Go West Diving Curacao - Fall Special Offer

[GrafCanuck]

My wife and I have travelled extensively throughout the Caribbean over the past 25 years or so. I've only been diving for the past 4+ years. In the last 3 years we have been to Bonaire and Curacao 6 times in total. Both are excellent diving islands (both shore and boat) where compared to the other Caribbean islands we have visited (e.g. Turks and Caicos (Provo), Nassau, Barbados, Antigua, St Lucia, St Thomas, St Maarten, Anguilla, St Barts, & Cozumel). I'd strongly recommend if the Caribbean is your thing to plan on going to both Bonaire and Curacao. They are different islands. Bonaire is a diver's island and very compact (everything is within a 10-15 minute drive) while Curacao is more balanced with greater variety. We love both of these islands. Now when it comes to crime, we have not seen any crime in Bonaire but have personally seen a broken into truck in Curacao once. Personally, there is far more crime on St Maarten and Barbados. As stated in another post, you have to be smart when travelling ANYWHERE. Safe diving!

 

[swimbody]

We are in the airport at Curacao about to head home to the States. We haven't had any problems with crime while we were here. There are areas of course where you should not be leaving nice stuff out in the open. Every shore dive site that we went to had a gate or a fee to park. I took an ATM card and stuffed it in my swimsuit so I could buy a rum right after my dive. Since I don't wear wetsuits while I'm diving I have very little equipment I need to move around for the shore dive sites. Just reg, tank, weights and my BCD. Theft is everywhere so I suggest to be smart and don't bring your cellphone. If you can lock your glove compartment that is another idea. We locked everything and took it all with us. Many places here have lockers to rent so we did that at Porto Mari... we rented our locker from the bar ez peazy. If you are a shore diver you will love this place. I do suggest to dive the Superior Producer with a boat operator. The cruise ship docks are very very wavy and 4 in our group skipped the opportunity. They totally missed out imho. Be very aware of where you choose to stay on the island. I'd strongly suggest to be on the west side of Willemstad. It's a lot easier. We stayed at Blue Bay for nothing because we split a 3 bedroom apartment amongst 3 couples. We rented a Hyundai van from the airport. It handled all of us and our dive gear. When you return it give yourself a little extra time to check it back in. It's not your US type of e receipt check in.

The whole island is cheap. Meals were great and the service was top notch back at Blue Bay in the afternoons. Loved it here but checking the list off and looking into a full dive hotel for the next trip.

 

[tkaelin]

JetBlue has some airfare bargains NYC-CUR this Sept and Oct.

 

[Snoweman]

JetBlue has some airfare bargains NYC-CUR this Sept and Oct.

I wish they flew to CUR from FLL. Then I might be able to use them from ATL.