Curacao Questions

[billsharp]

We're planning on going to Curacao when we can get the least expensive plane fares, and the water is warm, warm, warm, like early August.

What are your recommendations, from experience, as to where to stay and, where the "do not miss" dives are ?

Should I get a package of some sort that includes a hotel, diving and a car/truck ?

Is there a reason to do any boat diving ?

I enjoy shore diving (Aruba) and worked on a boat last year in Key Largo, where boat diving is a must, but frankly, prefer shore diving.

What about beaches and snorkeling for my wife ?

Are there any local contacts I should make ?

Thanks for your insights,

Bill
Ft. Worth

[scubastud]

You will def. want to dive from a boat,for at least the Mushroom Forest and if you like wreck diving, the Superior Producer.
Get ahold of Ocean Encounters they will set you up.
My sister went with us, she doesn't dive but enjoyed snorkling-there is a Tugbot dive where half the boat did SCUBA and the other half snorkled, I would reccomend that trip- your wife will love it.
Also consider a day trip to Klien Curacao, very cool drift diving and fun stuff to do on the beach. About a 2 hour boat trip to the island, but worth it.
Lots of very nice shore dive spots, you will want to rent a car to get to those spots, a couple requires a little hike down to the water but worth it!.

Were there in mid-Sept and the water was warm I used a 2mil shorty but many just wore rash gaurds and were fine.

If you are in to night life, the Sea Aquarium beaches and the resorts along there are the place to be. Don't bother goin to the casinos they are ..well pretty lousy.

Here are a couple links
Curacao Padi Scuba Diving - Ocean Encounters Curacao#

Curacao Hotels Lions Dive and Beach Resort, a natural stay at resorts

[I Like 2 Dive]

Originally Posted by scubastud

You will def. want to dive from a boat,for at least the Mushroom Forest and if you like wreck diving, the Superior Producer.
Get ahold of Ocean Encounters they will set you up.
My sister went with us, she doesn't dive but enjoyed snorkling-there is a Tugbot dive where half the boat did SCUBA and the other half snorkled, I would reccomend that trip- your wife will love it.
Also consider a day trip to Klien Curacao, very cool drift diving and fun stuff to do on the beach. About a 2 hour boat trip to the island, but worth it.
Lots of very nice shore dive spots, you will want to rent a car to get to those spots, a couple requires a little hike down to the water but worth it!.

Were there in mid-Sept and the water was warm I used a 2mil shorty but many just wore rash gaurds and were fine.

If you are in to night life, the Sea Aquarium beaches and the resorts along there are the place to be. Don't bother goin to the casinos they are ..well pretty lousy.

Here are a couple links
Curacao Padi Scuba Diving - Ocean Encounters Curacao#

Curacao Hotels Lions Dive and Beach Resort, a natural stay at resorts

I agree with everything that scubastud said. Excellent diving!!! Wife and I stayed at Breezes for our honeymoon 3ys ago in May. KLEIN IS A MUST!!!! It was about a $100/person, but well worth it. You get 2 dives, lunch, the whole shebang. On the boat ride back, we were greeted by the Curacao coastguard in their helicopter. They were out doing who-knows-what, but decided to have fun with us. They were doing all these aeronautical maneuvers in the air and above the boat, some even got us wet, which they did on purpose. It was a blast!!!! Awesome people at Ocean Encounters. When they learned it was our honeymoon, they arranged to have a bottle of champagne hidden at one our dive sites. Say "hi" to Ans who runs the shop. Tugboat was the very first open water dive my wife did. Lets just say that our trip was supposed to be our honeymoon and not a dive trip. After doing the tugboat dive, my wife turned our honeymoon into a dive trip. It was that freaking awesome. I keep telling her that we're going back for our 5yr anniversary. If it is in your budget, look at staying at Breezes. It is all-inclusive, and they do have unlimited shore diving + 2 boat dives/day and Ocean Encounters on the property. Did I mention doing Klein? I hope this helps. Feel free to ask away, my wife and I would more than be happy to answer any more questions that you may have.

[diversteve]

Originally Posted by billsharp

Is there a reason to do any boat diving ?

