Playa La Guardia beach

La Restinga is a lagoon, a national park, and a beach on the isthmus between the main part of Margarita Island and the Macanao peninsula. The entrance to the park is very near the town Boca del Rio. You have to pay a small fee to enter the park itself.

From the entrance, you can then pay to take a boat ride through the various channels of the lagoon. The boat will then leave you at the beach and pick you up later, or you can return to the main entrance, however you wish. This boat ride costs 80 bolivars (80,000 old bolivars), as of May 2008, and is per boat.

The captain of the boat will take you through the mangroves and with good luck, he'll even find you a starfish or a seahorse to look at! The "channels" or canales have names such as "Mi Dulce Amor" (My Sweet Love), "Canal del beso" (Channel of Kiss), "Túnel de los Enamorados" (Lovers' Ttunnel), or "Paraíso del amor" (Paradise of Love).

Once you've traveled through the channels and seen the mangrove swamps, you arrive at the beach. It is actually a very long sandbar, about 22 km, but of course most of it is very deserted. Near the dock where you'll get off there are several restaurants and bathrooms, and you can rent beach umbrellas and chairs.

The beach itself is very shallow. You need to wade quite a bit to swim, but once you do, there are often nice, medium-size waves to enjoy. Kids will love picking seashells, and you can ven spot tiny crabs hiding in the mud!

La Restinga is also a home to over 100 species of birds, among which are flamingos, pelicans, heros, and of course the margaritan blue-crowned parrot which does not exist anywhere else in the world (la cotorra margariteña).

See also:
* the official website of El Parque Nacional Laguna de La Restinga
* an interactive satellite map of La Restinga area!

Playa La Restinga photo gallery We have also put together a whole photo gallery of La Restinga beach. Please click on any of thumbnail photos to see a bigger version. Then click on the picture to see next one.
00_sign_national_park	01_entrance	02_tickets	03_information
04_vendors	05_jewelry_vendor	06_empanada_stand	07_out_to_dock
08_dock	08b_boats_at_dock	09_open_water_stretch	10_canal_de_beso
11_mangroves	12_starfish_in_water	13_starfish	14_mangrove_trees
15_mountains_in_view	16_more_canals	17_entering_dock	18_arriving_at_beach
19_la_restinga_beach	21_people_enjoy_waves	22_waves	23_la_restinga_beach_life
24_restaurants	25_restaurants_at_beach	26_village_near_beach	27_chickens
28_dock_la_restinga	29_crabs_in_mud	30_crabs	35_tetas_de_maria_guevara
36_back_to_dock

Playa La Guardia beach

Playa La Restinga photo gallery