Caracas

Caracas divides opinions sharply. Critics point to its density, its noise, its traffic. People who know it point to El Ávila — the green massif that forms the city's northern wall, its Caracas-facing summits and ridgeline viewpoints rising to around 2,100–2,200 metres (its overall high point, Pico Naiguatá, reaches 2,765 metres), visible from almost any rooftop and reachable on foot in about two hours — and to the quality of a restaurant scene that has been forced, by adversity, to become genuinely creative.

The city sits in a narrow east-west valley at around 900 metres, which gives it a permanent mild climate quite unlike the tropical heat of the coast. The neighbourhoods that matter most for visitors are concentrated in the eastern half: Altamira, Las Mercedes, Chacao, and El Hatillo (a colonial town on the southern periphery).

The art scene is serious. The Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas, the Museo de Bellas Artes, and the Galería de Arte Nacional are all within walking distance of each other in the Parque Los Caobos complex — a remarkable concentration of Venezuelan and international work.