Anybody familiar with Curacao Actief tours?

[stinalynn]

We will be in Curacao on 12/27 and wondering about setting up a tour - has anyone had experience with the Curacao Actief company? Any other recommendations? We are looking for some beach and snorkeling time. Thanks in advance!

[shrek]

We have done two tours with Curacao-actief in the past two years. Han and Anite are the most excellent guides and their tours are amazing. We have done the desert and cave tour, and a custom snorkelling tour.

 

If you like an adventure that is off the beaten track, with people that care passionately about their island, and are knowledgable about the flora and fauna, and go out of their way to ensure that you are picked up and delivered back to you cruise ship on time, then I recommend Curacao-actief.

[stebul]

We took a tour with Curacao Actief about a year ago. We started out with 6 people (4 from our ship and 2 staying on Curacao). At the time, Curacao Actief was not licensed to pick up customers directly at the Megapier so they arranged for a taxi to pick us up and take us to their building about 10 minutes away. This extra step ended up adding about 30 minutes to the tour because we had to backtrack past the ship. We first went to a very scenic area on the island to watch sea turtles and look at a blow hole. After that, the group split with the 4 cruise ship passengers going snorkeling with Anite and the 2 others going on more sightseeing with Han. Both Han and Anite did an excellent job of showing us Curacao and were very willing to customize the itinerary to do exactly what we wanted.

 

One bit of caution: Curacao is larger than many Caribbean islands and the scenic / snorkel areas are not near the pier. You will need to drive about 90 minutes each way to get to these places. The vehicle we used was a pickup truck with an aluminum cover over the bed and bench seats. This was fine for everyone on our trip, but I'm sure some people would prefer an air conditioned van. It is a very enjoyable trip, but be aware that you need a minimum of 6 hours to enjoy it.

[haligonian37]

We have done two tours with Curacao-actief in the past two years. Han and Anite are the most excellent guides and their tours are amazing. We have done the desert and cave tour, and a custom snorkelling tour.

 

If you like an adventure that is off the beaten track, with people that care passionately about their island, and are knowledgable about the flora and fauna, and go out of their way to ensure that you are picked up and delivered back to you cruise ship on time, then I recommend Curacao-actief.

 

I booked a desert & caves tour with Curacao-Actief a few weeks back for our Dec.7th stop. It'll be mine and my friends first time there and the excursions HAL offered were kind of blah, so after reading the great reviews, I went for it. They were very professional and helpful during the booking process which I think bodes well for a great tour. I'd love to hear how your desert & caves tour went and what we can expect. Thanks!

[Mrs007]

Okay, you all have to wait a day or 2. I just got back and have been uploading pics and trying to organize my thoughts. But, I can tell you we had a wonderful day on a private tour with Kim from Curacao-Actief. We throughly enjoyed our day and would highly recommend Curacao-Actief.

[vacation fool]

We have a tour booked with them for 2009. They were very professional over the phone and even called me to get my credit card number so i did not have to email it to them. They seem very organized and now based on the good reviews of others am glad i chose them:)

[Mrs007]

We had a private tour with Curacao-Actief during our port call from the HAL Volendam. We arranged the private tour because my husband uses a cane and it would be difficult for him to "hurry up" and "stand around waiting". This worked very well for us and we had a wonderful day. There was just a little confusion upon arrival since the Volendam docked at a different pier, but a quick phone call and we were in the cab within 5 minutes.

 

Our guide was Kim and she was very sweet. She was very flexible to our needs and desires. We seemed to be the first people at the sites we visited. Don't know if this was planned or just a coincidence. At the Hato Cave, I actually got a real private tour - no one else was in the caves, just me and the guide!!!

 

One piece of information though. The roads in Curacao have A LOT of POT HOLES!! Since we were on a rough sailboat ride the day before in Aruba, the jarring of the potholes was really getting to my husband. Kim did her best to avoid them, but the roads in the country are narrow and did I mention - there are A LOT of POTHOLES!!! The vehicle Kim had was a pretty new truck - the type with a back seat.

