Driving in Curacao?

[jimbug]

Can anyone fill me in on driving in Curacao...

 

Do they drive on the right or the left? If the left, how hard it is for someone like me, who has ONLY driven in the U.S., to figure it out?

 

We want to spend the day beach-hopping/snorkeling and stopping at any interesting sights we might see along the way. Is the traffic bad once we get out of the pier area? (Hope not...)

[kari*curaçao]

That's the refrain of a popular carnival tumba (sorry folks, I am totally in the mood!:D )

 

Do they drive on the right or the left?

 

We drive on the right side of the road. At least that's what we're supposed to do...

 

 

Is the traffic bad once we get out of the pier area? (Hope not...)

 

 

I think I better leave that for another fellow cruiser to answer!

 

Kari.

[kari*curaçao]

That's the refrain of a popular carnival tumba (sorry folks, I am totally in the mood!:D )

 

Do they drive on the right or the left?

 

We drive on the right side of the road. At least that's what we're supposed to do...

 

 

Is the traffic bad once we get out of the pier area? (Hope not...)

 

 

I think I better leave that for another fellow cruiser to answer!

 

Kari.

[kari*curaçao]

That's the refrain of a popular carnival tumba (sorry folks, I am totally in the mood!:D )

 

Do they drive on the right or the left?

 

We drive on the right side of the road. At least that's what we're supposed to do...

 

 

Is the traffic bad once we get out of the pier area? (Hope not...)

 

 

I think I better leave that for another fellow cruiser to answer!

 

Kari.

[kari*curaçao]

sorry:D

[MIcruiser99]

We rented a car right off the dock when we were on the AOS. Avis has a small office when you get off the ship and to the left. (We walked into town looking for it and it was back at the ship:rolleyes: ) We made reservations online before we left. I don't think they keep many cars there - not much parking.

 

We were worried because we had read about how narrow the streets were and how crazy the traffic was in town.

 

Well, we rented anyway! Drove over to Hato Caves, then to Blue Bay Resort. We asked the lady at the rental how to get there but there were signs to follow and the island is small so if you know your directions, you can pretty much navigate without a map. Lots of circles that you go on and then choose which "exit" you want.

 

We did drive back into town and took a wrong turn and headed back out to the airport but using the large hills (?mountain), we could determine where we were and how to get back to the ship.

 

Filling up the tank, make sure that you have small US currency (unless you have local $), then you won't get alot of change back in local currency. You have to drive up to a booth, pay for the gas, then a person will pump it for you. We didn't need the $20 worth of gas that we paid for and had to walk back, and get the change in local currency. There was only one gas station that we saw near the port.

 

If there is any other gas stations, maybe kari*curaçao, can help and the correct procedure for getting gas. I wasn't sure if you tip the gas attendant or not? We have not had full service gas stations in our area for ages so was strange to have someone do it for us!

[kari*curaçao]

 

There was only one gas station that we saw near the port.

 

If there is any other gas stations, maybe kari*curaçao, can help and the correct procedure for getting gas. I wasn't sure if you tip the gas attendant or not? We have not had full service gas stations in our area for ages so was strange to have someone do it for us!

 

There are many gasstation along the roads, some bigger than others. On the road around the city (Schottegatweg west, Schottegatweg zuid and Schottegatweg oost)

At a couple of gasstations you can get gas with your credit card.

You can pump yourself, if you get an attendant to help it's ok to tip, one guilder or one dollar is ok.

 

Find the place on the map: http://www.caribbean-on-line.com/islands/cr/wsmap.shtml

Gas @

Schottegatweg west, just at the intersection where the name is printen n the map

Fokkerweg

Heelsumstraat, (down right corner of the map, that’s on the way to mambo beach, Seaquarium, Lions Dive)

De Ruyterkade (about 3 inches lefy of the Heelsumstraat)

Fokkerweg (abt 2 “ north of the Heelsumstraat)

Parera (abt 1 “ left of Fokkerweg)

Gasparitu, but that is being renovated right now

And not on this map, you have 2 big gasstations on the road to Westpunt.

I could go on with this game, get a bigger map of the island .. ;-)

Actually, I think the gasstations are mentioned on the maps you can get at any one of them (but as MIcrusier mentioned, you won’t need them all.)

 

Enjoy ypour drive!

Kari

[MIcruiser99]

I forgot to mention the reason we paid cash was to avoid the charge card's fee for currency exchange. Probably isn't that much but for a small purchase, cash was easier. (Just needed smaller bills :) )

 

Now I feel bad that I didn't tip the man who pumped our gas.

 

Guess I should have found all this out beforehand!

[Cruise Lover Kathy]

We rented a car when we were there in 2005 so we could see more than ship tours would allow. We had trouble finding things even though I had reseached and gotten a map beforehand. Many of the streets do not have street signs. We did see some interesting neighborhoods when we were lost. I will also tell you that the Nature park at the tip of the island was NOT worth the trip or the $$. We also were bitten badly by no-seeum's while we were paying. The "snack bar" is NOT a place we wanted to eat, and we didn't find anything else until we got back to the main shopping areas.

 

We did enjoy the Hato Cave Tour but if we had it to do again we would go to the end of the pier and get a taxi/van and take that tour. Some of our table mates did it that way and paid less than we did and were able to really look at things as they went. The view from the top of the bridge is spectacular! I want to return and see more of the neighborhoods in the Old Town. The little we saw there were so colorful.

[wolf1]

I reserved a car in advance through Avis which has a location right next to the cruise terminal. You drive on the same side of the road as the U.S. The price with insurance for a mid size car was $62 and I had to spend $17 for gas as well.

 

Right next to the cruise ship is a large skyway like bridge that takes you toward the sea aquarium. I took one look at the map with the spaghetti like roads and exits coming off of that bridge and decided to head the other way away from the bridge. Driving was not difficult and there was not much traffic at all. Quite a few streets are missing signs.

 

I headed towards the North end if I remember correctly. I thought well it is an island so I will just follow the road along the coast, but there really is not much of a road along the coast. You take a road which goes down the middle of the island and there are a lot of dirt roads which branch off and take you to beaches.

 

I stumbled open a great little beach with very few people called Cas Abou. The beach had a small scuba dive shop which allowed my son to do a one on one dive. The beach was very scenic with shade trees and chairs without charge. Refreshments were available as well. American change was not available.

 

I also stopped at Porto Marie, which was down and the road and a very nice beach with a dive shop and restaurant as well. This beach was busier but not over crowded.

 

Driving around downtown was busies but not bad.

[S&SCruisers]

Is there any new/updated info since these posts?