Curacao shore dive planning: Logistics and locations

[ScubaERDoc]

Howdy divers,


I just booked my upcoming flight to Curacao May 27-June7. I will be traveling with 3 other divers. I will be bringing a new complete set of gear and my friends will be renting their equipment. This is the first time we have been to Curacao, having previously dove in Thailand, Roatan, Kona, Cabo and recently Belize. We are especially psyched about the prospect of doing multiple days of independent shore diving


It appears from this board and from other websites that one great option will be to dive with the Dive Bus for one or two days of orientation dives, then begin doing independent shore diving, after renting gear from them.


A few questions:


1) Should we stay in Willemstad and be close to the Dive Bus, or elsewhere such as Westpunt?


2) I have heard that many shore dive sites have full amenities, such as tank rentals and rinse tanks. Can we plan to head to these dive sites with our gear sans tanks and rent the tanks and weights there or should we begin our days at the Dive Bus and load up our trunk with a full days supply of tanks?

3) Which dive sites have tank rentals and other amenities?

4) I have heard much about vehicle security at shore dive sites (people encouraged to leave windows down to avoid broken glass). Is it safe to leave a bunch of spare tanks in the trunk?

5) My new gear is brand-spanking new. Will my new regs get chewed up by the shore diving there, or is it easy to take care of your gear on site?

6) Where are the coldest beer and friendliest folks for apres-dive?


Thanks all! Will be seeing you under clear skies and in blue waters

 

[edclee]

My wife and I were just there in March. We stayed in Westpunt at All West Apartments and dove with Go West Diving. We had a wonderful time, but did mostly boat diving. We did, however dive Alice in Wonderland, located at the Go West site, and we also dove the reef right in front of All West Apartments. Both nice, but nothing like many of the very beautful sites we went to on the Go West boats. Lots of turtles at the commercial dock in front of All West Apartments. Our best shore dive was at the now-defunct resort area "Sunset Waters". Got some great pics of a frogfish at 50'. All West has facilities to store and wash, shower, etc. your dive gear, but we left ours at the excellent Go West facility and just loaded the truck up for shore diving. I recommend Go West highly. It is a great facility with great people. All West has great ocean views from EVERY room and the cost includes a truck in very good condition. We went for a week, 12 boat dives, truck, studio apartment, including airfare from Charlotte, NC and transfers to and from Westpunt to and from airport for a total FOR THE BOTH OF US of just over $2800. It will not cost anything more, and I would recommend you contact jan@caribbeandivevacations.com. Tell her you want the same trip Ed and Liz Lee took. Atr that price you cant go wrong!

 

[TheWizard]

To the OP: I'd recommend staying out toward or in Westpunt for a first visit. There aren't too many accessible shore dive sites right around Willemstad, so you'll end up driving west much of the time after the first day or two anyhow.
Some CUR dive sites are a bit of a drive off the main highway, but several have good onsite places for lunch and/or beer.

I did an All West trip with my son 13 months ago and I'm sure we will do it again before long...

 

[Curacao Sunshine]

I'd also recommend staying in Westpunt or Lagun but.... even though the name suggests you "getting on the Bus".... you can also meet Mark (and now the little Pony) at whichever shore dive they are doing (usually 2) for the day. We think shore dives are extremely easy but there are many who would like a divemaster with them at first. The Dive Bus crew are always good fun. If you dive where there is an op, you (most always) can get a guided shore dive. After a day or two, divers usually can join others for shore dives as well. Go West has a buddy board.

 

[diversteve]

I also felt the diving was better west of town but it's mostly what we did so I may be biased. We did like Tugboat on the east side - the wall around the point was a good dive, deep and lots of eels - it sort of plateau's shallow but just swim out to where it drops. The boat is at 20' so you can do your safety stop there on the swim in.

The Dive Bus only picks up in town about as far west as Piscadera Bay. So you would either need to meet them somewhere if you stay further west or at their location which is 5mins. east of downtown. They're pretty far east in a resort area so not the optimal location to drive to for tanks - esp. to dive west - unless you stay nearby - Breezes or Lions Den are close but both have on-site Ocean Encounters shops so you might as well rent from them if you stay there. There's also some nightlife in that area. The main OE shop next to Lions Den had a lot of rental gear - I didn't check the condition.

