Trip Report Curacao Trip Report
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morecowbells
Contributor
Excellent trip report! Perhaps you can cut and paste your trip report document to make it available while scrolling the the thread. You picture from the patio is making me eager to figure out when my next trip to Curacao will happen.
Willar
Contributor
Great report, thank you!
drrich2
Contributor
Enjoyed your report. Curacao vs. Bonaire comparisons continue to frequent the forum, and rightfully so, since they're close in location & apparently offer considerable overlap (shore diving), albeit with some differences.
I usually see the sandy beaches of Curacao put forward as an advantage over the iron shore of Bonaire, offering easier entries. Some years back I recall someone opined the swim outs were a bit longer; I wonder if that was a one off impression, or there's truth to it? Your report is the 1st I've heard of someone finding the sandy beach attracting 'beach people' to be a downside, although somehow I can relate now that I think of it.
Which do you think your group would prefer to head back to in the future?
Richard.
I usually see the sandy beaches of Curacao put forward as an advantage over the iron shore of Bonaire, offering easier entries. Some years back I recall someone opined the swim outs were a bit longer; I wonder if that was a one off impression, or there's truth to it? Your report is the 1st I've heard of someone finding the sandy beach attracting 'beach people' to be a downside, although somehow I can relate now that I think of it.
Which do you think your group would prefer to head back to in the future?
Richard.
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(tkaelin's) Curacao Trip Report
We just returned from our first trip to Curacao. We have been diving throughout the Caribbean over the years and have been to Bonaire 4 times. Besides Bon, we been diving in Grand Cayman many times, Little Cayman, Provo, Key West and Bermuda. On this trip we traveled as a family of 6 divers, my wife, two children and two nieces. After some research and reading reviews on SB we decided to give Curacao a try and booked our stay with Allwest and our diving with Gowest. From all we read on SB, we were also interested to see how Curacao compared to our trips to Bonaire.
Air: We flew JetBlue direct from JFK. With JetBlue from JFK you have Sat and Thu flights so you have more options on the length of stay. We did a 5 night/4 days diving Sat-Thu. We left NYC New Year’s Eve so we payed holiday airfare but it was still just over $400 per with one checked bag. I have seen nonholiday Jetblue fares with one checked back at $309 or so, less if you don’t have a checked in bag included. Better fares and flexibility than flying to Bon.
The airport in Curacao was bigger and more modern than in Bon. Arrivals, immigration and baggage area all air conditioned. Same with departure. On Bon arrivals, immigration and baggage all no ac, cramped and most times slow and uncomfortable. Hopefully the new airport in Bon will take care of these issues. On our arrival in Cur, we cleared immigration, baggage and exiting in about 15 minutes.
With our booking, transfers were included. Our transfer driver Papa met us in the terminal and we were off in minutes. They had a small van and a rental pick up and they asked if I minded driving the pickup. No problem. About a 30-minute ride out to Westpunt which is longer than your typical Bon trip from the airport, but I enjoyed the ride out to Westpunt. There had been a lot of rain so the landscape was more lush and green than usual. The terrain is much hillier than most of Bon.
Our driver did stop in Terra Cora to let us run into a mini market to pick up some essentials. All went well although it was late afternoon New Year’s Eve and celebrations had already started and it was a little chaotic at the mini market. We shopped quickly but we did manage to get essentials: milk, yogurt, bread, cheese, beer and wine. Terra Cora is about 20km from Westpunt.
Accommodations: We rented two one bdrm Apartments which worked well. Both were ground level, next to each other and near the dive room. All units have very nice views of the ocean with porches with porch furniture. Check in at Allwest was fairly informal. We were shown our room and dive gear room and given some basic information. The accommodations inside were basic but fine. AC and decently equipped kitchen.
We communicated with Allwest and Gowest by email before our trip and communicated primarily with Andreas and Ann-Marie. They were wonderful to work with and they went out of their way to accommodate our requests. We wanted ground floor units next to each other and this was done. We needed bc and reg rentals for 4 of our divers and would normally have gone over to the dive shop first thing the next morning to get our gear and start our diving. With the next day being New Years, the shop was not planning on opening up until the next afternoon which was too long to wait, which would have caused us to lose half the day of 4 days of diving. I asked Andreas if we could have the gear rented in advance and placed in our rooms on Sat. Andreas was willing to work with us to make this happen. We sent sizes, rental forms, c-card copies and diver releases in advance. Andreas could not promise but said he would do his best. When we arrived all the gear was in the rooms. We really appreciated the effort and realized it was a lot to ask being a holiday weekend. It was so nice to hit the water first thing Sunday morning. A perfect way to start the New Year.
