Medical Tourism in Venezuela

With the global community becoming more and more intermeshed, the practice of leaving your home country to seek out medical procedures, both those necessary for health or cosmetic purposes, has become commonplace. A few countries have become synonymous with medical tourism, offering everything from heart surgery, liver transplants, and dental surgery to cosmetic procedures, while others specialize in one area of the medical field.

While a handful of Asian countries have become experts in everything from root canals to hip replacements, South America is an up and coming place to go for cosmetic surgery. This has, to a large degree, to do with the proximity of the continent to North America.

With prices significantly cheaper than in the United States or Canada, Venezuela has become a high-traffic destination for medical tourism. Located on the north shores of South America, Venezuela is also defined by a group of islands off the coast, where many clinics are situated. These Caribbean islands offer a combination of top-notch cosmetic surgeons and a serene tropical paradise in which to facilitate the recovery process.

One of the more reputable islands is Margarita Island, a short 35-minute flight from the capital Caracas. Caracas itself is only a 3.5 hour flight from Miami, and the capital’s Simon Bolivar Airport offers direct flights to cities such as New York, Dallas and San Juan de Puerto Rico. It is also possible to fly here from Atlanta and Houston, but you’ll need to transfer in Caracas to reach Margarita.

The clinics in Venezuela are geared towards the North American upper crust, and with prices that are significantly cheaper than in the US, they are coming in droves. The procedures on offer are as numerous and varied as in the best clinics in North America, and the well trained surgeons are of high repute.