Hi,
We are considering curacao, but are open to other ideas. Curacao is the main choice due to being outside hurricane belt. we want to scuba dive, have some nightlife available, rent a villa, shop and eat out at good restaurants.

thoughts?
lauren

YOu are right...Cucacao or Aruba would be your best choices at that time of year.

Technically Curacao is not outside the hurricane belt, and neither is Aruba. Aruba has had Tropical Storms and Hurricanes. Statistically they may get not as many, but they can happen.

I have traveled to many Caribbean islands in Sept, and quite frankly, is the luck of the draw? If I could predict the weather! ;-)

2 pieces of advice:

1--where ever you go, get travel insurance. Overall it seems stormier in Caribbean this year already-and they are predicting an active season.

2-- Know that in most cases, you have about a week before the hurricane hits a particular area, so you usually have time to figure things out.

Check out this terrific website:

www.Stormcarib.com

you can also check out from the experts:

www.noaa.org it's the actual hurricane center.

I'm not sure why but on the Island of Roatan, while the majority of the other Islands in the Caribbean are getting hit, we go relatively untouched. For some pictures and info on Roatan check out http://roatanvortex.com

The Western Caribbean tends to get their worst weather at the end of the hurricane season (Sept.-Nov.) so Roatan would be in that region. But, my wife and I went to Caneel and Little Dix Bay in the 1970'sand early 1980's quite often while our daughter was in summer camp and we never met upwith a hurricaneand out of 7-8 trips in that time period I think we lost 4-5 days to bad weather considering each vacation was 7 or 8 nights or maybe 7% of the days were wash outs.So you never know. Now with global warming the weather is even more erratic, In NJ this week we will have had high temps of 77 and 91.

You are choosing the right destination! I have been going there every 1 and a half since 2001 and the Curacao keeps getting better..

Curacao is the perfect place to go and recharge. You will enjoy the nightlife and the awesome restuarants. Very picturesque island with a touch of the Netherlands. I found the shopping there to be very nice - different than what I see on the other islands.

Curacao was not one of our favorite Islands. We stayed at the Lions Dive, which is known as a dive hotel. We were upgraded to a 2 bedroom apt, which we did enjoy. We found the that the beaches are small cove/inlets all over the Island. Mainly on the West Side and made up of mostly crushed coral. You will need a good map and a rental car to get to them as well as water shoes. We did not find much nightlife since we did not rent a car. We found it difficult to get around then some of the other Islands that we've been to. We did walk down to Mambo Beach one night and there was an outside beach party going on. Lots of teenagers/young adults drinking and smoking cigarettes. Not our type of nightlife.

We did enjoy our dive at the Sea Aquarium, but found better snorking on other Islands. The downtown shopping area is nice and clean. Lots of department type stores. Set prices, no haggeling and no harrassment to buy. I bought tons of linens. They were nice and fairly inexpensive.

Aruba and Curacao both are pretty safe destinations.. but with mother nature you just never know...

If you are as picky as my hubby he did not enjoy Curacao... and loved Aruba even more... You can scuba dive, snorkle.. there is great night life in Aruba, not sure about renting a villa on the water, you might be able to but some might not be as fancy, again never tried to rent one... There are great shops and restaurants also.

I agree with KVR on linens, they have them in Aruba too, I remember mom buying fabric in Curacao growing up.. You can always add a day or two trip to Curacao from Aruba and check it out.. it's only about 30 min away...



Between the two, Aruba is safer as well. We always had extra locks on our rental cars in Curacao.

I still think the beaches in Aruba are a LOT nicer than those in Curacao. Curacao does have a lot more history due to all the plantations they had.

Good luck with what you choose!

Is there an easy way to day trip between Aruba and Curacao?

Keith

The only way to get from Aruba to Curacao is by air. There are 3 airlines in Aruba that have flights to Curacao; Insel, DAE and Tiara. It's about a 30 minute flight each way. When you get to Curacao you will need to rent a car for sightseeing or pre-book with a tour company to show you around.

Yes, by air though... I have a friend that just went down for a day when she was in Aruba.. and she was happy with that... the first flights leave early AM... and run throughout the day... some people do a two day trip to Bonaire if they like scuba...

thanks for all the feedback. we decided to go on a cruise in alaska instead!!