Top 10 best dives sites in Curacao?

[WonderTwins]

Hello Everyone,

We are a small group heading to Curacao for a week in November and would really appreciate a recommendation for the top 10 favorite dive sites? We will be doing a combination of shore and boat diving so all recommendations are welcome!

Thank you in advance.

 

[diversteve]

Playa Kalki/Alice in Wonderland in Westpunt was the best shore dive we did all week. Good facilities at Ocean Encounters West.
Playa Lagun - look for turtles.
Varsenbaai - to the east there's a pontoon wreck at 80', seahorses at 40', turtles feeding in the seagrass on the way in.
We also liked Habitat's reef enough to go there twice.
My friends said Porto Mari was a good double reef dive.
Watamula is supposed to be the best boat dive - we didn't get to it. OEWest goes there 2x week.
Friends said the best part of the Tugboat was the wall around the point. Lots of eels.
My friends wife is a native/dive guide from there. She likes Snake Bay.
The only boat dive we did was Lost Anchor - drift dive. Not particularly memorable.
A buddy and I did the Dolphin Dive. Our dolphins swam off into the distance the first 20mins. of our 45min. dive -
they're allowed to roam free. The reef where the dive is done is pretty tired so it was a long wait. And $200pp.

 

[jdcpa]

Rediho-boat
Playa Kalki-shore

I have a couple of others I like, but I need to research the names.

In my opinion, the diving is best in the west.

 

[lmorin]

rediho (from boat)
Hell's corner (from boat)
mushroom city (two different versions of the same site, one dive starting close to shore and the other further out)
airplane wreck

 

[bkpix]

We have been to Curacao twice, and both times stayed out west. The farthest east we dove was Porto Marie which was OK, but we preferred others more.

Best boat dive on the island IMHO is Watamula; absolutely amazing. Also worth doing: Mushroom Forest and Rediho. Ocean Encounters West does them weekly, you can check their website for times and days.

Our favorite shore dive last trip was Playa Lagun. A bit of a swim out to the reef, but worth it. Remember to bring your snorkel and go out face down. You might get lucky and see turtles, octopus and who knows what else on the way out. If there is no current, go left. We always saw turtles and lots of great coral formation.

Other shore dives we liked a lot. in no particular order; Playa Jerami, Alice in Wonderland, all the dives in the San Juan area.

 

[morecowbells]

I think Watamula is the hands down the best dive site in Curacao. OEW is definitely the dive op to book with. For shore dives my pics would be a toss up between Lagun, San Juan sites, Playa Kalki and Cas Abao. Porto Marie used to be on my list of favorites until we were there last time. It was saturated with people. The dive shop benches and tables were completely packed with plastic totes from other dive ops with no area left for customers actually using the on site dive op to gear up. I cannot fault the Porto Marie dive op as they were put in a bind, but it was way too crowded. Porto Marie is popular because the double reef and the beautiful beach, although Cas Abou lacks the double reef, you do get the advantage of beautiful diving with a smaller yet gorgeous beach without the excessive crowding and their dive op has always been excellent.

 

[marcmarcoux]

My wife and I just returned from a trip to Bonaire and Curacao. Our favorite dives in Curacao were off of Klein Curacao, a small island to the east. The diving was awesome! Beautiful wall, the best visibility we had in two weeks of diving. Loads of large fish and you'll probably see turtles and eagle rays. The catch is it's a full day commitment (6:45am - 5:30pm) for two dives, which you'll mostly spend with Dutch tourists on the 2-hour trip each way. In addition to diving you'll have time to relax on the beach, snorkel, or explore the island. The Mermaid makes the trip three or four times a week. Not a luxury yacht, but the crew was nice and they keep you well fed. You can either go guided, or unguided like we did.

Have a great trip!!!

 

[Jaysun1327]

We were in Curacao in the beginning of September. Watamula was hands down the best dive site the we did. We dove with Ocean Encounters West and they go to this site a couple times a week as a boat dive. You'll want to do Watamula as a boat dive. The best shore dive was probably right in front of out resort, All West Apartments, Playa Piscado. Playa Jeremi, Klein Knip, and Daaibooibaai were nice shore dives as well, although the reef is a pretty decent surface swim from shore at these locations. You can't can wrong with Playa Kalki/Alice in Wonderland as a shore dive as well. This is also the house reef for OEW, so the dive ship is right there.

 

[Jaysun1327]

Watamula video

Octopus at Klien Knip

 

[curious2dive]

Hi,

If you want to do some beautiful dives you can join us at CURious2DIVE. We travel with small groups over the Island to visit the different divesites. We offer 1-tank, 2-tank dives and packages.
If you're interested you can mail us at curious2dive@gmail.com. We send you the different posibilities we have.

Regards
Hans Pleij