ERRN
Registered
Hi guys, wanted to say thanks for all the great info and pay it forward. don't want to write a novella so will try and keep it brief.
Rental Car-D and D rentals, great guy, decent prices, very close to airport (2 minute ride), waiting right outside terminal in lot to your R on arrival. TIP-get the GPS, it is well worth it for beaches, stores, gas stations and getting around. TIP he was able to give me a mechanical car key and the alarm seperate on a fob so no worries on diving and shorting out the alarm- just ask for it on booking.
Lodging Curacao Ocean Resorts at Lagun- unit 6B I think. Price was $580 US for 8 days. Friendly owner, well designed layout, great back patio facing the garden and pool, very secure and gated entry. Huge bathroom, large fridge, well stocked kitchen for self catering. Access to beach by walking through unrelated restaurant but no issues from them, I asked. Steep steps to Lagun Beach, doable with tanks but it's a work out- gate open from 8 am till 10 pm I think, closed other hours. otherwise have to walk on road to access beach or drive down and park.
Dive shop 1
Rented tanks for 5 days from Discover Diving (Now owned by Bas Hart) great shop, awesome customer service, great prices. Originally was going to do unlimited and they were happy to give 4 or 6 tanks at a time for the two of us, but didn't dive as much as expected due to SO having some issues. They worked the numbers, figured it was cheaper to just charge us by the tank and did that instead at the end of our stay. free weight rentals for both of us and happy to let us keep a few for free diving even when we were not renting tanks from them that day. could walk from there shop to Lagun beach and easy tank loading. New rental equipment and huge rinse tanks, restaurant next door for good beer and decent food.Strongly recommend Discover Diving!
Dive Shop 2
Go West Diving
very professional shop, very good customer service. To use bathrooms/dock and lockers it is about $8-10 US a person. fair enough price, but you might as well just rent tanks from them instead for around the same price one time, and save shlepping your tanks down the stairs one dive at least. rope from dock to reef was a nice no brainer compared to compass headings or surface swim. well run, no complaints tip-avoid restaurant on right, insane prices for even a soda.
Warning on dive reports- I went with SO who was very rusty and never really got comfortable diving this trip, so all shallower dives and easy planning. Would have loved to get to directors bay and some of the other southern sites but wasn't practical since she called a few dives due to bouyancy issues or anxiety. But hey she tried like a trooper so no worries.
Diving and sundry
Lagun, great entry level shore dive along the cliffs, decent fish, small turtle, coral fairly healthy, avoid if breeze kicks up waves in bay, vis got to 10 feet and even outside the bay not too impressive those days, and kicking back in was a bit of a challenge. First self guided shore dive done here so bit of a challenge to try and find turn points under water on the way back in but nothing scary, could always surface and take heading or surface swim. Dives x 4 due to convenience and proximity to hotel and dive shop. parking lot large, short walk from car to beach, good scenery on swim out. Free beach!
Porto Marie- nice beach club feel but not too overwhelmingly touristy/pushy, decent swim to reef but great sand channel to follow down, not many fish relative to other reefs, but great vis and great day to hang out on the beach. onsite restaurant was solid get the chicken skewers,avoid the goat burger Plenty of parking, but rough grading on lot. Dive x 2 and would have gone back but long road to beach and pay to enter so only one day.
Playa Kalki- best diving this trip due to vis, calm water, ease of navigation and convenience. Rope then L first dive Rope then R second. Healthy coral, decent fish life, great infrastructure. Small parking lot, some steps to get to the shoreline, maybe 25? Dove one day 2 tanks.
Food
Self catered mostly so made 3 trips to local grocery stores (centrum) (like to cook) great selection of meats for an island and decent prices on produce, similar to a whole foods in the US price point wise. found everything i needed and bakery was solid.
I'll add restaurants and general thoughts in part 2
Rental Car-D and D rentals, great guy, decent prices, very close to airport (2 minute ride), waiting right outside terminal in lot to your R on arrival. TIP-get the GPS, it is well worth it for beaches, stores, gas stations and getting around. TIP he was able to give me a mechanical car key and the alarm seperate on a fob so no worries on diving and shorting out the alarm- just ask for it on booking.
Lodging Curacao Ocean Resorts at Lagun- unit 6B I think. Price was $580 US for 8 days. Friendly owner, well designed layout, great back patio facing the garden and pool, very secure and gated entry. Huge bathroom, large fridge, well stocked kitchen for self catering. Access to beach by walking through unrelated restaurant but no issues from them, I asked. Steep steps to Lagun Beach, doable with tanks but it's a work out- gate open from 8 am till 10 pm I think, closed other hours. otherwise have to walk on road to access beach or drive down and park.
Dive shop 1
Rented tanks for 5 days from Discover Diving (Now owned by Bas Hart) great shop, awesome customer service, great prices. Originally was going to do unlimited and they were happy to give 4 or 6 tanks at a time for the two of us, but didn't dive as much as expected due to SO having some issues. They worked the numbers, figured it was cheaper to just charge us by the tank and did that instead at the end of our stay. free weight rentals for both of us and happy to let us keep a few for free diving even when we were not renting tanks from them that day. could walk from there shop to Lagun beach and easy tank loading. New rental equipment and huge rinse tanks, restaurant next door for good beer and decent food.Strongly recommend Discover Diving!
Dive Shop 2
Go West Diving
very professional shop, very good customer service. To use bathrooms/dock and lockers it is about $8-10 US a person. fair enough price, but you might as well just rent tanks from them instead for around the same price one time, and save shlepping your tanks down the stairs one dive at least. rope from dock to reef was a nice no brainer compared to compass headings or surface swim. well run, no complaints tip-avoid restaurant on right, insane prices for even a soda.
Warning on dive reports- I went with SO who was very rusty and never really got comfortable diving this trip, so all shallower dives and easy planning. Would have loved to get to directors bay and some of the other southern sites but wasn't practical since she called a few dives due to bouyancy issues or anxiety. But hey she tried like a trooper so no worries.
Diving and sundry
Lagun, great entry level shore dive along the cliffs, decent fish, small turtle, coral fairly healthy, avoid if breeze kicks up waves in bay, vis got to 10 feet and even outside the bay not too impressive those days, and kicking back in was a bit of a challenge. First self guided shore dive done here so bit of a challenge to try and find turn points under water on the way back in but nothing scary, could always surface and take heading or surface swim. Dives x 4 due to convenience and proximity to hotel and dive shop. parking lot large, short walk from car to beach, good scenery on swim out. Free beach!
Porto Marie- nice beach club feel but not too overwhelmingly touristy/pushy, decent swim to reef but great sand channel to follow down, not many fish relative to other reefs, but great vis and great day to hang out on the beach. onsite restaurant was solid get the chicken skewers,avoid the goat burger Plenty of parking, but rough grading on lot. Dive x 2 and would have gone back but long road to beach and pay to enter so only one day.
Playa Kalki- best diving this trip due to vis, calm water, ease of navigation and convenience. Rope then L first dive Rope then R second. Healthy coral, decent fish life, great infrastructure. Small parking lot, some steps to get to the shoreline, maybe 25? Dove one day 2 tanks.
Food
Self catered mostly so made 3 trips to local grocery stores (centrum) (like to cook) great selection of meats for an island and decent prices on produce, similar to a whole foods in the US price point wise. found everything i needed and bakery was solid.
I'll add restaurants and general thoughts in part 2