UnderwaterBumbleBee
Contributor
Where to start! It was such a great trip and I wish we could have stayed longer! I'll have photos soon but here's the full report of our trip. Sorry it's so long, I'm detailed! 
Driving was an experience, after about 2-3 days we had a better feel for the island. We didn't expect how big and spread out the island actually was. I would definitly rent a car on Curacao, there's just too many things to see and do and many nice beaches.
We stayed at Habitat, which seems to be in the middle of the island. About 20 or 30 minutes to Wespunt and to Willemstad. After exploring the island and visting Lions Dive, we were glad that we stayed on the other side of the island. I think the majority of the diving is closer to Wespunt as are many of the beaches. We had a garden level room with Habitat that was right behind the restaurant and it had a great patio with a view of the water. Loved the location of this room (#250), close to almost everything. The room had two queen beds, tv, shower with excellent water pressure, a mini fridge and microwave. Decent enough room. AC worked great all week. The hotel restaurant (Ocean's) is okay. We had a couple lunches/dinners there but the food is nothing spectacular. Some of the dutch items on the menu were interesting (Bitter Ballen
) Much better places to eat at around the island.
Easy Divers is the onsite dive company. They were okay, laidback as others have mentioned. There was some confusion the first day about having too many people on the boat so they had to take out two boats. That was nice since it split the 24 or so people in half. The rest of the week it was pretty full on both boats and a couple times they had mechanical problems on our boat. Habitat has a nice house reef for shore dives and it's not to far of a swim. Porto Marie is really close to Habitat and also a nice shore dive with very nice beach, restaurant with great smoothies! We did one shore dive at Playa Kalki/Alice in Wonderland where Ocean Encounters West is located. Andreas is not kidding when he says that Alice in Wonderland and Watamula are two of the best sites. The coral formations are incredible on their shore dive Alice In Wonderland. Watamula is a quick boat ride with them (Easy Divers would not go that far) and we were really impressed with OEW's professionalism. They were great at pointing things out and we enjoyed the smaller boat we took on the afternoon dive. We ended up seeing over 25 Oceanic Triggerfish with nests, an eagle ray and more on that dive. In general, the fish life was very nice. On a couple dives, there were so many fish around us it was hard to focus on anything in particular. We saw tons of little tiny baby fish and some of the biggest fattest fish compared to other places in the Caribbean. Very happy with the diving. We never did get to dive the Superior Producer, the car pile or the tug boat since they were so far from Habitat. Their on my list for the next trip along with The Dive Bus. We've heard a lot of great things about them from the locals and other divers.
The actual island was a lot more dessert looking than I had thought. Lots of hills/mountains and that time of year there is not a lot of greenery. Most hotels and houses have the nice tropical landscaping. However, the water is a vibrant turquoise blue and was really striking. The constant winds were fantastic, I rarely felt hot or humid the entire trip. Made for great nights sitting outside.
As for restaurants our best experience was definitly Sunshine's Sol Food in Westpunt. Sunshine and David have a great house with really nice patio's and a restaurant that they run on Fri/Sat/Sun for Lunch and Dinner. Sunshine was nice enough to email me her notes on the island and after a day or so at Habitat we decided to check them out. What a great surprise! They were great to talk with and we ended up meeting other Scubaboarders and locals there! Sunshine had great pizza with thin crust, really good lasagna and other items. Great desserts! Four loveable dogs made us miss our lab a little less! They also have 3 rooms that you can stay in on the upper level of their home.
We also checked out Kura Hulanda lodge in Wespunt and had a great dinner there (watch your husbands ladies). We also tried Landhuis Daniel which is close to Habitat. We had a really good meal and probably the fastest service and they were very nice! We did spend one evening in Willemstad but we preferred the other side of the island. We were so busy diving and socializing that we didn't get around to seeing any of the other attracations on the island....next trip I guess!
Driving was an experience, after about 2-3 days we had a better feel for the island. We didn't expect how big and spread out the island actually was. I would definitly rent a car on Curacao, there's just too many things to see and do and many nice beaches.
We stayed at Habitat, which seems to be in the middle of the island. About 20 or 30 minutes to Wespunt and to Willemstad. After exploring the island and visting Lions Dive, we were glad that we stayed on the other side of the island. I think the majority of the diving is closer to Wespunt as are many of the beaches. We had a garden level room with Habitat that was right behind the restaurant and it had a great patio with a view of the water. Loved the location of this room (#250), close to almost everything. The room had two queen beds, tv, shower with excellent water pressure, a mini fridge and microwave. Decent enough room. AC worked great all week. The hotel restaurant (Ocean's) is okay. We had a couple lunches/dinners there but the food is nothing spectacular. Some of the dutch items on the menu were interesting (Bitter Ballen
) Much better places to eat at around the island. Easy Divers is the onsite dive company. They were okay, laidback as others have mentioned. There was some confusion the first day about having too many people on the boat so they had to take out two boats. That was nice since it split the 24 or so people in half. The rest of the week it was pretty full on both boats and a couple times they had mechanical problems on our boat. Habitat has a nice house reef for shore dives and it's not to far of a swim. Porto Marie is really close to Habitat and also a nice shore dive with very nice beach, restaurant with great smoothies! We did one shore dive at Playa Kalki/Alice in Wonderland where Ocean Encounters West is located. Andreas is not kidding when he says that Alice in Wonderland and Watamula are two of the best sites. The coral formations are incredible on their shore dive Alice In Wonderland. Watamula is a quick boat ride with them (Easy Divers would not go that far) and we were really impressed with OEW's professionalism. They were great at pointing things out and we enjoyed the smaller boat we took on the afternoon dive. We ended up seeing over 25 Oceanic Triggerfish with nests, an eagle ray and more on that dive. In general, the fish life was very nice. On a couple dives, there were so many fish around us it was hard to focus on anything in particular. We saw tons of little tiny baby fish and some of the biggest fattest fish compared to other places in the Caribbean. Very happy with the diving. We never did get to dive the Superior Producer, the car pile or the tug boat since they were so far from Habitat. Their on my list for the next trip along with The Dive Bus. We've heard a lot of great things about them from the locals and other divers.
The actual island was a lot more dessert looking than I had thought. Lots of hills/mountains and that time of year there is not a lot of greenery. Most hotels and houses have the nice tropical landscaping. However, the water is a vibrant turquoise blue and was really striking. The constant winds were fantastic, I rarely felt hot or humid the entire trip. Made for great nights sitting outside.
As for restaurants our best experience was definitly Sunshine's Sol Food in Westpunt. Sunshine and David have a great house with really nice patio's and a restaurant that they run on Fri/Sat/Sun for Lunch and Dinner. Sunshine was nice enough to email me her notes on the island and after a day or so at Habitat we decided to check them out. What a great surprise! They were great to talk with and we ended up meeting other Scubaboarders and locals there! Sunshine had great pizza with thin crust, really good lasagna and other items. Great desserts! Four loveable dogs made us miss our lab a little less! They also have 3 rooms that you can stay in on the upper level of their home.
We also checked out Kura Hulanda lodge in Wespunt and had a great dinner there (watch your husbands ladies)
. We also tried Landhuis Daniel which is close to Habitat. We had a really good meal and probably the fastest service and they were very nice! We did spend one evening in Willemstad but we preferred the other side of the island. We were so busy diving and socializing that we didn't get around to seeing any of the other attracations on the island....next trip I guess!