A third option is stay somewhere in the Piscadera Bay resort area. We rented duplex condos (2BR) from Piscadera Bay Resort. Most have been recently refurbished, all have full kitchens and are across the street from the Hilton and Marriott - both have casinos, indoor and outdoor bars, nice beaches. Ocean Encounters works with the Hilton, Caribbean Sea Sports is at the Marriott. Both have a shore dive off their property also. One advantage for boat dives is they may do some of the better west sites since they don't have to make the run from east Willemstad like some of the others do.

Just down the street is a popular beach bar - used to be called Hooks Hut but is something else now. Tables in the sand on the beach and live music some nights. Other than that Piscadera Bay is a quieter area about a 10min. drive to downtown. There's also Centrum market on the main road between there and the airport. And a Denny's nearby after the bars close.

Some west locations/descriptions:

We had a group so rented an SUV and a truck. We carried at least 10 tanks in the truck every day, none were touched. Most dive sites with improved facilities charge a small usage fee in guilders - slightly more will get you tanks/weights. Occasionally rented from the on-site operator.

Just about every dive site requires a short drive in from the main road. And not a lot is marked once you leave Willemstad. So a good map is helpful. We used a combination of the Franko's map and the Avis map. Some nice people before us had tacked a Franko's map up on the wall of our duplex and marked notes about all the dive locations on it - how we selected the ones we dove.

Good dives:

Playa Lagun - good dive, lots of turtles. Sort of a long kick out but get used to that, many of the shore sites are located on small coves thru breaks in the ironshore. Discover Dive is located at the entrance road. If you're going to stay out west - except in Westpunt - it's good mid-point to get tanks - they have a drive up dock so loading is easier. Discoverdiving & Restaurant -> Home  

We also stayed a couple days in Lagun - it's a really quiet area. Makes Westpunt look like a big city - which it's not. There's really only one main road in that area and all the dive sites are off it. Nothing is more than about 10-15mins. away except Westpunt is 45mins. from Willemstad - Lagun probably 1/2 hr.

Playa Jeremi is just north of Playa Lagun. There are no facilities there at all. Similar kick out like Lagun. Also the parking lot is above the beach so if someone were to mess with your vehicle it would be hard to spot there. The day we were there it was real quiet. Discove Diving is closest for tanks.

Porto Mari - good double reef dive. There's a dive operator/snack shop on site and often a lot of locals and tourists enjoying the beach. On weekends it might be hard to find parking so go mid-week. Porto Mari Extra

Playa Kalki/Alice in Wonderland. IMO the best shore dive we did all week - different in both directions also. Go West Diving is on-site, nice facility adjacent to Lodge Kura Hulanda. We rented tanks there, the dive dock leading out to the site is right in front, they have lockers/showers/change room etc. If you wanted to boat dive, Watamula with them would be a good option. IDK if they have a different process for off-site tank rentals but there are about 15 rough stone steps down to the dive level that you might have to negotiate carrying tanks up.

Several years ago we also dove Habitat's house reef - Nos Kas. We liked it so much we went back there at night. Lots of eels, small fish, lobsters, the reef is just off what was the dive dock. There's flounder in the shallows off the "beach" - it's all coral rubble.

Since then Habitat has closed and Coral Gardens Estates is converting it to some sort of facility for use by their owners - not sure exactly what/when. I have recently read of divers driving up to the Coral Gardens guardhouse and being let thru to dive there - some were turned down also. There was a dive shop on-site and dive dock at water level - the dock might still be there as we met several Coral Gardens owners who also dove. The shop closed afaik.

We also liked Varsenbaai. Dive operator on site, snack shop, rickety dock but a good dive. Saw my first seahorses near the mooring ball, a pontoon boat to the east perched on the edge of the drop at 80', several bigger moray eels plus a lot of small spotted eels, lots of fish, turtles feeding in the grass just east of the dock in 6' - the owner said they're always there. One of the dives about 200 squid went past also.

Snake Bay was recommended by a local dive guide - we didn't get there. Our apt. mgr told us be careful about break-ins at the more remote Gnip sites but they're somewhat isolated. Didn't get there either.

