Curacao- lovely place but

[islandgrandma]

:( Curacao- I am afraid we were disappointed here. We had a rental car from AVIS. Car was fine but map AVIS gives you is next to worthless. IF you plan to drive here get a better map ahead of time. Roads are smooth and good but no signs to indicate highway # or name. Also we told gal at AVIS that we wanted to go see Brievengot ( old land house) and when we got there after about 35 minutes of driving we discover it is being renovated to become a casino. ( later she admitted that she knew this- just chose not to tell us and save us a long drive out there) I had gone on-line and saw all about the old landhuizen homes and really wanted to see these. So next we drove maybe another 35 minutes to try to see Jan Kok land house ( it has an art gallery) but it was closed. So we gave up on seeing these old homes and headed for snorkeling at Port Marie. Lovely place. Small fee to use beach- well maintained. There was a nice beach restaurant with changing rooms and an outdoor shower. They had a very good lunch of chicken satay and french fries with peanut sauce. At 2pm we headed back into town and had no trouble parking and walking around the great colorful buildings. Curacao web page needs to update what you can actually see as far as these old land houses. Avis agents need to be more helpful. But it is a colorful island island that is quite a photo op.

[carbon]

We are looking to rent a car and drive to playa porta marie to swim and snorkle. Then drive back to shop in town in the afternoon. Was Avis close to the port and what did it cost to rent a car? Still deciding to rent the car verses grabing a cab.

Thanks for any advice.

[islandgrandma]

we rented from AVIS. It was right outside of where ship docked. We needed a 6 passenger and it was about 75$ plus gas. I now know that taxi to beach playa portomari is about $20 per person round trip- of course I have no idea how long the taxi waits for you. One site gave good instructions for driving to this beach and said it was the best for snorkeling. We did not need the car for walking about town after our beach excursion. The map avis gives you is very small and not very good so IF you rent a car try to get a better map before you go. hope this helps- avis does have a web site that allows you to look at cars and prices in curacao. BW

[cruiseapril]

We've lived in Curacao and returned for a visit by cruise ship and will be visiting again by cruise ship this year. In our experience, ship excursions, private excursions, and taxis are better than renting a car on Curacao.

 

We agree that an update on the landhouses would be helpful.