Playa PortoMari Beach Review

16 people from our Roll Call wanted to go to Playa PortoMari Beach.

I prearranged transportation with one the the local taxis. Which gave us a break - $15.00p\p round trip. They met us at the cruise pier. Travel time is about 20 mins.

As you enter you walk down a slight hill. You'll pass the restaurant, beachside bar and snorkel\scuba rental area. There are showers near the bathrooms. Along the beach there are loungers and umbrellas.

There is a $2.00 p\p entrance fee. Loungers are $3.00 each. There are no pay booths or anyone standing around collecting the entrance fee. We headed towards the loungers and settled in. Two hours later a lady walking up and down the beach began collecting the money. Well worth the money.

The beach is made up of coral, so if this bothers you, bring water shoes.

We enjoyed snorkeling the bell reef trail. There you will see a variety of fish.

We decided to check out the restaurant menu. The prices on the menu were only in NAFl. I ordered the crab meat sandwich $8.50, my DH ordered the meatball hero $7.50. He always tries the local beer $5.00 and I had a soda. Both beautiful served and delicious. When it was time to pay the bill our waitress said $14.00 US dollars.

I highly recommend Playa PortoMari Beach if you love going to the beach and snorkeling.

how beautiful...i'll be in curacao in december and wasn't sure where to go but now i think you've convinced me:)

Sandytoes, beautiful photos! Our group really enjoyed Playa Porto Mari also. We pretty much had it to ourselves for the time we were there.

Thank you for posting those! Those are beautiful pictures... Can't wait to go!

Sandytoes,

Thanks for the review. We wanted to go there in May on our AOS cruise, but for various reasons did not make it to Porto Mari. We'll be going back to Curacao and can't wait to give it another try :)

Here are a few of my underwater shots.

I saw huge parrot fish munching on Coral...Yes, you can actually hear them crunching on the coral underwater....that camera had a leak & all the pics were ruined....:(

Sandytoes,

Thanks for posting the photos. Looks like you saw a lot of fish. To bad about your camera. I know that feeling, had one roll of my Belize photos ruined by the developing machine once.

Sandytoes,

Could you tell me who you used for transportation? Was there a minimum/maximum number of passengers they will take?

Thanks,

Sandytoes,

 

Could you tell me who you used for transportation? Was there a minimum/maximum number of passengers they will take?

Thanks,

I arranged transportation with BlueAngelTours.

It usually costs $30.p/p

Being a bunch of us from our Roll Call were going it only cost us $15 p/p.

A few days before our cruise I e-mailed them with approximate number of people.

They were waiting outside the gate. Lovely tour guide.

I told them the exact time to pick us up and they arrived at that time.

Driver offered us a one hour tour of the city for $8 p/p but we declined.

cauacao is a beautiful city. very scenic just to walk around in. we have been twice & loved it.

In the pix, the beach itself looks pretty sandy. Is it rocky and coral as soon as you enter the water and need the water socks? Thanks

In the pix, the beach itself looks pretty sandy. Is it rocky and coral as soon as you enter the water and need the water socks? Thanks

The beach is sandy with small pieces of broken coral. Which isn't too bad on the feet. In the water there are large pieces of coral. You have to walk around them, with only sand further out.

We didn't have a problem with coral at all. We found the beach to be very sandy and, having put our fins on once we got into the water, didn't have any problem with coral there either.

This was our 3rd visit to Curacao, and I agree with the previous poster who said it is very easy to walk the city and see many historic sights. Willemstad is a very pretty town and very pleasant to stroll around.

We didn't have a problem with coral at all. We found the beach to be very sandy and, having put our fins on once we got into the water, didn't have any problem with coral there either.

 

This was our 3rd visit to Curacao, and I agree with the previous poster who said it is very easy to walk the city and see many historic sights. Willemstad is a very pretty town and very pleasant to stroll around.

So would you go to Willemstad first and then head over to this beach? I know you can walk into Willemstead from the cruise ship but then how is the best way to get over to this beach?

To get to Playa Porto Mari, you can take a taxi, or, as Sandytoes did, put together a group from your Roll Call on Cruise Critic, and get a taxi van. If you can fill the van (as we did) you can get the price of your transportation down. You could also rent a car to go to the beach and back. I'd probably go to the beach in the A.M. and then head into town after, but either way should be fine. The visitor info center has a nice walking tour map you can pick up for free.

Have a great trip!

