roraima

Mount Roraima is an incredible place, and a very challenging trek, especially if you choose to carry your own pack. I decided to have a personal porter as I wanted to enjoy the trek and not be weighed down by a heavy pack.I went on a trek organised by Backpacker Tours. I arrived on the overnight bus with about an hour to spare before trek departure, and I needed to organise porter, repack my rucksack, find somewhere to leave excess clothes etc. Backpacker Tours couldn’t have been less helpful. They were unfriendly, and denied having received payment from Hike Venezuela, and I wasn’t even on the trek list. A very stressful start to a 6 day trek, especially after a night’s ‘sleep’ on a bus, when we were hauled out for a full luggage search at a police check point.The group of 21 walkers plus porters & guide was far too large for the mountain. Even Backpacker’s own leaflet states that the maximum capacity of the summit campsites is 14 people.On the plus side the guides and porters were excellent, working long hours to provide us with nutritious food and setting up camp and dismantling tents, often in the pouring rain.Why are so many people climbing Mt Roraima? Most people on my trip had no idea what a special place it is, with its unique environment home to many endemic species. This is a fragile place and cannot cope with the numbers of trekkers tramping round on the summit. The Venezuelan government should be doing more to control the number of trekkers, and clamp down on this over-exploitation by companies that are just making the most of the present lack of control without regard for the future of the mountain.

The 6 day trek to Roraima I recently completed was an amazing experience and definitely up there with the best hikes I've done. It's a challenging hike though anyone with a moderate level of fitness and determination can complete it, especially since you don't need to carry your food or camping equipment, which is all done by the porters. I would recommend the 7 day option if it's available as it will give you two full days up top and provide some protection against the unpredictable weather - heavy cloud cover will impede the vista of the surface and also the terrain down below. I met several hikers coming down the mountain who had experienced nothing but rain and clouds and hence didn't get to see what our group did.The 6 day trek involves 2.5 days of trekking to arrive, 1.5 days on top and then 2 days descending. Day one is 12km and essentially a rest day as it's mostly flat; Day two (9km) is to the base of Roraima and involves a moderate ascent over the course of the trek + a river crossing; Day 3 involves a circa 5km hike to the top of Roraima and is a real battle as it's extremely steep in parts; The afternoon of day 3 generally involves setting up camp, recovering from the hike etc. but I would advise heading to the ""Jucuzzi" for a dip; Day 4 will be spent exploring the top, typically to the "Ventana" and also the highest point on Roraima, which are both within close vicinity to the entrance to Roraima, though may be spent doing the 8 hour return hike to the triple frontier; Day 5 involves back-tracking over what was done on days 2 and 3; Day 6 is day 1 in reverse. If I had to do it over again then I would probably hire my own guide out from San Franciso de Yuruni (apparently $20 per day) and do the hike in 6 days with 3 days up top i.e. condensing what is traditionally done on day 1 and day 2 into one day and day 5 and 6 into one day also. While it is a lot more enjoyable doing the hike as part of a group, the issue is that you don't have any control over what you're going to see up top, and there is a lot. The traditional 6 day tour will only allow you to see a small portion of what's up there. Guides in Venezuela, particularly in Canaima National Park, are also some of the laziest and most useless you'll find anywhere, so they tend to do whatever is easy for them - usually whatever is closest and convenient, but not necessarily what is most interesting. That means you're unlikely to get to see the triple frontier unless it's expressly included in your tour as it's an 8 hour return hike i.e. probably about 7 hours more than most guides could be bothered doing. For those in a rush and with a good level of fitness the 6 day trek could be condensed into 4 days, providing one day at the top. Hiring your own guide is only feasible if you have all your own camping equipment and are prepared to purchase your own food (there's not a lot of variety in Santa Elena). I would also recommend hiring a porter, not only for your equipment, but also for to carry out human waste (yes, visitors are required to carry out absolutely everything!). One other thing to consider if doing it without a group is that you'll need to pay for transport between San Francisco de Yuruni and the start of the trail (1 hour in a 4WD). I did the tour with Backpacker Tours based on recommendations I'd seen on Trip Advisor but was far from impressed with their service. To begin with, they didn't respond to either of the 2 emails I'd sent them and I when I called them I found their phone manner to be absolutely horrible, as if they just couldn't be bothered. My fellow group members had the same issue but said that no other companies around town responded to them either. Don't expect much in the way of professionalism in Venezuela! My advice is to call the companies directly a few days before you're due to arrive in town to find out when they have tours leaving as there are often gaps of several days between departures, depending on how long it takes to get a group together. Santa Elena is not a particularly pleasant place so you're best off aiming to arrive the day before a tour is departing. You can't just arrive and assume there's a tour as you may be waiting around for several days. The food provided by Backpacker Tours was very average compared to what other groups received and the portion sizes were insufficient (definitely bring snacks). They could improve their service by providing more regular hot chocolates (we only received it twice and you definitely want one up top as it's cold), some more snacks, improved portions, and coffee every morning (often it was just tea). Our "guide" was a joke. He didn't speak English nor know anything about the history / flora of Roraima. He was your typical lazy Venezuelan guide who just wanted to do whatever was easy for him. I found the whole tour particularly unorganized as nothing was communicated to us properly. No pre-trip briefing was provided and hence we didn't have the option to discuss a potential trip to the triple frontier, though I suspect this was omitted on purpose because such a trip would have created extra work for our guide. Our guide also left some food at the bottom of the mountain, which I only found out about as I overheard him radioing the camp, but then denied it. But yet our first meal up top was particularly light-on. The equipment was reasonable. The tents, while a bit old, are proper hard-wearing tents and appropriate for the region. Their tour price doesn't include camping mats or sleeping bags and I would definitely give what they have for rent a wide berth; The mats ($10 rental) looked to be about 1000 years old and I could have easily bought a better one brand new at K-Mart for the same price; The sleeping bags they rented were a disgrace, being just lumpy, heavy sacks of rubbish with very little filling or protection from the cold. If you're travelling overland in South America and don't have a mat then I'd advise picking one up from a camping store in Brazil, Colombia or Merida (which is one of the only places in Venezuela you'll find them easily). I'm not sure how Backpacker Tours attained such a good reputation with the service they provide. No one in our group was impressed and no tips were provided to the guide by anyone, which says it all. Overall, it is an amazing experience but it is critical that you go with a decent tour company and stipulate exactly what you want to do up front. If you're interested in the history or flora of the region then get a guide who is knowledgeable of these aspects. Similarly, insist on an English speaking guide if you're Spanish is weak, as there are many English speaking guides around.

