I thought that was an area w/ a great ocean view and close to town. I know my buddies are going to want to gamble and I think the Marriott is close isn't it?
If you stay up the hill there is, otherwise you're just looking at the Hilton and Marriott in front of you - actually mostly the Hilton as the Marriott drops away from street level.
Both have a casino but they're fairly small. I haven't been to the Hilton's but the Marriott is a dozen tables and maybe 100 slots. Mostly blackjack and a couple roulette tables. The Hilton has a nice outdoor bar, the Marriott has both a bar and a good restaurant just steps from the beach. There's also live music at a pavilion on the other end of the Marriott's beach some nights - we heard it but didn't walk over. Someone told me they built the pavilion to screen the Marriott beach from the Hilton.
I think the bigger casinos are downtown but I've never been in one, we were too busy diving.
We stayed across from the Hilton at Piscadera Bay Resort. They're older (70's?)duplex bungalows that we rented for $650/wk. per unit last April including utilities. As is the custom in Curacao only the bedrooms have A/C - at least in the three that we rented.
Piscadera Bay Resort :: Home (eng)
My unit actually only had heavy wood shutters on all of the windows, my friends had been recently refurbished and had glass. Every unit had a master b/r with a king, two twins in the other b/r and a shared bath. As I recall the washer/dryer was outside under the kitchen windows.
I also had the "party" unit, big table inside, a big table on the deck and one more in the yard by the bbq. Had a lot more yard than most of the others. In the photo gallery, my unit is pictured in the 5th & 6th photos on the 1st page. Don't be fooled by the pool picture, they're only for use of the guests renting one of 3 condos that have one. We'd asked for one of them but it wasn't available. Standing on the deck I had a view of the ocean but more offshore over the trees than beachfront.
Guarded gate security - probably necessary in that area. There's usually a walking guard at night also. It's not a bad area, it's just that a lot of Curacao is worse.
If you're arriving on the weekend the office will be closed so let them know to leave your keys at the front gate. We were told to hide everything and lock the vehicles everywhere.
The Hilton and Marriott are just across the road, there's a (French?) restaurant next door and you're 10-15mins. from downtown. Hooks Hut - a combination restaurant/bar/diveop is an 1/8' mile down the road, Piscadera Bay itself is just past it - they rent watertoys but the diving is all off Hooks.
There's supposed to be decent diving off Hooks and the Marriott but the Hilton's reef was trashed years ago, first by a barge and then their docks collapsed. It's a longish swim out from Hooks but looked doable. We rented tanks from them but never dove there. Nice people, they told us about other sites to dive.
It's probably 10-15 minutes to downtown from PB depending on if you want the Punda or Otrabunda side - you have to drive slightly inland to the big bridge to cross over...
For diving it's maybe 10-15 minutes to Varsenbaai and 20-25 to Habitat and Porto Mari. About 45mins west to Playa Kalki/Alice in Wonderland in West Punt. If you stay on the inland road it's a little quicker to West Punt.
East it was 20min. to the Sea Aquarium, 30 to the Tugboat divesite. We did most of our diving west so I don't know any other in-town/east of town sites. My friends g/f who's an instructor there told us to dive Snake Bay but we ran out of time.
