alanb

Is Hilton's beach as rock-covered as the beach at Marriott (so bad it is being reconstructed this month during high season)? We are trying to decide whether to switch our reservation from the Marriott (nicer hotel) to the Hilton to avoid being there during the beach project work -- would it be worth it to switch?

eileen

I will do my best to describe the difference between the beaches --- The beach area at the Marriott is much more extensive than at the Hilton. The Marriott is a low-rise, sprawling property and there is beach area the entire length of the property. Directly in front of the Marriott pool there is very little beach, just water and rocks, but along the rooms on both sides is beach; on the right side of the property (when facing the ocean) the beach is very wide, on the left it is much narrower. There are lots of beach palapas and some foliage on the beach that provides a little more privacy. While I am told it is a man-made beach, it doesn't really look like one but being man-made is probably why they need to bring in some more sand and do some reconstruction. The beach area at the Hilton is much smaller with little personality, pretty much a square of sand and much more crowded when I visited (last March). It looks man-made. If you are a beach person, the one at the Marriott is much nicer. If I were you I would get assurance from the Marriott of 1) a discount due to the beach work and 2) the ability to change resorts without penalty. Then I would go and if the beach work was really annoying and you liked the look of the Hilton you could switch. There are also lots of great beaches on Curacao to visit and most we went to had palapas/chairs etc as well as refreshments so they are a nice destination for the day.

alanb

Thanks, Eileen -- that's really helpful -- we likely will keep our Marriott reservation but switch to Hilton if necessary, since they are not sold out for that week.

alanb

Hilton is now sold out (at least on Hilton website) for the week of March 20, probably because of people switching reservations from Marriott.

eileen

I am willing to bet they will have rooms available when you get there. It's a large hotel. Another idea would be to find out when you get there where exactly the work is going on and then try to get a room as far away from that as possible, most of the beach is on the right side of the resort so the rooms on the left (we had one of these) are really quite close to the water and it's very pleasant to sit on your patio or balcony away from the hustle and bustle of the pool area and beach.