Curacao Sightseeing Made Easy
Plantations, Seaquarium, Amstel Brewery are Caribbean Isle Standouts
Plantation great houses, aquariums, a golf course, beaches, Amstel Brewery and glimpses into day-to-day lives of the islanders are among the island's Dutch treats.
Looking for a Caribbean island that’s not mobbed by tourists? Curacao may be your answer. One of the ABC islands of the Netherlands Antilles (The others are Aruba and Bonaire), Curacao is located just 40 miles off the coast of Venezuela.
Though the shopping streets of the capital, Willemstad, may be crowded during the hours when cruise ships are in port, the rest of the island is not. To get around, you will either need to rent a car, hire a car and driver or take one of the buses that offer regular service to all parts of the island (they leave from the bus plaza near the harbor in Willemstad).
If you're interested in architecture, you might want to rent a car and drive around looking at the plantation houses (landhuis), most of which are on the western side of the island. Some of the houses have been restored and converted into restaurants or residences.
No one will have to point the plantation houses out to you. They loom out of the landscape of cactus and divi-divi trees, looking very solid and very Dutch. The restored landhuis closest to Curacao which is open to the public is Landhuis Brievengat (take the Bonam-Brgat bus) where on the last Sunday of each month crafts demonstrations and folkloric performances are presented.
Although Curacao isn't noted for its beaches, there's a nice stretch of sand at Princess Beach and another at Lions Dive Resort. There's also a palm-lined beachfront more than two kilometers long with a jogging track near the beach hotels. You can play 18 holes of golf on the Curacao Golf and Squash Club's 10-hole course -- a challenge of sand greens and stiff trade winds . The major resorts feature tennis courts, some of which are open 24 hours.
At the Seaquarium, about a 15 minute ride from downtown on the bus marked Dominiquita, 400 species of Caribbean fish and invertebrates are on display. They range from orange pipefish and gorgeous pink and turquoise rainbow parrotfish to the strange-looking porcupine fish that puff into big spine-covered balls when they sense danger.
The Natural Underwater Park, which extends from the Seaquarium to Jan Thiel Beach, was designed for snorkelers with a trail of interpretive markers. A guide to the park is available at local bookstores. If you want to see even more underwater life, you can take a ride along Curacao's coast on the museum's glass bottom boat. Other museum attractions include water slides (open only on weekends.
At mealtime, you’ll want to order traditional Dutch and Indonesian dishes. Keshi yena (Edam cheese stuffed with a mixture of chicken, beef or shrimp, onions, raisins and olives), sopi juana (iguana soup), erwtensoep (Dutch pea soup with sausage) and rijsttafel, with its mountainous portions of rice and numerous side dishes, are among the island favorites. You'll also want to try funchi (rather like Italian polenta). Bestia chiki (goat meat stew) and concomber stoba (stewed meat with cucumbers) are other Curacaon specialties.
Thirsty? You can take a guided tour of the Amstel Brewery, which produces the only beer in the world made from distilled seawater (You'll need to phone ahead for an appointment). Tours of the Curacao Liqueur Distillery are also available.
As for nightlife, most of the casinos -- there are several of them on the island -- open at 1 p.m. and close in the wee hours of the morning. Though small by Las Vegas standards, they feature "21," craps, roulette, video poker and slot machines.
