Curacao - favorite resort ??

[kmcneer]

Habitat is great diving op and house reef. Stayed at the Hilton 2 weeks ago and loved it. Walking to Hooks is great and there isa good dive over there just watch the current crossing the channel. Great food also. You can walk down the beach to Marriott also and sometimes drift dive to the Hilton beach. It is a pretty decent dive the only place I saw turtle out of 15 dives that week at different locations. Also some BIG tarpon....Never dove the Hilton dive shop as they do not have Nitrox. They get it from Hooks next door and then doubble the price! I just skipped the middle man.

 

[1gromit]

I'd go with the Marriott as well; my SO and I loved our stay there - clean and beautiful with great sunsets. It's a good walk up to the hilton, which has a great '60's feel and which shares the mini-peninsula. Also, while CSS is a good on-site dive op, we used the Dive Bus, which picks you up at the Marriott and hustles you up to all the dive sites up north or farther south. Non-divers welcome on the Dive Bus.

 

[xXxDivingDeetjexXx]

Hey there!

I'd Recommend habitat,if you really want experienced diving instructors/help.
Habitat hotel,you can socialize with other divers,and find different dive buddies.
On the contrary,if you prefer to dive,and also have a regular vacation with other water sports,I'd recommend the Breezes hotel Curacao ,the Marriott is also a good option then.

I hope this answers your question!
You can always IM me,for more info

Salty Greetz!

xXxDivingDeetjeXxX

 

[fisheyeview]

Stayed at Habitat in August. We loved it. Great operation, friendly staff, nad an awsome house reef. We rented a truck and dove all over the island too. Would not hesitate to recommend Habitat.

 

[Tennessee Slim]

I'd also look into Lion's Dive. Ocean Encounters runs their dive op, too. They're a short taxi ride to downtown Punda and right next to Mambo (the most notorious night spot on the island). I regularly dive with Sunset Divers; I love their operation, their staff and their dive sites but -- from all I've seen and heard -- their accommodations don't match up to the other hi-end spots (Marriot, Lion's, etc).

 

[pm3009]

How far is the good diving by boat from the Marriot on Curacao ? I'm not interested as much in shore diving. Is the best diving on the West End, or is that where the best shore diving is?

Thanks!
Pam

 

[Scuba One]

Both all-inclusive resorts in Curacao, Sunset Waters and Breezes Curacao, are nice resorts. It depends on what you are looking for in a vacation as to which would be for you. The original question was what to do with a non-diver friend. With Breezes being over 300 rooms, only a mile from town, and walking distance to the Sea Aquarium, there is lots more to do on the property and in the area. Breezes also is a shore dive to the "Car Pile" dive site. They both have quality dive operators. Ocean Enounters at Breezes recently purchased a new boat, which should reduce the number of divers per boat. Photos of the Breezes Resort, both above and below the water can be found at www.divebreezes.com and of Sunset Waters at www.scubaone.com/curacao

 

[diversteve]

How far is the good diving by boat from the Marriot on Curacao ?

The Marriott is in Piscadera Bay, the west end of Willemsted. A quick look at Caribbean Sea Sports website shows the farthest they go west is to Porto Mari - a couple minutes past Habitat resort. You can dive Porto Mari from shore.

One of the best known dives on Curacao is Mushroom Forest and the Cave.

Rated as one of the World's Best Dives by Sport Diver Magazine

It's near San Nicolas so I doubt CSS runs that far west. Everyone we asked (locals) said the best boat dive is Watamula, it's past West Punt on the NW side of the island. We couldn't work it into our schedule...

I've read that Ocean Encounters goes to Watamula from OE West and maybe Habitat or Sunset Divers might run up there once a week also. OEWest/Kura Hulanda are on Playa Kalki, another of the best dives on the island. A long boat ride from town - if anyone does it.

We dove Lost Anchor just east of Sunset Waters, it's one to do from a boat, there's about a 50' (or more) vertical climb down. Really nice dive - ask about the seahorses.

Is the best diving on the West End, or is that where the best shore diving is?

My personal opinion is that the best diving is on the West End. Or at least midway between Willemsted and West Punt. But we mostly shoredove and did more of our diving to the west around Habitat, Varsenbaai and Lagun. We did dive the Tugboat out east, the dive past it is better than the wreck. Generally speaking the island is so long that diveops in town stay near town or slightly east/west of it and the diveresorts on the west end do the same in their area.

