Pappy

Hello all, we will be on a cruise in late January 2008, and one of the islands on our itinerary is Curacao. I know that it is one of the Dutch influenced islands, and has some pretty houses, but beyond that I'm clueless. For those who have experience with this island, I'm looking for suggestions on what would be a good way to spend our limited time while on this island.

Thanks in advance for any help! Take care!

--Pappy

Knowing

A fantastic way to see the island in one day may be to do a half day historical and cultural tour, or a desert and cave jeep tour. That way you would still have some time to spend a few hours on one of the beaches as well, or to try some of the marvelous dining and have lunch on the island.

Pappy

Thanks Knowing. Anyone else have a suggestion?

ksbrzoz

I might suggest renting a car, then you could see it all. There are some beautiful, small beaches we loved just popping in to. The snorkeling was wonderful. Pick up some real Blue Curacao (hard to find the real stuff in the US, and it's so much better) from the Curacao distillery. The Seaquarium was fun - we with the dolphins. The market and the walk downtown was beautiful and fun, too.

StanKase

On the cultural side the oldest Jewish temple in all of the Americas. It has a sand floor and is quite iinteresting regardless of your religious affiliation.

KVR

Try these sites for info provided on what types of tours/activities are available:

www.tourism-curacao.com

www.tabertours.com

www.shoretrips.com

www.curacaoactivities.com

www.curacao-sea-aquarium.com

It may help with choosing a specific interest. Then you can either decide to book a tour, rent a car and go on your own or select a taxi driver at the port and scheudule a priviate tour.

You can also choose to go shopping in the downtown area or hit a few beaches.

Reisender

There is a little "train" that does a couple hour tour of the city with a guide. Big hint, walk over to the main part of the city and book it there, not on the ship. The ship will charge you much more than just walking up to the "train". It was a quick overview than we just walked all over and found the city of Willemstad to be very interesting. We did not do any of the countryside or the beaches so can not comment on those.

Pappy

Great info here. Thanks so much for all of the input. I'll try to post a report when we get back!

--Pappy