Trip Report First time Curacao Dive report

[V_H2O]

I'm couple week's behind with getting around to this post. Dive dates 8/23 -26.
The wife and I few into Willemstad at night and picked up a rental car at the airport which was very easy. Made our way downtown into the Petermai district where we had a rental house about 5 minutes walk from the scuba lodge.
day 1- took Ocean Encounters charter to the east end and Klein Curacao. First drop was on one of the east point spots. took them a few minutes to get lined up on the reef for the drop as the current and swell were pretty strong. Once in, was a nice dive, clean colorful reef with plenty to look at. max depth was about 70'. Vis was probably 50' or so. Boat picked us up and we began the cruise to Klein, this is a bit of ride and it was a little bumpy. the OE dive boat was more than capable to handle the seas, good size and comfortable. there was one passenger that got seasick. once at Klein we hop into the 2nd dive, water clarity was improved some to maybe 70' of vis, current was ripping. again, pretty reef, good amount of smaller fish. After the dive you enjoy a relaxed lunch and explore the island on your own. great all day trip but warning that they will cancel if they don't hit a minimum. also, I was a bit disappointed at the lack of ANY large fish. kind of a theme for all days.
day 2 - drove up to Westpunt, takes about an hour but an easy drive. dove the Alice in Wonderland reef out of the All west resort. they have a nice dive shop on site an the tanks included a locker. very easy diving with a jump off their dock. no current, again vis was around 60ish. afterwards, short drive up the hill to Sol food for lunch. then we drove back south to porto Marie. This spot was recommended by our OE boat captain. nice beach with more of a party vibe, and large bar area. lots of snorkelers. we hit the dive shop onsite to get our tanks. once our gear was set, the attendant gave us a run down of the dive area. no lockers but you can leave you stuff in the shop. it was an easy swim out from the beach. not hard to navigate, and some nice finger ledges where we hit depths of close to 100' before backing off and circling around.
day 3 - booked with with Dive Charter Curacao. Andy is the owner / captain . we met him at santa Cruz on the west side to load up the boat. It is a mid 20s twin engine RIB that got us to the Watamula dive site pretty quickly. I will warn that this is not your typical dive boat, so do your research before booking. We thought it was great, happened to be just the 2 of us that day along with Andy and our DM Chello. And this was the best dive of our trip. Watamula was very busy with life. even a nice size eagle ray hanging around. After the dive, we ran the boat into the playa Kalki cove and anchored up for lunch. While there, we jumped in the water and snorkeled with about a dozen turtles. my wife was in heaven. we then headed to sponge Forrest area. After diving in , a short swim into the blue room (nice to have a flashlight) , you see some different critters living in there so it was cool. with the rest of the dive exploring the sponge forest, we came across the fattest green eel I've ever seen, not that long, but about as wide as as a basketball hoop! Easy dive, with a depth of about 50' max, lots of really unique coral and sponge structures.
day 4 - we were unlucky enough to have one of the rare rain days on the island. monsoon rain all morning and windy, so diving was scrubbed.
Overall great trip. The island itself is a lot of fun with enough to do even if you are not diving. I would not rank it as the best diving in the islands but unique in its own and an easy last minute trip from south Florida.

 

[drrich2]

Wow, you packed a diverse experience into a brief stay; different regions and dive op.s. What I call the ‘appetizer sampler’ approach.

I don’t know where else you’ve been that you might compare it to, but a couple of questions come to mind:

1.) Do you plan to go back for a week sometime?

2.) If so, would you stay closer to Willemstad for the cultural amenities, or Westpunt (alleged to have better diving, but much more rustic topside)?

3.) Which dive op. would you likely use? Mostly shore diving or boat?

4.) See anything in particular topside, whether a locale or activity, that appealed to you?

Richard.

 

[V_H2O]

Hi Richard, thanks. yes we like to get out and explore whenever we go new places.
1) I would go back for a week because IMO there was enough activity to keep occupied even if you wanted to take a day or 2 off diving. One note: don't pick Sunday as the "off" day as there wasn't much at all open.
2) I would stay closer to Willemstad, as we like to go out to dinner and bars at night. there were many places with live music and great food. Also, a few casinos, of which the nicest (and really the only one i would go to) was at the Renaissance hotel, closer to cruise port. this area was the most touristy sector, but nothing like you would experience in Nassau or Aruba. about a 15 minute walk from Pietermaai.
3) Dive ops- I had no bad experience with the 4 we used. The day at Klein was very nice and I feel worth doing at least once. Its on the pricey side. Ocean encounters was well run, organized, and staff was great. the type of op I would expect to find stateside that can handle a higher volume, without totally crossing to the the cattle heard boats. (you'll never find me on a red Sail charter with 50 snorkelers/ divers). also there was the bare minimum of 12 of us on that trip which did make it more personal. DiveChaterCuracao, a bit more unconventional, was a blast, and definitely geared towards the more experienced diver. Each playa dive shop had its own personality, and the even the couple that we stopped by and didn't patronized seemed good. You also have the option to beach dive at many spots that are remote without accommodations. We scoped out a couple on the last day after done diving and something I would venture to do. At one site I did notice patches of broken glass around where cars park. It is a known issue that car break ins are common at these spots. Makes some ops like "Dive Bus" worthwhile. if there for a week, i would be comfortable hitting as many "house reefs" as i could with a day or 2 off the boats. Watamula is known to be the best site on Curacao ( I agree) and must be accessed by boat.
4) Topside - we enjoyed walking around downtown, it is literally a postcard city. The island is very diverse and it was great to relax and take in.
As for comparisons, last year we did Grand Cayman.The diving was better hands down but the island not nearly as interesting. Also, Bahamas a few times and Bayahibe in DR. Planning a trip now to Baja in Oct so i'll be active over in the Mexico board soon.
Vince