Another nice touch was finding a bottle of sparkling wine in each of the units. We were looking for it in the mini market to help ring in the New Year but not to be found. Again, we really appreciated the thoughtfulness.
Allwest has a tank and gear rinse and storage room that is locked. The tanks are only air and there was an ample supply of din and yoke tanks. We use yoke and while there were ample 80s there were only one or two 63s. There were about a dozen din 63s. Most of our divers preferred 63s when available. I mentioned this to Andreas at the end of day one and he came over and converted most of the din 63s to yoke. Again great service and was very nice of him. I also noticed about 8-10 50s in din. All the dins can be easily and quickly converted to yoke.
The dive room was kind of dank and dark. It was ventilated with grated bar doors on two sides and the gear seemed to mostly dry out overnight. Our rooms were next to the gear room and during the day, we hung out our layers and booties on the porches to get a bit drier faster.
It seemed like most of the folks staying at Allwest were divers or snorkelers and it looked like most took advantage of their porches for daytime drying. During our stay, everyone we met staying at Allwest were friendly and most seemed to be Dutch or German.
There were two charcoal grills outside and it looked like a supply of charcoal and lighter fluid was stored inside the gear room for guest use. We did not use the grills this trip but they were used by others.
mod note; Post was too long so split into two.
We just returned from our first trip to Curacao. We have been diving throughout the Caribbean over the years and have been to Bonaire 4 times. Besides Bon, we been diving in Grand Cayman many times, Little Cayman, Provo, Key West and Bermuda. On this trip we traveled as a family of 6 divers, my wife, two children and two nieces. After some research and reading reviews on SB we decided to give Curacao a try and booked our stay with Allwest and our diving with Gowest. From all we read on SB, we were also interested to see how Curacao compared to our trips to Bonaire.
Air: We flew JetBlue direct from JFK. With JetBlue from JFK you have Sat and Thu flights so you have more options on the length of stay. We did a 5 night/4 days diving Sat-Thu. We left NYC New Year’s Eve so we payed holiday airfare but it was still just over $400 per with one checked bag. I have seen nonholiday Jetblue fares with one checked back at $309 or so, less if you don’t have a checked in bag included. Better fares and flexibility than flying to Bon.
The airport in Curacao was bigger and more modern than in Bon. Arrivals, immigration and baggage area all air conditioned. Same with departure. On Bon arrivals, immigration and baggage all no ac, cramped and most times slow and uncomfortable. Hopefully the new airport in Bon will take care of these issues. On our arrival in Cur, we cleared immigration, baggage and exiting in about 15 minutes.
With our booking, transfers were included. Our transfer driver Papa met us in the terminal and we were off in minutes. They had a small van and a rental pick up and they asked if I minded driving the pickup. No problem. About a 30-minute ride out to Westpunt which is longer than your typical Bon trip from the airport, but I enjoyed the ride out to Westpunt. There had been a lot of rain so the landscape was more lush and green than usual. The terrain is much hillier than most of Bon.
Our driver did stop in Terra Cora to let us run into a mini market to pick up some essentials. All went well although it was late afternoon New Year’s Eve and celebrations had already started and it was a little chaotic at the mini market. We shopped quickly but we did manage to get essentials: milk, yogurt, bread, cheese, beer and wine. Terra Cora is about 20km from Westpunt.
Accommodations: We rented two one bdrm Apartments which worked well. Both were ground level, next to each other and near the dive room. All units have very nice views of the ocean with porches with porch furniture. Check in at Allwest was fairly informal. We were shown our room and dive gear room and given some basic information. The accommodations inside were basic but fine. AC and decently equipped kitchen.
We communicated with Allwest and Gowest by email before our trip and communicated primarily with Andreas and Ann-Marie. They were wonderful to work with and they went out of their way to accommodate our requests. We wanted ground floor units next to each other and this was done. We needed bc and reg rentals for 4 of our divers and would normally have gone over to the dive shop first thing the next morning to get our gear and start our diving. With the next day being New Years, the shop was not planning on opening up until the next afternoon which was too long to wait, which would have caused us to lose half the day of 4 days of diving. I asked Andreas if we could have the gear rented in advance and placed in our rooms on Sat. Andreas was willing to work with us to make this happen. We sent sizes, rental forms, c-card copies and diver releases in advance. Andreas could not promise but said he would do his best. When we arrived all the gear was in the rooms. We really appreciated the effort and realized it was a lot to ask being a holiday weekend. It was so nice to hit the water first thing Sunday morning. A perfect way to start the New Year.