 

Because my husband was not feeling his best, he asked if we could skip the snorkel we had set up as part of our tour. Kim said NO PROBLEM and then told us of a little cheese boutique that had just opened by 2 gentlemen from Holland (they make their own cheese :) ) This was a good option for us.

 

Here is a link to my photos. The first 3 pages have pictures from our tour on Curacao. We would highly recommend Curacao-Actief.

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/561702128elspQf?start=0

[daryleann]

Mrs007: (love the name!) could you tell me which tour you took with Actief? I watched the movie and see that there are several choices and was wondering which would be better.

Thanks - (if anyone cares to comment, thanks, also!)

[Mrs007]

Daryle Ann. When looking at several of the group tours Curacao-Actief offered, I was concerned about the amount of walking involved for my husband, so we arranged our own tour. The walk to both Boka Tabla and Boka Pistol was very manageable and fairly flat. However, the dirt road to Boka Pistol is a little rough. Our guide, Kim, did take the "road" slowly though. The Hato Caves require a climb of 49 steps carved out of the hillside and it does get warm in the caves. One spot I wish we would have stopped, but didn't know about was Playa Forti. It looked like it had wonderful views. We had lunch at Jaanchies and the food was good and Jaanchie himself is quite darling, but I now wonder if we shouldn't have planned lunch at Playa Forti if only for the views.

 

All of these places are about 45 minute drive from the cruiseship. I would suggest you contact Curacao-Actief and they can suggest places for your abilities. My husband isn't up to hiking, caving, or jumping off cliffs, so a leisurely ride with a few easy to navigate stops worked for us. Curacao-Actief is very pleasent and accommodating, just tell them what you are interested in seeing - history, scenery, Willemstad itself, etc.

[Cath66]

I got home yesterday from the Volendam. My 2 friends and I did the desert and caves tour with Actief. Howard was our guide and he was wonderful! We had a terrific time and Howard was very knowledgable about Curacao, the animals, the vegetation, the history of the peoples of the island..everything. We had a fabulous tour for an extremely reasonable price. I wouldn't hesitate to book with Actief again.

Have fun with whatever you choose!

[geddy22]

We did a full day snorkel tour with Curacao-Actief the first week of December.

 

Although we had a bit of trouble meeting the taxi driver, Sophie in the office worked tirelessly with us to work things out and get us to our tour.

 

Once we met up with Kim, our tour guide, and started our tour, all problems were forgotten. Kim took us to four absolutely amazing snorkel spots including the tug boat and Director's bay. We saw things I never imagined! The water was clear and beautiful at most of the stops and the fish were everywhere.

 

We also got to witness a strong island storm that blew through while were lunching at a wonderful local restaurant.

 

Kim was a truly wonderful guide, full of information and extremely caring. We felt as if we were hanging out with a friend rather than on a tour.

 

I would recommend this company with one tip: confirm your pick up arrangements a few days before your tour.

[NextOne]

We had a marvelous tour of the North Shore with Francel (sp?) on December 7. The trip started off a little rocky, because our taxi driver got lost several times on the way to the meeting point, but once we met Francel, everything went well. He took us to some marvelous spots so we could see the natural wonders, gave us a good history of the island, and fed us an outstanding lunch! I now know that some cactus have edible flowers, how blow holes are formed, and that riding in the back of a LandRover in the rain over a road filled with potholes can be LOTS of fun!! Francel made numerous stops to show us plants that had medicinal properties, and let us know which ones were safe and which to avoid. He told us that he wasn't one of their regular guides, but we felt lucky that he agreed to help out that day.

The same taxi driver picked us back up, dropped some of our group back at the Volendam and took the rest of us into town so we could do some shopping. Very accommodating! We'd highly recommend Curacao Actief!