Best Accommodations in Curacao for easy Shore Diving

[scubatxgal]

We will be going to Curacao for the first time in November. Since finishing chemo about a little over a year ago, I have been struggling with strength and fatigue. I'm looking for a place to stay that compares to the ease of diving in Bonaire. Is there anyplace in Curacao where you can jump off a pier and climb back on a ladder? Thanks.

 

[RJP]

We will be going to Curacao for the first time in November. Since finishing chemo about a little over a year ago, I have been struggling with strength and fatigue. I'm looking for a place to stay that compares to the ease of diving in Bonaire. Is there anyplace in Curacao where you can jump off a pier and climb back on a ladder? Thanks.

Better than that, in most places you can simply walk right into the water.

By accommodations, do you not yet have a hotel? Depending on your budget and needs there are fair number of options. I prefer the Marriott (have been three times) as my wife and kids don't dive, so we need a place with nice pool, beaches, and other diversions for them. Super easy sandy shore entry for their house reef. Their on site dive op (Caribbean Sea Sports) has two boats right there that get out to most places as well. CSS also has a satellite location at Cas Abou which is a great beach further west/north.

Go West Diving up in Westpunt is a great op located between Lodge Kura Hulanda and All-West Apartments with a great house reef and several boats to go out and about. I always drive up there for a day or two to dive with them... highly recommended.

Many of the major beaches and shore sites have dive ops right there, so you can drive to Playa Porto Mari for instance... park your car, rent a tank, and walk right into the water.

Also, pretty much wherever you stay "The Dive Bus" is always an option as they will either pick you up at your hotel or tell you where they are going and you can meet them at the site.

A note on Curacao diving; the diving itself is very similar to Bonaire, however the island's topography and logistical/traffic situating is very different. If you look at a typical, no-detail "dive site map" you'd think "wow, look how easy!"

But in reality, Curacao is much more irregularly shaped than Bonaire (certainly far more so than the map above) with many coves, hills, etc. Accordingly, unlike Bonaire, there is not a single "main road" that runs along the coast.

Link to hi-res version of above: http://www.caribbean-on-line.com/islands/cr/images/curacao-map.gif

Many people get to Curacao and are surprised to discover that driving from one divesite to another - though perhaps only a 1/2 mile apart - requires traversing back out the opposite direction, up to the main road, heading back towards the next site, down a series of poorly marked roads and turn-offs, getting to the wrong beach, heading back to the main road, and eventually finding your way to the next site.

:d

As far as I'm concerned, it's no problem as long as you know that going in.

Enjoy!

Ray

 

[CT Sean]

I'll second Go West and Kura Hulanda, it exactly meets your :jump off pier climb up ladder" requirement. Go West has on-site storage so you only need to carry everything there once.

Here's a pic from my past trip with the pier and the ladder in the background, you can see there's a lower platform which makes assembling rig and donning / doffing about as easy as possible, The edge of the reef is about 200 feet beyond the end of the platform. It probably goes without saying, but boat dives leave from the same location.

 

[jd950]

While I agree with what has been said I will add a small warning. Diving the backyard from AllWest requires a long climb up and down the stairway with gear unless you drive around to the fishing pier. Considering your particular situation you might not find that completely exhilarating and as a consequence may find other lodging a better choice. You would be hard pressed to find easier entries than Porto Mari, Cas Abou, Varsenbai, Playa Kalki and several other sites. The first three I just listed are beach entries which may or may not meet your needs, but the shore entries on Curacao are generally very easy. Kalki has both a rocky beach entry and the pier pictured above. Frequently the Curacao shore entries are sandy or slightly rocky beaches in contrast to the iron shore of Bonaire. That might or might not be suitable for you.

Feel free to PM if you want to discuss more.

 

[diversteve]

To add to what JD50 posted, at Go West Diving to get to the pier shown above there was a flight of about 15-20 stone steps down to the level the diveshop is on. They weren't the best steps either - someone spent a lot of time/mortar using natural stones but they were pretty uneven. At one time there was a working motorized trolley used to move tanks up to the parking lot. According to their GM - posts here as [user]Bryan.[/user] - they were recently working on an alternative for shore diving elsewhere - IDK the current status. I would not want to carry tanks up those stairs on a regular basis. Fortunately since most shore dives on Curacao have on-site operators - you don't have to. Also there's Relaxed Guided Dives, they have a fill station on the main road just outside of town.

The Lodge Kura Hulanda itself is higher up the hill there also. That end of Curacao is more vertical than what you'll typically find on Bonaire. Kind of like Bonaire's north end but there's resorts on the cliffs. It's also IMO the better diving. There's a series of stairs/walkways leading down from the lodge to the dive shop also.

The 2nd shot in Traveler Photos here: All West Apartments Curaçao shows the stairs down. It's a long way down, I didn't have any medical issues and decided not to carry my gear down there one morning.

If stairs are an issue. Marazul condos are out, access to their dive is down a large set of rock steps cut into the cliff.

Here's a shot of Varsenbaai from the water. It's probably about 50' over the sand to the dive dock shown on the left. Parking was just to the left of the large blue open air structure. Kokomo beach - TRUNKDIVERS

I second the recommendation for the Marriott. Except that's not the best dive in the area. Nice hotel - on multi-levels but there were elevators that took you down to the beach level IIRC - we just walked down a couple flights of stairs. It's one of the nicer Marriott's I've been to and that includes some of their Renaissance properties. If stairs are an issue for you though, you might find it a little too vertical and sprawling. Nice pool area and it's only about 10mins. from downtown. You can park on the Otrabunda side and walk across the floating bridge to the famous shopping area.

Atlantis Diving/Apt's. is a compressed property with an on-site dive shop. They're in town. There's a shore dive out front, I don't know the access but it's a short walk. Atlantis Apartments : Welcome to our curacao dive apartment rental site

Entry photos for many of the more popular sites are here: Scuba Shore Diving Site Listing for: Curacao, ABC Islands

The closest Curacao had to a dive resort like found on Bonaire was the closed Habitat property. It still required 3 vertical flights of stairs down to the water. But they stored tanks off the dive dock and had a 2nd tank pickup in the parking lot.

Maybe check into Lions Dive also - I've only seen it from the water. They do have a boardwalk between them and the Ocean Encounters main location but there's no dive there since it's a small marina - there probably is one off the LD beach though. Curacao Hotel - Lions Dive & Beach Resort for an unique Caribbean experience?

You can see the grounds here: http://www.oceanencounters.com/en/our-locations/lions-dive-a-beach-resort

 

[diversteve]

fwiw, both Kura Hulanda properties - the Lodge in Westpunt and the Hotel downtown have closed as of 11/30. Go West still seems to be functioning at All West Apts. though.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/lesser-antilles/469101-lodge-kura-hulanda-curacao.html
http://www.curacaochronicle.com/tag/kura-hulanda/

 

[Trucha]

I'd stay in lagun.