Are you looking for an affordable Caribbean vacation destination? Somewhere that’s easy to reach from the United States and yet largely free of the tourist hordes? Look to Curaçao, an island nation and constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located about 40 miles off the coast of Venezuela. There isn’t much green to be seen on the island, but it has a UNESCO-listed capital, historical ruins to explore, vast swaths of uninhabited desert scrubland and beautiful beaches.
Curaçao Related Content
- Five Reasons You Should Visit Curaçao (This Post)
- Where We Went (This Post)
- Trip Costs (This Post)
- Hiking to the Tree of Souls and Newtown Mine Ruins
- Exploring the Ruins and Beaches of the Landhuis San Juan
- Climbing Mount Christoffel with a Baby
- What to Do in Curaçao’s Westpunt
Five Reasons You Should Visit Curaçao
There are a lot of reasons why Curaçao should land on your travel map. Allow me to briefly generalize them into five main points.
Rustic Beaches
The Caribbean is well known for its beautiful beaches, and everyone has their own criteria for what makes the perfect beach. For me, the perfect beach should be uncrowded, free of touts, offer shade, and have safe offshore snorkeling options. It gets bonus points if it’s free, easy to access and has a freshwater shower nearby. With over 30 beaches, Curaçao offers plenty that match my criteria. Most of the beaches on the island are relatively small and only lightly developed. However, there are some longer, fully serviced stretches of sand for those who enjoy the energy, crowds and conveniences of a mass market resort.
Affordability
The Caribbean as a whole is an expensive region for travel. However, relative to its neighbors, Curaçao is a very affordable Caribbean vacation destination. In fact, in 2019 the US News and World Report ranked Curaçao as the most budget friendly destination in the region. Food prices are similar to the US, rental cars are half what they cost on many other islands, and we found a wide range of accommodation options under $100 a night. In a former life, I traveled the world on $20-30 a day as a low budget backpacker, but that’s not really feasible in this part of the world, especially when packing the kid. Still, by using some credit card points, airline miles, and common sense Sarah and I averaged less than $90 per day (each) in Curaçao. If you’re interested, there is a breakdown of our expenses later in the post.
Tangible Culture and History
The island nation has a long history and tangible culture that continues to feel accessible despite the growing tourism industry. Modern Curaçao is a multi-ethnic amalgamation of Dutch, African and South American cultures with strong culinary influences from the Netherland’s former empire in Southeast Asia.
Curaçao was colonized by the Dutch in the 1600s and quickly became an important center in the transatlantic slave trade. The resulting wealth allowed the Dutch merchants to build Willemstad, the island’s UNESCO-listed capital, into an impressive colonial gem. Much of the original architecture remains in the four oldest boroughs of the city, and there is a fascinating mix of refurbished buildings alongside crumbling ruins. Outside of Willemstad, a series of impressive plantation houses (landhuis in Dutch) were constructed. In recent years, many have been restored and repurposed while others have turned into atmospheric ruins.
Off the Beaten Path Appeal
One of the things that factored into our decision to visit Curaçao is that it is less impacted by mass tourism than many Caribbean islands like neighboring Aruba. There is a large cruise port in Willemstad, but the “cruisers” seem to stick to the city and its nearby beaches. What is more, Curaçao has so far avoided much of the resort development that has overtaken neighboring Aruba. As a result, much of the island has a friendly, laid-back feel about it. While there are a fair number of Dutch tourists, we managed to go several days on the western side of the island without meeting another American.
Ease of Travel
It’s just plain easy to reach and travel around Curaçao. Several airlines offer direct flights from North America, including American Airlines (Miami and Charlotte), JETBlue (New York) and Air Canada (Toronto.) Everyone who we met spoke some degree of English and those with an education all seemed proficient in the language. Most places accept credit cards, and the US dollar is universally accepted alongside the Netherlands Antillean Guilder (although you’ll save a tiny bit of money if you use a debit card to pull guilders from the ATM when you arrive). What is more, because of its small size, it is possible to drive to just about any point on the island in less than an hour along relatively well-maintained roads.
Where We Went
We spent a total of six nights in Curaçao and split our time between two parts of the island. The section below provides a brief overview of our trip. More detailed posts about specific activities will follow.
Willemstad
For the first two nights we based ourselves out of a hotel in Willemstad’s historic Pietermaai neighborhood. The hotel room itself was small but clean and well-appointed with furniture that the owner, Max, had built by hand. We had a cheap rental car and found that there was plenty of free street parking in Peitermaai. Parking seemed a bit harder to come by just down the road in Punda, the original heart of the city.
The colonial architecture around UNESCO listed Willemstad.
While in the capital, we wandered the colonial streets, visited the Curaçao liqueur distillery, and ate at several local restaurants. The timing of our visit proved fortuitous as no cruise ships came to port while we were there and we managed to catch the city-wide festivities for King’s Day. That’s right, Curaçao throws down each year for the birthday of King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands.
Western Curaçao
On our third day, we packed up the car and drove 45 minutes west to a cottage apartment in the hills near the small town of Barber. With most of the island’s population and tourist infrastructure centered in the east around Willemstad, the western half of the island has a laid-back, rural feel.
Our apartment was located next to our host’s house, but it had a private courtyard which was shielded from the main house by the apartment itself. In the courtyard we had a private pool, sun chairs, hammock, outdoor shower and covered deck. The rural setting meant that we were also shielded from any neighbors. While small, the apartment itself had a bedroom, living room, kitchenette and bathroom which were laid out in a way that let the island’s strong breeze pull though the house to maintain a comfortable atmosphere without needing air-conditioning. It was an idyllic setting for our small family to base ourselves.
We spent the next four days making forays into the countryside to enjoy undeveloped beaches, snorkel, hike, and take in bits of the local culture. While we were not on the coast, the nearest beach was less than ten minutes away, and all the attractions we visited were under 25 minutes from our apartment.
The highlights, which will be covered in future posts, included hiking to the ruins of a nineteenth century manganese mine, swimming with dozens of sea turtles, climbing Mount Christoffel, exploring the undeveloped beaches surrounding San Juan Landhouse, and eating local cuisine (including iguana)!
Trip Costs
I call Curaçao an affordable Caribbean vacation. So how much did it cost our little family to take a weeklong vacation in Curaçao? Less than you might think. By using American Airlines miles to book the flight, sticking with the cheapest rental car available, taking advantage of the island’s affordable accommodation options and self-catering many of our meals we got by on a total out of pocket expense of $1200. That breaks down to less than $86 per adult per day! If you’re curious, here is the breakdown by category for our family:
Transportation: $199 and 55K American AAdvantage Miles (this includes two award tickets, a lap infant ticket, and Ubers to and from Nashville’s airport)
Rental Car & Gas: $215
Hotel in Willemstad: Would have been $107 for two nights but we used points from a signup bonus on a Barclays card to cover that expense.
Apartment near Barber: $385 for four nights
Dining Out (Including Alcohol): $230
Groceries (Including Alcohol): $136
Attraction Fees: $62
In summary, Curaçao ended up being an excellent choice for Baby E’s first international trip! Please let me know if this and the subsequent posts whet your appetite for a visit to this affordable Caribbean island.