The wife and I spent 7 days in Curacao at the beginning of April. This was our first trip to the Netherlands Antilles.
In all honesty, the trip was planned at the last moment. We originally intended to travel in January but that fell through. We pieced this trip together with a lot of help from SB’ers, the ABC forum and Suzy from the Dive Bus. Here’s what we found…
Flight In:
We flew AA from Dallas to Miami and then hopped a connection to Curacao. The trip going down was fine. No issues. We actually thought the decision to take a 6am flight out of Dallas was not very wise however, when we arrived in Curacao at 2pm having the rest of the day to get oriented and organized for the remainder of the trip, we didn’t give it a second thought. Because we had to do International check-in at DFW, we had to be at the airport at 4:30am. In retrospect, this was a little earlier than necessary. We could have arrived at 5:00 am and still had plenty of time to do the security dance because there is no-one – and I mean no-one at the airport at 4:30am. Note also that while the check-in counters opened at 4:30am, the TSA security checkpoints didn’t open until 5am anyhow. Go fig.
Hotel:
We stayed at the Hotel Kura Hulanda which is very conveniently located in the heart of Willemstad. Nice accommodations. We were pleasantly surprised actually. Frommer’s, the travel guide, lists Kura Hulanda as well as the Floris Suites as “Finds” which is supposed to indicate something only “insiders” know about. I must admit that it was our third choice in accommodations but it was a great alternative.
The location of the hotel to the harbor and the shopping district was very convenient - walking distance! We ate off property every evening - going into Willemstad for the local cuisine. While the Kura Hulanda does not sit on the beach, if you are diving all day like we were, that's not a big deal. They do have two pools...in separate areas of the resort and they were very enjoyable for us.
The service at Kura Hulanda was very pleasant and enjoyable. They do have fine restaurants on the grounds that make for easy dining options if you don't want to go out. Astrolab is actually thought of as one of the best on the island. Jaipur has a great Asian Buffet on Thursdays - outstanding ambiance I might add.
One item of note regarding Kura Hulanda. We experienced inconsistent billing during our stay. For example, we liked to have coffee sent to the room. One day a pot of coffee, service for two, cost us $4. The next day, $12. The next day, $22. The next day $8. The next day $6. It was strange. We also had an issue at the spa with pricing. Again, one day the service was so much but the next day, it was $50 more. While it all balanced in the end, I didn't like the moving target of the expense.
Dive Op:
We dove with The Dive Bus crew – Suzy, Mark and Andy. These guys are just awesome! They have an outstanding operation and cover all the details for you. Typically, they would pick us up at the hotel and then cart us to a dive site. We’d do two dives and then they would return us to the hotel around 2 or 3 depending on the length of the SI. During the SI, they provided drinks and lunch. If you were hungry – you could eat or wait until after the 2nd dive. We developed a great rapport with Mark and Andy and really felt like they handled the logistics and safety of the dives well. It really makes for a vacation when you have someone tending to the details and all you have to do is make sure you’re breathing deep.  You can find The Dive Bus on the web at: http://www.the-dive-bus.com
Diving:
We did 10 dives over 5 days and all of it was shore diving. This was our first shore diving experience and honestly, I found it to be much easier than diving from a boat. The sites we dived are listed here in order. I’ve provided a couple of notes from my log – just interesting tidbits.
1. Tug Boat, east end of the island.
a. Huge blue Parrot Fish
b. Juvenile Spotted Drum
c. Dove next to U.S. Navy Aegis Cruiser #72 which was in for a little R&R.
NOTE: You really don’t know how impressive and imposing a warship is until you see one up close like this. Amazing!
2. Pierbaai, east of Willemstad
a. Rock Eel
b. Green Moray Eel
c. Porcupine Fish
d. Scuba Texas Tony from SB joined us – this guy is a class act and a proper Texas boy to boot. We actually ended up naming these two dives in our log book “North Texas in Curacao” in honor of Mr. Scuba Texas. Salute, pawd-na…the pleasure was ours!
3. Lost Anchor
a. We had to use a water taxi to get to this site - made for a cool little mini-trip.
b. School of Blue Tang’s
c. Foureye Butterfly Fish
d. While under, we came across an anchor line that was set in the reef. This was just careless and unnecessary. Really pissed me off to see this thing tearing up the reef. I secretly wished I had a knife at one point – not that I would have done anything but still…
4. Director’s Bay: Left
a. DB is due east of Tug Boat.
b. There’s a small walk down stone steps to the beach.
c. The story goes that this is called Director’s Bay because back in the day, Shell Oil execs used this as their personal/private beach. They actually went so far as to build a shark fence around the beach to prevent attack. NOTE: We never saw a single shark nor heard any discussion of sharks.
