Margarita

We loved our holiday to Margarita last year. It was a lovely relaxing break, which was exactly what we needed. The transfer time from the airport was just over half an hour, which was a good start to our holiday, as neither of us enjoy long, hot bus journeys. Upon arrival at our hotel, the LTI Costa Caribe Beach Hotel in Playa Caribe, we were very impressed.

Our room was nothing luxurious, although it was clean and adequately furnished. This was a bargain deal via the Holiday Hypermarket website though, so neither of us were going to complain! The hotel’s pool is huge and was never too busy. Seeing the tortoises and iguanas roaming the grounds never got boring, neither did the parrots chirping away in the trees – it all added to the tropical feel of our surroundings.

We heard a few people complaining about the food being cold but we didn’t experience this. It makes me feel as though they were being petty, as they also complained about birds coming in and pinching food, which was hardly the hotel’s fault! In reality, the birds didn’t come near your food if you were still sat at the table, as we found them quite a cute and amusing source of lunchtime entertainment.

We didn’t spend a lot of time at the beach as my wife isn’t a big fan of sand. She does tend to moan (a lot!) Besides, here it wasn’t like on other Caribbean islands. The sand wasn’t as nice as we expected it to be, the sand wasn’t soft and white like in photos, it was more coarse and golden with fairly strong currents in the sea. We never really felt the desire to leave the pool anyway, as we wanted nothing more than a peaceful and relaxing week. We didn’t do any excursions (I know, we’re boring) but we chat to a group who ventured on the Canaima/Anger Falls trip. According to their recount, small aircraft flies you over the sites, and the views are astounding. Made us wish we had gone, but never mind!

After going to the Bahamas a couple of years ago, I don’t think Margarita is by any means the best island the Caribbean has to offer, but it’s certainly good value for money. It’s nice to know that even in these difficult days of the credit crunch tropical holidays are still affordable.

A short note on flights, booking last minute we were a bit wary of what kind of flight we were going to get, but it turned out we were flying with First Choice who have  seat back entertainment systems! This meant plenty of interactive games and movies (hi to Steve in seat 15b by the way – I’ll beat you next time!!!) and the flight literally flew by (excuse the pun!) We would recommend Margarita to anyone after a great value tropical getaway.

Jim & Brenda from Luton