heading to curacao for the first time this september. have a condo rented. seems that shore diving is more common than boat charters. any tips or recommendations, dive sites, charter operators, sightseeing, restaurants? thanks in advance.
curacao any tips?
- Thread starter glennster
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For the "concierge shore diving experience", The Dive Bus is a unique shore based operation we thoroughly enjoyed. Check out their FB page for the information specifics.
We did 4 days and one night with them, and enjoyed every moment.
Where are you staying?
Sites we did:
Pier Baai/Car Pile ("house reef" and kind of a "checkout" assessment, but great still)
Tug Boat (wall & wreck)/Tug Boat Commercial Pier
Playa Piskado
Porto Marie
Night dive on Pier Baai/Car Pile
We did 4 days and one night with them, and enjoyed every moment.
Where are you staying?
Sites we did:
Pier Baai/Car Pile ("house reef" and kind of a "checkout" assessment, but great still)
Tug Boat (wall & wreck)/Tug Boat Commercial Pier
Playa Piskado
Porto Marie
Night dive on Pier Baai/Car Pile
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Damselfish
Contributor
I would not say Curacao is mostly shore diving, though there seem to be more operators focusing on that in recent years and people talking about it here, so you could get that impression. More like both are readily available, you can do what you prefer. (We prefer to boat dive and don't shore dive there, unless it's off our hotel dock.)
Where is your condo? It's a pretty big island so that may make some difference with who & where you want to dive most of the time. I think the best diving is generally towards the West.
Where is your condo? It's a pretty big island so that may make some difference with who & where you want to dive most of the time. I think the best diving is generally towards the West.
Just came back from diving in Curacao- 17 shore dives & 2 boat dives to Klein Curacao. Shore diving is good enough for most experienced divers but island is twice the size of Bonaire and road signage is pretty bad- especially in East end (Williamsted). I would suggest to do most of your diving in West End, very healthy reefs but some sites have a nice surface swim to reef. Got to do sites like Alice in Wonderland, Playa Lugon & turtle beach which is net to Lugon. On East end of island you have to be very careful of theft of personnel items from trucks worse than Bonaire. A couple of friends had a bunch of item stolen from truck in Director's Bay,Tug Boat & Superior Producer sites, suggest leave window down and bring everything except shirt & sneakers into water with you-tanks are of to leave but do not stack up with too many extras- might walk. From what I see don't need expense of boat dives when boats are at same sites where I was shore diving,except Klein Curacao.
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Marazul has an average dive down all those steps.
A couole minutes farther west (driving) Go West is on one of the best shiore dives - Playa Kalki/Alice in Wonderland. Access is right off the dock at Go West at their Lodge Kura Hulanda location (park by the tennis courts) They keep the boats there also - one dive not to miss is Watamula,
We used them to shore dive - no complaints. I liked that they locked the locker room when we were out diving. Nice facility - a grille about 50' away and the Lodge above it..
The Knip sites are near Marazul also - I believe just south. Grote Knip and Kleine Knip. Not sure if there's facilities at either and our apt. mgr warned us of thefts at one of them.
Of the dives mentioned in this thread only Porto Mari is reasonably close - it's a popular locals beach on weekends so parking may be tight - not during the week though.
The other sites are south of Willemstad - worth doing but plan on an hour drive. Carpile is deeper and the cars are probably in pretty sad shape now - they were 8 years ago.
a little to the south of Marazul is Playa Jeremi - on the north side of Lagun and Playa Lagun a few mins. further - both good dives. No facilities at Jeremi - Lagun has Discover Dive at the entrance or Bahia Diving/Apts. up the hill. Turtles hang out just outside the cove.
Sill a little farther east is Trunk Bay/Varsenbaai - I really liked it We found seahorses at about 40' just meters off the ball - ask the staff. Head south and there's a big pontoon boat wreck at about 80-100' feet down the wall. The 2nd Carpile site is there also deeper still. As you return swim along the shore in about 6' and watch for turtles feeding in the grass - the shop guy said they've lived there for years.
Your'e too far west for the DiveBus to pick up although a good option if you want to dive back to town/Pierbaai - they're across the street from the beach.
