ronski101
Contributor
This was our first time here but have been to the sister island Bonaire many times. Curacao has some really nice areas where Hollanders have 2nd homes or come for their vacations. We were not planing on doing much diving but did bring our own stuff. We only did 7 shore dives tug, directors bay, Kokomo, port marie, Alice, car pile, and off the Atlantis dive shop beach where we got our tanks and weights. We were guests of friends who have a time share at the royal aquarium which was a couple notches up from our usual digs like Buddys in Bonire and hotel cozumel. We ate out about half the time and BBQ'ed by the pool at the resort. A couple of big markets which carried just about everything. Lots of small markets too.
Curacao does not promote diving and only has 2 dive oriented resorts with the lions den in the south near where we stayed and up north the go west? apartments.
Weather: was good with clouds/sun mix and at least while we were there, there was a constant pretty strong wind 24/7 that kept things cool.
People: good friendly service everywhere that we went much better than Bonaire which was very helpful cuz we had to ask for directions a lot in our rental car. No street/road signs what so ever with lots of roundabouts which i liked. The drivers were courteous and non ego/aggressive like in California. there were blue signs which gave some town directions but the roads were all narrow with lots of potholes that were fortunately filled. No painted rocks to guide tourists like Bonaire. I want some of the stuff the road engineer was smoking cuz i have seen better/straighter goat trails. It was a real challenge to find the dive sites cuz the roads wandered all over the place with no signs. However, by the end of the week we had learned our way around with minimal circling/cussing.
Beaches: the ones that we made it to were pretty nice and most had some kind of security. We were glad we brought heavy soled booties cuz even though most all had a sandy start, after you were up to your knees you were walking pretty much on bowling ball sized rocks. Surf was pretty easy to negotiate as these beaches were in sheltered areas.
Diving: Current was pretty much non existent but it you were on the surface you would get the effect of the strong winds and waves. Vis was good to excellent everywhere and the warm 79-82F water made for pleasant diving. The reefs were all similar looking and for the most part were healthy with lots of soft stuff that usually gets beat up with a lot of dive pressure. The leeward side of the island is pretty much all reef but much of it required boat to access it because of the lack of roads. Unlike Bonaire, the roads are mostly way inland from the beaches and with the hilly terrain good luck. This spreads the dive pressure over a pretty big area. The reefs that we dove appeared to be in better shape than Bonaire's which is more of a dive oriented island.
We didn't bother with boats as most of the reefs are all close enough to swim out to. Ocean encounters wanted $115 for 2 am boat dives which is $30 more than most places we have dove in the carib so we just did our shore thing. It cost us $140 for weights and 14 tanks which was good value. Fish life was on the sparse side but not extremely so. We saw a few turtles and lobster but the island is not a marine park so fishing has pretty much eliminated anything of any size. a few lion fish but maybe their numbers have been reduced for lack of food and hunting for restaurant menus.
On a typical dive trip we do 3-4 dives/day but that would be tough here with the remoteness of the dive sites and poor roads. We had 3 non divers with us to we spent the afternoons doing other stuff. All in all we had an enjoyable time at the nice resort and diving. There are a bunch of sites that we didn't get to so there may be a return trip in our future.
Curacao does not promote diving and only has 2 dive oriented resorts with the lions den in the south near where we stayed and up north the go west? apartments.
Weather: was good with clouds/sun mix and at least while we were there, there was a constant pretty strong wind 24/7 that kept things cool.
People: good friendly service everywhere that we went much better than Bonaire which was very helpful cuz we had to ask for directions a lot in our rental car. No street/road signs what so ever with lots of roundabouts which i liked. The drivers were courteous and non ego/aggressive like in California. there were blue signs which gave some town directions but the roads were all narrow with lots of potholes that were fortunately filled. No painted rocks to guide tourists like Bonaire. I want some of the stuff the road engineer was smoking cuz i have seen better/straighter goat trails. It was a real challenge to find the dive sites cuz the roads wandered all over the place with no signs. However, by the end of the week we had learned our way around with minimal circling/cussing.
Beaches: the ones that we made it to were pretty nice and most had some kind of security. We were glad we brought heavy soled booties cuz even though most all had a sandy start, after you were up to your knees you were walking pretty much on bowling ball sized rocks. Surf was pretty easy to negotiate as these beaches were in sheltered areas.
Diving: Current was pretty much non existent but it you were on the surface you would get the effect of the strong winds and waves. Vis was good to excellent everywhere and the warm 79-82F water made for pleasant diving. The reefs were all similar looking and for the most part were healthy with lots of soft stuff that usually gets beat up with a lot of dive pressure. The leeward side of the island is pretty much all reef but much of it required boat to access it because of the lack of roads. Unlike Bonaire, the roads are mostly way inland from the beaches and with the hilly terrain good luck. This spreads the dive pressure over a pretty big area. The reefs that we dove appeared to be in better shape than Bonaire's which is more of a dive oriented island.
We didn't bother with boats as most of the reefs are all close enough to swim out to. Ocean encounters wanted $115 for 2 am boat dives which is $30 more than most places we have dove in the carib so we just did our shore thing. It cost us $140 for weights and 14 tanks which was good value. Fish life was on the sparse side but not extremely so. We saw a few turtles and lobster but the island is not a marine park so fishing has pretty much eliminated anything of any size. a few lion fish but maybe their numbers have been reduced for lack of food and hunting for restaurant menus.
On a typical dive trip we do 3-4 dives/day but that would be tough here with the remoteness of the dive sites and poor roads. We had 3 non divers with us to we spent the afternoons doing other stuff. All in all we had an enjoyable time at the nice resort and diving. There are a bunch of sites that we didn't get to so there may be a return trip in our future.
