Elizabeth, we did indeed stop at Karakter one day with the intention of spending the day there; but it was very crowded and the only chairs left available were not shaded. While it’s in a beautiful spot as far as scenery goes, we did not care for the beach there. It is very rocky and you have to climb down some stairs to get into the water. There were a lot of divers there and I imagine it’s a great area for diving. We did take some pics there, but can’t seem to post them. The bar and menu looked good, but I burn like the dickens in the sun, so we ended up leaving and going to Playa Knip instead. While the Curaçao Karakter is plenty nice, we definitely liked the SXM Karakter beach itself better. One thing of note is that the Curaçao Karakter is located in a gated community with a guard shack where the guard gives you a parking sticker to place on your dashboard. Not a big deal, we just didn’t care for all the formality of getting into place. (We like our beaches a little on the natural, wild side <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Wink.gif" alt="" />).

All in all though, Curaçao is a great island in its own right and I think you would enjoy your time there. It’s not SXM to us, but then no other island among the 12 or 13 we've visited over the years is. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Wink.gif" alt="" /> But as you reiterated, it's sometimes refreshing to visit other places from time to time. We're very glad we went.