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Up front travel tips:
Make reservations before you go. The Marriott folks were touting a buy 3 get one free. We took two of those and discovered the 8 days were just about right to find our way around and get used to the place so by the end, we weren’t using a map and were coming up with short cuts to places.
While on the island, were told it is one of the nicer places, with Hotel Kura Hulanda setting the standard. The beds are great and the middle managers want everything to be OK.
Breakfasts were part of the deal. We booked in March, paid in April and used it in late July. It was a bargain then and it may get better . We ate a breakfast that lasted us all day. So, we had dinner out, early. They had fruit to take with us for snacks during the day.
Get an island map, showing all the dive spots, which is $7 at the Marriott dive shop on the beach or free from the concierge upstairs.
Snorkel the Marriott house reef. Left to right facing the water, both inside and out.
Really, snorkel at the Marriott. No kiddin’. Consider it one of the good dives.
Get a car here in the States, or, where ever you are before you go. Even the Curacao Budget folks were surprised at our $150 for seven days. We were never able to quite figure out the security alarm but we heard so many of them going off at various car parks, we decided we were just part of some sort of tourist rent-a-car sub-culture.
A heads up. The rental car booth is in the other (read: old) building, next to the new one which is where you arrive. Personnel there seem not to know the rental car booths are next door.
Without a car, the cab fare, just to the downtown and resort area ranges from $25 to $45. It’s about 6 miles. Get an agreement on the fare before you get in. Doubling up means nothing. Everyone pays. It seems the whole culture defers to the cabs.
If you don’t get a car, there are lots of 9 passenger “vans” for locals. Just stand at the Bushalt (sp?).
The nicest thing about Curacao is that diving is the 3rd most important income generator, lagging behind both the refinery and the port activity.
As a result, a visitor (70% of whom are from the Netherlands) is not treated unusually or patronized, but rather, just becomes part of the social landscape and therefore almost invisible in the population. But, if you insist on wearing your stingray, skull & crossbones, dive Omaha tee shirt, you’re on your own.
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