corderoy

This is my first trip to Curacao and I will be staying at the Royal Sea Aquarium Resort. I would like to know what is the best way to get from the airport to the resort. Will I need a car while I am on the island or can I use public transportation to get around? If I do rent a car, how long should I rent the car for? How difficult is it to travel the island? Are there any must do's and see's? Any feedback and/or suggestions would be of great help since I am in the early stages of planning my trip.

StanKase

If you enjoy quality snorkeling off the beach it is on the West End a good 50 minutes by car fromthe resort and public transportation would be difficult. A taxi could cost $35 and since there are 3-4 lovely bays to snorkel from, one is Klein Knip, you would need the taxi to wait so it would likely cost $100 to do it leisurely. Also, some of the good restaurants are a $15++ taxi ride away (see thread on Curacao, for I, and others have suggested some great places to eat). The snorkeling at your resort (East End), we stayed there twice, is fairly good but nowhere near as good as the West End. The roads are not bad except you drive on the opposite side from the US but you get used to it in 1-2 hours.
We got a little lost a few times but no major problem.
If you are in a suite and will be eating in most of the time you can buy food at a decent, not great, market. The resort will take you to it 2 or 3 times a week. I forget the days for we ate all dinners out and only breakfasts and a few lunches in.The resort restaurant is o'k for breakfast, better for lunch and just o'k for dinner, in my opinion.Do not bank on duty free being a heaven in Curacao. The Caribbean is no longer what Hong Kong was to Asia 10 years ago.
If you plan to eat dinner out 3-4 nights and want to tour a little and go to the West End 2 times renting a car for 4 days of a 7 day stay should suffice. The rates are high ($50/day for a very small car) and $65 plus gas for a compact with A/C and automatic. Hertz gives an AARP or AAA 10% discount if reservation is made in US. The drive from the airort is easy and takes 30-35 minutes not in commuter hour. We rent a car for the week but it ends up costing $450 after AARP discount.
You should like the island. If you snorkel make sure you go to Santa Cruz Beach #!. The owner of a few boats takes you out to 3 different spots to snorkel for $10-$15/person and he makes a great lunch but be prepared to pay $15/person witha beer but it is really good.
Can you tell we like Curacao. ENJOY.

corderoy

StanKase, thank you so much for responding to my questions. The information you provided will be of great help. I have been doing my research of the island and I am very excited for my trip in August of 2006. I found a website that may help others if a trip to Curacao is being planned. www.caribbean-on-line.com This website provided a list of restaurants.

StanKase

Based on my visits Hook's Hut is not a repeat. How folks can call Portofino excellent baffles me and Fort Nassau would be excellent if you could "eat the setting" but the food and service (Attitude)and prices (high-$135/couple) were barely fair having eaten there 1 time in early 2004 and in Jan. 2006.

Tulips

Corderoy; I would definitely want a car in Curacao. And people drive on the same side of the road in Curacao as in the US.
The indian restaurant at Kura Hulanda is very good; Jaipur. And you're very close to Mambo Beach, which is fun for dinner and/or drinks. Another place we like is TuTu Tango, next to the cinema in Willemstad, when they have their Indonesian buffet (check to see which night that is).

corderoy

I will be leaving for my trip to Curacao on 08/05/2006 and will be vacationing for one week. I would like to thank those who have contributed to planning my trip. All the suggestions are very much appreciated. I will post my thoughts of Curacao when I return.

StanKase

I assume you checked the thread for restaurants but if not, I would try Avalon (right near your resort-$75/couple-good),LaRousse $85-90+/-couple-very good (folks at resort can all make reservation-about 5 miles from you), La Pergola-very good ($60+/-/couple)8 miles or so from resort under Arches, Blues-at Breezes-good 1/2 mi. from resort $70+/-/couple and to plurge Astrolab-good($125-$135/couple). Many people thought it was the best on the island I thought it was good but overpriced but with a magnificant setting.

For all but Astrolab and LaRousse (2 days in advance but maybe 1 in Aug.) a reservation by noon the day you want to go is fine.Of course there is also McDonalds and KFC, if you want it about 2 miles from the resort.
Grocery food is limited for good dinners in your unit but fine for breakfast and lunch foods.
Have a good time.

corderoy

I have returned from my trip & I am very pleased I did my research before I left. I stayed at the Royal Resorts Sea Aquarium. I facilitated ground transportation with the Royal Resorts travel agency for $25 round trip per person. I paid with my credit card 1 week before I left. When I arrived at the baggage claim area, the taxi driver was holding up a sign with my last name on it. The taxi driver stopped at certain sites for me to photograph without me asking. The island is dry, has cactus and has an oil refinery. Yes, you do smell the oil refinery when you leave the airport but only for a brief period. I did not smell the oil refinery any other time. I was very pleased with the resort overall. The villa was clean, the resort provided tour information, the resort restaurant was good and reasonably priced, customer service was excellent, the beach area was clean and there was no pressure in purchasing a time share. The resort takes all guests to the grocery store on Sunday afternoon. The grocery store was 6 miles away & had everything I needed. Many of our meals were cooked in the villa. The resort also has a BBQ that you can reserve. We BBQ by the poolside Friday night and had other guest join us for dinner. It was a great time to get to know everyone. The resort facilitated tours (city tour, scuba, snorkeling, caves, ostrich farm, Aruba-$200, etc.) for the week. If you are interested, sign up on Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning. Do not procrastinate because we were bumped off into other days and had to change our itinerary. I agree with others in that you only need to rent a car for three days. As soon as you arrive to the resort make the reservations for the car rental. Again, do not procrastinate because we waited and did not get the SUV we wanted. You can purchase a map of the island at the resort for $7 or you can purchase it much cheaper at the car rental location. You will need this map because many of the streets are not labeled. I recommend that a navigator be designated. I recommend that you tour the island on your own and do not hire a taxi for the whole day because it can be costly. We borrowed an ice chest from the resort and took it with us on our journey around the island. As a guest of the resort, you have access to the Aquarium for free. You can also snorkel for free near the resort area. I found that the shopping was not all that great. Thank goodness I purchased all of my cosmetics on the island and not at the airport duty free shop. The souvenirs: T-shirts, tote bags, mugs etc. are the same anywhere you go on the island. Much of the items are things that can be found back home. I found my t-shirts at the airport souvenir shop and paid a bit more for them. There was one shopping center call the Promenade which had higher end stores. The beaches have rocks. I highly recommend water shoes as a must. I agree with StanKase, the West End has the best beaches. We found that many of the local snorkel areas had trash. I was able to visit the Hilton Hotel and it was beautiful. The restaurants at the Hilton appeared to be fine. We visited many casinos and left deposits. I am still debating whether or not I would return to Curacao. I enjoyed my stay on the island but, would like to see other island in the Caribbean.

ejcrowe

Thanks for taking the time to post a report upon your return! Sounds like you had a good time.

If you're debating about whether to return, that probably means you wouldn't. But I suspect it's not for any one reason that you didn't like Curacao--just that there are other places you'd rather see first before returning to an island that didn't necessarily knock your socks off.

StanKase

Having visited 15++ islands I like Curacao if you want more than a small retreat and good snorkeling on the West End and 8-9 good places to dine at fairly reasonable costs.