Caracas

Well my friends, I used a lot of the advice you gave here. I will be writing in more detail more info about my experiences here, but here are the general stats:

3 no pro (1 from amigo.com, 1 from MSN Profiles, 1 from Yahoo profiles)

5 pro (19-24, 30000BS to 70000BS)

2 contacts thru passion.com that did not work out (Girl never show up)

1 contact from MSN profile that did not work out. (Girl never show up)

1 contact at the mall (Tolon) got positive during chat, but could not get away on the weekend from her parentes (She was 22)

15 pre-positive contact thru amigo/yahoo/msn that did not work out

I stayed at the Hotel Paseo las Mercedes which is right in the Paseo las mercedes mall and 2 blocks away from the Tolon (Malll) Very VERY safe location, I walked at night (Many security guards everywhere) from the Tolon to my hotel and not problem. Great movies, restaurants and disco all around here. Not as good as St Ignacio but good enough.

About being fit, I am a little overweight and still was able to score, which I think is more in how u approach the girl than anything else.

The best contact to have in here is Reinaldo Garcia my driver. He does also speaks English (Limited). He knows everywhere here and got me a cell (Rental), took me shopping, tourist, disco and others. ;-)
He just got a website [url]www.venezueladriver.com[/url] (Dont know if it is up yet).
He pick me up from the airport and was my friend in this strange but beautiful land.

More detail next week when I am back to the states. I leave tomorrow (Sunday)

Cheers,

PVC

The current Consular Information Sheet warns against hailing taxis on the street. Are things as bad as they picture them?

"Incidents of taxi drivers in Caracas overcharging, robbing and injuring passengers are common. Travelers should take care to use radio-dispatched taxis or those from reputable hotels."

[QUOTE=Reinaldo]The current Consular Information Sheet warns against hailing taxis on the street. Are things as bad as they picture them?

"Incidents of taxi drivers in Caracas overcharging, robbing and injuring passengers are common. Travelers should take care to use radio-dispatched taxis or those from reputable hotels."[/QUOTE]

Any taxis in front of "reputable hotels" charge double, plus so you're already ahead on the "overcharging" part. Since all fares are negotiables, as a gringo they'll try to overcharge you anyways.

Taxistas in the eastern part of town (which is where you'll be staying) are generally a pretty safe lot.

In the end, I suppose it all depends.. If you look like some clueless gringo businessman geek, then you'll be a target, no matter where you are and where you go.

If you know how to dress "down", have street smarts and have at least some handle on the language.. then your odds are different.

I'd say generally speaking "consular advice" is for the clueless (which generally applies to most Americans).

Yo! Rastaman, the closest and good hotels to San Ignacio Shopping Center are: 1) Altamira Suites, about 6 - 8 blocks away on the same avenue, it has suites w/ kitchennetes and a great restaurant, 2) Embassy Suites, about a quarter mile away on Av Francisco Miranda, an excellent Embassy Suites product, and 3) Hotel Centro Lido, across the street from Embassy Suites, a five star hotel with excellent restaurants in a major office and shopping center. There are two local hotels, Hotel El Cid which is a 2 star local place and Hotel Penthouse, a high rotation pay by the hour joint a couple of blocks from the San Ignacio, but, unless you really want to "go native" I would recommend the first three. There is also the Hotel Cumberland Chacao about a half mile from San Ignacio which is better than El Cid, though in the same category. Read Rob's posts which are very illustrating.

Be safe,

Be there

I walked into the Embassy Suites hotel in El Rosal, because I wanted to check whether they had a bar/restaurant with Direct TV because I wanted to watch some American football. (answer was no)

anyways... I remember on the way out of the lobby, I saw a sign for the hotel guests which gave out taxi fares and at the bottom said (in Spanish)

"please use our taxis for your safety" and something else which sounded ridiculous (I wish I could remember the EXACT line, it was hilarious)

but then I saw their fare to the Sambil shopping center.

almost 5000 bolivares.

Now, keep in mind this was at the time when the rate of the exchange was still around 700 to 1.

Also keep in mind this is probably the safest part of the city. You could walk it even during the night.

I also happened to know that Sambil was precisely about 4 blocks, maybe 5 east of this hotel along Libertador.

So they wanted 7 dollars for half a mile or less. I started laughing so hard that the doormen gave me a funny look as I was leaving.

Going most of the places in east Caracas should never cost you more than 4000 bolivares, and that's for distances of a couple of miles. etc. One should know that minimum fare tends to be around 3000.

[QUOTE=Catire]Going most of the places in east Caracas should never cost you more than 4000 bolivares, and that's for distances of a couple of miles. etc. One should know that minimum fare tends to be around 3000.[/QUOTE]Mil gracias for the info.

[QUOTE=Be There] There are two local hotels, Hotel El Cid which is a 2 star local place and Hotel Penthouse, a high rotation pay by the hour joint a couple of blocks from the San Ignacio, but, unless you really want to "go native" I would recommend the first three.

Be there[/QUOTE]For those of us interested in going native would you mind providing a street address if you have one?

