Curacao

March 2019, 5 days: Still in the middle of a cold, long winter in Flin Flon, we decided our Spring Break trip should be somewhere warm. I honestly don’t remember how we came upon deciding on Curacao, but I’m thinking it was due to last minute planning, price, and convenience. And of course, something different, because we don’t like to follow the crowds to the popular island, all-inclusive holidays (not that there’s anything wrong with them!). Turns out, Curacao was one of the best decisions we have made for a hot vacation. It was not expensive or difficult to get to (direct through Toronto), and the country is small enough that you can drive around the whole thing in just a couple of hours. We ended up staying in two different parts of the country, Westpunt and Willemstad, and loved both of them. Curacao was once a Dutch colony, so you can definitely see the influence in their capital city, Willemstad, with the colourful buildings along the water. The people of Curacao speak English, Dutch, and their local language, Papiamento. I would recommend renting a car, especially if you plan on exploring more of the island. It’s not too expensive (we rented a little Kia Picanto at the airport, and it was fine for driving around the island), and it gives you more freedom to travel around and stop wherever you want! For money, they accept US dollars, but I believe you might end up paying more if you use it, so I recommend exchanging some money or using the ATM to take out some of the local currency, the guilder.

highlights

. Prices . Safe . Quiet . Beaches . Easy to get around . Westpunt . Thursday nights in Willemstad .

lowlights

. Beach scams . Need a car possibly .

westpunt

We stayed our first three nights in Westpunt, which is in the northern part of the island. We stayed at an amazing little complex called Malika Apartments. In the complex, there is a pool, BBQ, friendly owners who also live there, and only 4 apartments. There was secure parking, and a popular restaurant nearby (which was closed on the days we were there, unfortunately). Other than that restaurant, there aren’t many food options around, so before heading there, we stopped at a supermarket and bought what we were going to need for the days we were there. In Westpunt, there are lots of rentals available, and for decent prices. It is a quieter area, with lots of great little beaches, a National Park, and incredible views, rocks, and waves to admire.

beaches

There are so many little beaches in Westpunt. One morning, we drove along the road (there’s basically only one road), and stopped at any and every beach we saw, just to check them out. We came upon Klein Knip, Playa Kalki (which has a snorkeling and diving center), Playa Grandi, and Grote Knip. Playa Grandi’s big attraction is the sea turtles. They get fed every day at 10 am, so if you want to see a ton of them, be sure to show up around then. Our favourite beach to lounge on was Grote Knip. It is a bit bigger than the others mentioned here, and it has the bluest water. It’s incredible. We ended up paying around 25 guilder (around $15 CAD) for an umbrella and 2 chairs. There was only one time it was really busy, which was when a big tour bus came through (lots of cruise ships stop in Curacao).

*The dock at Playa Grandi, where you can snorkel and see some sea turtles.*

*Just one of many sea turtles at Playa Grandi.*

Christoffel national park

This park has a lot of walking and hiking trails, as well as a mountain climb to the tallest point in Curacao. We read a lot about this hike before deciding to do it, and weren’t even sure we wanted to do it, as many reviews have said it’s very difficult. But we did, and I’m SO GLAD we did. It was a great way to start the day, and not as scary as people were saying online. We heard it could get really busy, so we went super early, at opening (6:00am), and started our hike at 6:20. After purchasing tickets, a ranger drives you to the base of the mountain (long, windy, narrow road). We were in average-decent shape, and reached the top in less than 40 minutes. It is basically straight up most of the time, but we’ve experienced worse (read about our Thailand hike…ugh). When you’re pretty close to the top, there are a bunch of arrows telling you to go to the right, but after reading some reviews online, we took their advice and went left. I think this is just to avoid traffic from people coming down, but since we were the first ones up that day, we weren’t concerned about that. The path to the right looked quite harrowing, so I’m glad we went left. We made it to the top right when the sun was coming up, it was pretty incredible. The space at the top is quite tight, so I suggest going early, to avoid the crowds and beat the heat. Also, I don’t think you’re allowed to start hiking after 10:00am (I’m thinking due to the heat?).

jan kok

On our way to Willemstad from Westpunt, we stopped in Jan Kok, at a flamingo habitat. It was very dry when we were there, so we had to walk quite a ways to get close enough to the water where the flamingos were. Be careful…some of the sand we had to walk through can be quite loose and wet, so don’t sink! We had a bad experience with that in Kuwait, so we were watching where we walked.

