Mérida

Mérida needs 2 days: the Mérida Cable Car, which used to climb to Pico Espejo at 4,765 meters and remains, even with sections under reconstruction, the world's highest and longest, on one, and a walk through the Andean páramo highlands with views of snow-capped peaks uncommon in tropical South America, on the other. December-April is best, in the dry season. It's inexpensive by international standards. It's a university city surrounded by the Sierra Nevada de Mérida, Venezuela's highest mountain range, and it's also where the 900-flavor ice cream at Heladería Coromoto was invented, recognized by the Guinness Book of Records.