Thanks

Name: Hotel El Cid Caracas
State: Distrito Federal
Category: Hotel
Telephone: 0212-2632611 / 2631715 / 2630691
Fax:
City: Caracas
Address: Av.San Felipe; entre 1 ra. Y 2da. Transversal; La Castellana
Price listed at USD 35 - 45 /night

Hotel Shelter Suites Final Avenida Libertador, con Calle José Félix Sosa, Chacao, Caracas, Miranda, 1060
In front of Sambil shopping center - excellent restaurant
Phone: 0212/265-3860
Fax: 0212/265-7861

I found this last hotel had user reviews on fodors.com that you may find interesting. Shelter suites has hot tubs in many rooms. I wonder what for? :-)


Be safe,
Be there

[QUOTE=Be There]Name: Hotel El Cid Caracas
State: Distrito Federal
Category: Hotel
Telephone: 0212-2632611 / 2631715 / 2630691
Fax:
City: Caracas
Address: Av.San Felipe; entre 1 ra. Y 2da. Transversal; La Castellana
Price listed at USD 35 - 45 /night
Be safe,
Be there[/QUOTE]Thanks for the info. I called them and they quoted 88,000 weekends and 122,000 during the week.

I stayed in this hotel for 8 days. Here is the web site [url]http://www.hotelpaseolasmercedes.com/[/url]
The rooms were ok, a 3 or 4 stars room. A/C worked wonderful. TV Cable was fair, if you know spanish. No english channels and 1/4 of the channels the receiption was bad. Otherwise a good hotel.

Very safe, it is inside the mall, which give u double security (Mall and hotel security). It has 2 inside restaraunts plus a small bar. Internet not in the room (even so they tell you they have it in the room, what they mean is that you can connect your laptop to the extra jack, but you have to provide the internet service). They do have internet in the business center. It is relative fast if no one is using it. I used vonage.com softphone to chat back home.

Very friendly to visitors, but I always pay for double occupancy that way there is no trouble if you get visitors and I tell them when I checking in that my room mate is coming later. Now if you are encountered your date (not for pay) you can outside the hotel, right in the mall where there are bars and restaurantes. Also they have a movie theater and theather and a disco(but never went to it). I did go to the movie theather, it was nice.

Another thing is that to go to the restaurant in the hotel u take the same elevator that you take to go to the rooms, so it is a easy way to get ur date thru the lobby without anyone thinking anything else.

Once in the restaurant level after your dinner/lunch you can always asked to go to your room to pickup something you forgot, it is a very inocent way to go upstairs. ;)

Now when u order P2P service, the lady can announce herself in the lobby and they call u on the phone to let her in. They will register her and send her up. No more questions asked. A friend told me that because I was paying for double occupancy they wont ask me to pay extra.

The hotel is 3 blocks from the Tolon another nice shopping center, with movies and great place to eat and meet regular girls.

I will talk about that more in my next one.

PVC

PS: I payed US 86 per night which included breakfast for 2. ;)

Hi everybody

I will be in Caracas next week and would like to know some info of the hotel.

Anyone try the Hotel Altamira Suites before?

Are they chica friendly?

Thanks,

Mark

Welcome to Caracas, Mr M. SOS: Yes the Altamira Suites is very girl friendly as you are renting an apt type suite... It is also very well located. You might want to PM Prazer who was just there last month. For more CCS info, read the posts in this section, you'll get more mileage that way out of your trip.
Be safe
Be there

I will be Caracas this week to seek out new adventures. Anyone have any last minute tibits I should know about such as clubs or studios ?
Will post in detail when I get back.

thanks
Starfe

"Anyone have any last minute tibits I should know about such as clubs or studios ? "

I don't have any direct experience with them but a recent visitor was more than satisfied with their service. He said prices range from 30 to 50 thousand bolivares for an hour.

I went down to CCS last week on a lightning business trip with my trusted travel colleague Domingo Gringo. We didn't have a lot of time to monger, but here are the highlights.

Caracas in General - The best thing there was Reinaldo Garcia, my driver, he was superb. He took care of my transportation needs. He is a reliable individual, a rarity in Caracas. I highly recommend him. He even has a website at venezueladriver.com or 58-414-317-6569.

Massage Studios - I had some time in the early afternoon and went to Estudio Masalud. I was charged 150,000 or $60. If you are going to exchange more than $500 you can get 3,000 B's to the dollar. Back to the studio, there I was serviced by a girl called Angie. She is a stunner. She is a perfect barbie doll. She gave me a great massage followed by some very energetic and revitalizing sex. I can't say enough about her. The amazing thing is that there are about a dozen girls of similar quality. I can also recommend the Cuerpo Mente y Alma studio.

Strip Clubs - Went to Saxon's and it is probably the best place to hang out in the city. Beautiful babes dancing every hour in several stages. The girls are more aggressive now asking for drinks, but politely wave them off saying you came to watch the show. Angelo's required a cover charge of 150,000 B's a rip off, so we didn't go in. Instead, we went to another club located in the same parking lot on the way out. The place was small, but had nice looking girls ramging from 5 to 8.

Security - Be careful in Caracas. Don't go out by yourself. Follow standard security protocols and be aware of your environment.

Nice places to hang out are the "San Ignacio" mall. A beautiful mall full of restaurants and shoppes where you can people watch. The "Sambil" mall is a cool mall to shop and people watch. Good place for non-pro if you have a couple of days.

You can find good deals off the eluniversal.com classifieds if you are willing to make some calls and can speak spanish, otherwise sexycaracas.com and 800chicas.com are good bets.

Monger On.