Curacao is part of the ABC's. (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao) It is not near as visited as its sister neighboring island Aruba, but it does offer a very relaxing island to base your vacation.

We have very mixed feeling about our stay at the Marriott in Curacao. On the positive side, we thought the pool area was wonderful, the food was quite good, and the wait staff service was also very good. On the negative side, we had personal items missing from our room, the room was in disrepair, and we had to contend with loud noise from a large corporate group that was also staying at the hotel.

We arrived at the Marriott at around 11:00 AM and they allowed us to check in early. We ate lunch at the SeaBreeze beach bar. We both had salads and they were quite good. Afterwards we spent the rest of the day at the pool. At around 4PM we were told that we need to "leave this area of the pool" because of a big corporate party. That kind of made us feel like second class citizens. I guess "the group" was "more important" than us individual travelers. We went to bed early because we were pretty tired after making the flight from Bonaire. We hit the sack at around 10 PM. At 10:30 PM we were both awaken by a loud boom. It sounded like someone or something was hitting the window. The room just shook. It turns out that they were shooting fireworks off of the top of our building! Yes, this was for the "big corporate party". So soon after falling asleep we were awakened by the Marriott fireworks show. What made us upset was the fact that no one at the hotel informed us that this was going to happen. It just so happens that later that evening/morning there was a huge thunder and lightening storm. So that also woke us up. So our first night at the Marriott included about 4 hours of sleep. This was not a good start to our "restful vacation on Curacao".

We also had some "maintenance" problems with our room.  When we first arrived and tried to use the toilet, and the handle fell off.  We also noticed that the bathroom just reeked of cigars.  We looked in the guest services book located in our room and it said "if you have any problems, just push the at your service button on your phone". 

We tried that and it didn't work. Then I tried the room service and housekeeping buttons and they also didn't work. So we decided to walk up to the front desk and get our toilet fixed. They did fix the toilet and tried to fix the smell in the bathroom. But the smell never did go away. The pictures above show our bathroom. The picture on the left shows the shower. I thought it was interesting that the shower head was not at the end of the bathtub, but rather on the side. The shower head was also very low so I had to "duck" just to rinse my hair. The picture on the right was our bathroom door. Notice the huge scratch in the door. At this point we decided that this was not a 5 star resort.

Okay, on to the positives. The pool was wonderful. We thought the wait staff offered excellent service. The drinks were also very reasonable. (Amstel was $3 USD) They also had a daily happy hour where drinks were discounted. The food at the Marriott was also pretty good. Each night they had "events" where you could eat at a very reasonable price. One night we ate at the deli. The meal included a Caesar salad and a bowl of pasta. The price was $10.95 USD. We thought this was very reasonable and the food was very good. The pool and food/beverage service was by far the resort's best attribute.

The pictures above show the two beaches at the Curacao Marriott. The one on the left is the east beach and the one on the right is the west beach. Both beaches were very rocky. 

We did not go into the water, because Carroll has tender feet and couldn't make it past the rocks. We hear that the snorkeling is good on the west beach, but it was pretty rough when we were there so we decided not to go out.

We also had some personal items missing from our room. I don't want to go into detail, but we did have a chat with the hotel security and Freddy one of the hotel managers. Freddy was very nice and seemed genuinely concerned about our stay. 

I think the Marriott Curacao is a nice hotel, but our expectations where too high. Our ocean view room was $150 a night which I think was a pretty fair price. But I wouldn't pay over $200 a night to stay here. We had too many problems and the rooms were pretty "tired".

If you want to leave the property and have a nice dinner on the beach, then walk towards the Hilton to Hook's Hut. We really liked Hook's Hut. It was a nice little beach bar/restaurant on the water. If you call for reservations, you can reserve a table in the sand. It wasn't overly pricey and the food was decent.

Willemstead is a very picturesque town. The town is split by a river inlet. One side is called the Punda and the other is called the Otra Banda. The town offers some Okay shopping. 

We ate lunch one day at "Timed Out" which is a little place in town. (Actually located in an interior courtyard.) The food was very good and it was inexpensive. The crab/tuna sandwich was very good. The picture on the right shows the floating market. The floating market is a collection of boats tied to a dock along the edge of town. The boats are full of fresh produce from Venezuela.

One day we ate lunch at La Bahia on the Otra Banda side. This was part of the casino. The food was good and the view was awesome. Our waitress was from Bonaire. We compared notes about how different the islands were in contrast. 

A must visit while on Curacao is the Kura Hulanda Museum. The museum documents the history of slavery on Curacao. It was very informative. The museum was located within the Kura Hulanda hotel grounds. The hotel was very nice. The two photos about show the grounds. The rooms are located in courtyard buildings. The hotel looked like a little village, rather than a hotel

The pool at the Kura Hulanda wasn't large, but it certainly had charm.

If you have ever had a top shelf margarita, then chances are you have tasted a liqueur called "Curacao". The original Curacao was developed at the Chobolobo mansion. The brand of the Curacao is "Curacao of Curacao". It comes in different flavors and it is a great souvenir. www.curacaoliqueur.com The photo on the right shows the Amstel plant. We showed up for a tour, but they no longer give public tours. Amstel is the only beer that is made from sea water.

Playa Jeremi

Curacao has some pretty nice beaches outside of Willemstead. One of our favorites was Playa Jeremi. It was raining the day of our visit, but it looked like it offered some pretty nice snokeling.

Boka Tabla

Boka Tabla is a park which is truly beautiful. It is located on the western end of the island. Admission was only a few dollars, and it was worth seeing. 

The highlight of the park is the Boka Tabla cave. Waves crash into the cave. You are able to walk into the cave, but be careful because a large wave will get you wet.