Best Places to Visit in Venezuela, Top Attractions

Venezuela is a country of many faces. It has Caribbean coastal beaches, Andean peaks, wetlands teeming with piranhas and anacondas and inland sand dunes. It is a tropical country that has great biodiversity. It is also the country of oil exports, beauty pageant winners, and the birthplace of Simon Bolivar, who liberated many South American countries from Spanish rule. Venezuela is a country of beautiful landscapes and surprising sights, from the coast to the mountain tops. Magnificent waterfalls tumble off table top mountains, and coastal towns and offshore islands offer pleasant escapes and soft-sand beaches. Venezuela boasts of everything you could ever dream of—vibrant cities, coastal towns, clear lakes, breathtaking waterfalls, and impenetrable forests. This Latin-flavoured country is also home to some of the friendliest people in the world. Flanked by Andes Mountains in the northwest and the Caribbean to the north, you will find bounty of places to visit in Venezuela. The striking natural beauty of this place, boasting of Caribbean coastal towns, the dust blanketed inland sand dunes, attract surprisingly a large number of tourists from around the world. Andean peaks and myriads of animals make it the perfect country for adventure seekers. Although the country has recently been plagued by domestic problems, nonetheless, the exotic beauty and the hospitality of the Venezuelan people is sure to warm everyone’s hearts. 

#1- Morrocoy National Park
Morrocoy National Park has more than 32,000 acres of reserve island and the marine area filled with island beaches, mangroves, and coral reefs like Cayo Sombrero. This park is one of the best tourist attractions in Venezuela.  The white sand beaches are fantastic and ideal for tourists to visit and rest while experiencing water activities; the transparent water coral reefs are abode to sea turtles, fish, and dolphins, maximum of which can be seen during a scuba diving tour. Tourists can also visit the wetlands and see the flourishing birdlife in the region, including flamingos, which are an amusing site to see for the whole family. Additional animals people may come across include anteaters, opossums, sloths, howler monkeys, and different types of deer.

#2- Angel Falls
With an altitude of 3,212 feet and a plunge of 2,648 feet, Angel Falls in Venezuela is the loftiest continuous waterfall in the world and one of the best tourist attractions in Venezuela. The waterfall is located within the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Canaima National Park, and it falls over the frequently-visited Auyan Tepui Mountain. Tourists will be able to experience the tranquil peace and charm given by the flowing waterfall during their travel there. A travel guide will be able to provide tourists plenty of attractive tidbits about the waterfall and the US pilot, Jimmie Angel, whom the fall was named after. While there, tourists will be able to enjoy hiking, kayaking, and explore the plants and animals around them.

#3- Bararida Zoological and Botanical Park
Established in 1967, the Bararida Zoological and Botanical Park is one of Venezuela’s greatest family-friendly day draws. The joint Park, zoo, and botanical garden provide tourists a chance to find of the country’s most amazing flora and fauna. There are more than 8,222 animals at the zoo for tourists to get up intimate and personal with, with about 65% of them on the almost extinct list. There’s a wide collection of local trees in the park, while the botanical garden has more than 150 diverse species of native and international plants for tourists to find.

#4- Canaima National Park
Abode to the loftiest uninterrupted waterfall on earth, Angel Falls, Canaima National Park extends over three million hectares of grassy savannas, tropical jungles, flat-surfaced mountains, and tepuis. The UNESCO World Heritage Site is the sixth biggest national park in the world and one of the best tourist attractions in Venezuela. It has several fantastic landscapes for tourists to enjoy. There are tons of activities for tourists to participate in while in Canaima National Park including abseiling, camping, hiking, and visiting the many caverns there. While there, tourists will also come across some wonderful plants and animals, for instance, the White-faced saki, jaguars, hummingbirds, dusky parrots, and giant otters and anteaters.

#5- Casa Natal and Museo Bolivar
Simon Bolivar is an army and political hero who performed an important character in founding Venezuela as a sovereign country. Casa Natal & Museo Bolivar is the seventeenth-century residence, today an important tourist attraction in Venezuela, where the hero was born. In addition to being the location of his birth, the house is also one of the very few from the colonial time that still remains now. Tourists will be able to find the special chamber where Bolivar was born, the yard in which he was baptized, and stuff and artifacts that belonged to him. Other displays include tokens from his childhood, personal records, and drawings by Tito Salas delineating heroic battles and sights from Simon Bolivar’s life.

