Curacao Travel Guide
As the weather gets colder, I’m constantly dreaming of past travel destinations in warmer climates. A few years ago I went on my first ever all inclusive resort beach vacation to one of the lesser known destinations: Curacao. Sound familiar? If you’ve ever had a blue tinted cocktail, there is probably blue curacao in it. This small island off the coast of South America is a hidden gem, as it avoids the hurricanes and is a great destination year round.
All Inclusive Resort Curacao
We stayed at the Renaissance Curacao Resort & Casino, an amazing all inclusive resort in Curacao, which we booked through Apple Vacations - this is a great website to use for Curacao travel deals. The resort was close to the airport, offered a shuttle back and forth from the airport, and had clean rooms and great amenities. We went for the full all inclusive package, which included food, drink and even the use of the two Starbucks’ on site. While it was not the best food, the views were great, cocktails were strong and the location was perfect. We had a large group and split four people to a room, meaning that the total cost of the trip was very low for an all inclusive tropical vacation.
The resort includes a casino, beach side spa (my massage on the beach was amazing), and a man-made infinity pool beach. While we were initially disappointed to not be directly on the beach, the one at the resort was perfect and allowed us to be close to our rooms, the bar and snack cafe while hopping in and out of the water (the first photo shows off how incredible the view is too).
Things to Do Curacao
The resort itself is very close to the downtown area of Willemstad, a stunning dutch inspired (the island of Curacao is a Dutch colony) area reminiscent of Amsterdam only tropical. There are shops and restaurants as well as a bustling nightlife scene. Out favorite time to explore was the early morning, when the temperature was lower and few tourists are around. It’s important to note that from the resort it’s a quick walk over the bridge, however when boats come in, the bridge goes up for around 20 minutes. It took us a while to realize, but there is a free ferry that will take you across the bay during this time.
Unlike many tropical destinations, getting off the resort with a guide can lead to a great day, and there are many things to do in Curacao. We did two excursions off the resort: a tour of the curacao distillery and a beach hopping day trip. The Curaçao Liqueur Distillery offers a self guided tour, gift shop, and a tiki bar outside where you can enjoy any of the rainbow of colors of curacao they make (blue just happens to be the most popular). I would recommend going early or late in the day, as we went mid day and it was sweltering, and everything is outside there. For our beach hopping day, we went through Irie Tours and chose the All West Beach Hopping trip. They brought us to a few different beaches where we had time to sunbathe, snorkel, and go cliff jumping. My favorite part of this was the snorkeling, as you could see so well in the crystal clear water, and I was able to see large sea turtles just feet away amidst a sea of colorful fish.
We did a total of five days and four nights, which I found to be the perfect amount of time to tolerate resort food and hot weather, as I am not much of a relaxer when it comes to vacations.
The next time you’re looking into a tropical location, think outside of the box and try traveling to Curacao (both the location and drink).