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Ocean Encounters. You can walk there, they're between the SeaAquarium and Lions Dive next door. If you're interested, they're the people who do the Dolphin Dive thru the SeaAquarium also.
IMO the "best" dive sites are near/in the West End. Playa Kalki/Alice in Wonderland for shorediving and Watamula for boat diving. Both can be done with the on-site Ocean Encounters West facility. Maybe an hour drive or less from the SeaAquarium area depending on traffic - it's in WestPunt. The other famous boat dive in that area is the Mushroom Forest to the east of there.
A friends wife is a local dive instructor, she recommended Snake Bay - also on the west side - but we didn't get there.
Another really good dive site in that area is Porto Marie, it's a double reef off a really nice beach. You can do a double there and then dive Habitat's house reef - Nos Kas and make a good day of it. That's what we did once from town. You can get tanks/lunch at either place also.
I also thought Varsenbaai was one of the better sites, I saw a seahorse, a pontoon boat in 80' and about 100 squid off the dock in two dives. As well as a couple large friendly (one overly so) moray eels. Coming back in swim alongshore about 100 yds. to the south of the divedock and look for turtles feeding on the grass in about 6', the diveop mgr. said they're always there - they were. It's about 1/2 hr. drive from the SeaAquarium area.
A good dive close to SeaAquarium is the Tugboat, the boat looked interesting but the wall around the point was much better according to my friends. From the SeaAquarium I would guess it's about 10-15min east? The boat is in 20' so they also get day-snorkelers from the cruiseships - my friends were on it when about 50 snorkelers dropped in.
One thing about most shore dive sites off Curacao, there's typically an on-site diveop at most of them. So you're expected to pay a small usage fee to dive there, even if you bring tanks. In most places it makes sense to get tanks/weights from them also.
IMO the "best" dive sites are near/in the West End. Playa Kalki/Alice in Wonderland for shorediving and Watamula for boat diving. Both can be done with the on-site Ocean Encounters West facility. Maybe an hour drive or less from the SeaAquarium area depending on traffic - it's in WestPunt. The other famous boat dive in that area is the Mushroom Forest to the east of there.
A friends wife is a local dive instructor, she recommended Snake Bay - also on the west side - but we didn't get there.
Another really good dive site in that area is Porto Marie, it's a double reef off a really nice beach. You can do a double there and then dive Habitat's house reef - Nos Kas and make a good day of it. That's what we did once from town. You can get tanks/lunch at either place also.
I also thought Varsenbaai was one of the better sites, I saw a seahorse, a pontoon boat in 80' and about 100 squid off the dock in two dives. As well as a couple large friendly (one overly so) moray eels. Coming back in swim alongshore about 100 yds. to the south of the divedock and look for turtles feeding on the grass in about 6', the diveop mgr. said they're always there - they were. It's about 1/2 hr. drive from the SeaAquarium area.
A good dive close to SeaAquarium is the Tugboat, the boat looked interesting but the wall around the point was much better according to my friends. From the SeaAquarium I would guess it's about 10-15min east? The boat is in 20' so they also get day-snorkelers from the cruiseships - my friends were on it when about 50 snorkelers dropped in.
One thing about most shore dive sites off Curacao, there's typically an on-site diveop at most of them. So you're expected to pay a small usage fee to dive there, even if you bring tanks. In most places it makes sense to get tanks/weights from them also.
