Curacao - suggestions close to Willemstad?

[lunula]

Hi all - we are considering a two week dive trip this year. The first week would be our standard Bonaire trip, but we wanted to take advantage of the 25 minute Insel Air flight to Curacao and spend an additional 6 days there. I've read quite a few threads about Curacao, and there is a direct flight back to Charlotte...so why not?

As far as accommodations go, I've read a lot of recommendations for All West and Marazul; however, I was hoping to stay closer to Willemstad. Since we'll have already spent a (somewhat) remote week in Bonaire, I'd like to have more options for dining, shopping, bars, etc. without a 45 minute drive. Plus, the stairs @ All West & Marazul scare me! I have 2 bad knees (one of which I went through an entire knee replacement when I was only 43) and after lugging my stuff around shore diving in Bonaire, I think I'd like to avoid this.

With this in mind, can anyone give recommendations on hotels, condos, etc. that are geared to divers in the Willemstad area? We were in Curacao for a day while on a cruise a few years back and used the Dive Bus for our dives. We were happy with them, but would love more suggestions on dive shops. Even though we'll be there for 5-6 days, I don't think we'll do more than 1-2 dives per day and we prefer shore because I get motion sickness on dive boats.

Thank you in advance.

 

[Damselfish]

Perhaps Scuba Lodge (I have not stayed there.) Probably the most dive focused place downtown, I think they only do shore diving from there but will arrange boat dives someplace if you want. And you can walk to all sorts of stuff.

For a beach resort type experience near downtown I would normally recommend the Marriott resort at Piscadera Bay, which is not far west of downtown, a pretty short drive. But it's closed for renovations, maybe until 2018?. They had a shore dive and a dive op with a good rep. There are a couple other hotels in the same complex. The Hilton is on the water sort of next door and I think lately it has the same dive op as the Marriott, but didn't sound like a good shore dive and most people don't have a very high opinion of that Hilton. There's another hotel across the street which is very nice but appears to be more business oriented. Also a number of condos in that area that people have talked here about staying at, but I don't know specifics.

On the other side of town, again not too far a drive, there is Lion's Dive hotel, Sunscape Curacao (AI), and the Seaquarium Resort (timeshare condos) with dive shops on site (or near in the case of Seaquarium, walk over to Ocean Encounters at Lion's Dive.)

Note that staying near town, while can be nice for other reasons, you may not wind up doing the best diving available in Curacao, which IMO is mostly towards the west end of the island - counterintuitively opposite end from the marine park.) Which is fine as long as you make that choice conciously, and don't whine afterwards that the diving isn't very good in Curacao. )

 

[diversteve]

I'd be very concerned about flying insel right now....

Is InselAir in Trouble? - Airways Magazine
Aruban company will request bankruptcy InselAir International
InselAir to dismiss 250
http://www.bonairereporter.com/news/017pdfs/newcurrent.pdf pg. 3

I agree with everything Damselfish posted. I'd add a couple things. I'm one with a low opinion of the Hilton - have not stayed there but walked the grounds. Food was average and overpriced. Their beaches are just weird - there's a dock in the front of one of them and an active boat channel to the right of it. Also the reef is a long way out since Piscadera Bay curves in there. It wouldn't be my choice. http://www.hiltonhotels.com/nl_NL/assets/img/Hotel Images/Hilton/C/CURHIHH/CURHIHH_mast02_beachoverview.jpg

I think (but do not know) that Scubalodge might be too close to the old downtown which can be very congested - it's where most of the shopping, farmers market, many of the historical buildings etc. are. It's really the traffic that's an issue if you were trying to get out of there to dive elsewhere. Also I'm pretty sure given it's location there would be a few steps down to the water - a portion of downtown is on low cliffs overlooking the harbor and I doubt they can bring a dive boat in there so you'd likely have to shuttle/drive to a nearby marina.

IMO also the better diving was West but it's also hillier in some areas. One resort we stayed at was all 4-5 steps up/down for everything plus they had a 60' vertical ladder for water access. Nice view but we drove 1/4 mi. to Playa Lagun to beach dive there instead. Most of the western sites I can recall have similar beach access - at some you can drive right to it. The "Go West Diving" sites near Westpunt might give you trouble - at Lodge KH from their parking lot there's 20 rough stone steps down to their dive dock. The other Go West/All West Apt's location on the south end of the bay isn't for you either - 2-3 flights of stairs down to the beach from the dive shop. Plus a flight up to a 2nd floor apt.

Some of the facilities have changed but you can see the entries here: Scuba Shore Diving Site Listing for: Curacao, ABC Islands One nice thing about the very few sites that need a divedock - since almost all sites have an onsite operator - they've built one. And usually charge a few guilders to use them - often waived if you rent tanks on-site also.

