Curacao trip on a budget - tips wanted.

[ScubaBunga]

I've booked a trip for next june 2019 to curacao - royal sea aquarium resort. Myself and two boys (11-OW/14-AOW) will be diving, others (wife, daughter, mother-in-law) will be looking for surface activities. I'm interested in tips on dive excursions on a budget. I spent a week at this same resort back in 2004 when my daughters did the kids sea camp. The oldest was 12 at the time and spent the entire week training the dolphins. Anyway we are headed back.

As DrRich posted elsewhere:

Curacao reports indicate a mixed bag.

-----1.) Some sites, like Bonaire, are 'barren' of civilization. Petty theft from rental trucks more a concern here, so leave doors unlocked and windows down, nothing of value except spare tanks in your truck.

-----2.) Some sites have an on-site dive op. and/or amenities; there may be a fee to use, there may be food/booze/bathrooms, maybe staff can keep an eye on your vehicle, etc...

Some people will want to load up some tanks from their dive op. and hit the road, incurring no additional fees. Some like 'amenities' and snacking, drinking, showering off or whatever after a dive.

I'm in this last group - especially the "incurring no additional fees" as there is not a lot of extra $$ for diving.

I'm also looking at just shore diving as the few resorts I've talked to seem to be very strict on the 40' limit for my 11yr old. Now I'm not looking to do 100' dives but prefer less crowds and don't like 30' boat dives - also with the rest of the family, less of a schedule is good. I'm comfortable with both my boys skillset. Obviously they are still new, but have dove in quarries and both shore and boat dives in florida. They are both observant, good with buoyancy, and check their gauges (and mine) frequently.

So online most of the dive sites have stores that offer shore packages - multiple days. My plan is really to just go to a site, get some tanks and weights, do two dives and join the rest of the family for the rest of the day. The sites may also be driven by where everyone else wants to go after the dives (they can play at the beach for a couple hours while we dive). The websites do seem to offer just a tank and weights but it's not really talked much about on their sites. A few posts on SB people have talked about just showing up at a dive operator, getting tanks and going diving - this is what I'm looking for a bit more information on how that worked, any issues doing that? I've seen stuff for dive bus and other guided tours and these would bust my budget as I'm paying for 3.

I'm also interested in doing some lion fish hunting - I've emailed a couple dive places and the answers are interesting - basically came down to "it's illegal but won't get prosecuted" - but (and I understand they don't want yahoo's damaging the reef) also the dive stores are hesitant to give out too much info it seems. They say I can rent gear (after taking a class). I'd like to just bring my 2' spear and if they are there, spear them - if not, oh well. We will be in a room with a kitchen so any speared would get eaten.

Let me know thoughts, tips, etc to make this a successful family and diving trip.

Thanks,

 

[diversteve]

In my experience only the Ocean Encounters shops are restrictive on dive limits and no solo diving. Maybe GoWest also as they used to be one. Like your plan, we used local on-site shops most of the time. Many have a small usage fee in guilders to use their facilitues (dock, showers, lockers etc) and include it if you rent tanks from them.

You really described what a lot of families do at certain sites, the divers dive, the others enjoy the beach, snorkeling, often some sort of food from a snack bar to a full restaurant.

For tanks, Relaxed Guided Dives is on the main road west. Don't let the name throw you, they run a tank fill station and rent tanks for self-diving. We also rented a lot of tanks from Discover Diving in Lagun - they have a truck height tank dock if you rent a truck/suv.
I'm pretty sure my two friends got tanks there once for all 7 of us without comment - we had a truck just for that.

I don't believe there's currently a shop at the Tugboat dive site - one of the signature Curacao dives. All sorts of skill levels there - the boat is 17' deep, under the pier 40ish, or you can go south around the point and get into deeper water down the hill. Google map it, and you can see the boat location - it's off the beach slightly south near one of the pilings - which is covered with orange cup corals.