Probably the best trip of my life, I took a 5 days trek in Roraima with Arapena Tours , I was quite happy with them. Thank you all for posting such helpful info on this here, another interesting source I found was http://travelling-is-fun.tripperape.com/venezuela/

(I'm posting this same review under Angel Falls, since it covers both Roraima and Angels Falls.)Our family of four used Hike Venezuela (hike-venezuela.com) to make all the arrangements for a 12-day trip that included a six-day Roraima trek, a three-day Angel Falls excursion, and many logistics to get us from place to place. We began arranging the trip by email with Evelyn, who had excellent English. When Evelyn left the company and we started communicating with the owner Tino, whose English leaves something to be desired, we got a little nervous. We shouldn't have. Tino's arrangements were flawless and so was our trip, in a country where it's surely easy for things to go awry.Tino arranged absolutely everything from start to finish: an "escort" on arrival in Caracas who helped us change money and made sure we were squared away for our domestic flight, the domestic flights themselves, all hotels, private transfers varying from 1/8 mile at the Puerto Ordaz airport to eight hours to and from Santa Elena, the all-inclusive Roraima trek and Angel Falls excursions, and invaluable advice such as how much cash to exchange and to look out for unannounced gate changes in the domestic airports. He even worked miracles to reposition our extra luggage while we were trekking, and with a final long layover in Caracas he arranged a spur of the moment excursion. He provided a local phone for the duration of our trip; the only time we called him was when one pick-up was uncharacteristically 10 minutes late. In a country known for its crime, we were taken care of everywhere that could be sketchy, and we always felt comfortable.The Roraima trek was both more crowded and a bit more challenging than we expected. The challenge may have been primarily due to the weather -- we had a LOT of rain. But our Guyanese English-speaking guide Ricky was just excellent, the porters were friendly and prompt, the equipment and meals were easily up to par, and the summit plateau of Roraima is just incredible, rain or shine. While we could have lived without all the mud and six days of wet feet (despite waterproof boots), we have no regrets about doing the trek: it's a must for people who enjoy full-service trekking and want to see a fantastic and unique area. Although Tino arranged our overall trip, it appeared that the trek was subcontracted to Backpacker Tours, the main trekking operation out of Santa Elena.The Angel Falls excursion was more mainstream but no less enjoyable. It's a finely-tuned operation that includes flights in and out of Canaima, an afternoon boat and hiking tour of the Canaima lagoon area, and the next day a four-hour boat ride upriver to a one-hour jungle hike to a terrific viewpoint of the falls. The overnight near the falls is traditionally in hammocks, but the level of luxury may vary. We had a very pleasant "camp" with dining and real toilets on one level, plenty of hammocks on the second level, and excellent food. Our Angel Falls excursion was operated by Tapuy Lodge in Canaima, where we spent our first night. We were worried about a large group experience, but we were paired with a nice Venezuelan family and our guide was accommodating and friendly. We had a few hours to spare on our last day in Canaima, so Tino suggested if we were feeling extravagant we might splurge on an overflight of the falls. At $50 per person we decided to go for it, and we had no regrets -- it was a perfect add-on to the river/hiking way of seeing the falls, and a highlight of the trip.All of the miscellaneous places we stayed were fine; we especially enjoyed Posada Los Pinos in Santa Elena and Casa Grande in Puerto Ordaz. Some of our shorter transfers were in small cars, but our longer drives were in large, comfortable SUVs.Hike Venezuela offered a variety of price points. Opting for private transfers, mid-level hotels, and especially a private Roraima trek raised the overall price of our trip, but it was still extremely reasonable for all of our activities and the excellent service at every stop.I believe Tino has a new helper in the office whose English is a little smoother, but regardless, Hike Venezuela is a terrific operation with all details attended to. Highly recommended.