Another nice touch was finding a bottle of sparkling wine in each of the units. We were looking for it in the mini market to help ring in the New Year but not to be found. Again, we really appreciated the thoughtfulness.
Allwest has a tank and gear rinse and storage room that is locked. The tanks are only air and there was an ample supply of din and yoke tanks. We use yoke and while there were ample 80s there were only one or two 63s. There were about a dozen din 63s. Most of our divers preferred 63s when available. I mentioned this to Andreas at the end of day one and he came over and converted most of the din 63s to yoke. Again great service and was very nice of him. I also noticed about 8-10 50s in din. All the dins can be easily and quickly converted to yoke.
The dive room was kind of dank and dark. It was ventilated with grated bar doors on two sides and the gear seemed to mostly dry out overnight. Our rooms were next to the gear room and during the day, we hung out our layers and booties on the porches to get a bit drier faster.
It seemed like most of the folks staying at Allwest were divers or snorkelers and it looked like most took advantage of their porches for daytime drying. During our stay, everyone we met staying at Allwest were friendly and most seemed to be Dutch or German.
There were two charcoal grills outside and it looked like a supply of charcoal and lighter fluid was stored inside the gear room for guest use. We did not use the grills this trip but they were used by others.
mod note; Post was too long so split into two.
Last edited:
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Diving: The dive conditions and weather were not the greatest our first two days but improved the last two days. Visibility was down in the shallows. The vis was better out on the reefs but still a lot of particulate matter hanging around. Water temps were also down in the 79-80 range. We had rain a couple times a day the first three days with swells and rollers coming in. Weather was sunny and vis and conditions were much better our last dive day.
We dove at Allwest everyday at least once and sometimes twice, with two night dives. Turtles on every dive. It is a 5 minute swim over shallows to the reef. Navigating was simple and easy with a compass. The reef terrain was similar to Bon with a slope down to a sand depth but shallower. The sand bottom for the reef section directly in front of Allwest was about 70’ as compared to 100’ + at the house reefs at Capt Dons in Bon. The corals and reef life looked healthy and abundant. Saw turtles, a ton of eels including a very large green moray, squid and the usual suspects. I have pictures of a huge trumpet fish that was easily 4’ long and traveled horizontally among the scattered corals in the shallows. One morning on a sunrise dive I return to shore to a large swarm of Bonaire Box Jellies. They were gone by midday. Noticeably absent on all our dives were black durgeons. Did not see a one in Cur. Spotted morays were very common.
Some have commented on the stairs down to the water at Allwest. If you do it two or three times a day you definitely notice it with an 80. I think if we return I will take better advantage of a smaller tanks. I used a 63 twice. My crew could have dived well using just the 50s. On our dives of 45-60 minutes, everyone came back with plenty of air. The dives are relatively shallow and the tank weight difference is noticeable.
We dove Playa Lagun once. We first arrived at Playa Kenepa but the parking area was packed. We tried parking up the access road but someone came over communicating to us in a language we did not understand but seemed pretty clearly to be saying we could not park there. We decided just to go on to Playa Lagun. It was about 3 PM and PL was packed as well but we did luck out with parking right next to the beach. The skies were overcast, the wind was up and there were waves with limited vis in the cove area. We ended up going along the wall on the left for about 15-20 minutes out and then turned around and came back. A shallow dive as we did not attempt to make it out to the reef. The dive was so so.
We dove Alice in Wonderland twice. Early in the week the vis at the dock area was so bad we could not see more than 10-15’. It did improve at the reef and the dives here were, well, wonderful. Our last dive of the trip was here and it was fantastic. Very interesting reef structures with lots of areas to explore. The reef was more vertical here than most reefs in Bon, if that make sense. Towers, mounds or piles to swim around and explore.
There is a line that runs along the bottom from the dock to the depths which made navigation foolproof. Very fishy reef like Bon. We saw a green moray that was easily 5’ but could not see all of it. It had a thick fat girth and huge head.
We did an afternoon 1 tank boat dive with Gowest. It was the six of us, one other diver and Ann-Marie as our guide. This was the best dive of the trip. The weather was still not cooperating with showers in the am, overcast with wind in the PM. It was actually rough at the dock with the boat pitching while getting on and setting up. We ended up doing the dive as a drift dive. Great healthy hard and soft corals with large sea fans in the shallows.
Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed the diving and it compares very favorably to Bon. I polled my Bon divers on how it compared and they all enjoyed and liked it but they also said they liked Bon as well. Hard to fairly compare diving both as we only hit 4 sites, had a so so experience at the one site we went to by truck and the weather three of our 4 days was not ideal but we would definitely return. Our group preferred the shore diving sites we hit by truck in Bon where there were no people or just a handful of people who are also other divers in trucks. They did not care for going to beaches full of beach people with us being the only divers gearing up and going in. The beaches may have been unusually crowed due to the holidays.
Dining: We made dinner reservations for New Years’ Eve at Sol Food. The food was very good and it was nice to meet Curacao Sunshine. She could not have been nicer and more welcoming. We ate all of our breakfasts in and dined out once a day. Yaanchies for dinner on Sunday. Very local. Enjoyable local fare. The owner was very nice and so were the locals. Lunch at the beach bar Monday at Kura Hurlanda. The beach bar was just okay but a nice view and next to the Gowest dive shop. Lunch at Komedor Krioyo one day. The restaurant is at an old plantation house. The goat and papaya stews were wonderful. Again very local. Our best meal was Wednesday night at Trio Penotti. Plenty of menu options to satisfy everyone. Service was excellent.
On our last day the kids hit the park early and climbed Mt. Christofel. They said it was beautiful and well worth it.
We thoroughly enjoyed staying and diving out at Westpunt. It had a very remote feel to it. The diving was very good and I liked the folks who ran Allwest/Gowest. Westpunt is definitely not for everyone, but neither is Bonaire for that matter. Bonaire has a remote feel but Westpunt is at another level. There are no stores. Period. No gas stations. No shops. No markets of any type. (at least that we could see). It does have a handful of restaurants but we did not see one with windows, screens or AC. Barber is the nearest town at 10 km away but it has one gas station and one mini market. For those on SB who discuss both or are looking for information on both, I think they are both very good dive destinations with a lot to offer. Travel to Cur and staying and diving in Westpunt was noticeably more affordable than the other places we have traveled to dive including Bonaire. Finally, Westpunt is just one area on Cur. We did not visit, dine or dive any other area so it is hard to make a full CUR-BON. I think you can’t go wrong diving either.
I hope this report is informative and useful. Happy diving!
mod note; Post was too long so split into two.
We dove at Allwest everyday at least once and sometimes twice, with two night dives. Turtles on every dive. It is a 5 minute swim over shallows to the reef. Navigating was simple and easy with a compass. The reef terrain was similar to Bon with a slope down to a sand depth but shallower. The sand bottom for the reef section directly in front of Allwest was about 70’ as compared to 100’ + at the house reefs at Capt Dons in Bon. The corals and reef life looked healthy and abundant. Saw turtles, a ton of eels including a very large green moray, squid and the usual suspects. I have pictures of a huge trumpet fish that was easily 4’ long and traveled horizontally among the scattered corals in the shallows. One morning on a sunrise dive I return to shore to a large swarm of Bonaire Box Jellies. They were gone by midday. Noticeably absent on all our dives were black durgeons. Did not see a one in Cur. Spotted morays were very common.
Some have commented on the stairs down to the water at Allwest. If you do it two or three times a day you definitely notice it with an 80. I think if we return I will take better advantage of a smaller tanks. I used a 63 twice. My crew could have dived well using just the 50s. On our dives of 45-60 minutes, everyone came back with plenty of air. The dives are relatively shallow and the tank weight difference is noticeable.
We dove Playa Lagun once. We first arrived at Playa Kenepa but the parking area was packed. We tried parking up the access road but someone came over communicating to us in a language we did not understand but seemed pretty clearly to be saying we could not park there. We decided just to go on to Playa Lagun. It was about 3 PM and PL was packed as well but we did luck out with parking right next to the beach. The skies were overcast, the wind was up and there were waves with limited vis in the cove area. We ended up going along the wall on the left for about 15-20 minutes out and then turned around and came back. A shallow dive as we did not attempt to make it out to the reef. The dive was so so.
We dove Alice in Wonderland twice. Early in the week the vis at the dock area was so bad we could not see more than 10-15’. It did improve at the reef and the dives here were, well, wonderful. Our last dive of the trip was here and it was fantastic. Very interesting reef structures with lots of areas to explore. The reef was more vertical here than most reefs in Bon, if that make sense. Towers, mounds or piles to swim around and explore.
There is a line that runs along the bottom from the dock to the depths which made navigation foolproof. Very fishy reef like Bon. We saw a green moray that was easily 5’ but could not see all of it. It had a thick fat girth and huge head.