 

[Dive Curaçao]

Great to hear you enjoyed Curaçao! Love the reports and to understand that you will visit us again!!

Until then, dive safe!

Regards,
Bryan

 

[Snoweman]

As for comparisons, last year we did Grand Cayman.The diving was better hands down but the island not nearly as interesting.

Wow. Where did you dive in Grand Cayman? I dove there a year ago April, and I was so disappointed in it. Nice coral life, but almost devoid of fish life. The highlight was the 12' deep dive with the stingrays.

 

[V_H2O]

Wow. Where did you dive in Grand Cayman? I dove there a year ago April, and I was so disappointed in it. Nice coral life, but almost devoid of fish life. The highlight was the 12' deep dive with the stingrays.

I don't recall the exact site names. Similarly, we rented a car and get around. I know we did some diving of the north wall and east end which were outstanding. but all around vis was well over 100' for every dive. and way more fish, I almost can't believe what you are saying. Same exact weekend 1 year earlier, maybe we were just lucky there and not so much in Curacao.

 

[tkaelin]

Thanks for the report. We usually stay at Allwest/playa grandi a/ka playa piscado. Turtles and bait balls in abundance. Did you mean this site when you said you ran in for lunch and your wife snorkeled with turtles? Its confusing but playa kalki is aka alice in wonderland.

Watamula is our favorite site and we dive it at least once every trip. The dive experience on the site varies depending upon the current and where you drop in.

When you compared GC to CUR, which island did you think the diving was hands down better?

 

[swimbody]

Thanks for the report. We usually stay at Allwest/playa grandi a/ka playa piscado. Turtles and bait balls in abundance. Did you mean this site when you said you ran in for lunch and your wife snorkeled with turtles? Its confusing but playa kalki is aka alice in wonderland.

Watamula is our favorite site and we dive it at least once every trip. The dive experience on the site varies depending upon the current and where you drop in.

When you compared GC to CUR, which island did you think the diving was hands down better?

Hey TKaelin we dove with you in GC this June! We are heading to Curacao (the same group except the childless couple) to see it for the first time. If you can send me some links and some suggestions we'd like to duplicate the same setup we had in Coconut Bay (if one exists). Hope you are well and bracing for winter soon. Swimalim

 

[tkaelin]

Hey Swimalim, good to hear from you. You should find a number of similar options in CUR. My general observation based upon my two trips, research and reading posts here is that more amenities and maybe newer and nicer accomodations are found closer to Willemsted but the better diving is found the closer to Westpunt and both have an inverse proportion to each. The further you head out to Westpunt the diving gets better but things get more rustic.

In Westpunt, we stayed both times at Allwest Apartments diving with Gowest Same owners. We enjoyed our stays and diving. Allwest apts are waterfront one bdrm or studio apartments with full kitchen, dive set up with tanks, rinse tanks and gear room on premises. Steps down to the water for onsite shore diving. A little more rustic than CB and not a condo complex and no pool.

We are returning this Jan. On our return trip we are going to try Lagun Blou at Lagun for part of the trip and Nos Krusero Apts across from Alice Wonderland/Gowest main shop/Kura Hurlanda the other. You can google Allwest Apartments, Lagun Blou and Nos Krusero for pics and info. Other on SB have stayed at Marazul and had positive things to report. We have friends who stayed at Coral Estates which is roughly half way between Willemtend and Westpunt. The units looks nice but I am told the shore diving on site is just ok.

I have two trip report posted for more info.

Let me know if I can answer any questions.

Happy diving. TK

 

[V_H2O]

Thanks for the report. We usually stay at Allwest/playa grandi a/ka playa piscado. Turtles and bait balls in abundance. Did you mean this site when you said you ran in for lunch and your wife snorkeled with turtles? Its confusing but playa kalki is aka alice in wonderland.

Watamula is our favorite site and we dive it at least once every trip. The dive experience on the site varies depending upon the current and where you drop in.

When you compared GC to CUR, which island did you think the diving was hands down better?

So , I went back and checked on that, my bad. It was playa Grandi that we pulled into on the boat and moored up for lunch. You can see Sol food up on the hill from there.
We thought the diving was better in GC. Those wall drop offs are just so incredible.