#6- Jesus Soto Museum of Modern Art
Created in 1973, the Jesus Soto Museum of Modern Art was mentioned after the name of Venezuelan kinetic artist, sculptor, and painter Jesus Soto. In addition to displaying plenty of Soto’s works, the museum also exhibits art that Soto had gathered over the years as well as newer collections by different artists from around the world. A considerable number of the work is abstract, and tourists will have a wonderful time enjoying the unparalleled exhibitions and uncoiling the thought procedure behind them. In the neighboring gardens, tourists will see plenty of artistic structures constructed into the landscape, including the accessible of Maestro Soto that is said to augment different senses at the same time. No wonder, it’s one of the best tourist attractions in Venezuela.

#7- Henri Pittier National Park
Located in Northern Venezuela, Henri Pittier National Park is the most ancient national park in the country and contains rainforests, cloud forests, shrub forests, mangroves, and rivers all over its 107,800-hectare land. Mentioned after the name of Swiss geographer and botanist who dedicated years to studying the plants and animals in the park, the park also has a coastal region with bays and beaches. The park is recognized as a Significant Bird Area and is full with diversified plants and animals for tourists to enjoy; while there are at least 582 types of birds, there are also 140 types of mammals including sloths, howler monkeys, water rats, pumas, and giant otters.

#8- El Avila National Park
Constructed in 1958, El Avila National Park contains a part of the Cordillera de la Costa Central mountain range. While maximum visitors come to ascend, hike, and visit the Pico Naiguata, the highest tip on the park at 9,072 feet above sea level, there are still plenty of other things to find and perform. Tourists can see some fantastic views while exploring the lengthiest cable car ride in the world or participate in activities such as biking, running, camping, rock climbing, and zip lining through the national park. The plants and animals there varies extensively, and the region is home to more than 120 mammals, 100 butterfly species, and over 500 bird species, with nine of them being native to Venezuela.

#9- Cueva del Guacharo National Park
Cueva del Guacharo National Park is located in Monagas, Venezuela and is one of the finest natural tourist attractions in Venezuela. The key attraction of the park is a big limestone cavern that is more than 10 kilometers lengthy and has plenty of spacious rooms within it. Tourists can visit the cavern and find the fantastic rock structures within it; they’ll also be able to locate the Guacharo bird, or oilbirds, that are known to form guano, which offers the elementary nutrients for the cavern’s ecosystem. The neighboring Humboldt Museum will let tourists see different displays on the national park, the cavern, and on Alexander von Humboldt, the Prussian geographer and explorer who explored the cave in 1799 and understood the oilbirds were an unfamiliar species then.

#10- Children’s Meseum of Caracas
The Children’s Museum of Caracas educates kids about technology, science, arts, and culture in an amusing and friendly reciprocative environment. It was founded in 1982 by Alicia Pietri de Caldera, the previous First Lady of Venezuela, and it has grown to become one of the finest attractions for young tourists. The displays and provision there let kids get hands-on to better understand many topics of studying, including food, the human physique, water bodies, the Earth, and space. Programs and functions educate them about Christmas and native culture and heritages in Venezuela in a pleasant and sensational way.

#11- The Drowned Church of Potosi
The city of Potosi once had 1,200 residents before it was knowingly submerged in 1985 to establish a hydroelectric dam. During that time, there was no indication that a city had even subsisted there without the 85-foot-lofty steeple of its church, which was utilized as a high-water mark for the water reservoir. After about twenty-six years, El Nino brought a drought that lessened the water and revealed what remained of the city that once was. One of the key view tourists can watch is the now totally-exposed frontage of the church; others contain the remains of homes and the configuration of the previous town square.

#12- Valencia’s Aquarium
Since 1975, Valencia’s Aquarium has been alluring tourists from all over to explore a fun-filled day with their family. The aquarium holds plenty of records; in addition to being the biggest and utmost perfect aquarium in Venezuela, it is also one of the few aquariums on earth to shelter educated captive Amazon River dolphins. Tourists will be able to find a big collection of local fish species, including wonderful and unparalleled river and freshwater fish. The aquarium is also abode to a serpentarium and an aviary, and a zoo that refuges pumas, jaguars, turtles, monkeys, and much more.

#13- Coromoto Ice Cream Shop
The Coromoto Ice Cream Shop, locally familiar as Heladeria Coromoto, holds the Guinness World Record for providing their buyers with 860 flavors of delicate ice cream at their parlor. At any offered time, their buyers can select from over 60 separate flavors made based on seasonal availability and favorites. The ice cream store was founded in 1980 by Manuel de Silva Oliveira who worked at bigger ice cream corporations before, but wished to make different flavors that would allure the consumers. Though there are usual flavors, for instance, strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla, buyers will also be able to taste ice creams made with saltwater shellfish, garlic, and other unparalleled component such as tuna.

