Planning to dive Curacao for the first time, advice needed.

[amajamar]

I'm planning on a dive trip to Curacao this winter (probably mid-March) and want as much of a "Bonaire" type experience as possible. We are shore divers generally, and love the freedom of diving on our own terms and dive plans. We were in Bonaire a couple of years ago, and loved it. We would return this year except for the fact that we want like a ten day trip and Bonaire is really one or two weeks without a happy medium due to the flight schedules.

We have a modest budget for a ten day trip, we want to maximize our dive time, and want to relax. I have read about the Dive Bus, and while that sounds great, I am a little apprehensive about shore diving with scheduled groups, as our dives can easily last well over an hour, based on average depth, of course, and I've found that when diving with unknown groups your dive time can suffer severely.

The above being said, what is your advice on a budget friendly, "Bonaire" type diving trip on Curacao? Where would you stay, who would you rent tanks from, truck, etc.

Any and all advice is welcome, and thanks in advance!

 

[Curacao Sunshine]

Since we live in Westpunt, we are a little partial to the West end dive sites..... but you can find something special on just about every dive and some locations are quite unique from others.

If you'd like to look into staying in Westpunt you'll find that the Lodge Kura Hulanda will often run specials that include airfare.

With All West Apartments and Diving, you can get a package that includes a truck, unlimited air and or boat dives with the newly named Go West Diving. Depending on how many dives you plan to do a day, it might not be more expensive to pay for your tanks at your dive site. Porto Marie, Cas Abou and Lagun have full service shops, but there are many low on the radar sites that have no facilities; the 4 at San Juan, Daibooi, Hundu, Westpunt Bay, etc. where you need to bring everything with you. Go West Diving is located next to the Lodge and there are tanks available on site at All West.


We have a 3 bedroom apartment at Sunshine Getaway, Marazul has 1, 2 and 3 bedroom units, West Hill Bungalows have 2 bedroom buildings, our neighbor (and many others) has 3 studio apartment at Chambra and Nos Kruseros has 1 or 2 bedroom apartments and is located across the street from the dive shop.

Lagun is 5 miles away with more condos and apartments.

I hope this helps with one end of the island. I'm sure others will chip in with their favorite lodging and dive ops/sites.

 

[diversteve]

We did a similar trip a few years ago. We wanted to dive both ends of the island so we first stayed out west then moved back closer to town later in the week (about 9-10 days also...) We first stayed in Lagun as it is within 15-20 minutes of a lot of good sites - Playa Lagun, Playa Jeremi just up the road, Varsenbaai is (sort of) nearby. You're also reasonably close to Porto Mari - a good double reef dive and not too far from the 3 "Knip" sites as well as Playa Kalki in Westpunt - IMO the best dive we did all week.

Downside of staying out west is that it's about 45mins +/- drive to Willemsted and there's only one smallish market and not a lot of restaurants - several in Westpunt and a couple along the main road are about all. For food, we took the advice of our apt. mgr. and stocked up in Willemsted before we drove out.

Later that week we moved down to Piscadera Bay which is a resort area. There's a Marriott and a Hilton but we stayed a block off the water in some affordable duplexes. They were older but have recently been refurbished. They have access to a private beach just across the street. It put us about 10 mins. from downtown and 20mins. from the dive sites SE of town. It's about 20mins. to the DiveBus from there also but I'm fairly certain they pick up in Piscadera Bay. And a lot more nightlife/dining options in that area - although PB is pretty quiet at night. The reef is a little farther out in that area but you can swim to it from the Marriott. Caribbean Sea Sports is their on-site operator.

In case you haven't seen it: http://shorediving.com/Earth/ABC/Curacao/index.htm

We rented vehicles at the airport from one of the chains. Price seemed reasonable and it was certainly easiest.

Places we stayed:

My Dream Apts. in Lagun. Small complex set in the cliffs above Playa Lagun. The pictures are misleading it's about a 60' vertical drop to the water. They did have a ladder if you wanted to snorkel. Nice, newer units but the cooking facilities were minimal. They're 5mins. away from the beach at Playa Lagun and Discover Diving for tanks etc. DD has a driveup loading dock, with 5 of us we moved a lot of tanks daily. My Dream Apartments - Home

Piscadera Bay Resort in Piscadera Bay. Like Bonaire, it only had A/C in the bedrooms. My duplex was 2br/1ba, had a full kitchen, dining area for 8, a large deck with a table for 12 and a large private yard. A couple of the units have private pools but there's no on-site pool for guests. It's one block away from the water and sort of behind the Hilton. Gated security. Piscadera Bay Resort

 

[tajkd]

At least you are planning. Check out my trip report from two months ago. I had a similar dilemma solved by finding SBers to help me. There are tons of resources in Curaçao.