Thanks for your review Sandytoes, it sounds as if you had as wonderful day as we did.

Would it be cheaper to take a taxi (just two of us) or to rent a car? If we rented a car, is it fairly easy to get there?

Thanks so much for your feedback!

hurley7 -

Don't know what the cost of renting a car in Curacao would be.

If it's less than say $40 a day it might be worth it. Gas is $5.00 per gallon. So you have to figure that in as well.

To me, hiring a taxi is a whole lot easier...especially in a foreign country.

I agree, hiring a taxi easier...last December we paid $10 pp each way for a taxi, beautiful way to spend the day. Bring your water shoes, snorkel and mask. Playa PortoMari?

Thanks to everyone for your great info. and for the link to the other thread.

We'll definitely grab a taxi, and look forward to a great day at the beach.

So is there much around where the ship doc's at port?

We have 8 ports where doing and trying to decide which ones I will just stay around the port and the ones that I'll make a beach day or scenic tour...

I have never done a Southern Cruise...always Western and Eastern...so really anxious for this.

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Philipsburg, St. Maarten Basseterre, St. Kitts St. John's, Antigua Castries, St. Lucia Bridgetown, Barbados Margarita Island, Venezuela Willemstad, Curacao Oranjestad, Aruba

San Juan, Puerto Rico So any advice will be greatly appreciated!

So is there much around where the ship doc's at port?

We have 8 ports where doing and trying to decide which ones I will just stay around the port and the ones that I'll make a beach day or scenic tour...

I have never done a Southern Cruise...always Western and Eastern...so really anxious for this.

 

San Juan, Puerto Rico Stay on the Ship

Philipsburg, St. Maarten Orient Beach

Basseterre, St. Kitts Haven't been there yet

St. John's, Antigua Catarman excursion Taxis are very expensive. Really nothing to do.

Castries, St. Lucia Taxi to the beach Favorite Island

Bridgetown, Barbados Catarman excursion Best - Snorkeled with Wild Sea Turtles

Margarita Island, Venezuela Never been here

Willemstad, Curacao Oranjestad ..Jolly Pirates Tour - Excellent - read my review

San Juan, Puerto Rico

So any advice will be greatly appreciated!

Going on my favorite - Southern Cruise.

Enjoy

and hope this helps.

Curacao - The pier only had local's selling there goods. You would have to walk a great distance to get to the stores.

Sandytoes thanks so did you do all your excursions through the boat that your speaking of?

I can't wait to do the Southern....like I said St. Marrten is the only one I have been to.

this is what we do (i'm only suggesting our favorites):)

st. martin if you want an alternative to orient....take a cab to DIVI LITTLE BAY. this is an all inclusive near the port. it has a nice beach with a view of the ships.....$5.00 chair and umbrella rental.....snorkel and jet ski rental. stay until noon'ish. then grab a cab to MAHO. this is a beach at the end of the runway of the airport. there is a place for lunch (great food) and sit and watch the planes fly right over your head. go on "youtube" and watch some videos:D

in barbados we went on the SILVERMOON CATAMARAN. they only take 12 people per sailing and the best part is watching the ship sponsered catamarans with 50 people cruise by. anyway.... they meet you at the ship.....and take you swimming with sea turtles, snorkeling over a ship wreck and then they go to a cove for swimming. they prepare a very delicious lunch and the drinks (all) are included. this is still 1 of our favorite excursions.

I have to disagree about San Juan. San Juan is one of my favorite ports. You can take a walking tour of Old Town on your own. Get a map at the tourist office in the square near the pier. Lots of historic buildings, but there are some interesting shops along the tour route. Or, take a tour to El Yunque, the rainforest. This tour usually includes a stop at a beach.

In Curacao, we've snorkeled, we've taken a self-guided walking tour of the significant historic sites, we've done the semi-submersible tour and we've visited Playa Porto Mari, a really lovely beach with good snorkeling.

In Barbados, you can hire a driver to take you around to see the sights. You can just wait and hire one at the terminal when you arrive, or prearrange a tour with a company like Cameron Reid. We really enjoyed our tour with Cameron's company. I chose the sights I wanted to see and our driver took us to those and also to some he chose for us to see.

On Margarita Island, we took an island tour in open-air vehicles. Some people have also raved about the river tour.

An island tour on St Maarten is a good way to see both sides of the island (French and Dutch).

On St Lucia, we took an all-day island tour which included lunch. Very interesting.