Any experiences in Curacao?
- Thread starter ewong
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cdiver2
Contributor
ewong:
Its not on your list but it is a great resort/dive
ronbeau
Contributor
ewong:
My family will be going to Curacao this summer and will be staying a Breezes Curacao. My daughter and I are certified but my wife cannot dive due to exercise induced asthma. Breezes is all-inclusive and provides something for the whole family to do.
Breezes Curacao include 1 free shore dive each day on their house reef. The dive equipment is provided by Ocean Encounters.
I have seen many reports regarding the Dive Bus.com. I may use the dive bus for a dive or two while I am there. I will probably use Ocean Encounters for ant boat diving.
If you are planning to go in mid July or later I would be more than happy to relate my experiences.
NGT
Registered
My husband and I were in Curacao from 5/6 to 5/13/06. We stayed at the Kura Hulanda Lodge and used Ocean Encounters West. We brought our own equipment and only needed to rent tanks and weights, but the rental equipment they had looked to be in very good shape. It was a very well run operation.
We did mostly beach diving, which was awesome. We took one boat dive to Watamula and the Mushroom Forest and did one night dive with a guide. We didn't see anything big, mostly reef fish and some barracuda, eels and turtles. No sharks. The people who work there are so helpful and sweet. The house reef was just a short 5 min. or so swim from shore (or dock, in front of the dive center). The bill for the week for all our dives, the boat dives, night dives and some souvenirs was less than expected.
We rented a car for the week and drove to Willemstad a couple of times. I understand there are a lot of good shore diving spots throughout the island, but we stayed mostly at Playa Kalki. We didn't try the Dive Bus this time around but might do it next time.
I hope you have a wonderful time.
We did mostly beach diving, which was awesome. We took one boat dive to Watamula and the Mushroom Forest and did one night dive with a guide. We didn't see anything big, mostly reef fish and some barracuda, eels and turtles. No sharks. The people who work there are so helpful and sweet. The house reef was just a short 5 min. or so swim from shore (or dock, in front of the dive center). The bill for the week for all our dives, the boat dives, night dives and some souvenirs was less than expected.
We rented a car for the week and drove to Willemstad a couple of times. I understand there are a lot of good shore diving spots throughout the island, but we stayed mostly at Playa Kalki. We didn't try the Dive Bus this time around but might do it next time.
I hope you have a wonderful time.
O'Malley
Contributor
My wife and I were in Curacao this past January...making plans to retun later this year. Although I did 99 percent of my diving with Sunset Divers, I did make one night dive with the Dive Bus. Mark and Suzy, the owners/operators of the Dive Bus are great folks...they consistently recieve much praise from those who have used thier services. For our return visit, I plan on diving with them a few days to mix it up.
Damselfish
Contributor
Did you actually beach dive from Kura Hulanda Lodge, or elsewhere. I'm wondering what they have for a shore dive on property.NGT:
CRAZYBOBC
Guest
just back today stayed at the sea aquarium resort, unit 304b from the balcony can see dolphins and ocean you cant beat the view, villas are very nice and cleanewong:
did 3 dives with the dive bus they are great as stated before mark and suzy are the best, but dont forget sadie, and andy the cert padi instructors they were great in helping to find and identify fish underwater, very knowledgable too
anything else you want to know about the resort let me know, it is a timeshare and trades through interval but no its off season and they will rent out units
lions dive is right across from sea aquarium and so is ocean encounters
NGT
Registered
Damselfish:
Yes, we did almost all our dives from the beach or dive dock at Kura Hulanda. We had a short walk from our room down a long set of stairs to the beach and over to the dive center. On our first day we left our equipment there and they kept it locked up for us so we didn't have to lug it around. We only took our dive computers and camera back to our room. The house reef is called Alice in Wonderland and it was a very short swim. We were so in awe of the house reef there that we didn't feel the need to go to any of the other dive sites on the island. We definitely are making plans to go back though and will probably try the Dive Bus. Some other people staying at the Lodge said the Dive Bus was a great experience.
The Lodge is at the westernmost point of the island and is about 45 minutes from the city of Willemstad where all the nightlife is. The Lodge was quiet and peaceful and the people who work there were so friendly and helpful. On our last night they had a barbecue buffet - all you can eat - for the people who were leaving the next day. I guess most people stay from Saturday to Saturday. The Ocean Encounters West Dive Center is independent of the Lodge but is on the same property. There are many shore dive sites nearby if you have a rental car you can rent tanks from the dive center and go.
Damselfish
Contributor
Sea Aquarium and Lion's Dive resorts are right near each other, in a relatively built up and busy (tourist-wise) area. Breezes is nearby too. If you prefer activity and civilization you might like it around there. Lion's dive isn't fancy but it's fine. It's been so many years since I dove with Ocean Encounters my experience with them is too dated to bother mentioning. The shore diving around there is nowhere near as good some other places on the island, and the boats leaving from here don't generally get you to the better sites on Curacao, simply a matter of distance and location. Not that it's bad, it's just not the best diving in Curacao. Dive Bus (or shore diving on your own) would be a good thing to check out if staying here, although it will be a longish drive to the better diving.ewong:
Any particular reason you are looking at those 2 places? If you like getting away from it all, consider heading to the other end of the island and staying at Habitat, Sunset, or Kura Hulanda. All a bit remote but have much better shore diving on site, are closer to other good shore diving, and their boats do the better sites as they're closer to there. We usually stay at Habitat and drive downtown for dinner or whatever most evenings, it's not too bad a drive.
We've been here since September '05, so we've made day trips to a lot of the dive resorts and sites mentioned. Any resort can be visited whether or not you're staying there and on site dive shops love your business. The-dive-bus visits a lot of sites and are based just west of Breezes and that works out well if your staying in or near town. We dive a bunch with Mark, Suzy, & Jesper (Sadie and Andy are now new instructors/ crew addition) and you can't beat the good company and knowledge of the islands dive sites.
