During the month of July 2023, Sajal and I lived in Curaçao. Curaçao is a small island in the Caribbean near Venezuela. Curaçao is a part of the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao) which because of their proximity to South America, rarely (almost never) get hit by Hurricanes. This was one of the reasons we chose Curaçao in the first place since we were traveling during the beginning of hurricane season. Curaçao is a beautiful island with a wonderful culture. Being a constituent country of the Netherlands, there is a big Dutch influence on Curaçao. In fact, the languages spoken there from most frequently to least are Dutch, English, Papiamentu (a local language), and Spanish. A lot of the local food is also Dutch as well.
Willemstad
Sajal and I lived in an Airbnb in Pietermaai which is about a 10-minute walk from Williamstead, the capital of Curaçao. Williamstead is such a cute town. All of the buildings in Curaçao are painted in such fun beautiful colors. The story is that the Mayor woke up one day and said the city was too white. He told everyone to pick up a paintbrush and start painting their house in whatever color they wanted. Highly recommend walking around the town. There are some really cute coffee shops, a flea market, and yummy restaurants. We recommend Van Gogh and La Reina for cafes/brunch and Plein Cafe Wilhelmina, Mi Familia, and Sweet Sin for restaurants.
Of course, I can't mention Williamstead without talking about Queen Emma's Bridge. This is a 150 old bridge right on the water that will open periodically during the day. The views from the bridge are so beautiful and we would come to walk there every day. On the other side of the bridge is an old Fort. We didn't go there for the longest time cause we didn't think anything was there. Boy were we wrong. There are a bunch of shops and cute little restaurants there. This is where the Cruise Ship Passengers come from so there's a ton to do there and some nice Hotels too.
Best beaches in Curaçao Avilla Hotel Beach and Jan Thiel were our personal favorite beaches. We went here all of the time. Avilla Hotel Beach has restaurants on the beach but also palm trees. Avilla is also not that busy so we would come here on the weekdays a lot. We also got a gym pass from Avilla, so we'd run on treadmills looking at the horizon, then come down and enjoy the beach. Avilla also has nice palm trees on the beach which provides shade.
Jan Thiel is awesome on the weekend. They have a lot of cabanas out there that you can rent. They will bring drinks and food to you, which is just awesome if you want to lay around. If you go after 4pm the cabanas are FREE!!!! Otherwise, they are $30 for the full day. Mambo Beach is the best party scene in Curaçao. There are a bunch of restaurants on the beach where people are dancing. There's a also some clubs down there which are really fun.
The last beach that I'll mention is Karakter Beach. This beach is inside a resort and has a rocky coastline which is really pretty. The water was a light crystal blue. We sat at the Karakter Beach Lounge Restaurant which was right by the water and I also highly recommend the food here.
Places to Visit in Curaçao
My biggest recommendation from Curaçao would be to go snorkel in Playa Grandi. Playa Grandi is a super small beach. But the real reason to go there is to swim with turtles. There are a bunch of turtles that visit the beach every day. There's a man who feeds them fish and cares for them. He makes sure that no one touches the turtles while allowing tourists to get an up close and personal feel with the turtles. He will hold you on your back and will encourage the Turtle to swim over you. We spent so long just admiring the Turtles and swimming with them. There's also a ton of fish that hang out as well. I've snorkeled in a lot of places, but this is the best snorkeling I've done in my life. After we were done hanging out with the Turtles, we ate at Restaurant Playa Forti. It's a restaurant on a cliff looking over the beautiful blue water. You can also jump off a cliff there too.
You can see wild pink flamingos in Salt Lake Willibrordus in Curaçao. This was super fun to do. We drove and looked around the lake until we saw the pink birds eating fish in the water.
We also went to Sheet Boka National Park. There you can see a natural bridge. That's when the ocean has created a hole in the land creating a bridge. You can also see a blow hole. The blowhole was super strong and it was so much fun just looking at it.
Curaçao is one of the best places in the world for Scuba Diving and Snorkeling. We went scuba diving for the first time here and I was amazed. We saw so many fishes and sea horses. We first learned how to scuba on Seascape Beach. Then the next day we went to Tugboat Beach. There's an old tugboat there where fish and coral now grow. There's also an underwater cliff with coral that was amazing. The sensation of being underwater was just so amazing.
We went to an ostrich farm and I saw Ostriches for the first time in my life. They're so big it's crazy. We got to feed the Ostriches, learn about how the farm operates, and even stand on an Ostrich egg. We also saw baby Ostriches which were so small and cute.
Aruba
At this point you're probably thinking, I thought this article was about Curaçao AND Aruba, not just Curaçao. We spent a weekend in Aruba. We took a 30-minute flight using Divi Divi Airlines. This was the smallest commercial airplane I've ever seen. It probably sat about 12 people max. It had spinning blades on the engines which was on the wing. It was crazy to be in that small of an airplane.
We stayed in Palm Beach in Aruba. I highly recommend it if you're thinking about going to Aruba. It had a ton of restaurants, shops, and fun clubs. We drove all over the island and I definitely think that this was the most lively and fun part of the island. All of the hotels are right there and are right on the beach.
Aruba is essentially a more developed Curaçao. The roads are nicer, the hotels are nicer, the casinos are bigger, and there are more restaurants. But I don't know if there was more to do honestly. The main attractions were the California Lighthouse, Arikok National Park, and the Ayo Rock Formations. The lighthouse is named after when S.S. California crashed on the shore there. Arikok National Park is something we missed. The caves there have drawings from the native populations of Aruba. Ayo Rock Formations is a rock mountain that was holy to the native population of Aruba (see pic).
Another attraction we did was go to a donkey sanctuary. There were over 100 donkeys in the sanctuary. We got to feed them and interact with them which was really cool. We didn't go scuba diving, because people told us that it is better in Curaçao. I'm assuming the snorkeling would be better too for the same reasons.
The one thing I was super happy we did was go to Baby Beach. This was the lightest color of water I have ever seen. It was honestly surreal how beautiful it was. There is a little restaurant there too where I got the Baby Blue Beach Drink which just looked like the water. It was so cool. In conclusion, Curaçao is better to explore and Aruba is better to Relax in.
& That's all for now folks. Sajal and I are currently living in Costa Rica, which is what my next post will be about!
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