Curaçao by Land & Sea, We truly fell in Love

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First time we heard about the island Curaçao was 3 years ago. Jack and Stephanie, our good friends went to visit Jack’s aunt who lives there. When they came back to Vancouver where we live, Stephanie immediately opted for us to do the same. Two weeks after, they booked their second trip. This was a strong indication for us to start planning our own trip to this beautiful Caribbean island.

Curacao small radiant rock in the Caribbean

Curacao is a small island lying next to Aruba and Bonaire. Also two tiny islands, which were once colonies of the Dutch. If Im not mistaken, Bonaire still is a province of the Netherlands.

The island has a very rich cultural heritage. This is clearly visible when visiting the city center of Willemstad. With the st Anna bay in the middle the city center is split into two parts, Punda and Otrabanda.

Planning our trip – we really tried

We booked at the Royal Resorts next to the very popular Sea Aquarium beach. When leaving Canada we were so busy with our jobs that Sue and me did not take the time to plan the trip out. Our thinking was, “it’s just a small island” we can easily see everything in 3 days. Leaving us with 12 more days of relaxation and getting a taste of the local culture.

After a 20 min taxi drive to the Hotel unpacked and started brainstorming how to go about our trip. Both Sue and me wanted to experience the island by land and sea. Curacao has the most pristine beaches. These beaches are mostly secluded because they are located in bays. We have seen Thailand and Indonesia, which is nice. But this totally blew our minds. Our favorite beach was Cas Abou.

Getting around in Willemstad, Curaçao

Getting around on the island is difficult if you don’t have a car. Traffic is kind of crazy for such a small island but still very doable. At the front desk of the Hotel we explained our plans and they kindly suggested us two things; The first was to make sure we rented a Jeep. And the second was to take a multi-day Charter with a big catamaran. With the charter we would visit, Klein Curacao, which is a small island located a 1 hour boat ride away from the main island and some other beaches on the west coast. “This is perfect” was Sue’s reaction to this adventurous proposal.

Going for the Jeep

I was not too sure about the Jeep Rental since the prices were very high. We took the lady’s second suggestion, booked the trips and went back to the room to do some more research. We were right. Car rental prices are very deceiving. They offer you a bottom rate that doubles when you finally need to pay. After doing some research on the rather slow Wifi in our rooms we found a locally owned car rental agency, bocarrental that gave us all the info we needed, arranged the Jeep to be delivered and gave us some great tips on where to go.

From local advise to vacation highlight

The next days we had a list of places to visit that we received from the friendly vehicle rental staff. On top of the list was, visiting Klein Curacao (which we booked already). On the second spot: Visit Playa Piskado and go snorkeling with Turtles. I think this is the highlight of our trip.

All in all we drove around every day of our vacation, except for the 4 days we went on the boat. We only stayed at the hotel for one day because it was a bit rainy. Which was very refreshing after driving with the top down the days before.

Part II with a new (waterproof) camera

Will we go again? Hell Yes!!! We’re already planning and guess what… Jack and Steph are going to join us. We will be leaving another blog here when we’re back. Hopefully with more some phone pictures. If you ask why – It has something to do with losing all my pics on the camera, which has something to do with water and a dock, which has something to do with the lovely Blue Curacao Cocktails that were served that night 😉

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