I did a 6-day/5-night hike of Mount Roraima and it's one of the best things that I have ever done. My guide, Frank, loved the mountain and hiking with him was perfect. The campsites are extremely basic and you will not be comfortable during your visit to Roraima (you may even be wet for 6 days straight) but this is all worth it to see the otherworldly beauty of this mountain.

I joined a tour in Santa Elena, Venezuela to Mount. Roraima. It was a 7d6n tour. There are probably not such thing like last minute deal. Departure dates are fixed and may be once per month though all tour agency may have different departure date.Things to concern:1. Physically fit especially for day 3 (from base camp to the top)2. Females might concern about toilet tent. The tours I joined did not provide toilet tent.3. Wear long sleeves and trousers. The black flies are crazy. It leaves scars and itchiness and not afraid of insect repellent. (especially day 1 and the last day)4. Poncho is essential especially wet season. You are going to hike under some waterfalls. Nothing will be dry. Wrap your electronic stuffs with plastic bag.5. You do not need 7 pairs off clothes or a 7 days hike. So pack light and save your money for hire a porter.And lastly, I would say this is a well protected area, not over crowded like Machu Picchu. Please do not draw and write on the rocky wall.

It is a pity that the Pemon indians force everybody to start so far away from the Roraima mountain so everybody has to sleep 2 days before climbing up Roraima mountain in very uncomfortable tents with much cold in the nights and threatened by mosquitos called Puri-puri. Also the 2 days walk to Roraima tepuy mountain is under the hot sun and with not so much changing surroundings.You can recognize a street from the past leading to the Roraima but the Pemon want to earn money working carrying 3 extra days !!I suggest that the Pemon indians should organize better sleeping camps, a parking area, a better street leading over there and a safer way up the Roraima mountain and in this way the Pemon can charge their money giving a more enjoyable trip to their tourists so everybody is happy !!The trip going up the Roraima is very difficult but very beautiful and a great experience especially on the top.Pemon indians are very friendly and helpful persons.I recomend this trip just for very strong persons who do not mind sleeping in uncomfortable conditions and if the Pemon indians accept going by car to the Roraima mountain and not starting so far away because u even do not get mosquito bites going up and on the top it is quite cold so please treat better the tourists !!

I did a 6 days hike with my brother and use a local service of guides in San Francisco de Yuruani, amazing place, people was very kind and helpfuly, guides and porters were incredibles, and Roraima is something really really unexpected, it is really a lost world, we have a spectacular weather while we were hiking, and on top of the Tepuy was awesome. I really recomend this trekk, I will do it again

I did a 6 day hike with Backpacker Tours. It cost a bit more than the other operators but it was worth the extra money as the guides, food an accommodation were good. I was worried the hike would be really difficult. It was difficult at times, but not too often. Overall it was fun and really rewarding. It is essential you pack everything in waterproof bags. Have enough clothes if you get wet. Take hiking boots. Have flip flops for relaxing at camp. Don't take any non essential items. Enjoy!

Climb to the top of Mount Roraima is an indescribable experience. The mountain will put you to the test physically and mentally all the way. The journey begins from the small Indian village Paratepui and for 6 wonderful days you'll hiking and looking absolutely incredible landscapes. If you like adventure, nature, landscapes and challenges, Roraima is definitely for you. Recommended: Wear waterproof bags, hiking shoes or boots and appropriate socks, sunscreen, fast dry clothes, insect repellent and of course a good camera.

