Thinking of diving Curacao- any hints/suggestions/places to stay?

[herman]

My travel agent has screwed up my trip to Bonaire and can't get air on the dates I need so I am thinking of making Curacao plan C (plan B is finding a new travel agent). Any of you had any experience with Curacao? At present I am thinking of going with Capt Dons but due to it's location on the island I would like to find a place closer to town. Is renting a car worth it? I know on Bonaire I would not be without one. From what I could find from earlier post, the food selection is not the best on site so a way of getting to more food selections seems necessary and I assume that I would need transportation to other dive sites. Any info on shore diving, safety precautions or good places to eat would sure be helpful.

[SunshineFish]

Herman,

You could check out Lions Dive. It is closer to town so you have more food options. DocV might have more options.

Sandy

[davidofaustin]

to the Habitat Curacao. It is remote, but the food in house was excellent. The diving was superb. They have a great house reef, that you can dive into, 24 hours a day. The boats cover all the dive sites, and let you dive your computer and air limits.

One of the last boat dives we made lasted so long, I almost made it back to the hotel. (Stayed above 60feet. dive lasted 73 minutes and came up with 500lbs of air.)

If I had the money and the time, I would go back in a heartbeat.

Dave

I miss it ;-0

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review/arg/a_geo.147277-Curacao_Caribbean/a_detail.148351-Habitat_Curacao/a_pid.0/a_s.p/a_travel.html

[blawler1]

There is an alternative, you could take the ferry from Curacao to Bonaire. It runs twice a day and is about $55 per person round trip.

[Natasha]

Herman:
You could always use me for your travel agent. : ;) I am putting a trip together for my "Winter Escape" group to Curacao in March of 03. Because of this I have been doing quite a bit of research on the place. I have come up with either Lion's or Breezes for my group.
Let me know if I can help.

:gorgeous:

[herman]

Good news....I think. I found a well known dive travel wholesaler that has some reserved air on Dutch Caribbean Air.....I know they are rehashed ALM, maybe they will get me to Bonaire. So I am good to go for Bonaire, plan A.

Natasha, you know you are on my agent list now, this was started a while ago. I may be interested in that trip anyway. I want to give Curacao a try sometime anyway, keep me posted.

[Laine]

Hi!

We have gone there twice and loved it both times. The last time we stayed at the Princess which is now the Breezes. We did three days of boat diving the Ocean Encounters the Peter Hughes operation at the Princess. We loved the wreck dive Superior Producer. We then rented a truck and did three days of shore diving and one two tank boat dive to do Mushroom Forest area. Habitat's house reef is great. We had friends that stayed there for a week and said they would go back there in a heartbeat!

Laine

[Natasha]

Laine:
I'm dying to dive the mushroom forest. But Habitat is so far from town. Staying there means a 45 minute to town, which is a bit long.
Do you have any thoughts on Lion?
Thx!

[neilstewart]

Hi Natasha,

Just returned from Curacao on Monday.

I didn't have the greatest of trips, don't get me wrong it was still enjoyable but I didn't do things properly. I picked a hotel which appeared to be near the Sea Aquarium from there web site and was offering a good price, The Plaza. Wrong! it's 10 minutes away by hotel bus which do not leave in time to make the first boats therefore a $10 cab ride every morning.

Ditto I started out with Toucan diving (attached to the hotel) 1st morning they were doing the superior producer and as I had not done a check dive with them would not take me to this more advanced site, I had last dived in November but being careful is OK with me, anyhow ended up diving of the beach just to get wet. Next day nothing but promises of great action for tomorrow, day after that nothing but more promises, they just did not have enough clients so I marched up the beach and signed on with Ocean Encounters. That day 1 of the boats was late going out as it had broken and was being fixed so I was lucky enough to get on. I enjoyed diving with Ocean Encounters and my dives on Curacao, however they do appear to have a monopoly in terms of diving around there and I think that makes them complacent in terms of what they offer as extra service. Out of the 8 dive operators I have used on my travels, after Toucan Curacao I'm afraid these are bottom of the pile. Boats were overcrowded and cramped,18 persons, on a couple of days they left a boat in harbour,they really could have made 3 boats of 12. Boats incredibly noisey and smelly (although someone did tell me that has something to do with the grade of diesel available) not enough and wrong tanks (2 dives I had to dive 10l Nitrox tank as that was all that was left). Oh and if you are thinking of going soon the pier got washed away last Tuesday. I had little say in the chosen sites so did end up doing 4 sites at least twice, but I expect that as a downside of going alone.