Watamula and Mushroom Forest are boat accessible only. Watamula has been called the best dive on the West Side. It's all the way out past West Punt. Ocean Encounters West goes out there. They have one of the better dives just off their property - Playa Kalki. They're located at Lodge Kura Hulanda. Its' about a 45min. drive from town, probably an hour drive from the Breezes/Lions Dive area.

What about beaches and snorkeling for my wife ?

Playa Lagun was a nice beach with diving offshore. Also Porto Marie, there's both diving and lunch there as well as a nice beach. Another option would be Varsenbaai, when we were there, there were a couple hundred squid just off/under the divedock. And turtles feeding in 6' of water off to the east. The diveop owner said they're usually there - this was May 2007. Decent locals beach also.

The Tugboat is in 20' of water so snorkel accessible. The better part of that dive was around the point along the wall, lots of interesting things living there. Do that first then finish up at the boat. Just about every beach west of town is also a divesite.

There's also a sort of shark feed at the Curacao Seaquarium. They have a lexan wall with holes in it that you feed thru. I think it's either a snorkel or shallow dive. And Dolphins - I believe it's everything from wading with them to diving. We did the dive, it wasn't great - the dolphins spent a lot of time cruising the reef b4 coming to play with us.

Are there any local contacts I should make ?

Contact Suzy at the DiveBus if you want to do some escorted shore dives from the Willemsted area. They're right next door to Breezes.

[cowgirldiver]

I went to Curacao last January (2008). It was my first time ocean diving so every dive seemed so spectacular. We dove with Ocean Encounters out of Lions Dive. The owners moved there from Oklahoma (they are big OU fans!!) Also when you stay at Lions Dive, admission into the Seaquarium is free (or was at the time). They also have shuttles in to town. Just don't stay too late at night or it is hard to find a taxi back (as we found out). We finally found one by one of the casinos. The beaches were beautiful, right out by the hotel (the guys especially enjoyed the topless women).

[billsharp]

So, as I understand it, I need a couple of days to do boat dives and then maybe 3 for shore diving.

In the afternoons we can hit the beach.

Is there a vote for the good shore dives and should I have a truck/car for that, but otherwise, no ?

I may have mentioned, all my diving has been in the Keys (boat diving only) and Aruba (shore diving only).

Is there such a thing as a wall or drift dive in Curacao ?

Thanks to each of you for taking your valuable time to respond to my ignorance.

My best to you,

Bill

[cowgirldiver]

I think what Scubastud didn't emphasize enough is that in Curacao, there really is not that much shore diving-you can do some shore dives from some of the hotels, etc. but most of the diving is done off boats. There are drift dives in Curacao but most of the diving is swim out to a point and turn around and come back. I would recommend making a decision on a dive shop and then getting in touch with them on what kind of dives they suggest. I know that when we stayed at Lion's dive (with the Ocean Encounters on site) a few people did some shore diving (night dives). We also did our checkout dives from that site. Here's a link I found to some Curacao shore dives: Scuba Shore Diving Site Listing for: Curacao, ABC Islands

[Damselfish]

Originally Posted by cowgirldiver

I think what Scubastud didn't emphasize enough is that in Curacao, there really is not that much shore diving-you can do some shore dives from some of the hotels, etc. but most of the diving is done off boats.

One wouldn't emphasize that "there is really not that much shore diving," because it's simply not true. Heck, even the URL you just gave lists 37 shore dives. It's true many people mostly boat dive there, I personally prefer to, but then I boat dive in Bonaire too. Other people don't. There are many shore dives, and they're certainly not all or even most at hotels. There's even a dive op, the Dive Bus, that focuses on shore diving.

[billsharp]

Thank you both for this additional information.

This is great.

Will we need a car for the week?

I only ask as it's less expensive to rent one from here rather than wait until we get there ?

How is public transportation ?

When we were in Aruba, we had a car but found it unnecessary because there were lots of busses running around all over.

Thanks again,

Bill

[Damselfish]

unless you are planning on shore diving only from your hotel or having the dive bus pick you up, you would certainly need a car for that. Personally I would not be without a car in Curacao as we tend to eat out and do things all over the island, plus we don't stay near town. But it really depends where you are staying and what you want to do. Staying near downtown cabs might not be too bad but I have no idea about anything like buses - guessing it would be nothing like Aruba though. Aruba seemed a lot slicker about stuff like that with everything made very convenient for tourists. Curacao is of a more real place, if that makes any sense.