casino inside. Only 50cents for a bottle of beer. In general, the island was very cheap. Another day, we went on the Catamaran trip where we took a boat to another island. We went snorkelling at a sunken ship, and had mud baths afterwards. It was a very hot day but they provided us with food and drinks and it was very fun! The main beach is a few minutes away (taxi) and it is alot nicer there than the beach at the hotel. I'm a 22 year old university student which may have been why I didn't care about the problems in the hotel. The hotel is great for anyone, as long as you make the best of your time there. I had a fun time, met lots of people, and would definately go back.

We have just got back from Margarita,it was red hot,the hotel had its faults but was ok on the whole,most of the time the food was ok,we stayed around the La Cascada pool and bar,Clardia the sandwich girl was fantastic,but some of the staff serving the food at the other restaurants were very surly and rude sometimes never had a smile,the spaghetti was great you picked what you wanted and they cooked it for you.The entertainment was just laughable,so we didnt bother.Trips we booked with First Choise but they were cheaper on the beach.Angel Falls was great we did the one day i would say the two would be better,swimming with Dolphins was great,A tour of the Island in a taxi not a landcruiser its to hot.Anyone wanting any more info contact me i will be pleased to advise.Sue

The rep who sold me the holiday 'wonderful offer, you will never get another like it' (THANK GOD) should be shot at close range. She was right, I have never had a holiday like it before and hopefully never will I again. I had a relaxing holiday (by the pool) because there was naff all else to do. If there were activities by the pool it wasn't by our pool. Our pool meaning the English pool. The only pleasant part of the holiday was that we were housed with our compatriots and we all got along very well. A few evenings we waited to watch the show as advertised and it never happened. The beach we had to share with the dogs while sunbathing. We were sunbathing, not the dogs. The dogs were just pooing and ----ing everywhere. The pool was not clean enough. Several people went down with tummy bugs or ear infections. On top of that several of us lost personal things from the rooms or the terrace. And most of the staff were friendly but some could learn to smile a bit more. It doesn't cost much. But, the rooms were clean. Thats not bad. Grace (rep) did a wonderful job which must havebeen very difficult at times. So, did I get a bargain? No way, Hosea!!! Can not add a photo, the roaches wouldn't sit still to pose for too long.

I moved 3 times within my stay. The first room I stayed in for 3 days, the air conditioning was so noist the people outside could hear it. I mentioned this A/C on the first day, as I said it took 3 days for someone to come and see it. i was then moved 2 doors along, the toilet didn't flush, I repoted this straight away, but 2 hours later still no one arrived and I mended it myself (I am female and yes I did men it)! A couple of days kater the A/C stated spraying water and dropping ice cubes, the maintenance gut came out and told me to switch it of and not use it. Eventually after many complaints I got moved to 'one of the better rooms' as described my the manager. The room was very bigh with 3 beds and 2 bathrooms, jacuzzi outside alllvery nice 'til next morning when i got up and had not water, the phone was not working so had to walk down to reception this time maintaence came within 1 hour and was told they would mend it by the end of the day but in the mean time use the jacuzzi to bath. The food was so bad I has upset stomach the whole time I was there I actually lost a stone in weight over a 2 week period. My children were also ill. The la casade pool was not cleaned until people of the same flight as I complained by then it was too late I belive 10 children went down with ear infections - the hotel did fit the bill when they were confronted by an angry group and called the local doctor, everyone got antibotics and drops. The electric switches in the rooms were not wired up properly and most people got electric shocks, one lady got a shock so severe that she fell over and bruised her ribs. The only good thing about my holiday was the last day - I was coming home.

First off I'd like to say that this is a 3.5* hotel, and I'm not a fussy traveler. I stayed at the Isla Caribe which is, at this time, only 3 room buildings and a pool. It's joined to the Pueblo Caribe( also 3.5*). Check-in went pretty fast, no safe available at check-in, had to come back later to get it, 20$ deposit and 2.50$/day. Got the A/C and tv remote too, tv remote didn't work changed it 3 time still didn't work, so I gave up on that, but didn't really care. We didn't travel so far to watch tv!!. Got to the room 1012, it was kinda musty, but figured it was the natural humidity of the island. We had a nice little patio, with a view of the main entrace walk-way to the Isla Caribe, and green boarding hidding the construction site( no biggy for me). By the next morning, we noticed the toilet was leeaking and that we had a puddle of water behind the bathroom door, and when we flushed, sewage came up through the drains in shower and bathroom. At this point we rushed to front desk and asked for a room change, they told us no problem but that we'd have to wait till 3 pm at check-in time, which was reasonnable to me. At 3, we got the new room and everything was alright, not musty at all. 4th floor view was nice, we could see over the construction boarding onto the site! lol! We did have a nice view of the mountains. The pools were nice, clean and warm and even had a whirlpool at the Isla Caribe. Food was good, I don't understand why some people complained. There's a sandwich bar, spaghetti bar, and a hamburger/hotdog bar, 2 buffets, and an a la carte restaurant (that we didn't get to go- tried to reserve to late it was all booked). I have no complaints about the food, I ate vegetables and lettuce, had the water in the fountain and ice and I DIDN'T GET SICK. Variety was not so bad, they had rice, potatoes, vegetables and plantain every day but the prepared it differently each time. The meat wasn't bad either, not the same as we eat in Canada but still good. I had pork, chicken, beef, fish, and even rabbit. Pancakes and eggs for breakfast, no bacon. They also had cereal and toast. Lots of fresh fruits. The beach is nice, had a red flag all week , but still went in. They have a lifeguard there always, looking out for the adventurous ones... The Beach isn't the cleanest, some seaweed and junk at high tide, still nice, plenty of chairs and shades, and not to many peddlers wich was nice. We visited Paraguito and El Agua beach, very nice! worth the visit, alot of people, restaurants and peddlers, but you have to pay if you want to use a chair. If you want to try surfing, Paraguito is the spot, at the north end of the beach, they rent boards, go early. We did 2 excursions, the were pretty cheap 50$ each, we took the Jeep Tour -must do!!- visit the whole island and mangrove, 200km around the island and a beautiful sunset. 2nd was Catamaran to Coche Island, great trip if you want to soak up the sun. One of the best places to buy pearls! Beautiful, real and cheap. I had fresh oysters with lime, the best ones I've tasted. I'd return to this hotel anyday. By the way they have no facecloths in hotels in Margarita, so bring your own. And I recommend the little restaurant on the beach not far from the hotel nice meal fair price, it looks kinda scary, they have a pirate flag hoisted (they also have a german flag), but try it, you have to reserve in advance. For 3.5*, and the price I paid this trip was GREAT. I'll post some pics later. If your hesitating, DON'T, book and go you won't regret it

My boyfriend and I recently travelled to Margarita Island - Pueblo Caribe - and it was beyond our expectation!!! The hotel was great, the food was even better, the staff in the resort was friendly, fun, and extremely welcoming, and the pools were beyond satisfactory!!! We've travelled to many places (Cuba, Mexico, Dominican) but without doubt, another trip to Venezuela (certainly Pueblo Caribe) is in store sometime this year!!! I highly recomend it to everyone!!! You won't be disappointed!