Curacao trip report and pix

[scuba guy ron]

My wife and I went to Curacao for a week at the end of October. I know its a little late but it took me until now to go through the almost 2500 photos I took.

Curacao from ontop of Mount Kritoffel

here we go.

We stayed at Breezes for the week. The way I would sum up Breezes resort Is Summer Camp. Would we stay there again, in short NO. While we are American, when my wife and I travel we are on the go the entire time and have low expectations to begi withand thank god because this place was terrible. I'm not just being another complaining american either. Our room smelled so bad that my wife became ill. The food was disgusting so we only ate breakfast at the resort. The service was equally bad. We went to the towel booth to get beach towels 3 times (which was every time we did) to stand there infront of 3 workers, be ignored then was told they are out. We had to use our room towels the entire time.

Here is te lagoon (Pierbaai reef) at breezes,

The island itself makes up for this folly. My wifes family is from Martinique (French islnd in the lesser antilles) I've not been there however she has spent many summers and she tells me this island is alot like her familys island, unspoiled by American Influence. The way I would sum it up is that It is very much an unspoiled carribean Island.

Willemstead

Now on to the diving.

Ocean Encounters West charter to the Mushroom Forest and Porto Marie

The diving in curacao is unbelievable. The stony corals are magnificent in size as well as color. The macro amimals are equally magnificent.

Pierbaai reef (Breezes hose reef) was amazing. The Tugboat wreck dive ithat includes a cliff face dive is among the best dives weve ever done while the musroom forest is every bit of spectacular that its made out to be in all the magazines and forums.

So without any further adoo, Lets get on to the pics were her for, the ones below the water line. I hope you enjoy.

Tugboat Dive

Pierbaai Reef (Car Pile or Breezes house Reef)

 

[scuba guy ron]

Pierbaai reef continued,

Mushroom forest and Porto Marie

 

[scuba guy ron]

 

[scuba guy ron]

 

[robbcayman]

Awesome pics!! Okay, you hated Breezes, but where would you stay next time? My wife is not a diver, but I am. However, she loves to snorkel. We are in the process of picking a place for April or May. I can go to Cozumel super cheap, but wanted to try something different. We rolled the dice with Turks and Caicos and loved the place. Now we are wondering what else we might be missing.

Did you enjoy the island of Curacao? Any fun activities? Golf? More importantly, would you go back? If so, why would you go back? Sorry for all the questions. Thanks for the pics.

 

[SoccerJeni]

Beautiful pictures! I'm so glad you did share even if it was later than you hoped.

 

[ittyninja]

Thank you...you have totally brightened my day on a bleak cold Missouri Monday.

Those pictures are amazing and so beautiful. I have now added another place to my "Where to Dive" list.

 

[scuba guy ron]

Awesome pics!! Okay, you hated Breezes, but where would you stay next time? My wife is not a diver, but I am. However, she loves to snorkel. We are in the process of picking a place for April or May. I can go to Cozumel super cheap, but wanted to try something different. We rolled the dice with Turks and Caicos and loved the place. Now we are wondering what else we might be missing.

Did you enjoy the island of Curacao? Any fun activities? Golf? More importantly, would you go back. If so, why would you go back? Sorry for all the questions. Thanks for the pics.

would we go back, yes. If we ever do we'd deffinitly stay at he Kura Hulunda lodge. it is not all inclusive however, on this island you definitly get what you pay for. with my wife bein french, we seek out french restaraunts of which curacao has a few most notably the one in Willemstead at the old fort but be prepared to drop 150 to 250 w/ wine champagne per couple. There is a ton of shopping in willimstead especially if you like high end watches @ 50% off. there are many casinos for gambling as well.

Kura Hulunda Lodge;

as far as outdoors you will want to rent a car for 1-2 days. there is mount cristoffel with thousands of wild orchids everywhere. there is a natural guyser, caves to hike on the islands North eastern coast.

Natural Guyser;

for snorkeling you can chose from any of the aprox 50 beaches, the reefs are all within swimming distance and every resort has their own house reef. Playa lagun was our favorite snorkel beach.

Playa Lagun beach

Understand that you will not be in America and the majority of the island is a bit 3rd world at times however there is a beauty the island holds as one of the last predominently unspoiled caribbean slands

 

[Damselfish]

Awesome pics!! Okay, you hated Breezes, but where would you stay next time? My wife is not a diver, but I am. However, she loves to snorkel. We are in the process of picking a place for April or May. I can go to Cozumel super cheap, but wanted to try something different. We rolled the dice with Turks and Caicos and loved the place. Now we are wondering what else we might be missing.

Did you enjoy the island of Curacao? Any fun activities? Golf? More importantly, would you go back? If so, why would you go back? Sorry for all the questions. Thanks for the pics.

We've been to Curacao a bunch of times because it has some very good diving, plus a more interesting topside than many places and lots of restaurants. And relatively decent flights. There are lots of lodging options in Curacao but the ones that come to my mind first for a diver/nondiver couple, looking for a nice (resort/non-budget) kind of place:

- Kura Hulanda Lodge at the western end of the island is a very nice place to stay, and the shore dive there is great. Nice rooms, pool, and grounds. And the food is pretty good - which is fortunate since it's pretty remote and a distance from most of those restaurants. Kura Hulanda also has an interesting hotel right downtown and they do packages where you stay a few days at each so that might also be something to consider. Not as convenient to dive from the downtown one, though they have a beach club they will take you too and there's supposedly a dive op there (that I know nothing about.) Or if you want to dive while staying there you might contact the Dive Bus.

- The Marriott Beach Resort is another good choice, with a dive op on site that seems to have a good rep though I haven't used them, and also a shore dive though from everything I know not of the same caliber as at Kura Hulanda. Nice sprawling pool with a somewhat more busy resort atmosphere. It's not too far from town so if having good access to lots of restaurants and shopping is really important might be a better choice. There's also a fairly new Marriott Renaissance downtown which will apparently take you to the Marriott Beach resort for diving, but I'd probably just stay at the Beach resort to begin with.

- Another thought would be the new Hyatt Golf Resort, also with an onsite dive op (Ocean Encounters), though I don't think there is shore diving onsite. And golf, obviously, if that's appealing. I haven't stayed there yet but probably will try it soon. The Hyatt is someplace in between the other 2 as far as remoteness. So depends what you want.

 

[robbcayman]

Scuba guy ron & damselfish thanks for the reply!!

I'm going to check out all 3 places you suggested. I really want to try something different. The shore diving really intrigues me. I'm not a good golfer, but I love to play. It's nice to know there's a course there. We aren't super party people, but want other things to do besides diving. A few thing topside to see, maybe some gambling and a little entertainment. Mostly, we would like to lounge on the beach, snorkel and dive.

I've heard a lot about the dive bus, so we will check them out. I'm leaning really heavy toward Curacao. I'm thinking of just going to Cozumel with a buddy next December for a dive only trip. However, this time I want my wife to have a good time. That's why I'm not headed to Bonaire.