Curacao house rental recommendations

[kdl]

Hello Curacao regulars. I'll looking for a recommendation on a house for next summer for 4-6 people, assuming we can still do lots of shore diving. We've been to Bonaire several times, but never Curacao. I'm hoping it's similar with the shore diving. Is renting a house a good way to do Curacao or do you have other recommendations?

Thanks!

 

[Curacao Sunshine]

Hi Dallas,
Renting a house is a great affordable way to vacation and yes, the shore diving is quite easy on Curacao. You can find houses, villas and apartments on VRBO, Home Away or Vacation villas dot com. to name a few. We are partial to the west end having moved here last year. (From Scuba Board), Flamingo Villa is located over Habitat Dive Resort, All West Apartments and our apartment, Sunshine Getaway are in Westpunt and use Ocean Encounters West as a dive op. The only Bed and Breakfast in the east I know of personally and have forgotten the new name, is in Santa Catharina which I think might be a bit out of the way. I have some notes for our guests on the west end if you'd like to get an idea of the area, email me and I'll send them to you. Sometimes mail with attachments go to US spam or junk folders. If you ask for them check the other mail boxes. Happy Planning
Sunshine
Curacao Sunshine - Rental Property on the Island of Curacao

 

[dvrliz1]

kdl,

You need to be very selective where you rent, if you are going to rent a private house.. Westpunt as Sunshine suggests is a beautiful area, but a bit isolated, and I would consider renting there, but personally, that would be the only area I would rent a private house in of I wanted to get "away from it all". I've never done shore diving on Curacao, but here is a link that will help you to see the sites, and people rate them, Scuba Shore Diving Site Listing for: Curacao, ABC Islands . Westpunt is located on the northwest side of the island. I have been to Habitat which is located in Westpunt, and it is very isolated, but beautiful. It took us about 40 minutes to get to town and the same to the airport. Wish I could be of more help.

Liz

 

[Curacao Sunshine]

Sorry, I could have been more specific. I would suppose if you are posting on Scuba Board you would be going to Curacao to dive. There are dive sites all along the south coast. We live "out west", are more familiar with the dive sites here and admittedly very biased. If you like casinos, higher priced restaurants, nightlife and shopping, stay in Willemstad. There are at least a dozen dive operators in town as well as the Dive Bus who will dive and guide you on dives both in the east and the west. The east coast dive boats do not go to the west end sites.
Map CURACAO MAP FULL SIZE
Another Map Curamap, Online Roadmap for Curacao
Habitat (located in St. Willibordus) and Sunset Waters (located in Santa Martha) are 2 dive resorts that while they are not at the far west end of the island they are far enough away from the main road that they are only 10 minutes closer to town than Westpunt. You will find villas available in both locations. I would call almost anything in Banda Bou (west of the airport) out in the country as there are very few restaurants and no night life except on night dives.
I think it's great that the tourists and divers who do stay in Westpunt take the same reasons into consideration and chose not to be in the city. In Westpunt the Lodge Kura Hulanda is adjacent to Ocean Encounters West Dive op. Andreas at All West Apartments and David and my 3 bedroom apartment are close by. Some divers literally dive up to 6 dives a day; a bit much for me. But... for some topside activities there is Mt. Christoffel to Climb, Shete Boca/Boca Tabla to explore, water skiing, fishing, mountain biking, just beaching it, Eric's ATV and Curacao Actief have west end tours and there are massages available at the Lodge and Cas Abou, maybe Porto Marie. Many divers will spend the day before they fly touring the city.
Along with the dive site link Liz posted, Curacao Actief has a very nice description of the Curacao dive sites.
Curaçao Actief
We think that more than a few marked boat dives are accessible from shore.
If you decide to stay at the West end, email me and I'll send you my notes on the area. I'm sure some of the many ScubaBoarders who have stayed around here might post that if you don't need to be in the city, the countryside and diving are a beautiful reason to stay at this end of the island.
Sunshine
curacaosunshine@gmail.com
We moved to Westpunt from NH. So we are used to being an hour away from Boston, the mountains and the ocean. We don't mind the 35 minute drive (island time is slower but the driving gets faster) to town. A lot of the tourists have as long of a drive to work and never seem to mind a trip or two to town.

 

[maggs_the]

we just got back from Curacao about 2 weeks ago and while we did not stay with Sunshine and David (SORRY Sunshine!!!), we did go over there for dinner one night and they have a gorgeous setup. And i dont know if she tells it or not, but we figured out she was a caterer here in the states if that tells you anything about her fantastic food (still thinking about those spinach pancakes!).

we stayed at All West Apartments which is about a 4 minute (at most) drive from Sunshine's. and since we had never been to Curacao before, we did all the research and found the list of the sites one "must see" while in Curacao. however, after doing a day of driving to hit Playa Lagun, Porto Marie and St. Marie (Habitat's house reef), along with the 2 days of boat dives to see Mushroom Forrest and Watamula.... well, I can't say we regret those days but we decided amongst OUR little group that the two reefs right by us, Playa Pescado in front of our apartments and Playa Kaliki or Alice in Wonderland which is by Ocean Encounters Dive Shop and close to Sunshine... we decided that those two were in our opinion the best so we stayed there the remainder of the week.

But it wasnt like there was a LOT of driving involved going to the other dive sites. It's not that big of an island We just figured, why load up when we can simply walk down and into the water.

wherever you do stay, go to the west side for at least a day of your diving and stop by Sol Food (Sunshine's place) on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday and you are sure to not be disappointed.

 

[morecowbells]

That is great info Karen! I only hear wonderful things about Sunshine's place. Since it is only going to be my husband and myself, we will be staying at All West this Jan. Sounds like the diving in front of the apts. is going to be a real treat.

 

[maggs_the]

That is great info Karen! I only hear wonderful things about Sunshine's place. Since it is only going to be my husband and myself, we will be staying at All West this Jan. Sounds like the diving in front of the apts. is going to be a real treat.

i am jealous!!!

the apts at All West have basic utensils to cook and eat with but there are no food stuff items at all in the apartment so know that when you go from the airport directly to the grocery store. there is a coffee maker and coffee filters but obviously no coffee and they do not keep things like salt, pepper, oil or any what you might think are basic condiments. But the grocery they will take you to has all of that and more. The pots and pans are not teflon coated and the stovetop is gas if that makes a difference on whether you buy non-stick spray heheh.. we didnt and had forgot how hard it is to scrape scrambled eggs off a non-coated pan

they do start you out with a small bottle of dishwashing soap and it lasted us all week.. but we ran out of toilet paper and just bought our own rather than trying to find someone to refill us. they dont come in and "clean" the rooms every day like a hotel. see, i knew that because we were renting an apartment not a hotel room but at least one member in our group did NOT know that.

the group at All West treated us well and took care of us but they didnt really tell us the details we thought we needed so we bought things we didnt need and didnt buy things we wished we had of. however, if you take it as it comes and just kinda roll with it... you'll be just fine! once we figured out how to just relax, it was one of our best trips ever.