Coral Estates in Curacao

[olivermb]

Hi All,

I'm heading to Curacao in mid-March, and my main interest is in shore diving. I've stayed at Habitat a couple of times, and even though I see a fair number of complaints about the place, I've really enjoyed how convenient it is and that it's pretty remote.

This time, though, we're traveling with a group of six people, and they really wanted to rent a house away from the city where we could cook group meals, etc.

At this point we have reservations for one of the houses that's about a 5-minute walk from Habitat: <http://www.coral-estate.com/english/rent-landhuis.html>.

I'm thinking that it might fit the bill. Some people in the group don't dive or don't want to dive a lot (go figure! ), but rather want a quiet spot overlooking the ocean where they can relax, read, etc. I, on the other hand, want to be able to get up in the morning and just waltz on over for some diving without any hassles, or come home in the evening and get out of my wetsuit and into a dry martini without having to organize a group .

So I'm wondering if anyone here has ever rented one of these houses, and if so, what they think. I'm also wondering about the best way to deal with the shore diving. I was thinking about getting an unlimited package from Habitat (and a truck) so that we could do various dives but still use their tanks, rinse tanks, storage, etc. (I don't think the villa we're in has a place to store gear).

Any thoughts or suggestions about any or all of this plan would be most welcome!

Kind regards,

Mary

 

[fins]

Hi Mary,

My wife and I have rented from Coral Estates 3 times in the past four years. Two of these years we were in the property known as Paradiso (or Villa Korsow), right on the edge of the cliffs next to the water. The house was very nice (no central A/C) but the bedrooms each had their own A/C unit. The furniture was OK, not great, but not bad either. Cable TV was kind of lacking but better than nothing (this is kind of the model for the entire island). The appliances were all good. The pool and patio area were very nice.

We've also rented Nos Sono (one year when Paradiso was not available). Nos Sono is higher up on the hills, smaller than Villa Korsow but still very nice with similar amenities. Nos Sono, like Paradiso also had a private pool.

I would stay away from Landhuis. We actually rented this our 2nd year in Curacao but upon seeing the inside (old furniture, kinda musty etc.) we asked for another villa and ended up in Paradiso that year.

The rental folks can be kind of hard to reach via email but rest assured they are very professional and we were not lacking anything during our stays there.

During the years that we rented in Curacao I did dive with Habitat. In fact Habitat was where I had my first Scuba experience (a discover dive). After that I was hooked. On subsequent visits I have always just done my diving ala carte (no package) as my wife does not dive, so as a result I don't dive everyday. After all, it's her vacation too.

I hope this helps. Please feel free to PM me with any questions.

Mark