Porto Mari is a good locals beach with a double reef dive site I believe the shop is Porto Mari Dive. Might be hard to find parking weekends.

Playa Lagun is a good beach dive with 2 shops, Discover Dive or Bahia up the hill. No facilities at Playa Jeremi nearby so no one will care who's diving there. It's an average beach. Neither shop has visibility to who is actually diving there - DD is about a block away at the entrance.

Varsenbaai might be another good option,. it's a family beach, there's turtles in the shallows to snorkel with, a decent dive and the pontoon boat wreck starts about 80' at the south turn point. Also there's a full restaurant. Trunk Divers is there.

Blue Bay is a nice beach, you might have to pay a usage fee there for the chairs etc. Blue Bay Wall is offsshore. I don't know the shop there but there is one.

Cas Abao is another nice beach/dive site. B Diving is the shop.

I do not know the specific policies regarding your young divers.

Dive Bus would be kind of pricey for you. But they're across the street from Pierbaai Beach which is the Carpile wreck site and they rent tanks for it. It's deep though.

Ask Suzi for suggestions - she gave us 1//2 dozen even after we figured out our schedules didnt' mesh.

I've seen divers go off the beach across the channel from your resort at Lions Dive. IDK the details.It's probably pretty shallow, we did the Dolphin Dive there and it was. Also kind of beat up.

Jan Thiel is also an option for both. I believe there's a diving board there for non-divers besides a beach area. I have never been there.

One or more of the Gnip sites are self-dive with no faclities also afaik. Our apt. mgr warned us that there is some theft at the farther sites IIRC there's 3 of them.

GoWest at the Lodge Kura Hulanda has the dive dock right off their office so if they were to have an issue with your divers - it would be obvious to them. It's a great dive though.

I don't know the new shop at the old Habitat resort to know their poilcy. That;s a nice dive also.

A decent dive might be at the old Sunset Waters (now closed) location - there's a shallow breakwater and parts of a Cessna just through it in about 50'. We saw a lot of big eels there. The shop is gone so bring it all. Someone posted a couple years ago that a lot of the nice beach was washed away and was being churned up ruining the visibility.The dive is all south, there's a boat channel north and it's mediocre past it.

and there's others, these are just sites I have at least seen (dove most of them as that's all we did for 10 days)

 

[tkaelin]

The problem with the plan is your location. Most of the beaches with shore diving with facilities for divers and non divers alike that I am familiar with are on west side of the island, on the otherside of Willemstad. This will require you to drive through or around Willemstad to access them which in my limited experience was not all that easy.

Tugboat was the first site nearby that came to mind. I haven't dove it yet but from what I read and seen on SB it looks great for trips for the divers only . We stayed a couple nights at Lions Dive, across the canal from where you are staying, home to Oceanencounters and a shore dive. A fun place for your group to visit. We didn't try the shore dive but did not look all that great with a surface swim through the canal with some boat traffic and diving on the otherside of a breakwater.

If your group is up for the drive, Cas Abou is a beautiful beach, Bdiving is the op onsite and great set up and the beach has nice facilities with showers, bathrooms, beach bar/restaurant, beach chairs and shaded tikis. Would highly recommend if the drive works for you.

Enjoy.

 

[diversteve]

The trick to getting west from the Seaquarium area is to go inland first. Pick up the main road over the bridge and it becomes the road to Westpunt past the airport. Most of the sites I mentioned are a drive in off that road.

If you stay along the water in Willemstad it takes forever. Also eventually you hit the harbor and have to go inland to the bridge anyway. Seaquarium to Pierbaai beach is short. Or I think the other way to the Tugnoat/Caracasbaai is also.

 

[ScubaBunga]

Thanks for the info, I'll be doing a lot of research and planning between now and then and hope to have everything planned out and ready to go when we arrive. Of course things will no doubt change day 1, but I'll adjust. I'm also looking for info on lionfish hunting - I've contacted a few places online which so far haven't provided any concrete answers. Most have been "it's probably ok, they may confiscate your polespear at customs, but probably not" type answers.