5. Directory’s Bay: Right
a. We did a “drift dive” with the current back towards Tug Boat.
b. Turtles
c. Octopus
d. Damselfish
e. Tons of flounder
6. Vaersenbaai: Left and Right
a. By far the best dives of the trip
b. 2 Seahorses @ 54 ft
c. 2 Turtles
d. Another Seahorse as we went shallow
e. Scorpion Fish
f. Andy from the Dive Bus was our DM. Great guy.
Flight Out:
Oy, the trip out was as painful as the trip in was painless. Standing in the security line in Curacao for a good 45 minutes. When we get to Miami, we have to get our bags, go through Immigration and then go through Customs. Once we get past all of that, we have to follow the dots through Miami-Dade Airport and then recheck our bag for the final leg to Dallas. Once we check our gear, it’s follow the dots to go back through TSA Security – another 40 minutes worth – and then finally get to the gate in prep for our flight. All of the above is through a maze of upstairs and then downstairs and then following red dots, then yellow dots then blue dots. This entire adventure is just riddled with security breaches waiting to happen. If you’ve flown through Miami-Dade, you know what I mean. Unbelievable. Anyhow, we get on the plane and then sit on the tarmac for 30 minutes due to a technical something with the Bird. After that gets fixed, we had lost our ground crew so we had to sit and wait another 20 minutes for them to show back up and escort us out. (it was 11pm at night – slim pickens for staffing I guess). Finally, we arrive back in Dallas an hour or so late and walk off the jetway into 38 degree weather. I’m in a pair of board shorts, crocs and a t-shirt. BRRRRRRRR…
Summary:
We could not have planned this trip any better even if we tried. It was one of those things where you kept saying to yourself – Wow, this is too cool! How did we get this lucky? In many respects I think we were in the right place at the right time and just chose wisely. I am convinced that shore diving is the easiest way to dive – much more so than diving from a boat. No seasickness to deal with and no elaborate timings of swells to get back up on the ladder. You saddle up, walk into the water a couple yards and then flop back and slip on your fins. Do another 5-10 yards in a surface swim and then follow the wall down to depth. Technicolor everything under the waves and some of the finest people we’ve met in diving yet. We highly recommend Curacao as a dive destination. Dive safe!
In all honesty, the trip was planned at the last moment. We originally intended to travel in January but that fell through. We pieced this trip together with a lot of help from SB’ers, the ABC forum and Suzy from the Dive Bus. Here’s what we found…
Flight In:
We flew AA from Dallas to Miami and then hopped a connection to Curacao. The trip going down was fine. No issues. We actually thought the decision to take a 6am flight out of Dallas was not very wise however, when we arrived in Curacao at 2pm having the rest of the day to get oriented and organized for the remainder of the trip, we didn’t give it a second thought. Because we had to do International check-in at DFW, we had to be at the airport at 4:30am. In retrospect, this was a little earlier than necessary. We could have arrived at 5:00 am and still had plenty of time to do the security dance because there is no-one – and I mean no-one at the airport at 4:30am. Note also that while the check-in counters opened at 4:30am, the TSA security checkpoints didn’t open until 5am anyhow. Go fig.
Hotel:
We stayed at the Hotel Kura Hulanda which is very conveniently located in the heart of Willemstad. Nice accommodations. We were pleasantly surprised actually. Frommer’s, the travel guide, lists Kura Hulanda as well as the Floris Suites as “Finds” which is supposed to indicate something only “insiders” know about. I must admit that it was our third choice in accommodations but it was a great alternative.
The location of the hotel to the harbor and the shopping district was very convenient - walking distance! We ate off property every evening - going into Willemstad for the local cuisine. While the Kura Hulanda does not sit on the beach, if you are diving all day like we were, that's not a big deal. They do have two pools...in separate areas of the resort and they were very enjoyable for us.
The service at Kura Hulanda was very pleasant and enjoyable. They do have fine restaurants on the grounds that make for easy dining options if you don't want to go out. Astrolab is actually thought of as one of the best on the island. Jaipur has a great Asian Buffet on Thursdays - outstanding ambiance I might add.
One item of note regarding Kura Hulanda. We experienced inconsistent billing during our stay. For example, we liked to have coffee sent to the room. One day a pot of coffee, service for two, cost us $4. The next day, $12. The next day, $22. The next day $8. The next day $6. It was strange. We also had an issue at the spa with pricing. Again, one day the service was so much but the next day, it was $50 more. While it all balanced in the end, I didn't like the moving target of the expense.
