Postcards from the ABC islands
Willemstad
Sometimes, when you’re not expecting it, little treasures land right in your lap. Curaçao is one such destination. While most Americans head to Aruba and other Caribbean destinations, I think it’s time that they reconsider their travel plans and give Curaçao a shot. It’s affordable, rich with history, and it has absolutely everything that you’d want in a Caribbean vacation.
After a pleasant four hour flight from JFK, my partner and I disembarked in Curaçao International Airport. Both American Airlines and JetBlue have good connecting service to the island several times per week, and I highly recommend them. After a short drive to the southern tip of the island, we started a winding, utterly gorgeous drive to the main gates of the 2,000 acre Santa Barbara Plantation luxury resort, where we were greeted with Blue Curaçao cocktails, which is a liquor produced locally on the island.
The hotel was everything we could have hoped for and more –it had stunning sand beaches and gorgeous azure waters with extended dive platforms to keep youngsters safe, as well as onsite dive operations, award winning golf courses, and views for miles! The staff were incredibly friendly as well and we never wanted for anything while we were there!
I also had an opportunity to spend a day at the Hilton Hotel, and they have an extraordinary setup as well, with a tower for maximum viewing potential, as well as a pristine, horseshoe beach, bathtub warm water, as well as sustainability-focused bar and dining programs that I admire.
The city of Willemstad surpassed our expectations as well! The island is a fusion of Dutch, Spanish, African and Indian cultures, and this mashup of cultures has produced wonderful music, culture and food to boot! We ate at restaurants such as Kome where we had one of the freshest and most delicious plates of snapper that I’ve ever consumed, and we were thoroughly impressed.
We also tried rotis, which is curried chicken wraps, both from Plasa Bieu, which is a local hotspot for street style/stall foods and found incredibly delicious mangos and other produce from the floating market, which his a produce market dealt entirely out of boats! We also checked out Curacão’s newest speciality coffee shop, which is called Beans and had delicious coffee and even non-dairy options (thank goodness)!
If you’re looking for more high-end options, we particularly enjoyed St. Tropez restaurant, which is next to Beans and has sweeping, unobstructed views of the ocean, as well as Gouverneur de Rouville. If nightlife is your scene, the beach parties around Mambo Beach are always a good time.
If you’re a scuba diver, Curaçao is also a world leader in wall and wreck diving, and has pristine blue dive sites where you don’t even have to wear a wetsuit if you don’t feel like it! Curaçao was my first open water dive, and while I panicked a bit at the very beginning, it was one of the most rewarding things that we did during the entire trip! The diversity of fish, coral and other marine life was staggering, and it’s clear that the island’s ecology has been carefully preserved.
Finally, we loved traveling to some of the island’s more remote and completely uninhabited beaches around the country, and the island is famous for having 38 separate beaches with some really love cliffs, scenery, cool looking succulents and cactuses, and easygoing vibes. Check out the north for beaches like Grote Knip, among others, or if you fancy some cliff jumping, check out Playa Forti.
Thanks for reading my guide and please let me know if you have any questions about these or other things, and I’d be happy to answer them!
XO,
@karinabnyc