*Wandering through the Old Fort, which is full of shops and restaurants. Pretty empty when we were there…no cruise ships on this day.*

*One of the cool little nooks we found when wandering Willemstad.*

*Our favourite beach, Grote Knip. Just look at that water!*

watamula hole

The Watamula Water Hole is basically at the northern tip of the island. We took a nice drive up one night at sunset and walked along the rocks to the hole.

*The top of Christoffel Mountain, with incredible views all around.*

shete boka national park

Right next to Christoffel National Park is Shete Boka National Park. There’s a path you can walk along the rocky coast, and you’ll see incredible waves, as well as little pocket beaches and inlets. We ended up walking the path to Boka Wandomi, Boka Tabla, and Boka Kalki, then we drove to Boka Pistol, which was probably the most impressive in both wave sound and height when the waves come crashing in…it was pretty damn cool. I also suggest doing this early, as there is no cover on the walking path, so it can get pretty hot! This park was a great stop, the waves are just super impressive, even if you’re not as into wave-watching as Lisa is (she loves it a lot). I think it is possible to drive to most of these inlets, in case you don’t want to walk for about 1 hour.

*You can see how far we had to walk to get to the flamingo area.*

willemstad

Willemstad is the capital city of Curacao. It is interesting, colourful, and a fun place to explore and walk around. We were lucky because no cruise ships were expected in during the days we were there. So it was a lot quieter than normal I think. We stayed in the Pietermaii district, at a hostel called Bed & Bike Curacao. We got a private room, and this hostel was in a great location with a restaurant/bar attached. Pietermaii is a very cool, colourful, and kind of hipster area. There are lots of restaurants, bars, and cafes to check out. In the middle of the area there is the Mikve Israel-Emanuel Synagogue, which is the oldest surviving synagogue in the Americas. We bought tickets and wandered around, and it was pretty cool because the synagogue has sand in it’s interior, rather than flooring.

Across the pontoon bridge (called the Queen Emma Bridge…also really cool, and it lights up at night) you get to Otrobanda. There is a mall in the old fort, which is a neat area, and there are some decent restaurants on that side of the water too.

If you are in Willemstad on a Thursday night, you are in luck! The streets are filled with people, bands, and great food and drinks. Thursday is the best night to be in Curacao. We didn’t know this at the time, so we were pleasantly surprised, and just ended up wandering the streets and taking it all in.

*Street-view of the Mikve Israel-Emanuel Synagogue.*

*Very cool cafe, Mundo Bizarro with live jazz music.*

*Band playing in the streets on Thursday night.*

other info, restaurants we enjoyed

If you are a resort-type person, there is no shortage in Curacao! We visited a couple of them one day while we were driving around. Mambo is a busy and popular one…it has everything you need, so you never have to leave if you prefer…although I highly recommend getting out for a day or two. You can also pay to spend the day here if you are in Willemstad, don’t have access to a car, and want to get a beach day in. We also visited Jan Thiel, which seemed a bit quieter than Mambo, but similar. We stayed and had a drink at one of the bars on the beach. It was nice.
Herberg de 12 Zonnen: this is a restaurant close to the flamingo habitat that we had read about and stopped by for lunch. Their ingredients are fresh, and their meals are interesting and delicious, including some vegan options. This ranch-restaurant hires local students with “colourful” backgrounds (a quick google search will tell you about it) as part of a work-study program. All of the proceeds from the restaurant go back into this program. It was an excellent experience.
La Boheme: a great and very popular restaurant in Willemstad with delicious breakfast (we went here twice). It’s also very popular on Thursday nights.
Wandu Cafe: great coffee, as well as drinks. We ended up here quite often.
Cafe de Tijd: highly rated on TripAdvisor for amazing ribs. We tried it out one evening for dinner, and it was delicious. Trevor had the ribs, and Lisa had fish and chips. Both incredible. And if I remember correctly, they didn’t really have a menu. They’d write how many ribs, fish, etc… they had for the day on a board, and update it when people ordered. So you might need to go earlier if you want to make sure you get what you want!