curacao trip report

curacao trip report thru American eyes with SXM-tinted glasses. Just completed a 9-10 day trip report to CUR. Like many other people here we looked for a different place to go after Irma damaged our usual island of choice. In fact we met other people in the same situation as ours, trying CUR and seeing what kind of an island it was and hwo it stacked up. Anyway-flight down on JB was smooth quick; a BIG THANK YOU to the people who told us about E-customs we blue right thru it making it a wonderful experience! We rented a car from a local company D&D Cars. They picked us up at the airport, it was a 3 minute drive to their place, our car was ready and waiting. We opted to rent a Garmin GPS unit for $5 a day. More to continue..

Looking forward to hear the rest.....

CUR trip continued- We stayed at Piscadera Harbor Village and rented a 2 BR condo with an absolutely amazing sunset views over the ocean! PHV is located north-west(?) of Williamstadt about 8-10 kilometers. We figured it was close enough to eat downtown and head up the coast to the amazing beaches, which were 10-20 kilometers depending on which beach. This is a relatively new development but has fallen on hard times(so if anyone has a bunch of money it is for sale!). The units were clean and wonderful; were cleaned during 3 times during our stay; sliding ceiling-to-floor windows looking over the bay and ocean; a gate with a guard during the evening; fully equipped kitchens. Only had 3 head scratching quirks. #1 the only TV was in one of the bedrooms #2 this same room had an elliptical exercise machine (which we totally ignored) and # 3 it did not have a turner in the kitchen to turn our eggs. BUT it did have a coffee machine and a fantastic blender to make our pina coladas for our beach trips!! Every time we grumbled about the turner we looked at the views and instantly forgot about the turner. LOL

Head scratching observations- The main industry of the island is a HUGE oil refining complex and IF the wind is blowing the wrong way it is VERY noticeable. This industry makes the island pretty independent of cruise-ship type tourism. The other observation is that on the beach, English is rarely heard! It is usually Dutch, Spanish or the local language. It's been a long time since we felt like.. well....a tourist in a foreign country. LOL

Beaches-all had similar characteristics.They were coves with tall cliffs, clear clear blue water with excellent snorkeling, small rocks going into the water. Most had shade (umbrellas and such). Places to eat, rest rooms, showers and admittance charges varied from beach to beach. One beach that did stand out from the rest was Playa Grandi. What made it truly unique was the green sea turtles! Apparently fishermen cleaned there daily catch and thru the heads in the bay and this brought in the turtles in. Standing on the peir I saw 4 at a time and one of them was 3 feet in diameter. Of course there was a flock of snorkelers swimming all around them. Other beaches claim, or may actually have turtles, but there was no hunting for them at this beach!

Now the food!! We bought our groceries at the Centrum market for our breakfast and packed lunches for the beach trips. For dinner we ate out. Our best choices were Pops Place (dined twice there!) and Seaside Terrace. Karacters was also very good with excellent views. We tried Tabooshh and were distract.ed by the Lobsters and shared one. It didnt have the flavor we were use to at SXM so felt a little letdown. We should have tried other dishes instead. Also dined at Rozendaels. Very good fodr and nice surroundings. Their Curacao Cuisine was excellent. My better half liked her meal much more than I enjoyed mine. Also dined at El Gaucho and the steak was superb, but i felt the service was a little slow, even by island-time standards. Also had pizza had Sol Food. A nice place to relax and enjoy the scenery and a very good pizza. W.e also ate at Pirate beach bar our 1st night after a long day. We probably didnt take enough time to sort out the menu. we were just hungry and the place was very close. Our last night we grabbed a pizza from Tomatoes on the Beach and that pizza was very good too. If anyone has any questions feel free to ask. A big THANK you to Irish 1223 for there help and ideas.

Is CUR trip worthy?? Absolutely!! and we will probably return. Regards1

Well after reading reviews here and on other forums, looks like our best kept secret is finally out! Curacao will be up and coming.

So glad you enjoyed it! We intend to return one day as well. We really enjoyed Rozendael's -- we had one of our best meals there and the atmosphere was indeed lovely. BTW, we stayed almost directly across the street from Rozendael's at the Avila Beach Resort, so we just had to cross the street and walk 1/2 block. Very convenient. We didn't smell the refinery at all anywhere on the island, even though we had some nice breezes. One of the things we enjoyed was that Curacao had a more European feel to it than the (overly) Americanized Aruba. It was like going to Amsterdam again, but being in the Caribbean at the same time.

Thanks for the report!

We're just back from 10 days at The Natural, Curacao.
Regarding food, our favorite was de Buurvrouw (if you're not Dutch, you can't pronounce it). We especially liked the skewers and the delicious ribs. We also liked the local food at Williwood.
One observation: The island is lot more Dutch than the Dutch side of St. Maarten.
Another observation: The owners/proprietors of the The Natural, Paul & Tatjana, really make you feel at home at their beautiful resort.

Would you return? If yes or no, why? Curious..................

I'm not Gitter, but they did note in their 3rd post above: "Is CUR trip worthy?? Absolutely!! and we will probably return." As for hubby and myself, we will definitely return at some point. Nice island, friendly people, beautiful beaches. Not SXM, but an very nice alternative for something just a little different.

We're booked for the Villa for May 7-14. Looking forward to the trip.

I was glad to read your post. We stay 2 weeks at our Royal Resort and then on to the Natural for a week, first timers at the whole experience. We loved the Orient Beach experience in 2016 and are returning next year, but we thought adding a week at the Natural to our usual 2 weeks at Royal might broaden our horizons even more! Thanks for the recommendation of Buurvrouw. We like the wine Cellar, Scampi's, places on the BLVD. Do they provide pool towels at the resort? Thanks.