For a general overview, we have put together some information for you here. Be it weather, location, beaches or even payment options.
Curacao is one of the ABC islands in the Caribbean, located below the so-called hurricane belt. More precisely, 12° north of the equator, about 60 km from Venezuela. The charm of this is that you can travel to the island all year round without having to worry about being hit by tropical storms during hurricane season. After all, no one wants to spend their wonderful Caribbean vacation surrounded by storms and hurricanes.
In general, cooling trade winds mostly blow from the east on Curacao, bringing pleasant Atlantic air with them. With average temperatures of 27°C throughout the year, it can be endured there at any time of the year.
Curacao also has a rainy season between October and January. Although you shouldn't imagine constant rain here. Rather, it usually rains briefly at night. There may also be short showers during the day during this time. But these are a welcome way to cool off. By the way, by short we mean around 15-30 minutes. This is what experience has shown us.
The best way to pay on Curacao is with the local currency. This is the Netherlands Antilles Florin Nafl or also called Antilles Guilder ANG. The guilder has a relatively fixed exchange rate to the dollar. It therefore makes sense to monitor the dollar/euro ratio. Roughly you can say 1 ANG is about €0.50.
However, dollars are also in circulation on the island. Here you can pay with it without any problems, especially in Willemstad.
However, using a credit card has proven to make more sense. There are ATMs throughout the island that accept Visa or Mastercard. You can also withdraw dollars here. In our experience, paying with the guilder is better. If you pay in dollars, there are slight price differences.
Back then, we opened an account specifically for our holiday fund through the DKB. The DKB Cashkonto offers a free credit card with which you can withdraw money anywhere in the world for free. That was of course THE argument for us. This meant we could always withdraw guilders from the ATM and also had the current exchange rate. Even if the machine showed us fees, we either didn't get them debited or got them refunded with the next billing.
Paying in the supermarket usually works with a credit card on the island. No fees were charged on the DKB cash account, or if they were, they were refunded.
That brought us a lot.
- What is it like to eat and drink on Curacao? – we are asked quite often. You can usually get all the western foods on Curacao that you can get here. However, some of these products are more expensive than ours. Of course, transport and customs have to be paid here too. But if you don't want to go without your Nutella for breakfast, you can get it in every major supermarket.
You also have to keep in mind that there is hardly any food production on Curacao itself.
But what should be a must there are tropical fruits. Of course you can buy mango, avocado and papaya here in Germany, but the taste is not comparable. You can either buy fruit in the supermarket or at the floating market in Willemstad. The traders from Venezuela arrive here on their ships in the morning and sell their goods directly from the boat. Action is mandatory here ;). But it also tastes much better than goods that have been transported for a long time, cooled down and ripened.
Our goal is to plant papaya, mango, banana and other types of fruit in our garden so that you can help yourself directly.
There are also quite a few supermarkets on Curacao. The smaller Asian ones are usually “on every corner”. You can stock up on basics here, or you can drive to Willemstad and go to one of the big ones. In the Centrum supermarket, for example, you can get original products from the Jumbo supermarket in the Netherlands.
The van den Tweel supermarket in Zeelandia is basically an Albert Hijn with a different name.
If you like eating fish, you can get absolutely fresh quality at good prices there. We recommend – if you want to prepare it yourself – to go to the beach in Westpunt and buy the fresh fish directly from the boat from the fishermen. You won't find any large fishing boats here, but rather small fishing boats with usually 2-3 men. They also fillet the fish directly on site if desired. And fresh tuna on the grill tastes special :).
In addition to home-cooked or grilled food, you can of course also go out for a very good meal. Here's something for every taste. We have a small list of restaurants here. We visited these ourselves and can report from our own experience:
The Trio Penotti is a small, cozy restaurant. You can eat very well here - especially fish - the prices are very good and the people there are always in a good mood. The restaurant is located opposite Christoffelpark. However, you should reserve a table in advance as the restaurant is always very busy.
is located directly at Villapark Fontein. The owners are Dutch and also speak some German. There is a manageable map here - which is not a negative thing! – with all kinds of specialties.
Mhhhhh, if you like eating spare ribs, the Ribs Factory on Caracas Baai is a must. You can eat incredibly tasty ribs with your own sauce here at good prices.
Experience dream beaches and pure sunshine! Too far or with family. Relaxation and peace are guaranteed.
Villa Tortuga Curacao Villapark
Fontein, Curaçao
mail@villa-tortuga-curacao.de
0049 - 175 596 87 30