I have to disagree with the info as Sea Aquariums front yard is a fanstatic reef with hugh elkhorns in the shallows, loads of fish and corals, as well as Cornelius Baai, just east of SA has some prime diving with a good wall further towards the east. Light currents that are west to east are best for diving Cornelius from Sea Aquarium. (or boat dive)! Further east are Directors Bay and Tug Boat, both intersting to visit.
Peir Baai and Car Pile (right in front of Dive Bus and Breezes) sports a really nice reef and one of the better critter spots for night dives. Otrabana has the Superior Producer, a nice wreck, but the entry is tough if the surf is up, (sharp coral and rocky) and you should be an advanced diver with some deep dives under your belt, as the bottom is 109. Marriot has a nice shop (Seasports) with good facility and a easy entry and house reef. Blue Bay has probably the best place to hang out on the beach, good restruant, diver freindly with showers and rinse tanks. Two nice dives in Blue Gardens and Blue Wall. Entry to Blue Bay Beach is free, if you just dive it's 7 NAF per tank and 5 NAF for a beach chair if you want to lounge on the nice beach on your SI's. Vaersenbaai (police beach) (just west) on down the road past Blue Bay is a nice dive, has a little sandwich shop. Porta Maria has an interesting reef system and is always a nice outing, dive shop, rinse tanks, and coin operated showers that work some times, on site snack and sandwich bar. Last time at Porte Marie, I think the entry was like 3 or 4 NAF, and there's a beach and chairs there too. Sunset has nice boats and Mike and his crew are nice and knowledgable. Decent house reef and Sunset waters gets a lot of good reviews from the divers that stay there. Habitat has a nice house reef, last time we went, they didn't allow outside tanks, but you can make you moneys worth, as a full day of shore diving is like 20 bucks US. There's a resturant onsite and the views are really nice. Playa Kenepa, Playa Kalki (Alice in wonderland), Groot Knip, Klein Knip all have their special points and great photo ops. Playa Piskado is the fishermans bay, nice dive, but void of any diver freindly facilities, as are some of the others. Mushroom and Blue Cave are called Must do's (boat dives), and best done though west end shops from Sunset to Oceans West. We made em with Sunset and had a ripping current that day, actually made three reefs in a bit over an hour! (shades of Cozumel diving), and followed that up with a visit to Black Coral.
There's other sites I'm sure I haven't noted, but there's a lot of good diving and all of them can't possibly be made in one vacation. What ever you're plans for a vacation, facilities can be found to suit your needs, and most any house reef takes more than a week of vacation to get tiring, if you go slow and actually see what's there.
If you're up to a long boat ride and a day of solitude, try Klein Curacao, eat bbq and be a native, most excellent diving there! Come on down, the waters are clear and the weather is always nice.
tony & Bren
I have to disagree with the info as Sea Aquariums front yard is a fanstatic reef with hugh elkhorns in the shallows, loads of fish and corals, as well as Cornelius Baai, just east of SA has some prime diving with a good wall further towards the east. Light currents that are west to east are best for diving Cornelius from Sea Aquarium. (or boat dive)! Further east are Directors Bay and Tug Boat, both intersting to visit.
Peir Baai and Car Pile (right in front of Dive Bus and Breezes) sports a really nice reef and one of the better critter spots for night dives. Otrabana has the Superior Producer, a nice wreck, but the entry is tough if the surf is up, (sharp coral and rocky) and you should be an advanced diver with some deep dives under your belt, as the bottom is 109. Marriot has a nice shop (Seasports) with good facility and a easy entry and house reef. Blue Bay has probably the best place to hang out on the beach, good restruant, diver freindly with showers and rinse tanks. Two nice dives in Blue Gardens and Blue Wall. Entry to Blue Bay Beach is free, if you just dive it's 7 NAF per tank and 5 NAF for a beach chair if you want to lounge on the nice beach on your SI's. Vaersenbaai (police beach) (just west) on down the road past Blue Bay is a nice dive, has a little sandwich shop. Porta Maria has an interesting reef system and is always a nice outing, dive shop, rinse tanks, and coin operated showers that work some times, on site snack and sandwich bar. Last time at Porte Marie, I think the entry was like 3 or 4 NAF, and there's a beach and chairs there too. Sunset has nice boats and Mike and his crew are nice and knowledgable. Decent house reef and Sunset waters gets a lot of good reviews from the divers that stay there. Habitat has a nice house reef, last time we went, they didn't allow outside tanks, but you can make you moneys worth, as a full day of shore diving is like 20 bucks US. There's a resturant onsite and the views are really nice. Playa Kenepa, Playa Kalki (Alice in wonderland), Groot Knip, Klein Knip all have their special points and great photo ops. Playa Piskado is the fishermans bay, nice dive, but void of any diver freindly facilities, as are some of the others. Mushroom and Blue Cave are called Must do's (boat dives), and best done though west end shops from Sunset to Oceans West. We made em with Sunset and had a ripping current that day, actually made three reefs in a bit over an hour! (shades of Cozumel diving), and followed that up with a visit to Black Coral.
There's other sites I'm sure I haven't noted, but there's a lot of good diving and all of them can't possibly be made in one vacation. What ever you're plans for a vacation, facilities can be found to suit your needs, and most any house reef takes more than a week of vacation to get tiring, if you go slow and actually see what's there.
If you're up to a long boat ride and a day of solitude, try Klein Curacao, eat bbq and be a native, most excellent diving there! Come on down, the waters are clear and the weather is always nice.
tony & Bren
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