scuba_willy
Registered
I have just returned from my first visit to Curacao and thought I would post some observations on my experience that may help other first time visiters to Curacao.
My wife and I were traveling with some some non-diver friends. We stayed at Breezes resort, since this seemed like it would cater to their vacation desires as well as ours. Personally I found Breezes to be fine. Some rooms were more up to date than others- but all rooms seemed good. Service was laid back. Some might complain at this, but everyone was friendly and helpful, if not necessarily as efficient as found in Europe or US. I mention this, not because I had a problem with it, but I did hear other people at Breezes complaining. I would say that I thought in general the service was more relaxed than when I stayed on Aruba. Also I found Aruba to be more organized in making visitors aware of Tours and side trips. In Curacao, it seemed that you needed to do a little more research yourself and be more proactive on setting up trips and tours. The trips themselves were fine.
For diving, I did do some research ahead of time and decided that to try the shore diving rather than pre-book a package of boat trips. The shore diving is terrific and I am pleased we did this. In chatting to other divers, this seemed to be a good decision, as the boats often visited locations easily dived from the shore. I would certainly recommend this approach for anyone visiting. I believe there are some dive sites that can only best be accessed by boat - hence sign up for those boat trips if you want, but plan on a number of shore dives. Makes it a cost effective diving vacation too. I would also comment that the all the shore dives were reasonably easy dives. Very little current, good visibility. We planned and did our own dives and had no problems.
For Dive sites, the Car pile at Breezes is a great dive and we did that several times for its convenience for us. The dive site is a steep sloped reef that rolls down from 15 feet to 120+. There is a collection of steel girders, barge, boat, cars etc from 60 feet down with most of the wreckage on a plateau at 120 feet. I liked the dive site because we could do a deep dive to see the "junk" but then work back to the entry at shallower depths to look at the superb reef. The top of the reef at 15 foot was also great for a swimming safety stop. In addition we did rent a car, and visited Playa kalki (Alice in Wonderland) and PortoMarie (the Valley). These were two great dive sites with easy beach access. Both beaches had a good car park, dive shop and a restaurant/bar - what more could one ask for !
Renting the car and driving in Curacao was straight forward, provided you had a good sense of direction. Its a little tricky to navigate by sign posts, and road names by the maps, but not overly problematic.
All in all, it was a great place to visit. People were friendly, weather was great, diving was fantastic. I would recommend curacao. But do expect to have to be proactive in getting around and getting what you want. As many on this board have commented, its not like US, its a different country and culture. But its also not difficult to communicate (english is spoken well) and get what you want. Do take bugspray though. The mosquitoes do seem to like foreigners blood !
My wife and I were traveling with some some non-diver friends. We stayed at Breezes resort, since this seemed like it would cater to their vacation desires as well as ours. Personally I found Breezes to be fine. Some rooms were more up to date than others- but all rooms seemed good. Service was laid back. Some might complain at this, but everyone was friendly and helpful, if not necessarily as efficient as found in Europe or US. I mention this, not because I had a problem with it, but I did hear other people at Breezes complaining. I would say that I thought in general the service was more relaxed than when I stayed on Aruba. Also I found Aruba to be more organized in making visitors aware of Tours and side trips. In Curacao, it seemed that you needed to do a little more research yourself and be more proactive on setting up trips and tours. The trips themselves were fine.
For diving, I did do some research ahead of time and decided that to try the shore diving rather than pre-book a package of boat trips. The shore diving is terrific and I am pleased we did this. In chatting to other divers, this seemed to be a good decision, as the boats often visited locations easily dived from the shore. I would certainly recommend this approach for anyone visiting. I believe there are some dive sites that can only best be accessed by boat - hence sign up for those boat trips if you want, but plan on a number of shore dives. Makes it a cost effective diving vacation too. I would also comment that the all the shore dives were reasonably easy dives. Very little current, good visibility. We planned and did our own dives and had no problems.
For Dive sites, the Car pile at Breezes is a great dive and we did that several times for its convenience for us. The dive site is a steep sloped reef that rolls down from 15 feet to 120+. There is a collection of steel girders, barge, boat, cars etc from 60 feet down with most of the wreckage on a plateau at 120 feet. I liked the dive site because we could do a deep dive to see the "junk" but then work back to the entry at shallower depths to look at the superb reef. The top of the reef at 15 foot was also great for a swimming safety stop. In addition we did rent a car, and visited Playa kalki (Alice in Wonderland) and PortoMarie (the Valley). These were two great dive sites with easy beach access. Both beaches had a good car park, dive shop and a restaurant/bar - what more could one ask for !
Renting the car and driving in Curacao was straight forward, provided you had a good sense of direction. Its a little tricky to navigate by sign posts, and road names by the maps, but not overly problematic.
All in all, it was a great place to visit. People were friendly, weather was great, diving was fantastic. I would recommend curacao. But do expect to have to be proactive in getting around and getting what you want. As many on this board have commented, its not like US, its a different country and culture. But its also not difficult to communicate (english is spoken well) and get what you want. Do take bugspray though. The mosquitoes do seem to like foreigners blood !
