Curacao, the island in the south Caribbean sea in front of the coast of Venezuela. So far all the knowledge I got from Wikipedia. I didn’t know that much about the island before I went there, I knew it was a former colony from the Netherlands but that’s about it. I went there to visit some friends who worked there in an airline and put my resume on the same desks and hopefully find a job in the sun. (Did NOT work out as planned) Curacao has an average temperature of 31 dg trough the year so don’t worry you won’t need your shoes or long sleeve shirts.
Curacao is an island with more or less everything you want for a 2-week vacation. If you like to go to a beach party? You will find it in Curacao. If you want to go snorkeling? You can do it in Curacao. Do you want to relax on a deserted beach? You can surely find it on Curacao. Everything you need for a relaxing trip.
I’ve been twice on the island and I loved it, but I would say go a maximum of 2 weeks. 2 weeks is enough to see it all. You can do everything in that time and relax. Just rent an apartment or go to a resort. I would rent a car to travel around on the island and see everything and it isn’t that expensive. When you are in an apartment you have your breakfast and go to one of the beaches that you like. If you want to have music in the background than drive to Mambo beach or Zanzibar. I promise you that you will have a great time. At Mambo beach you can stay all day and in the evening enjoy the sunset, thereafter you can stay there and there most likely will be a happy hour in one of the bars and a party after. There is tourism all year long so you will not be alone. After a nice evening of drinking and partying you return to your home and the day starts again. If you want more private beaches there are enough options around the island, drive towards Westpunt, there is a nice cave “dive” spot but on the way to it, you can find some deserted beaches.
Willemstad, the capital city of Curacao is nice to walk through, they have a floating bridge (koningin Emma bridge) and the koningin Juliana bridge behind that. The city has some nice shops and some good restaurants around the touristic Emma bridge. You find some cinema’s around if you are staying longer than 2 weeks and you are completely bored. But also some party areas where you can find a lot of expats. Mostly from the Netherlands and USA. I think the Caribbean is for the Americans what Ibiza is for the Europeans. Just to put it in perspective.
If you decide to go snorkeling or diving there are some very nice spots and you can find a big variety of fish. I’ve been snorkeling almost every day on different spots. It doesn’t matter where you go in you can always see something interesting. Also for the scuba divers, there are some nice cliffs where you can dive next to and see large variety of corals, its a shame that its not that colourful and alive as they say it is in the advertisements but it is still not boring, turtles you can find quite ofter during snorkelling and diving so don’t worry. Wrecks are found around the island so if you want to something else just ask the dive clubs around. Ps for snorkeling don’t forget to put sunscreen factor50 on or a lycra shirt because you will get a sunburn if you don’t.
I would surely go back to Curacao just to relax, but if you’ve seen it once you’ve seen it all.
One more thing, there is a lot of criminality on the island so “be safe”.