Dive Op:
We dove with The Dive Bus crew – Suzy, Mark and Andy. These guys are just awesome! They have an outstanding operation and cover all the details for you. Typically, they would pick us up at the hotel and then cart us to a dive site. We’d do two dives and then they would return us to the hotel around 2 or 3 depending on the length of the SI. During the SI, they provided drinks and lunch. If you were hungry – you could eat or wait until after the 2nd dive. We developed a great rapport with Mark and Andy and really felt like they handled the logistics and safety of the dives well. It really makes for a vacation when you have someone tending to the details and all you have to do is make sure you’re breathing deep.  You can find The Dive Bus on the web at: http://www.the-dive-bus.com
Diving:
We did 10 dives over 5 days and all of it was shore diving. This was our first shore diving experience and honestly, I found it to be much easier than diving from a boat. The sites we dived are listed here in order. I’ve provided a couple of notes from my log – just interesting tidbits.
1. Tug Boat, east end of the island.
a. Huge blue Parrot Fish
b. Juvenile Spotted Drum
c. Dove next to U.S. Navy Aegis Cruiser #72 which was in for a little R&R.
NOTE: You really don’t know how impressive and imposing a warship is until you see one up close like this. Amazing!
2. Pierbaai, east of Willemstad
a. Rock Eel
b. Green Moray Eel
c. Porcupine Fish
d. Scuba Texas Tony from SB joined us – this guy is a class act and a proper Texas boy to boot. We actually ended up naming these two dives in our log book “North Texas in Curacao” in honor of Mr. Scuba Texas. Salute, pawd-na…the pleasure was ours!
3. Lost Anchor
a. We had to use a water taxi to get to this site - made for a cool little mini-trip.
b. School of Blue Tang’s
c. Foureye Butterfly Fish
d. While under, we came across an anchor line that was set in the reef. This was just careless and unnecessary. Really pissed me off to see this thing tearing up the reef. I secretly wished I had a knife at one point – not that I would have done anything but still…
4. Director’s Bay: Left
a. DB is due east of Tug Boat.
b. There’s a small walk down stone steps to the beach.
c. The story goes that this is called Director’s Bay because back in the day, Shell Oil execs used this as their personal/private beach. They actually went so far as to build a shark fence around the beach to prevent attack. NOTE: We never saw a single shark nor heard any discussion of sharks.
5. Directory’s Bay: Right
a. We did a “drift dive” with the current back towards Tug Boat.
b. Turtles
c. Octopus
d. Damselfish
e. Tons of flounder
6. Vaersenbaai: Left and Right
a. By far the best dives of the trip
b. 2 Seahorses @ 54 ft
c. 2 Turtles
d. Another Seahorse as we went shallow
e. Scorpion Fish
f. Andy from the Dive Bus was our DM. Great guy.
Flight Out:
Oy, the trip out was as painful as the trip in was painless. Standing in the security line in Curacao for a good 45 minutes. When we get to Miami, we have to get our bags, go through Immigration and then go through Customs. Once we get past all of that, we have to follow the dots through Miami-Dade Airport and then recheck our bag for the final leg to Dallas. Once we check our gear, it’s follow the dots to go back through TSA Security – another 40 minutes worth – and then finally get to the gate in prep for our flight. All of the above is through a maze of upstairs and then downstairs and then following red dots, then yellow dots then blue dots. This entire adventure is just riddled with security breaches waiting to happen. If you’ve flown through Miami-Dade, you know what I mean. Unbelievable. Anyhow, we get on the plane and then sit on the tarmac for 30 minutes due to a technical something with the Bird. After that gets fixed, we had lost our ground crew so we had to sit and wait another 20 minutes for them to show back up and escort us out. (it was 11pm at night – slim pickens for staffing I guess). Finally, we arrive back in Dallas an hour or so late and walk off the jetway into 38 degree weather. I’m in a pair of board shorts, crocs and a t-shirt. BRRRRRRRR…
Summary:
We could not have planned this trip any better even if we tried. It was one of those things where you kept saying to yourself – Wow, this is too cool! How did we get this lucky? In many respects I think we were in the right place at the right time and just chose wisely. I am convinced that shore diving is the easiest way to dive – much more so than diving from a boat. No seasickness to deal with and no elaborate timings of swells to get back up on the ladder. You saddle up, walk into the water a couple yards and then flop back and slip on your fins. Do another 5-10 yards in a surface swim and then follow the wall down to depth. Technicolor everything under the waves and some of the finest people we’ve met in diving yet. We highly recommend Curacao as a dive destination. Dive safe!
oh, no, that's just salt water 