 

[amajamar]

At least you are planning. Check out my trip report from two months ago. I had a similar dilemma solved by finding SBers to help me. There are tons of resources in Curaçao.

Great report, just what I need to start my research! I will definately have more questions shortly!

 

[Karel]

You are welcome to visit us at Kokomo beach at Vaersenbaai. You can dive with us. We can supply you with all information and equipment you might need. Information is free.
Best wishes for 2012

 

[Dirty-Dog]

If you want it as "bonaire like" as possible, rent a car. The Dive Bus has packages that include everything for self-guided tours including maps of the island showing all the dive spots.

 

[amajamar]

You are welcome to visit us at Kokomo beach at Vaersenbaai. You can dive with us. We can supply you with all information and equipment you might need. Information is free.
Best wishes for 2012

That sounds great! I take it your location is in the south?

Anyway, our plans are set, we will be there the last week and a half in March. We will be renting a vehicle, probably a truck, and will be staying in Westpunt.

Time to poll everyone on their rcommended dive sites...!

 

[scubadada]

Anyway, our plans are set, we will be there the last week and a half in March. We will be renting a vehicle, probably a truck, and will be staying in Westpunt.

Time to poll everyone on their rcommended dive sites...!

Hi amajamar,

My wife and I made our 1st trip to Curacao in early November 2010 after 3 prior trips to Bonaire. We stayed at Lodge Kura Hulanda and dived with Ocean Encounters West, now Go West Diving. We rented a car at the airport and stocked up on groceries on the way to Westpunt. Go West supplies the tanks to All West Apartments as a satellite site.

We had planned on doing the AM 2-tank boat dives each morning and spending the afternoons doing shore dives as we were used to on Bonaire. tajkd's review from this October is right on regarding the shore diving, it is no where near as easy and quick as on Bonaire. We only had 5 1/2 days to dive so altered our plans to some degree to get in more diving. We took the PM 1-tanker a couple of times to get in a 2nd visit to both Watamula and Elvin's Plane Wreck and spent more time exploring the really great shore site from Go West, Playa Kalki/Alice in Wonderland.

Go West is a very good operation and the boat dives went perfectly smoothly. Most of the dives are not deep. We went down to 80s-90s feet on several occasions but spent most of our time at 40s-60s feet. Tank fills were always 3000 psi minimum, we dived all air, nitrox is available. The boat dives were gently suggested to be 60 minutes. We did not push it, but averaged 65 minutes (61-70 min) and did not get so much as an angry word or look.

Our favorite dives, not necessarily in order, were Watamula, Elvin's Plane Wreck, Santa Cruz, and Playa Kalki. We did Playa Kalki several times, we liked it best to the right and found it a good night dive. There were seahorses at Rediho and at Scooter. We went freediving in the Blue Room during a SI and were treated to a huge school of Glassy Sweepers. We did not make it to the Superior Producer, maybe next time. Another intriguing opportunity we may look into is diving some of the less visited areas with Dive Charter Curacao Curacao Scuba Diving - Dive Charter Curacao the boat dive adventure in Curacao.

We really enjoyed our short visit to Curacao and would like to return someday. The lodging, operator, and diving were all very good. There is a good reason that Bonaire is the shore diving capital of the Caribbean.

Enjoy your visit to Curacao.

Good diving, Craig

 

[diversteve]

My short list.

Playa Kalki/Alice in Wonderland - I also liked it better to the north (west?) it seemed slightly more vertical. But either way was really good. I think it's the best shoredive we did all week.
Porto Mari - nice double reef system
Varsenbaii - south to the pontoon boat wreck (used to drop the cars at Carpile from what I've read) There were seahorses near the mooring ball at 40', turtles feeding in the shallows and squid under the dive dock. All in one dive.
Playa Lagun - nice reef, sort of a longish surface swim out, watch for turtles.
Tugboat - the boat itself isn't much but the wall around the point is. Lots of eels. The pier is supposed to be excellent also but there was a ship working there so we couldn't dive it.
Nos Kas - the old Habitat resort house reef. The resort is closed and it's now part of Coral Estates. It used to be possible to get past the guarded gate to dive there but I just read that someone was turned away recently.

My friends wife used to dive guide on Curacao, she recommends Snake Bay also.