Curacao (non-diving question) - thoughts on biking while there?

[ClaudiainDC]

Any thoughts about how bike-able Curacao is to get around? I'll be staying at Habitat Curacao. I thought maybe I could use a bike to explore past the resort a bit, but am not sure what the roads are like? (I bike-commute during rush hour in the nation's capital, so my standards might be different than some others.) For those of you who know the area, could I get anywhere of interest with an 8-10 mile bike ride?

 

[Tennessee Slim]

Bad news first. This place is all cactus and thorn trees. Their spines blow everywhere, including onto the roadways. I run Slime and Tuffy liners in my MTB tires and still get flats regularly. If you don't ride offroad and stay off the shoulder, they're not so much of a problem.

There’s not much traffic where Habitat is (usually) and the roads are comparatively decent. You might find the scenery interesting; it depends on what you're looking for. On the weekend the local roadies do the loop from town out to Westpunt and back. And there’s MTB trails out there, too.

This map roughly covers the kind of range you’re talking about. Habitat is near the middle at the bottom.



It isn’t an especially hilly area but Habitat is separated from the rest of the island by a pretty good ridge. It’s a fair pitch up to the guard shack and a fast descent into Willibrordus on the other side.

The outskirts of Willemstad are 16KM by road to the southeast. I'd recommend you not go any farther in that direction than Daniel. Past there, you'd be on what passes for a high speed thoroughfare all the way to Willemstad.

To the northwest, different story. It gets more rural and more sparsely populated as you go. Frequent beaches, lots of 'local color'. My guesstimate is that it's a bit less than 35KM from Habitat to Westpunt via Weg Naar Santa Crus.

Is it bike-able? Yeah, I think so. Then again, I MTB'd in Iraq.

 

[diversteve]

It's hard to say, roads out there are pretty uneven. They're paved but lots of rough spots and potholes. Maybe a mountain bike would work. Habitat sits inside a housing development so I'm guessing they paved it when they started selling units. But that's been more than a few years ago. And it's pretty hilly in that area, Habitat is on a cliff with condos on a hill above it. It's about 3-4 flights of stairs from the resort down to the water. As I recall we climbed in elevation driving from Habitat back towards the town of Wilbrordus also.

Not a lot of places to go from Habitat, Wilbrordus - the only town nearby - is a smallish place with a couple local snaks and toku's - local equivalent of mini-7/11's. And a huge church (for the area) According to Google Earth it's 2.5 miles from Habitat. You'll go through it to get to Habitat.

Other than that it's 4 miles to Porto Marie - a nice beach area - but back through Willebrordus then west to get there. That or Daibooi beach - never been there - are the closest beaches that I saw. Habitat is on a small cliff and their "beach" is coral rubble and rocks. There is a tree covered platform at water level with recliners.

In that area, all roads lead from the resorts/beaches back to the main road first - there's no east/west shoreline road like there is farther west. So everything is farther apart than it looks on a map.

Are you planning to rent a car? It's pretty remote and there's nothing there outside of the resort. They have one restaurant/bar - better than average food for lunch.

It's about a 20min drive to town for just about anything else. There's a couple restaurants along the main road back to town but mostly everything else is in Willemsted or farther out in West Punt. And West Punt is a few restaurants/resorts in a smaller town.

If you're planning on keeping any food while at Habitat, pick it up on your way out of the airport. I'd suggest a stop at Centrum Market before you drive out. PM if you need directions.

If you do Google Earth, PM with your e-mail address for a link with all these places marked.

 

[robint]

Any thoughts about how bike-able Curacao is to get around? I'll be staying at Habitat Curacao. I thought maybe I could use a bike to explore past the resort a bit, but am not sure what the roads are like? (I bike-commute during rush hour in the nation's capital, so my standards might be different than some others.) For those of you who know the area, could I get anywhere of interest with an 8-10 mile bike ride?

another thing to consider is that exercise such as jogging or bike riding in combination with scuba diving are not good. DCS is a concern.

 

[carib_traveler]

I guess that using a bike as a means of getting somewhere (so, purely practical) Curacao is not the best place. There are no bike paths, car drivers don't usually take bikers into account and the roads can be pretty terrible for a bike (see Tennessee Slim's comment).
For (mountain) biking as a sport, Curacao is great. The terrain and the weather are a challenge but that's what MTB is about, right?
There's a couple of official routes (largely due to the MTB World Cup Race in 2006) which you can find here: http://www.curacao.com/ActivitiesEvents/AdventureSports/MountainbikeRoutes.aspx (click the pictures for a more detailed image)