Will my new regs get chewed up by the shore diving there

Not unless you drag them. There is some coral rubble just offshore at some sites and many are on ironshore. But a lot of the actual entries are sandy beaches unlike Bonaire. Any of the improved locations will at least have a shower and probably a rinse tank.

fwiw, everybody posting above has been there since we were in 08'.

 

[oregondiver]

We did Curacao last October and LOVED IT! We stayed in Westpunt (the west end of Curacao) with All West and got their package for diving, lodging and car/truck rental really inexpensive. We live in POrtland Oregon and can't even fly to Hawaii and dive there for less than flying all the way to Curacao. The dive op is now Ocean Frontiers I think they changed their name (look at All West curacao and that links to the dive op). They were great.

You don't need orientation (at least doesn't sound like it). Just offer to pay a DM for a dive or two if you wanted to spend money (ie dive bus vs DM). Beach entries are stunning (soft sand, not coral like belize). We had many tanks in our rig and never had them stolen (that wasn't on our radar) but we left windows down every day and nothing was stolen from insiide truck (beer, lunches, towel, shirt, shoes etc).

Good luck

 

[bkpix]

My wife and I were there the same time as Ed and Liz, and we did a shore dive with them. We too stayed at All West, our third time there. We did some boat dives, but we really prefer the shore diving by ourselves or with just a couple of other people. Go West Diving is a great operation and the house reef is a super dive and very easy to navigate with a large rope leading from the end of the entry pier to the reef. Most of the shore dives have easy entries, although some of them have a rather long swim out to the reef. Look at the website. ShoreDiving.com - Your Shore Diving and Snorkeling Web Community! and navigate to the ABC Island pages for good information about various sites. We have stuck to the west end of the island because we want to avoid the crowds; only go to town for a day of sightseeing and grocery shopping. Having to drive 30 minutes or so each way to go to the grocery store is the only drawback to the west end for us. If you are looking for nightlife, you would not find much to do out west. If you just like to dive and chill out afterward look into All West.

 

[diversteve]

The dive op is now Ocean Frontiers I think they changed their name (look at All West curacao and that links to the dive op). They were great.

Ocean Frontiers is on Grand Cayman. The diveop is Go West Diving as mentioned above. Their website is: www.oceanencounterswest.com since they used to be part of the Ocean Encounters operation.

 

[jeepguy]

1) Should we stay in Willemstad and be close to the Dive Bus, or elsewhere such as Westpunt?
Both have advantages and disadvantages. We tend to stay east of Willemstad then branchout to dives (eastpunt by boat, and shore dive from Directors Bay all the way up to Kalki

2) I have heard that many shore dive sites have full amenities, such as tank rentals and rinse tanks. Can we plan to head to these dive sites with our gear sans tanks and rent the tanks and weights there or should we begin our days at the Dive Bus and load up our trunk with a full days supply of tanks?
Email Suzy at the-dive-bus.com She will give you honest info and tips about inde diving all over CUR whether you use them or not.

3) Which dive sites have tank rentals and other amenities?
Pierbaii (Carpile), Porto Marie, Varsenbaii (Kokomo), Lagun, Playa Kalki to name a few

4) I have heard much about vehicle security at shore dive sites (people encouraged to leave windows down to avoid broken glass). Is it safe to leave a bunch of spare tanks in the trunk?
I wouldn't leave them in sight, but hidden discretely in truck SHOULD be ok. Last trip I asked at the rental company about windows up or down and was adised to lock vehicle with windows mostly up since he was afraid someone would steal radio. In BON we leave windows down but I tend to lock cardoors and leave windows cracked in CUR. Then again, in CUR we tend to park in places with others around. So far, have not had problems.

5) My new gear is brand-spanking new. Will my new regs get chewed up by the shore diving there, or is it easy to take care of your gear on site?
Some pay locations have rinse tanks, if not there will be rinse facilities at the Dive Bus or wherever you stay. Easy to take care of equipment, just don't drag it in the sand

6) Where are the coldest beer and friendliest folks for apres-dive?
Apres dive @ the Dive Bus location is always great as is pizza & Polars at Sunshine's SOL FOOD in the west

Thanks all! Will be seeing you under clear skies and in blue waters

 

[ScubaERDoc]

Wow thanks for the recommendations...Scubaboard is such an amazing community resource!