Curacao

Hi all,

I am planning a trip to Curacao (staying at the Lions Dive & Beach Resort), but I've never been there, so I have a few questions. Any "must see" dive sites? What is the best time of the year, I am relatively flexible but would like to go this year. Has anybody stayed in this hotel, how is the dive operation, is it photo friendly?

Thanks for any info,

Luiz

Been there twice. Going back in December. Stayed at Habitat Curacao both times previously. Will be staying at Sunset Waters this time. Both of these locations have excellent shore dives.

I haven't heard much about Lion's in years, so I have no comment. Habitat is built on the best house reef on the island. The down side is that it is isolated from town. Half our dives were on the house reef. Shore diving is 24/7 in a simple relaxed setting. The on-site restaurant kind of sucks and the service is awful. The rooms are excellent.

I hear Sunset waters is very similar. Not as sucky, but not quite as good shore diving.

Mushroom Forest is the signature dive. I've done it once. That was enough. Harry's Hole is our favorite. Porto Marie is excellent. The Superior Producer was a bit of a waste.

Sites to the North are generally better than those close to town, but not significant.

I'll be leaving on Aug 11th for Sunset Waters. 2nd trip to Curacao, 1st we stayed at Habitat and I agree with

Scorpio about the rooms and the food. The reef there was very nice.

I'll check back in and let you know if there are any other sites that scorpio missed that were good.

Been there twice. Going back in December. Stayed at Habitat Curacao both times previously. Will be staying at Sunset Waters this time. Both of these locations have excellent shore dives.

I am heading there in a bit, what is needed in the way of power adapters (U.S.) I heard that depedning on places there may be one or more plugs that use U.S. outlets and bring a power strip and should be good to go (though the cycles make battery life a bit lower...) Habitat set up that way?

Thanks

... The on-site restaurant kind of sucks and the service is awful...

Absolutely true.

The beer also comes in these littel "fun size" bottles.

Reminds me of those little snickers bars you hand out to the kids at Halloween

Not to be missed though are the fried Gouda balls... yum!

Hi,

I was in Curacao in May this year staying at Habitat.

My favourite site is Vaersenbaii which is a bit remote and has a small charge to dive. However there is sea grass in the shallows which practically guarantees turtles. The reef is also very nice here. Car park is right in front of the water. No appreciable beach here.

Porte Marie is also a very nice dive with a double reef. I would suggest diving it early or late though as it can get very busy. Car park is a little walk to the water which is a bit of a pain. V. Nice beach.

The other dive site that I enjoyed enormously was Lagun which is a small cove with a bit of a swim out to the reef. The reef here is very high quality. Easy parking near to the water. Small beach.

I did all shore diving - around 30 dives in a week and never felt the need to get on a boat.

All in all I would really recommend Curacao and it certainly is not inferior to Bonaire as a dive destination - only difference is that you possibly have to work a bit harder to get to dive sites because it is bigger and there are fewer sites.

Mark

Just to comment on the restaurant at Habitat.

I found the food to be of a very acceptable standard. Just not flashy.

The service was also completely acceptable - its just a bit Carribean. You're on holiday so live with a relaxed pace of life.

To be fair I only ate dinner there and we self catered lunch and breakfast.