Coro is the capital of Falcón State and the oldest city in the west of Venezuela. It was founded on July 26, 1527 by Juan de Ampíes as Santa Ana de Coro. It is established at the south of the Paraguaná Peninsula in a coastal plain, flanked by the Médanos de Coro National Park to the north and the sierra de Coro to the south, at a few kilometers from its port (La Vela de Coro) in the Caribbean Sea at a point equidistant between the Ensenada de La Vela and Golfete de Coro.

It has a wide cultural tradition that comes from being the urban settlement founded by the Spanish conquerors who colonized the interior of the continent. It was the first capital of the Venezuela Province and head of the first bishop founded in South America in 1531. As Neu-Augsburg, it was the first German colony in the Americas under the Welsers. The precursor movement of the independence and of vindication of the dominated classes in Venezuela originated in this region; it is also considered to be the cradle of the Venezuelan federalist movement in the Republican era.

Thanks to the city's history, culture and its well-preserved Colonial architecture, "Coro and its port La Vela" was designated in 1993 as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, thus becoming the first site in Venezuela to be vested with this title. Since 2005 it is on the UNESCO's List of World Heritage in Danger.



Sights and Activities

Some of Venezuela's best colonial architecture and cobbled streets are found in Coro, all around the historic town center. Los Medanos are shifting sand dunes rising 30 metres within within walking distance of central Coro. A mini-Sahara, the dunes are the only desert-like area in Venezuela. Do not travel too far into the dunes as you may lose orientation or approached by locals warning you.




Coro has a hot semi-arid climate with an average of approximately 382 mm of rainfall per year. The highest rainfall occurs between October and December. The average temperature is 28.9 °C, with minimum temperatures of 25 °C and maximum 34 °C. The city is sunny, averaging over 3,100 hours of sunshine a year. It is characterized by great force winds, can register speeds of 35 km/h.



Getting There

By Plane

There are regular flights from Caracas to Punto Fijo (LSP) and Coro (CZE). José Leonardo Chirino Airport (IATA: CZE) is located directly north of Coro and south of Los Medanos (sand dunes). Punto Fijo is an hour away and a more regular arrival destination from Caracas, Aruba, and Curacao.

By Car

There are 4 main roads leading to Coro. Via Valencia and Moron there is a 4-lane highway from Caracas. From the north you can get in via the 4 lane autopista from Punto Fijo. From Maracaibo there is a good quality 2 lane highway. The road from Barquisimeto in the South through Sierra San Luis is in bad state recently.

By Bus

Travel by bus is 7 hours from Caracas. As bus stations and bus travel in Venezuela are for the more adventurous tourist, air flight to Falcon is far more common. Numerous night buses to Caracas depart at 10:30pm and 11:00pm. here is a direct bus from Mérida most days. Leaves around 6:00pm, taking at least 12 hours.



Getting Around

To get to the 'old town' from the bus station, either use a taxi or walk. Leaving the bus station, turn right on the main street, walk for several minutes until you reach big crossroads with direction plates for 'Centro historico', where you turn left and enter Calle Zamorra. The walk is 5-7 minutes.



Keep Connected


Internet cafes, often incorporated in the above-mentioned 'communication centers' are increasingly common, and even small towns usually have at least one spot with more or less decent connections.


See also International Telephone Calls

Venezuela has international country telephone code 58 and three-digit area codes (plus an initial '0'), and phone numbers are seven digits long.
Area codes beginning with '04' - e.g. 0412, 0414, 0416 - are mobile phones, while area codes beginning '02' - e.g. 0212 (Caracas), 0261 (Maracaibo) are land lines. A single emergency number 171 is used in most of the country for police, ambulance and firefighters.

Public payphones use prepaid cards which cannot be recharged but are easily available in shopping centers, gas stations, kiosks, etc. Phone boxes are common in the cities and do not accept coins. The vast majority are operated by the former state monopoly, CANTV, although some boxes operated by Digitel or Movistar do exist, particularly in remote areas. CANTV prepaid cards can be used only in their booths.

More popular today are the ubiquitous 'communication centers' or clusters of phone booths located inside metro stations, malls, or like a normal store in the street. Most of these communication centers are operated either by CANTV or Movistar, and offer generally cheap phone calls from a normal phone in comfortable booths equipped with a seat. A log is made of all your calls and you pay when exiting the store.

Mobiles operated by Movilnet, a division of CANTV, start with the 0416/0426 code and use the CDMA 800 MHz system and GSM/HSDPA 850 MHz. Rival Telefónica Movistar, formerly Telcel, start with 0414/0424 and use both CDMA & GSM/HSDPA (GSM/HSDPA 850 MHz). Digitel is another operator with a GSM/HSDPA (GSM/HSDPA 900 MHz) network and its numbers start with 0412. It is possible to buy a pay-as-you-go SIM card for Digitel's GSM phones, but make sure your phone is unlocked. A pay-as-you-go Digitel card is working straightaway when bought from any official retailer. The cost of the card is around 20 VEF (new bolivares). Top up vouchers from 10 VEF. The cost of a text message abroad is 0.3 VEF. Please note that from Movilnet phone you are not able to send a text message almost to any European network. A Digitel phone allows to send a text message to almost any European network (tested) and Movistar may let you send a text message to any european network but is not reliable as Digitel for this purpose.

You may use your phone with a foreign SIM card in roaming. Check: www.gsmworld.com or call to your operator for roaming information to Venezuela. Movilnet and Movistar will require quad-band phones for European users, Digitel will work with any European phone. Tourists from other than European countries should check their phones if the phone will work with the above bands.


Venezuela's state-owned postal is slow, unpredictable and not widely used. Postal offices are few and far between, although they are still probably your best bet for sending postcards back home. For mailing within Venezuela, courier services such as MRW, Domesa and Zoom are the most popular. These usually guarantee next day delivery.


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This is version 1. Last edited at 8:40 on Apr 6, 17 by Utrecht. 1 article links to this page.

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