what do you think of Curacao?

[Strima77]

I'm considering a trip to Curacao, but have heard mixed reviews of the diving there. Anybody care to comment on things like health of reef, marine life, etc who has been there recently. thanks.
Oh, and how is Habitat Curacao - or the island - for a non-diver?

 

[Wijbrandus]

I was there two years ago as a pod person (diving from a cruise ship). We dove through the Marriott resort on a privately arranged trip. The two dives were amazing. The first was along a gorgeous sloping wall, and the second was another wall that ended at the tugboat. While we didn't see any big pelagics, we did see lots of smaller fish. The visibility was great too. Friends of mine stayed there for a week this last summer. They enjoyed the island as well.

 

[herman]

Welcome to the board.

We were on Curacao in 05 for a week. While I still prefer Bonaire I found the islands to be quite similar. Curacao was obviously larger so getting from place to place ment longer drives and while there is free shore diving we found we liked the pay to enter places. The cost was cheap-$2-3 US pp/per day but unlike Bonaire the sites has large sandy beaches, restrooms and restrauants. A lot better suited for mixed groups of divers and non divers, esp if the non divers like to snorkel, swim and hang out on the beach. There is more shopping and topside things to do like.
We found the food, the people and the diving to be very similar to Bonaire. The biggest difference was in the scale of things.
There have been several reviews of Curacoa on this board over the last few years. Do a search and you will turn up quite a bit of info.

 

[scubatexastony]

I'm considering a trip to Curacao, but have heard mixed reviews of the diving there. Anybody care to comment on things like health of reef, marine life, etc who has been there recently. thanks.
Oh, and how is Habitat Curacao - or the island - for a non-diver?

The title of your thread grabbed my eye! The Rock, (my pet name), is a nice place to visit and dive. As Herman pointed out the beaches are nice and the diving is comparable to Bonaire, just not quite the abundance of prestine coral and sponge growth at ALL the locations, but she has her jewels.
Plenty of marine life at nearly all the sites, but they are the smaller variety. Habitat is a long ways out, has a really neat house reef, modest rooms and a nice view. Your family might enjoy being a bit closer to town though; just rent a car and drive and dive if you bring a dive buddy. Check some of the info in other Curacao threads, or feel free to PM any questions you have about the island. I'm not a native, but have spent the last 16 months here........hence the pet name of the Rock!

Happy New Diving Year! .... from the land of endless summer

 

[klpscubagirl]

I was there two weeks ago on a cruise. We did two dives which I thought were both great as far as marine life goes. We even saw two rather large scorpion fish. The reef life was also great. My only issue was the resort we dove from. It looked nice enough, and the other group said they had no problems, however our DM seemed very inexperienced throughout the dive, even knocking off pieces of coral with his fins while pointing out different fish. At the end one of the members of our group had a problem with the difficult entry back to beach area and he was not paying attention, she was luckily helped by a passing snorkeler who happened to be a DM. I don't remember the name of the resort, but the shop was toucan divers. There is plenty to do as a non-diver, that shouldn't be a problem.

 

[ronbeau]

I'm considering a trip to Curacao, but have heard mixed reviews of the diving there. Anybody care to comment on things like health of reef, marine life, etc who has been there recently. thanks.
Oh, and how is Habitat Curacao - or the island - for a non-diver?

My wife daughter and I spent 2 weeks on Curacao last summer.

We really enjoyed the island. We stayed a Breezes Curacao.

The diving on the island was excellent. I can't compare it with Bonaire since I have not yet been to Bonaire.

We dove on the house reef, with the Dive Bus and on the Superior Producer with Ocean Encounters.

My experience with the Dive Bus was very good. They pick you up at your hotel , load all your dive gear in the van and take you to the dive site. During the surface interval they provide lunch. The pace was very relaxed and enjoyable. It felt like the combination of a diving and a picnic with close friends.

We went to Caracas Bay, Director's bay and to Porto Mari. In fact my avatoer picture was taken by my daughter at Porto Mari. My daughter and I were both diving while my wife was snorkeling. Both Caracas Bay and Porto Mari have full facilities. At the end of the dive day they load all of the dive gear back into the van and take you back to your hotel where they unload the dive gear.

The Breezes bell hop picked up the dive gear as the Dive Bus person unloaded it and took it to our room. Since Breezes is an all inclusive it cost us nothing for this excellent service.

The dive with Ocean Encounters on the Superior Producer was very good. The dive master provided a through briefing and the boat has about 15 divers but was not crowded.

The food at Breezes was very good. One shore on the house reef per day is free of charge including all equipment except for a wet suit. We brought all of our own equipment so I can't comment on the equipment they provide. Ocean Encounters runs the dive shop located on the property a Breezes Curacao. They have a two-tiered dock which is also used as the entry point for shore dives. The second level of the dock has a tank rail which make donning gear much easier. The dock has a dual-bay rinse tank along with a fresh water hose to rinse off you and your gear.

The accommodations were comfortable and spacious. There was a large closet that we hung the wet suits in and lined the floor with beach towels to catch the water from the drying wet suits. We simply swapped out the beach towels before the next dive. This was very convenient.

We found shopping on Curacao to be very relaxed. I bought some collared polo shirts for $8 each and they appear to be very good quality.

The local people at the resort and on the island appear to be very friendly and helpful. It is amazing the number of people that speak 3 or 4 languages.

The ostrich farm is worth a visit. I did not make to the national park but intend to so when we visit Bonaire and Curacao this summer. We plan to do one week on each island.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

[crb792]

Check out this link. It is a trip report by scubagal from last January.
http://dive.scubadiving.com/members/tripreports.php?s=3236

 

[mmakay]

We were there for a week in Aug and dove with The Dive Bus. It was great diving with a fantastic group of people!

The reef's were great - a glimpse of what we saw was: anemones with cleaner shrimp, flamingo toungues, sea horses, peakcock flounders, frog fish, squid, turtles, and so much more!

 

[1gromit]

Cheers,

Question about The Dive Bus - Do they provide steel 120 tanks or other larger capacity tanks? I'm looking at diving with them later this month, just wondering what they options are!

Thanks,

- Al

 

[herman]

Here is their web site, an email to them would get you the answer.
For what it's worth, I really don't see the need for large tanks on Curacao with the possible exception of a few sites. Most of the diving is fairly shallow-30-50 ft so an 80 will last a long time.
http://www.the-dive-bus.com/