fallcreek196
Registered
any of ya'll going to be there the first part of December?
Curacao - favorite resort ??
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The Kura Hulanda Lodge is a beautiful property in Westpunt, and the Dive Op, Ocean Encounters West, has a great boat with short and picturesque trips to the best dives on the island, like Watamula, Kortape Point, and Mushroom Forest. Its first rate with fun and flexible DMs.
The house reef, "Alice in Wonderland", right off the Resort's beach, "Playa Kalki", may change your mind about shorediving. Its a pristine dive, teaming with life.
Which is what makes them so good!
West end water is clearer, reefs are healthier, its not crowded or touristy, beaches are secluded and beautiful. The sunsets, since the sun sets in the west, are worth scheduling your day around.
O'Malley
Contributor
...another vote for the Marriott.
My wife and I were there a year ago January and the Marriott offered her all the pampering while I was out diving. I opted to rent a jeep and drive down to Sunset Waters daily for 6 days of diving. The driving, at times, was a bit hairy but after a day or two, I was well acclimated...and, as best I can recall, the drive was roughly 20-30 minutes.
CSS ran a good operation but I choose to dive the west sites and made the difference by car. Another highly recommended option is the Dive-Bus...Mark & Suzy are great folks.
My wife and I were there a year ago January and the Marriott offered her all the pampering while I was out diving. I opted to rent a jeep and drive down to Sunset Waters daily for 6 days of diving. The driving, at times, was a bit hairy but after a day or two, I was well acclimated...and, as best I can recall, the drive was roughly 20-30 minutes.
CSS ran a good operation but I choose to dive the west sites and made the difference by car. Another highly recommended option is the Dive-Bus...Mark & Suzy are great folks.
TheDiveBus
Contributor
For what it's worth, here's our objective opinion having lived on the island 4 years and met divers staying all over the island:
- no boat operator can reach all the dive sites on Curacao due to waves, shape of the island, boat speed etc. The Marriot dive shop goes to more Western sites that Breezes; Breezes goes to more Eastern sites. Kura Hulanda is way up north, a long way from anywhere else on the island and folks staying here often rent cars. Sunset is quite far up west and seems to have good reviews. Habitat has mixed reviews and is more or less in the middle of the island.
- the only way to see all the sites is shore diving as you can drive from one end of the island to the other in 1 hour. You can do this independently or with us on The Dive Bus. The Dive Bus picks up at Marriot, Breezes and all other hotels/accommodations in the Willemstad area
- eastern sites vs western sites is definitely personal opinion. We dive all over and our divers don't seem to have a particular preference, they like them all
) You won't be missing out if you 'only' dive east or 'only' dive west. Go here for details of a bunch of the sites we dive and photos to give you some idea:
The Dive Bus - Curacao Shore Dive Sites
- having just got back from vacation in Bonaire, we can say for sure that the diving is pretty much exactly the same. We noticed less variety of fish and marine life in Bonaire to Curacao, believe it or not, but the soft corals and the fish we did see were definitely bigger than in Curacao.
Wherever you stay and wherever you dive, you should enjoy yourself in Curacao. There's something for everyone for sure and the diving rocks ;o)
Have fun!
Suzy
The Dive Bus - HOME
- no boat operator can reach all the dive sites on Curacao due to waves, shape of the island, boat speed etc. The Marriot dive shop goes to more Western sites that Breezes; Breezes goes to more Eastern sites. Kura Hulanda is way up north, a long way from anywhere else on the island and folks staying here often rent cars. Sunset is quite far up west and seems to have good reviews. Habitat has mixed reviews and is more or less in the middle of the island.
- the only way to see all the sites is shore diving as you can drive from one end of the island to the other in 1 hour. You can do this independently or with us on The Dive Bus. The Dive Bus picks up at Marriot, Breezes and all other hotels/accommodations in the Willemstad area
- eastern sites vs western sites is definitely personal opinion. We dive all over and our divers don't seem to have a particular preference, they like them all
) You won't be missing out if you 'only' dive east or 'only' dive west. Go here for details of a bunch of the sites we dive and photos to give you some idea:The Dive Bus - Curacao Shore Dive Sites
- having just got back from vacation in Bonaire, we can say for sure that the diving is pretty much exactly the same. We noticed less variety of fish and marine life in Bonaire to Curacao, believe it or not, but the soft corals and the fish we did see were definitely bigger than in Curacao.