#14- Teleferico de Caracas
Seen within El Avila National Park, Teleferico de Caracas is a gondola lift that brings passengers on a ride above the El Avila Mountain. It is one of the best tourist attractions in Venezuela.The gondola was first launched in 1953, though it had been closed for many years before it was reopened in 2000. There are more 70 tram cars that carry tourists on the 3.5-kilometer trip up the mountain. The 15-minute trip provides breathtaking views of the mountaintop and its neighborhood. At the summit, tourists can enjoy the remains of the Humboldt Hotel, eat food at one of the restaurants or food kiosks, enjoy ice skating, or purchase souvenirs from the plenty of stores selling handicrafts.

#15- San Esteban National Park
Linked with the Henri Pittier National Park of Aragua, the San Esteban National Park is a natural conservation region that was founded in 1987. There are plenty of historical spots within the park for tourists to watch, including the Solano Castle, the Village of San Esteban, the hot baths and spa center of Las Trincheras, and the bridge of Paso Hondo over the San Esteban River. Other draws include the Parque Arqueologico Piedra Pintada where tourists can find petroglyphs made by pre-Colonial Indians and the abode of General Bartolome Salom in San Esteban. The park is a wonderful spot for hiking and is abode to fantastic plants and animals such as boa constrictors, pumas, and ocelots.

#16- Medanos de Coro National Park
Constructed in 1974, the Medanos de Coro National Park sits on the Medanos Isthmus and extends more than 35 square miles of coastal residence, deserts, and salt swamps. Tourists can easily reach there by taxi or bus from the town of Santa Ana de Coro and expend the day enjoying the unparalleled habitat that nearly never gets rainfall. The colossal sand dunes can get more than 130 feet high and are continuously changing from the wind there. While exploring the fantastic views, there are high opportunities for tourists to come across many types of birds including the Yellow-shouldered Amazon; additional animals include foxes, rabbits, anteaters, and lizards.

#17- Mochima National Park
In 1973, Mochima National Park was the second marine park to be founded in Venezuela. Tourists will be able to find joy in swimming and resting on beaches that extends the whole coastline between Cumana and Puerto La Cruz. The park is full with tremendous charm and the coast ranges from hilly areas with creeks, gulfs, and beaches. Tourists can enjoy everything from the sandy beaches to forest vegetation and come up intimate and personal with all the plants and animals in the region. There are plenty of boat trips that will take tourists out to find the dolphins and whales in the waters encompassing the park.

#18- Mount Roraima
Mount Roraima can be seen in the Guiana Shield as a portion of Canaima National Park, and the mountains there are thought to be some of the ancient geological structure on Earth. Tourists can hike up the different trails at Mount Roraima and come across the plenty of species of plants and animals that are unparalleled to the spot, for instance, the endangered Rapatea heather and other native plants. Mount Roraima has special importance for the tribal people of the region, and tourists can know all about the hearsays and myths that encompass the region at the time of their exploration.

#19- Museum of Contemporary Art in Caracas
The Museum of Contemporary Art in Caracas, or MACC, is an art complex situated in the Parque Central Urban Complex in Caracas, Venezuela. It was established in 1973 by Sofia Imber, a journalist and art supporter who administered the museum from 1973 to 2001. Thought as one of the most significant museums on modern art in Latin America, MACC has more than 5,000 pieces on displays. There are eleven rooms including rooms devoted to Cruz Diez, Jesus Soto, and many other painters. Some of the most beloved works placed there include The Thinker by Auguste Rodin, The Pyramids in Port-Coton by Claude Monet, and Kochel by Vasili Kandinski.

#20- National Pantheon of Venezuela
Today, it is one of the best tourist attractions in Venezuela. Tourists will be able to find the bronze sarcophagus of Simon Bolivar, whom the total central hub is devoted to. Tourist will also find wonderful paintings from the 1930s delineating sights from the national hero’s life on the pantheon arch and an immense crystal candelabrum that was established on the centennial of his birth. Some of the famous intellectuals buried at the Pantheon include journalist Cecilio Acosta, historian Rafael Maria Baralt, poet Andres Eloy Blanco, and Jose Francisco Bermudez, an officer in the War of Liberation.