Place to stay in Curacao

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wcosue

Registered
Messages
13
Reaction score
11
Location
Colorado
# of dives
100 - 199
For anyone that has been to Curacao recently - we are looking for a reasonably priced, diver friendly place to stay for one week of diving while on Curacao. Also any recommendations for a dive shop - or any to avoid? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thx.
 
We stayed at the Marriott and used the dive shop that services both the Marriott and the Hilton. It was very convenient to be able to just walk to the dive shop. You can keep your wetsuit and other stuff there at the shop. They have rinse tanks. The boat takes off from the pier at the Marriott, then goes to the Hilton to pick up any other divers, then goes on the dive. Good boat. The shop is Caribbean Sea sports.
 
There are many hotels, resorts, and numerous rentals in Curacao but only a small subset of them are really diver friendly - as in located near the best diving and set up with the conveniences & services that divers want. There are some well regarded ops that don't really operate out of any hotel and will pick up at a lot of places nearer town, so that can be an option too. It's a pretty big island and it can be tricky to choose the right place. With some exceptions the diving gets better as you head west (counter-intuitive, since the official marine park is to the east.) So staying out west puts you near lots of the better diving on the island, but further from everything else. There's enough good restaurant options to get by but it's definitely more limited. If you're cooking a lot your main grocery shopping is probably best done when you're in town.

At the far west end of the island is Kura Hulanda Lodge, a nice resort. Go West Diving is pretty much on site (technically next door) and is a good shop running am and pm boats and has very good shore diving right off the dock. Also near there is All West apartments also served by Go West with gear storage, tanks, etc. and there is also shore diving there, though down lots of steps. Pros and cons to each with differences in gear storage, tank access, boat access, water access. Really a matter of what type of accommodations you want and maybe if you plan on doing more boat or shore diving. And budget. (There is also a place in the west end called Marazul Dive Resort, which I know little about but seems to be less of a dive resort than lots of places that don't have "Dive Resort" in the name.)

Also like halfway to the west end is a place called Coral Estate, which is still a distance to town but close enough that it's a more viable option to drive in for dinner and stuff. There used to be a great dive resort there called Habitat Curacao. It got run down and was closed for some years, but the whole complex now seems to be owned/managed by a Dutch company which is promoting it more for villa rentals/sales there and not as a dive resort to the US market. But it looks like they have done some nice renovations and upgrades, and renovated the hotel units that were most handy to the diving. If you can rent there it might be something to consider. The dive shop is now called Divers Republic. Their website gives me the impression they cater more to casual divers and it's hard to tell if it would work for a "dive trip" with boat trips running reliably every day and easy and wonderful 24 hour shore diving like it used to have, but this is total speculation on my part. (Hard to find info and I'd love to hear from someone that has been there recently!)

Getting back towards town, the Marriott can be a good option. It's a pretty decent compromise between a nice resort, being nearish town with restaurants and shopping, and having a good dive shop on site, with some on-site shore diving. I don't think the Marriott boat gets all the way out west but it goes at least part way, and has never looked crowded when I've seen it. The Hilton is near, and hasn't been well thought of for years (with many people saying they'd rather pay to stay elsewhere than stay free with Hilton points.) I read someplace they've recently redone the public areas, and if they're using the Marriott dive op instead of Ocean Encounters I'd consider that a plus, but I still don't know if it's up to snuff.

In town there is a place called the Scuba Lodge, which I know nothing about but seems to get good reviews so might be worth looking into.

East of town there is the Sunscape Resort if you want an AI, which has an Ocean Encounters dive shop with boat dives and shore diving (which I've not done). If diving a lot you'd probably want to get a room in the building nearest the dive shop which is at the east end of the property. Also Lion's Dive Resort, which is pretty much a real dive resort and has the main Ocean Encounters shop, though I didn't like shore diving there even when I stayed there very long ago, because you had to swim out through the mucky harbor a distance to nothing much all that great. I dunno how it is now. The Curacao Aquarium is next door and worth checking out, as well as the Sea Aquarium resort (timeshare), from which you could easily walk over to Lion's Dive. I'm not fond of the area, busier than I'd prefer and I'm not an Ocean Encounters fan - nothing wrong with them, they're a perfectly competent and safe op, but have always felt too cattle boatish for my taste (to me at least as much a matter of attitude as number of divers.) I haven't dove with them in years but I imagine it hasn't really changed.

Much further east there are a bunch of resorts in a more recently developed area. I don't know much about them, though when I've looked into it haven't found anyplace I would stay for a serious dive trip. Ocean Encounters does at least pick up by boat from some. I don't know if there's any other ops serving this area.
 
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Someone please make the post by Damselfish a sticky. I've stayed at the Marriott - very good experience with the shop there. I've also The Dive Bus - they were excellent.
 
We've only been to Curacao once (It's sort of difficult to get to from where we live). We stayed at Breezes and were quite underwhelmed. Cannot recommend it.
We dove with Mark & Suzi from The Dive Bus and cannot say enough good things about them. Strongly recommended.
 
note that Breezes is now Sunscape. That property has been under a few names over the years. (The first I remember was Princess Beach, and the dive op back then was Peter Hughes - trivia for the day.)
 
Ocean Frontiers is actually Ocean Encounters - OF is on Grand Cayman. I changed all the references in your narrative.
 
did I? Thanks. I'm always stopping myself from writing the wrong one! Except when I don't, apparently.
 
Blue bay villas are very nice, close to blue bay dive shop. Diver friendly, meaning there is no one going to care what you carry into your room. Only issue is a little walk up hill with your gear.

FYI, check out the prices, there is a wide range for the same room.
 

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