What an experience in the lost world of the gran sabana!Evelyn Podewin from hike-venezuela.com arranged this trip for us and she would come highly reccomended for helping and organizing a trip of a lifetime. I was unsure of the situation in Venezuela when planning this trip 4 moths ago but after many emails exchanged with Evelyn we were well assured that all was okay and that our trip would go smoothly.My booking was took in good faith and no cash was exchanged before 1 week into our trip in Venezuela. We were picked up in Caracas airport by a driver and stayed in a fine hotel near to the airport before flying to Ciudad Bolivar the following day. From here we stayed in a lovely posada named Don Carlos before the Angel Falls adventure combined with 4 days of hiking and boating! blessed with good weather and a great group & guide this was an unforgetable few days..From here a nightbus to Santa Elena which although comfortable was disrupted by 4 military checkpoints and thus took a little longer than expected, arriving in SE after 15 long hours.. all part of the fun tho eh!! :) Staying in the extremely professional backpackers hostel here we met our guide and was informed of the details for the next 5 days with the trek to Mount Roraima. I have been fortunate to experience some incredible landscapes and treks in my time travelling but Mount Roraima will certainly remain high on the list. Truely set back in time in the lost world this was a magical experience getting to the top, a tough trek but with the time you have each day no problem at all..! well, you need to be in goodISH shape... ;)I cannot reccomend Evelyn enough and she has also has indepth local knowledge on what else to do in the surrounding regions. hike-venezuela.com will also give you the best possible price depending on the crazy exchange (black market) so rest assured you will be in the safest hands by chosing this company.Enjoy!!

My girlfriend and I took a Trip from Dallas Texas to La Gran Sabana. Trough a mutual friend we found a great place to stay in Santa Elena De Uairen before starting our magical trip to mount Roraima. https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/2896974 Now they finally put the place for listing in Airbnb.com Guys A+ recommended, the friendliest people I´ve ever Known, room with air-conditioning, Cable TV, Tub, Breakfast, etc. After staying for a couples of days there we set up with the Backpacker tours people our 6 days trekking to mount Roraima. Our experience was like that os most people who wrote reviews here, the most important thing I can tell you guys is please make sure you are fisically fit to do this trekking I will say is a 5 out 5 stars experience, the views and the experience will stay with me and my girlfriend forever. Being on top of mount Roraima is better than being on top of the Grand Canyon and believe I know. Do it at least once in your life time, heck I´m thinking of coming back and doing the Helicopter Tour :)

The trek is awesome and a great experience. Good physical challenge over the days with changeable weather adding to the spice!Regarding the operator Backpacker Tours they did a good job and have excellent porters and guides.. The food provided is good quality and knowledge and courtesy is top notch. I have given them the same feedback to them as I have written here to ensure it is an unforgettable experience.The porters only arrive in camp after you do so when cold and wet a hot drink is a long way off plus they don't have any snacks for mid afternoon to boost energy levels so need to bring loads of your own which wasn't explicit. The quality of food is amazing but would be great to get more warm drinks on summit as drops to 5C and is wet! Also the camp on summit is constantly damp with a little drainage improvement could be much better.Can't compare to other operators in the area but can compare to other trekking operators like on Kilimanjaro hence noticed improvements. Given cost is c.$40 per day I can't really complain

My friend and I did a 5 day trip to the Angel Falls and Margarita Island, with 2 days travelling to and from Guyana at either end. We booked through Hike-Venezuela and had a truly memorable experience, the customer service was as good as any I have ever experienced. Our hostess Evelyn was absolutely amazing, all the arrangements for hotels, taxis and flights worked perfectly.She met us on Margarita Island, gave us great tips on where to go and what to do and was very patient in arranging our return journey, which also worked beautifully. She didn't just go the extra mile, nothing was too much trouble for her, I would recommend her wholeheartedly.The Angel Falls 3 days from Ciudad Bolivar was a great experience, two flights in light aircraft (6 seaters), a walk behind a waterfall at a beautiful lagoon, boat trips to/from the Angel Falls (breathtaking) and good accommodation and food.We stayed at Playa el Agua on Margarita Island, the best beach in our opinion.

We booked our trip with hike Venezuela.evelyn and Tino organized everything for us and took care of everything before we arrived and even if there were few details unorganized it was good for the first time in the country (specially when u don't speak Spanish) to have have everything prepared in advance.The trek in roraima is something everybody should do in his life. It s tiring ( maybe a training before could help) as it s a 6 days trek with 5-7 hours walk everyday from 1000 to 2700 m where the way is not always easy specially on day 3 and 5 and where you have to carry your backpack wich was 12 kg for me ( it was the first time I was doing a trek that long with a heavy bag) But when you start walking in these amazing landscape, when you arrive at the top, when you share amazing time with your group (6 people in ours) and with your guides ( Alvan and junior were amazing) you forget the difficulty and just enjoy every second.At the top you can have a bath in natural pools ( it s cold but you feel like you re in another planet) you can see endemic plants and animals, you re above the clouds in the morning and then you can see the valley 2000 m under your feet! It s breathtaking!I know there are so many things to see in the world but... I think I might do it again one day;-)