We did an afternoon 1 tank boat dive with Gowest. It was the six of us, one other diver and Ann-Marie as our guide. This was the best dive of the trip. The weather was still not cooperating with showers in the am, overcast with wind in the PM. It was actually rough at the dock with the boat pitching while getting on and setting up. We ended up doing the dive as a drift dive. Great healthy hard and soft corals with large sea fans in the shallows.
Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed the diving and it compares very favorably to Bon. I polled my Bon divers on how it compared and they all enjoyed and liked it but they also said they liked Bon as well. Hard to fairly compare diving both as we only hit 4 sites, had a so so experience at the one site we went to by truck and the weather three of our 4 days was not ideal but we would definitely return. Our group preferred the shore diving sites we hit by truck in Bon where there were no people or just a handful of people who are also other divers in trucks. They did not care for going to beaches full of beach people with us being the only divers gearing up and going in. The beaches may have been unusually crowed due to the holidays.
Dining: We made dinner reservations for New Years’ Eve at Sol Food. The food was very good and it was nice to meet Curacao Sunshine. She could not have been nicer and more welcoming. We ate all of our breakfasts in and dined out once a day. Yaanchies for dinner on Sunday. Very local. Enjoyable local fare. The owner was very nice and so were the locals. Lunch at the beach bar Monday at Kura Hurlanda. The beach bar was just okay but a nice view and next to the Gowest dive shop. Lunch at Komedor Krioyo one day. The restaurant is at an old plantation house. The goat and papaya stews were wonderful. Again very local. Our best meal was Wednesday night at Trio Penotti. Plenty of menu options to satisfy everyone. Service was excellent.
On our last day the kids hit the park early and climbed Mt. Christofel. They said it was beautiful and well worth it.
We thoroughly enjoyed staying and diving out at Westpunt. It had a very remote feel to it. The diving was very good and I liked the folks who ran Allwest/Gowest. Westpunt is definitely not for everyone, but neither is Bonaire for that matter. Bonaire has a remote feel but Westpunt is at another level. There are no stores. Period. No gas stations. No shops. No markets of any type. (at least that we could see). It does have a handful of restaurants but we did not see one with windows, screens or AC. Barber is the nearest town at 10 km away but it has one gas station and one mini market. For those on SB who discuss both or are looking for information on both, I think they are both very good dive destinations with a lot to offer. Travel to Cur and staying and diving in Westpunt was noticeably more affordable than the other places we have traveled to dive including Bonaire. Finally, Westpunt is just one area on Cur. We did not visit, dine or dive any other area so it is hard to make a full CUR-BON. I think you can’t go wrong diving either.
I hope this report is informative and useful. Happy diving!
mod note; Post was too long so split into two.
Bonaire. I already had this discussion with the family. Bonaire would be their choice for the next trip not because they didn't like CUR but because they really like BON. My kids, now in their 20s, were certified in BON in '09 and I think they are attached to it for a lot of reasons. We love where we stay and the folks that own it. We enjoy the restaurants that we go back to each trip. We like the shore diving sites we tend to hit and the occasional 1 tank boat dive thru Capt Dons, usually to Klein. We will definitely return to CUR sometime in the future, but Bon likely to be next.
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That's true at most sites. It's like the whole reef is moved closer to shore on Bonaire which explains the ironshore frequently encountered just off the beach. Many of the Curacao sites also are on small coves cut into the cliff side so the reef starts out past that as well. I'd guess about 1/2 the time we surface swam out at least part of the distance b4 dropping - usually when we looked down and saw it starting to roll over deeper - with 100' vis. you can see it clearly. At some sites like Alice in Wonderland, it's closer: http://www.shorediving.com/Earth/ABC/Curacao/Alice_in_Wonder/d002801.jpg
Here's Lagun - the majority of the reef is just off the picture to the bottom: http://www.shorediving.com/Earth/ABC/Curacao/Playa_Lagun/d002708.jpg Puttering along along the cliff faces is also interesting, at Playa Jeremi - the next site west, the north wall is on Frommer's best of Caribbean Snorkel list. Probably for all the Fire Cup corals there in about 15'.
Otoh, we took one look at the swim out from Pirates Bay in Piscadera Bay and decided to drive somewhere else. Plus the boat traffic was a consideration. Many of the Curacao sites have breakwaters or are on small natural coves also so entry conditions are mostly benign. There's only one site we saw where some mountaineering skills would be good - we didn't try it either: Scuba Shore Diving Site Page for: Pestbaai of Curacao, ABC Islands
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