If you want to boat dive Watamula (you do...) - I believe Caribbean Sea Sports at the Hilton goes there - possibly Ocean Encounters also. It's a long ride and a lot of gas so other than them you have to drive to a west-based shop with a boat - like GoWest or whoever is at the old Habitat Resort at Coral Paradise - the resort itself is now condos although they graded a road down the hill to the water. Good dive if you find yourself in the area.

Lagun is about 30 mins. drive from Willemstad - Westpunt closer to 45. There's even a little traffic at times on the main road bisecting the island to the west.

 

[Damselfish]

Good point, I meant to warn about Insel. They've hunkered down to their interisland flights, but I have no idea how solid that is. I personally wouldn't plan a trip that relies on Insel right now.

Yeah the Hilton - I have not stayed there myself either, just ate there once (meh) and wandered around (seemed at least 10 or maybe 20 years overdue for a refresh.) The beach/pool area was unusual, though sort of interesting in it's own way. We've often seen Caribbean Sea Sports boat pretty far west - I don't know if they go as far as Watamula, but their web site would probably say. Ocean Encounters used to bus people from their eastern locations to Go West (when it was called Ocean Encounters West and part of the same company.) I'm somewhat skeptical they would make the run by boat, but again that should be on their web site.

The old Habitat resort is now Oasis Parcs Coral Estate, it was redone by a Dutch company and caters more to that market. I think you can rent in the redone resort accommodations just like any hotel. There were 2-3 flights of stairs down to the water from the pool to where the old dive shop was at the bottom of the cliff. But they cut in that road to the water and relocated the dive shop. So it might be possible to walk down to the dive shop with few stairs involved, but I've not been there since they did all that. The dive op that had been there moved their operation somewhat recently to a beach nearby, I have no idea why. They appear to have a new op but I know nothing about them either. Location wise, this is a compromise. There is good shore diving there and it's far enough west that boats can hit the better stuff pretty easily. It's still fairly remote and a drive to town, but generally less of a drive to civilization than from the west end. We would often drive downtown or to the Piscadera area in the late afternoon or evening for dinner, shopping or whatever. From the west end we rarely wanted to do that - long drive, dodging goats and potholes, felt even longer at night.

The Lions Dive/Sunscape/Seaquarium area is more on the water and beachy, rather than on a cliff, so it does have the advantage of avoiding lots of stairs. Shore diving the western sites there are lots of easy beach entries, rather than all cliffs and ironshore, so that would avoid helps steps too. There are lots of little beaches on Curacao.

There are a a bunch of hotels and resorts downtown, some pretty nice. None others particularly diving oriented, though there might be some dive shops of sorts at a couple, used to be anyway. Certainly you could stay anyplace downtown and arrange to get picked up for diving or drive someplace, and maybe leave gear with an op, but it's not going to be like at a dive resort with convenient facilities.

 

[diversteve]

damselfish is right, neither CSS or OE dives Watamula although IIRC CSS did a few years ago. Go West has it on the schedule for Thursday. Don't dive Lagun or Jeremi with them though both are easy beach entries - Lagun is flat, Jeremi has about six broad steps (concrete slabs really) down to the beach. No facilities at Jeremi so bring everything you need. A convenient place for tank rentals for both is Discover Diving at the entrance to Playa Lagun. If you rent a truck/suv they have a tank height loading dock.

Here's the dive shop (thatched roof) and (more of interest) entry at Oasis parcs.
https://www.oasisparcs.nl/sites/default/files/styles/carrousel/public/content/Faciliteiten 1.jpg?itok=hAZu2EW-

 

[Nivek Llekots]

Dive Charter Curacao offer a trip to Watamula combined with a dive at Mushroom Forrest!

West Point -

 

[Saturated and satisfied]

I have heard from a reliable source that Insel is now a viable option for getting between the islands. They expanded too fast and now they've slimmed down to focusing on the 4 islands they are now doing pretty well and are more reliable than previously.

 

[lunula]

Thanks, all - we have opted to go with our normal week-long Bonaire trip. We got a pretty good deal on tickets w/ Delta and trying to plan more time in Curacao was stressing me out...

Maybe next year we'll do the west side of Curacao and skip Bonaire - I've been wanting to try something new, but Bonaire is just so easy for us now. We know what to do, where to go, what to pack, etc. so it's a pretty stress-free vacay. My biggest concern are a lot of the entry/exits being tough for me, I have crap balance and one replacement knee w/ the other knee pretty much shot. DH is a huge help but I hate depending on him so much & want to do all the dives, not just the ones like Windsock w/ easy entry & exit (even though I love Windsock, I don't want to do it 18x in a week).

 

[Norwegian Cave Diver]

We were in Curacao for the last two weeks of January. Rented a house in Coral Estates. 3 divers - 4 non divers. Divers rented a small truck. Non divers rented a SUV. Did all of our dives along that coast line. House reef was great and everything else along that side of the island. Would definitely go back. Haven't been to Bonaire thought. Our concern was Bonaire might not have enough to do/see for the non divers.