Bart

Looking for a nice resort for 8-10 day vacation in Jan. or Feb 2000. I want good diving, upscale resort, good dining(primarily off hotel grounds), some nitelife(casinos), etc.
My wife is a non diver so need to make sure she has the pampering so I can be off diving and not hear how bored she is when I return. I ruled out Bonaire because of ALM. Curacao has flights from MIa on American although they were'nt to good this past february.
We were in Grand Cayman last year and Aruba the year before. How does Curacao compare??

Am looking at the Sonesta, which I understand is becoming Marriott soon. Any comments specific to this property. How about their Dive Shop- Caribbean Sea Sports???
Would be interested to hear any comments.

Thanks in advance.

BArt

Cheri

Compared to Aruba and GC, Curacao sucks.We were there a few years ago and it was like if you'd never been to an island before you would have thought it pretty nice, but since we'd been to a bunch it didn't measure up.

There wasn't that much shopping there.

Don't be afraid of ALM. We have used is lots of times and the worst thing that happened was our bags were delayed for a few hours once. No biggie considering how much we travel. You can take Air Aruba to Bonaire. The diving/snorkeling in Bonaire is the best!

Marlo

I have to agree with the previous posting about Curacao. We were there in December and hated it. The locals aren't real friendly as their #1 source of income is not tourism. The island is unimpressive. You've already been to the two best islands in my opinion.

PATTIE

STAYED AT SONESTA LAST APRIL 98. THE HOTEL WAS NICE BUT THERE ARE NO RESTAURANTS AND THE CASINOS WERE SO CROWDED YOU COULDN'T GET NEXT TO A MACHINE. THE BEACH WAS ROCKY EXCEPT FOR A PORTION OF IT WHICH WAS AWAY FROM THE HOTEL IN A LITTLE BAY AREA IN FRONT OF THE RESORT. WE DID HAVE OCEANFRONT ROOM WHICH WAS NICE. FOOD IN HOTEL THE BEST WE HAVE EVER EATEN. THE STEAK RESTAURANT. EXCELLENT CEASAR AND T-BONE BETTER THEN RUTH CHRIS.

April

Huh. Call me weird, but I liked Curacao. That was years ago though.

Sharon

I liked it too, for some odd reason...

I'd recommend the Princess Beach hotel, which had a diving club. Breakfast is served on the beach and and the memory of fresh pineapple and early morning breeze makes me cry...

Debbie

Hi Bart - Just returned from a week in Curacao - and we really enjoyed ourselves. We stayed at the Princess Beach-very nice property. Instead of being one large hotel, it actually consists of 5 different buildings-mostly older, motel like, low rise buildings, and one newer high rise (5 floors) called the Ambassador wing. There's also a Peter Hughes PADI diving facility connected with the PB. All casinos (there are 8) on the island are small, but all are 'Vegas' sytle casinos. The PB has 2 good on-site restaurants, and 4 within walking distance of the hotel-the farthest being maybe a 10 minute walk.

Someone mentioned that tourism isn't the most important thing on the island-employment in other industry is-which means the island isn't totally dependent on tourism ... another very nice aspect of Curacao is that there aren't any vendors constantly approaching you to buy something nor are there time share sellers vying for your time-in fact, refreshingly, we didn't encounter either during our week's stay.

I will agree that the shopping may not be the best, but there is plenty to see and do to compensate for that. The Dutch influence is everywhere. We also found the islanders to be quite friendly and the island very safe.

E-mail me directly if you have other questions.

Enjoy wherever you wind up !!