Wherever you stay and wherever you dive, you should enjoy yourself in Curacao. There's something for everyone for sure and the diving rocks ;o)
Have fun!
Suzy
The Dive Bus - HOME
pm3009
Guest
Hi. We're trying to decide between the Marriott and the Kura Hulanda Lodge. We'd prefer a more island feel like the Kura appears to have over a more hotel atmosphere of the Marriott. From what I've read, the Kura is way out of the way. How is the restaurant(s) there, the diving, the beach and the dive op? If we stayed there, we would probably only venture into town once or twice, so we'd want to make sure we'd be happy with the food, diving and beach at the Kura Hulanda.
Thanks!
Pam
Thanks!
Pam
Damselfish
Contributor
We were quite happy with the food at Kura Hulanda, and we're reasonably fussy. Great service in general, and very nice place. I spent no time on the beach (not a beach person) so can't say much other than that it was there. It's down some stairs at the bottom of the cliff. The pool area is nice and we enjoyed hanging out there. Jaanchis is nearby and is a fun place to eat sometime; I loved the food and my husband didn't so much, but the place is somewhat famous anyway. There must be some other local restaurants in the area but we didn't hunt them down, since we were happy eating at the hotel.
I had a few beefs about the dive op there, one is that they are open something like 9-5 (except when they're not) and it's bit of a pain to shore dive outside those hours. Even when they're open you have to get them to unlock for you all the time, there aren't actual lockers just a room. The shore dive is great though, and it's still more convienient than on many islands, at least its there. Also, they don't guarantee they will run their boat ever if they don't happen to have enough divers, and sometimes it seemed like it wouldn't have run anyway due to lack of a captain or whatever. The hotel told us (too late) that if a dive package is booked through the hotel they will guarantee the boat. Hotel management was helpful, dive shop management were some of the least customer service oriented folks we've experienced. The rest of the dive staff was great. Don't get me wrong, still a good place to stay and dive, but if they had a clue and bothered to fix a few things it could be a world class arrangement there, so it's sort of a shame.
I had a few beefs about the dive op there, one is that they are open something like 9-5 (except when they're not) and it's bit of a pain to shore dive outside those hours. Even when they're open you have to get them to unlock for you all the time, there aren't actual lockers just a room. The shore dive is great though, and it's still more convienient than on many islands, at least its there. Also, they don't guarantee they will run their boat ever if they don't happen to have enough divers, and sometimes it seemed like it wouldn't have run anyway due to lack of a captain or whatever. The hotel told us (too late) that if a dive package is booked through the hotel they will guarantee the boat. Hotel management was helpful, dive shop management were some of the least customer service oriented folks we've experienced. The rest of the dive staff was great. Don't get me wrong, still a good place to stay and dive, but if they had a clue and bothered to fix a few things it could be a world class arrangement there, so it's sort of a shame.
irie1029
Contributor
PM3009,
We spent the day at the Lodge it is remote. The beach is down steps from the lodge. There is a Dive Shop right there... as well as an awesome house reef. I liked the lodge and the food service at the beach... we stayed at the Marriott and I would choose Marriott again... Just closer to everything and a large sandy beach. Additionally the dive operator at the Marriott Carib Sea Sports was great.
But I woudl not miss a day trip to the lodge. Also the dive bus seems like a fun thing.
Don't worry either place you will have a ball.
We spent the day at the Lodge it is remote. The beach is down steps from the lodge. There is a Dive Shop right there... as well as an awesome house reef. I liked the lodge and the food service at the beach... we stayed at the Marriott and I would choose Marriott again... Just closer to everything and a large sandy beach. Additionally the dive operator at the Marriott Carib Sea Sports was great.
But I woudl not miss a day trip to the lodge. Also the dive bus seems like a fun thing.
Don't worry either place you will have a ball.
Breezes Curacao and Sunset Waters are both all-inclusive. Sunset Waters is approximatley 70 rooms, so is much smaller that Breezes, which is over 300 rooms. It is comparatively priced to Breezes but do to it's size does not offer as many activities or restaurant options. Sunset Waters is approximatley 45 minutes from town, but they do offer a shopping shuttle. Breezes is only a couple of miles from town.
It depends on the type of atmosphere you are looking for. Photos I took both above and below the water from both resorts can be found at www.scubaone.com/curacao and www.divebreezes.com
It depends on the type of atmosphere you are looking for. Photos I took both above and below the water from both resorts can be found at www.scubaone.com/curacao and www.divebreezes.com
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