IIrc Marazul has an operator that delivers tanks - if not you can get them at Go West, Discover Dive in Lagun (truck height loading dock) or Relaxed Guided Dives on the main road back to town. .
Matazul is pretty far west so your restaurant choices are mostly in/near Westpunt. Landhuis Misje and don't miss Sol Foods on the weekend. The Lodge also has a nice waterview restaurant, If you cut over to the main road from Marazul I believe you'll pass Landhuis Daniel on the left - recommended by our apt. mgrs. Aldo down in Lagun - Bahia has a cliffside bar/grille that looks out over the lagoon.
There's not really much in the way of markets so mosr people shop in town b4 driving out - Centrum Market or Cost-u-Less are both a few min south of the airport Centrum has tjrowaway coolers on top of the refrigerated coolers - they were $1.
...
Note - I use north/west or south/east interchangeably - it seems like N/S when you're on the gorund...
A couole minutes farther west (driving) Go West is on one of the best shiore dives - Playa Kalki/Alice in Wonderland. Access is right off the dock at Go West at their Lodge Kura Hulanda location (park by the tennis courts) They keep the boats there also - one dive not to miss is Watamula,
We used them to shore dive - no complaints. I liked that they locked the locker room when we were out diving. Nice facility - a grille about 50' away and the Lodge above it..
The Knip sites are near Marazul also - I believe just south. Grote Knip and Kleine Knip. Not sure if there's facilities at either and our apt. mgr warned us of thefts at one of them.
Of the dives mentioned in this thread only Porto Mari is reasonably close - it's a popular locals beach on weekends so parking may be tight - not during the week though.
The other sites are south of Willemstad - worth doing but plan on an hour drive. Carpile is deeper and the cars are probably in pretty sad shape now - they were 8 years ago.
a little to the south of Marazul is Playa Jeremi - on the north side of Lagun and Playa Lagun a few mins. further - both good dives. No facilities at Jeremi - Lagun has Discover Dive at the entrance or Bahia Diving/Apts. up the hill. Turtles hang out just outside the cove.
Sill a little farther east is Trunk Bay/Varsenbaai - I really liked it We found seahorses at about 40' just meters off the ball - ask the staff. Head south and there's a big pontoon boat wreck at about 80-100' feet down the wall. The 2nd Carpile site is there also deeper still. As you return swim along the shore in about 6' and watch for turtles feeding in the grass - the shop guy said they've lived there for years.
Your'e too far west for the DiveBus to pick up although a good option if you want to dive back to town/Pierbaai - they're across the street from the beach.
IIrc Marazul has an operator that delivers tanks - if not you can get them at Go West, Discover Dive in Lagun (truck height loading dock) or Relaxed Guided Dives on the main road back to town. .
Matazul is pretty far west so your restaurant choices are mostly in/near Westpunt. Landhuis Misje and don't miss Sol Foods on the weekend. The Lodge also has a nice waterview restaurant, If you cut over to the main road from Marazul I believe you'll pass Landhuis Daniel on the left - recommended by our apt. mgrs. Aldo down in Lagun - Bahia has a cliffside bar/grille that looks out over the lagoon.
There's not really much in the way of markets so mosr people shop in town b4 driving out - Centrum Market or Cost-u-Less are both a few min south of the airport Centrum has tjrowaway coolers on top of the refrigerated coolers - they were $1.
...
Note - I use north/west or south/east interchangeably - it seems like N/S when you're on the gorund...
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Go West has a nice shop but there are 2 shops (forget name) at Playa Lagun that I liked.
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Discover Diving at the entrance or Bahia Diving up the hill?.
www.discoverdiving.nl/
Bahia Apartments & Diving
Go West is closer to Marazul which is the south end of Playa Kalki - more or less.
drrich2
Contributor
At least on Curacao there are said to be some sites with facilities, such that theft is thought to be less likely than at isolated sites with no one else around. Or so I've gleaned from other's reports.
Is there a list of Curacao dive sites breaking them down between those that are relatively secure (e.g.: parking lot, in plain site or security or such) vs. those where you're on your own?
Richard.
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