Looking for a tropical island escape with dozens of white sand beaches fronting blue Caribbean waters, but afraid you cannot pay the price? A money-saving Margarita Island vacation rental may be just what the budget doctor ordered. Leave your worries behind on this island off Venezuela’s northeast coast, not far from Trinidad and Tobago. Cruise tropical mangrove lagoons. Ride horses. Fish, sail, swim, windsurf, kitesurf, scuba dive, and snorkel. You don’t need to be rich to relax and have fun with a Margarita Island vacation rental.

Something about Margarita Island, perhaps so relaxing that the ability to count vanishes. No one knows for sure the number of beaches on the island: Some say 17; others say 23. Some say more than 50. Many beaches lack names, but maybe all the cheap beer makes people lose count. But you don’t need to count to know that Playa Parguito has great waves for surfing. Playa Puerto Cruz is number one for width and sand whiteness. Playa Caribe and palm-lined Playa el Agua top some lists. Others vote for Playa Guacuco and Playa Manzanillo. Stay long enough in a money-saving Margarita Island vacation rental B&B guest room, condo, home, or villa to compile your own list of best beaches.

Take the whole family on an educational excursion to Parque Nacional Laguna de la Restinga, whose semi-desert beaches lie just across the bridge on Peninsula de Macanao. Kids will love the motorized boat tours of mangrove swamps filled with oysters, fish, and four sea turtle species. Leave it to the boat tour guides to explain how male seahorses are the sex carrying the babies. Unique area birds include green-backed herons, clapper rails, straight-billed woodpeckers, blue-crowned parakeets, Margarita’s brown-throated parakeet, Margarita’s ferruginous pygmy owl, pale-breasted spinetails, and yellow orioles.

Horseback ride and enjoy a good beach gallop at one of the ranches in the Macanao Peninsula or near Playa El Agua. Watch windsurfing and kitesurfing competitions, or take lessons at Playa El Yaque. Take your chances teeing off at Isla Margarita Golf Club, a par-70 public course with a “first come - first to start” system. For a good island overview, make your money-saving Margarita Island vacation rental your home base for a Jeep safari.

Porlamar displays modern paintings and sculpture by local artist Francisco Narváez at Museo de Arte Contemporaneo. Pampatar’s Castillo de San Carlos Borromeo is an old Spanish fort built to protect against pirates. For regional history, visit Museo Nueva Cadiz in La Asuncion. El Valle has sites dedicated to the Virgin and the War of Independence. Kids are sure to like the Marine Museum in Carapacho.