It's probably not possible to find one diveop that does all the best dives. Your best option is to decide where to stay and drive to the boat for the farther out sites.

From the Marriott, it's probably 20 minutes driving to Sunset Waters and probably 20-30 minutes more to West Punt. East through town to Ocean Encounters/Lions Dive took us 20mins. one morning - 10 mins. further to the Tugboat. We stayed across the street from the Marriott in Piscadera part of the week.

One other thing to mention is that Habitat, Sunset Waters and Kura Hulanda are pretty much the only thing in their immediate vicinity. If you're not into eating/staying/diving at your resort mostly, I'd recommend the Marriott or someplace east of town like Lions Dive. (Marriott's much nicer...)

 

[Tennessee Slim]

Pam, I’ll not try to talk you out of exclusively boat diving except to say that the majority of the island’s best dive spots also are easily accessible from the shore (at least those on the southern shore). Very few of the popular dive locations are boat-only so even if you boat dive, you’ll be on many of the same sites as the shore divers. You can shore dive Car Pile, Oswaldo’s Dropoff and Superior Producer -- three of the island’s more famous dive spots -- without ever leaving the city limits.

According to my “Drive and Dive” map, the 72 named dive sites along the island’s southern coast are surprisingly evenly distributed. Numbers 1 through 34 are west of Bullenbaai (the large harbor in the middle of the island) and the remaining 38 are east of it. Those 7 dive sites on the far eastern end are accessible only by boat because they’re offshore from private land. But there are great dives on both ends of the island and different divers will have different preferences so I would be hard pressed to state unequivocally that the diving on either end is clearly superior. I personally think the west enjoys a modest advantage but my view probably is tainted by the fact that I also prefer the dive operations to the west.

In regards to the Marriott, Hook’s is the closest dive op (a five minute walk) but they specialize in shore dives. They occasionally do run boat dives, notably to Blue Bay Wall and Vaersenbaai, among others, but they are a very small operation and mostly tend to shore dive. I’m not even sure they own a boat but the one they use is pretty small, good for no more than 10 (1-tank) divers.

Although all are in the greater city of Willemstad, Breezes and Lion’s Dive are on the opposite side of the city from the Marriott. Willemstad is spread out quite a bit more than it has to be because some fool went and plunked a harbor and a refinery slap in the middle of it. Because driving here is …shall I say, …challenging, if there’s any traffic to speak of, the trip from the Marriot to either of the other two could take half an hour (20 minutes if there’s NO traffic and NO police). If it’s rush hour or if there’s a wreck on the Queen Juliana bridge, count on at least another 15 minutes.

The roads from the Marriott to points west typically are much less congested, which doesn't on its own guarantee a speed limit drive. When I lived in Blue Bay, I regularly got from home to the pier at Sunset Waters in 25 minutes flat, less if I was in a large hurry. Excepting the first three kilometers, my route was exactly the same as the one you’d be following when starting from the Marriott.

I think you generally can plan on getting from the Marriott all the way to Westpunt in 45 minutes. Once you’re familiar with the road, and if the traffic permits, I expect you’d be making the drive in 35 minutes, maybe 30.

For your non-diving friend, the shopping, eateries and watering holes in Otra Banda are less than 10 minutes by taxi from the Marriott. And once you’re in Otra Banda, it’s a one minute stroll across the Queen Emma foot bridge to the heart of Punda’s commercial district. You can't swing a dead cat in Punda without hitting a restaurant, a haberdashery, two public houses and three T-shirt and gift shops. FWIW, the island’s one and only movie theater is in Punda.

As I mentioned before, Punda is even closer to Breezes and Lion’s Dive (they’re practically joined at the hip) than the Marriott is to Otra Banda.

**Except as noted, all times are estimates; YMMV.

 

[lmorin]

I have gathered, from reading, that the better diving is toward the west end (northwest side of the island). Based on a 15 dive experience with Sunset Divers (mostly boat diving), I would have to say that dives to the north of Sunset Divers were pretty darn good! (easily comparable to Bonaire) Sunset Divers does run a weekly trip in a small boat to Watamula, conditions permitting. Costs extra and is about an hour or more to get there. Timing was not right for us to do it.

Many of the best dives for a number of miles north of Sunset Divers are not accessible by car/foot because the adjacent land is privately owned and entry prohibited. The resort, Sunset Waters, really is rather removed from other entertainment options. Its beach area is nice and picturesque. Decent, very shallow snorkling right in front of the hotel.