If you are going by car it takes a long detour, but it’s all worth it, because Queen Julianna is an impressive bridge, so big that cruise ships can fit under it. Website design By BotEap.comOn both sides, you can see colonial-style houses, in beautiful bright colors (orange, red, white, green, yellow, blue). While in Curaçao, I read a story about a former governor, many centuries ago, who could not bear the monotonous white color of the building, and accused him of giving him headaches … and this is how the nice coloring began. houses. Website design By BotEap.comOur favorite coffee terrace was Iguana Café (by the way, many iguanas on the island, almost everywhere, although not in the city … really cute animals), located in Punda, right next to Queen Emma. They had a delicious Bananarama, a cocktail with banana juice and a little alcohol that I was addicted to. Right next door was Vienna Café, with a great tasting apple strudel. Website design By BotEap.comTo do Website design By BotEap.comIn Curaçao there is a large list of sport-related activities available: diving, ski jet rental, snorkeling, windsurfing (Curaçao’s trade winds create a perfect climate for this type of sport).
This vacation we were a bit lazy, so this time we just dived for ourselves … Website design By BotEap.comSea Aquarium is a must for anyone on Curacao while on vacation. You can swim with the dolphins, kiss the sea lions (or actually be kissed by them) and see the beautiful flamingos.
Swimming with dolphins was great, the best thing ever 🙂 They were so nice and friendly and did all those tricks with our signals … how cute! There were 4 of us in our group and we swam with 2 dolphins: Deedee and Koban. Koban is the real “actor” from Flipper 1 (so I swam with a celebrity :)) They jumped, laughed and let us pet them … I was wondering, can I have a dolphin at home? 🙂 Website design By BotEap.comIn the same wildlife encounter section, a visit to the ostrich farm, the largest outside of Africa, is a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon. While you’re there, you can even sample some specialties at the Zambezi restaurant. I can believe I held an ostrich for 1 day, it looked so scared poor thing! Website design By BotEap.comThe Hato Caves are very beautiful and interesting, and the Cristoffel Park and Boca Tabla are other natural things that you must visit while you are on the island. In the caves I was tremendously scared by bats (the “legal” residents there), although they told me they are harmless … Boca Tabla is a beautiful natural phenomenon, with big waves hitting the rocks and entering a cave … the national park where they were is pretty empty and deserted, and I was very thirsty, so bring a bottle of fresh water! Website design By BotEap.comAnd don’t miss the flamingo area on the way to the west of the island. I had never seen wild flamingos before, and there were so many! Unfortunately quite far out in the water (kind of a small inland lagoon) so even with my zoom lens I couldn’t get a proper picture of them. Website design By BotEap.comWe spent a whole day on Klein Curacao, a small desert island near Curacao. It was covered in white sand and it was the perfect setting for one of the best photos I have taken in all my vacations this year. One of them actually entered the Holland Heralds KLM photo contest, so wish me luck :)! This trip was really worth it, with great snorkeling time and good food, and I definitely recommend the Mermaid Boat, the tour operator we went with. Website design By BotEap.comWhere to stay Website design By BotEap.comWell, we stayed at the Marriot and we were very happy with our choice. Great, beautiful hotel with nice big rooms. We had a corner room on the first floor, with 2 large windows, one overlooking the beach and ocean (great views) and the other above the pool and restaurants. It was not at all noisy (as some may think), and I was very happy with my “special room, 2 windows” :).
Due to a delay in our flight at departure, KLM gave us an unplanned extra night on the island. They sent us to Breezes Super All Inclusive, which I hated (nice beach, but the hotel didn’t have the style of Marriott or Le Meridien or Sheraton, my usual choices for vacations). Luckily we stayed there only one night, otherwise I would have gone crazy 🙂 Website design By BotEap.comWhere to eat Website design By BotEap.comI was very surprised by the great offer of excellent restaurants. Bistro Le Clochard was the first we tried, and we liked it so much that we decided to finish our Christmas dinner there too (Swiss-French specialties). Other excellent restaurants: Fort Nassau (on a cliff, near the Queen Juliann Bridge, overlooking the city) or Le Gouverneur, in Punda, with a beautiful view of the Willemstad Inner Canal. Website design By BotEap.comAs you can read, I really enjoyed my vacation in Curacao. I liked it so much that I decided to also visit other surrounding Dutch islands (such as St Maarten or Aruba). Website design By BotEap.comAlready been to Curaçao? Or other Dutch islands in the Caribbean?