Things to Do in Curaçao

Curaçao packs a remarkable range of experiences into an island you can drive across in under an hour. Start in Willemstad, where the Handelskade waterfront is every bit as photogenic in person as it looks on postcards - a row of Dutch colonial merchant houses painted in vivid pinks, ochres, and blues, reflected in the still waters of St. Anna Bay. Cross the Queen Emma pontoon bridge (locals call her the Swinging Old Lady) into Otrobanda, then loop back through the Pietermaai District, where crumbling plantation houses have been reborn as boutique hotels, cocktail bars, and street-art canvases.

Beyond the capital, the island divides neatly into a wild, windswept north and a calm, beach-lined south. Playa Kenepa Grandi (Grote Knip) is the beach that ends up on everyone's camera roll - a crescent of white sand backed by cliffs, with water that shifts from turquoise to deep sapphire depending on the light. Arrive before 10 a.m. on weekdays to claim a spot near the waterline; by noon on weekends the small parking lot is full.

Divers should not leave without booking a boat trip to the Mushroom Forest, a surreal underwater landscape on the northwest coast near Santa Cruz Bay where centuries-old star coral heads have grown into enormous mushroom-shaped pillars. Visibility regularly exceeds 30 meters, and many operators pair the dive with a swim through the nearby Blue Room, a partially submerged sea cave that glows electric blue when sunlight hits the entrance at the right angle. Back on dry land, the Hato Caves reveal a different underground world - limestone chambers formed over 300,000 years, where guided walks pass Arawak petroglyphs, dripping stalactites, and a colony of long-nosed fruit bats. Paths are paved and lit, making the caves accessible to most visitors.

At Landhuis Chobolobo, the Senior family has distilled the genuine Curaçao liqueur since 1896, using dried peels of the laraha citrus fruit that grows only on this island. Guided tours walk you through the copper pot stills and end with a tasting of the full color range - blue, orange, green, red, and the original clear. Shete Boka National Park, on the rugged north coast, is the antithesis of the calm southern beaches: waves crash through blowholes and narrow inlets carved into volcanic limestone, and from October through March you may spot hawksbill sea turtles nesting in the sheltered coves. The Curaçao Sea Aquarium, just east of Willemstad, is home to the Dolphin Academy and open-water enclosures where you can snorkel alongside sea turtles, sharks, and rays - general admission runs around $21 USD for adults, with dolphin encounters priced separately.