If anyone is heading down there for the SB surge, can you ask around? I'm hoping to just bring my polespear and if I see any lionfish, bring some home for dinner.

 

[drrich2]

If as you indicated in your 1st post there's an issue of illegality, it wouldn't be surprising if no Curacao-based business wants to go on record in writing that they condone such activity. You may have the good sense to keep quiet about that if you get confronted by the authorities, but some would not. And imagine their headache if they saw someone they okayed posted on a public forum that dive shop xyz said it was okay and...

It's probably awkward for them.

Richard.

 

[ScubaBunga]

yeah, the legality is interesting as there is no spear fishing...except "groups" spearing only lionfish. There just doesn't seem to be a definition of "group" or how organized it needs to be. I haven't seen anything that says the "group" needs to register or get a permit. Does my group of me and my boys count? I haven't seen anything that really says I can't, but haven't seen it clearly (for me) that I can either. When I asked if I can bring my own spear, I get responses like "you should be able to" - which doesn't really answer anything. It seems (from my responses from a few operators) that they don't get this question often enough to have an answer. Either you go on the resorts lion fish trip and use their equipment or you don't hunt lionfish (not by law, just don't do that activity). I've seen posts and youtube video's of people shore diving and getting lion fish. So I'll keep searching/asking - and worse case decide if I want to bring my spear and talk to them when I get there. we'll see I guess.

 

[chorse]

We stay in Westpundt and dive frequently during our respite, this primarily as our reason for going to Curacao. Have been 10yrs going there for two weeks. It's our big yearly vacation. West end of island has very pretty shore diving With many different but similar shore dive sites. The most interesting shore dive I believe is Playa Piskado next to All West Apartments in Westpundt. There you will find a fishing village where the fishermen clean their catch and toss the entrails into the water by the dock. Quite a few turtles show up to feast on the guts. The turtles are not afraid and can be photographed to your hearts content. The full service dive shop near by is Go West Diving next to the Lodge Kura Hulanda. just up the street. It is worth the drive for one day to see the scenery and the turtles. There are many other interesting parts to the west end of island. But Sea Aquarium and Ocean Encounters dive operation will fill all your week long dive wishes at that part of the Island. Boat Diving with Ocean Encounters is really the way to go if you are staying at Sea Aquarium you're right on top of them. Diver Steve's description is much better than mine and I couldn't agree more with him. I just had to revive my memories with a few sentences of my own.

 

[ScubaBunga]

I would love to spend the week boat diving with Ocean Encounters (as I did back in 2004 - my last visit to curacao), but it's not in the budget and with my 11yr old OW limited to 40', when I talked to OE they didn't think it would be a good idea except maybe the afternoon dive. The shore diving (with tanks and weights) I think I can get two dives in for all three of us for under $100. So this trip will be self planning and self shore diving - possibly a single afternoon boat dive as I know my boys would love that. From google maps, it looks like just under an hour drive to reach the far west end, so I just need to plan for whenever the dive shops open to get the morning dives in.

Thanks to all that have replied - hopefully someone from the Curacao SURGE trip can find out more about lionfish hunting on shore dives and report back?? I think it would be fun, help the reef, and provide a nice meal.

I've still got 6 months to work out fine details and put my dive (and other island) plans together - there's about 3 months worth of stuff I want to do but only have a week and don't want to be stressed about running all over, so lots of info and choices to make. We've already got the full day tour planned, and also hope to get to the market early in the week. We have a kitchenette and hope to fix our own meals part of the week.

 

[rhwestfall]

Get in touch with The Dive Bus, and check out their "Dive and Drive Package". It seems that this is the way to do what you want and where you want, but utilize their knowledge, and coordination.

We have used them twice on two vacation trips this year (full service Dive Bus Package), but this last time saw folks doing a lot more on their own with the new program... owner said it has been well received.