General Information about CuraÇao.

Curacao, Netherlands Antilles, Southern Caribbean is hot and quite arid. Cosmopolitan and pretty in parts with quite a few nice little beaches to the N-W. To explore the beaches one would need a couple of days, and transport. They vary in attractiveness, some are rocky, some sandy, some have hotels or a cafe, others no facilities at all. You could take a look at the pictures on one of Curacao's tourism websites if you're planning a beach day. The shopping area is across the water from the cruise dock and is accessed via the ferry, or the floating road bridge (When in place naturally !), a nifty device that moves across to allow the ships though. The shopping is decent - day time.( reasonably priced internet cafe if you want to rub it in to those at home) Some of the waterfront buildings are prettily Dutch-Caribbean. Punda, the old part, is quaint. Some nice Dutch-colonial stuff. There is a large marine park to the east which is great for 'snorklers' and 'scubas'. For the less fit there is the Seaquarium (pick up a shared taxi outside the dock gate). This has flamingos, marine life tanks, sharks you can touch at feeding time, a static semi-sub to watch fish and shark underwater feeding, performing dolphins and dolphin encounters (unfortunately all captive and penned). Cafe on site. We were fortunate enough to have an unscheduled 11pm sailing, which allowed time for a drink in a waterfront cafe in the evening. A pleasant change to have the ground stay totally still occasionally. This is not the Coconut-Calypso-Caribbean, but it's nice to have the mix. Would I go again ? Yes, I wouldn't mind a few days here. All opinions are, naturally, personal only. (With thanks to Lizz)

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