On the plus side the dive guides were great and I did see plenty of Seahorses which was really what I went to see.

My overall impression of Curacao diving is that you really ought to go with say 3 buddy's rent a pick up and DIY dive maybe adding 2 or 3 guided boat dives. It is not really the place for the solo traveller.

I'm suppose I'm not really a go out for an evening meal every night type of guy and would have been much better off staying at Habitat even though its away from Willemstad, still chalk it down to experience and do it right next time.

p.s. I know my reference to The Plaza and Toucan will spook you a little because I'm on the Bonaire trip and thats where we are going but I fully appreciate The the Bonaire plaza is a completely differnet kettle of fish and that Toucan Bonaire has absolutely nothing to do with the Curacao DO. Toucan is a trademark of Van Der Valk and it is franchised to two completely different operators.

Neil

[Natasha]

Neil:
Welcome back. And thanks for the report. It's OK I wasn't shook up! LOL. The Plaza Resort Bonaire told me not to use the Plaza Curacao, that they are not the same.
And remember I have been to Bonaire so I know the difference. The Plaza Bonaire is in the top 5 places I have ever stayed in the Caribbean.
Anyway, back to Curacao.
Did you see the Lion or Breezes?
I'll be putting prices out for my March group on one of the two places soon. I would like to use the Habitat but it's so far away!
As far as your boat experiences go, that is one major reason diving with a group of people, that have been put together like the Bonaire trip, is the best.
We will have our own boats, saying when they leave, and where they go.
All my trips are put together like that, and people love it.
Some of you will die when I tell you, in Cozumel we didn't leave until 10AM some mornings because the group wanted to sleep in, and have a leisurely breakfast first. Why be there at 8AM when all the other blasted boats are there?

Anyway.. glad you had fun!

[Laine]

Hi Natasha!

I did go to Lion's Den a couple of evenings to enjoy there liveband, but I do not know that much about it other than it looked like a place I would stay. The pool was small.

We had a different experience with Ocean Encounters than Niel Stewart, but we went with our local diveshop and all our arrangements were made ahead of time. Also we only did two or three days of boat diving and then did the rent a truck and shore dive adventure which we loved.

Habitat is a long way away from town, but I have heard great things about the operation from friends of mine and I am looking forward to staying there sometime. I hope to perhaps split my next trip with 4-5days at habitat and three days closer to town. I have no information about the Princess (now Breezes) since it changed hands.

When we dove with Ocean Encounters were did not have crowded boats and I do not remember the smell being any worse on their boats than other places.

Keep me posted on your trip there in 2003.

Laine

[Natasha]

Laine:
You just came up with a brilliant idea. We will split up our stay in March 03. 4 days at Habitat and 3 days at Lions for the location to town.
That way it will be easy to shore dive the mushroom forest, and have different shore dives, and be closer to the wreck dives, staying at Lions.
Thank You girl! I'll be working on that trip at the end of this month when I meet with the Curacao people here in Chicago.
Love it ..thanks again!

:idea:

[Laine]

Natasha,

We had been thinking about a third trip for a while, but we just could not choose between the shore and boat...so it does seem like a great way to see both ends of the island and experience both boat and shore diving. Let me know how the trip developes as we have not made our 2003 trip plans yet.

Make sure you plan a dive on the Superior Producer when you are at the Lion's Den.

We just got back from Tobago and did the split trip theme there and it worked great. It was almost like having two vacations in one. People might think that the packing up and moving would be a hassel, but with a little planning it was a breeze and we just used the trip between ends as kind of a Island site seeing venture.

Laine