Travel Diaries: Curacao
Only a 4 hour flight from Atlanta lies a lush, tropical island: Curaçao. This tiny island is only 171 square miles (smaller than Staten Island!) and situated off the coast of Venezuela, also a part of the ABC islands with Aruba and Bonaire. Originally settled by the Spanish, Curaçao is a Dutch island, meaning islanders have a Netherlands passport, and Dutch is one of their 4 main languages.
We traveled to Curaçao in December 2025, and we rang in the new year abroad here! Much like any trip, we definitely had our ups and downs—and plenty of funny stories to tell. Come along with us and experience our adventure!
Day 1: Travel
Of course, our trip started out with a cancelled flight, meaning we had to wake up at 2:30am to Uber to the next closest airport which was two hours away in order to make our connection in Atlanta. And the fun didn’t stop, as we dealt with some motion sickness on the plane, but all was well when we landed in Curaçao and took our shuttle to the resort.
We got to Dreams Resort and were able to check in immediately and be taken up to our rooms. We spent that evening exploring what the small resort had to offer. With only one main pool, a small beach area, and 3 alternating restaurants, it was definitely much smaller than other resorts we have stayed at in the Caribbean.
We got dinner at one of the restaurants at the resort, which was unfortunately underwhelming after such a long day. Members of our family have special dietary needs, so we found the food options at Dreams to be less accommodating than other resorts we have stayed at. While we did have a “Preferred” level room, we still encountered issues on where to eat. After the first night’s dinner at the resort, we decided we would try options in the city for future meals.
Day 2: Relax at the resort
After such a stressful travel day, we couldn’t think of anything better than relaxing by the pool to get everything sorted for the week. Usually, we are able to talk to the concierge when we arrive to get any excursions planned, but that wasn’t the case for this trip.
After waiting all morning for the tour contact to return to the concierge desk, we were informed that all but two tours had been completely booked up for the week. That meant we were on our own to plan what to do. After spending the afternoon perusing Viator for available tours (thankfully, we had no issues with the wifi), we got lucky and found 2 for the week!
Although small, the pool and beach areas were beautiful, and we definitely had fun relaxing in the cabanas and sunning in the beach chairs. We all brought books to read, and we were deep in relaxing vacation mode.
For dinner, we walked across one of the public beaches near our resort to a cluster of restaurants for a delicious meal. What started off as a stressful trip was starting to turn around…
Day 3: boat trip to turtle Beach
We got up early to quickly eat breakfast at the buffet before calling a cab to take us to our meeting point for a boat ride to the famous “Turtle Beach,” also known as Playa Grandi or Playa Piskado. We were excited for a relaxing day of boating and snorkeling, as we’d stop at two additional snorkeling places in addition to Turtle Beach! However, when a small partially-deflated speedboat pulled up to the pier, we knew that our day was going to look quite different than we thought.
Had this been a properly working boat, I’m sure we would have had a lovely day—though still not as relaxing as we had originally envisioned. However, the boat’s inflatable side had popped and the crew could not reinflate it. You might be asking Well, why would they still take out a boat that didn’t work properly? Trust me, we were asking ourselves that too.
After an hour-long boat ride, we arrived at the first snorkeling spot already soaked from the splashes of water, but good thing we were getting in anyways. The first stop on the tour was described by our guides as a “cave,” but it didn’t appear there was anything to swim through or under.
We next went to Turtle Beach, and that made the whole day of rough waters and a deflated boat worth it. Being in the water, I counted at least 10 times a turtle swam right up to me as I was standing in only waist-deep water. Although we wanted to go out and snorkel to see more, we found that the best view of the turtles was actually standing in the shallow water since the waves made everything so murky.
Our last stop was stopping off the coast of one of the many beautiful beaches of the island, though we didn’t stay there long, as it was nearing the end of the day. After an hour-long, soaking-wet boat ride back, we finally made it back, only to be dropped off at a different location than our starting point. Luckily, being by the port of a cruise ship, we had no issue finding a taxi to get back to our resort.
An eventful day ended with a (luckily) chill dinner and some games up in our room before calling it a night!
Day 3: SHOPPING IN Willemstad
After a relaxing morning in the Dreams Spa and lunch by the beach, we called a cab to take us into the main city of the island, Willemstad. Since we visited right after the holidays, they still had all of their Christmas lights set up, and it made for a beautiful walk around the area!
There were plenty of tourist-y shops where we bought shirts, post cards, and souvenir bags. You name it and they probably had it in one of their stores. We also browsed some of their local clothing stores to find a Curaçao soccer jersey (We have to root for them in the World Cup now). Luckily, all of the stores listed their prices in USD, so we didn’t have to worry about any currency changes.
We walked along the famous Queen Emma Bridge, which is a floating pontoon bridge built across the river connecting the two sides of Willemstad. From there, we got a beautiful view of the iconic Dutch-style architecture of the buildings and shops.
We booked a reservation for Cascada, a rooftop restaurant and bar known for their shareable dishes, which was a short walk from the main shopping area of the city. We got a great view of the coast and even saw a cruise ship leaving its port! Although delicious food, we were still hungry for something else, so we ended up walking another 15 minutes to an Italian restaurant across the bridge.
Since we were here around New Year’s, we heard constant fireworks while downtown (and even at our resort, too). A fun fact we learned from one of our tour guides: Curaçao only allows fireworks to be sold and set off from December 27-31 for celebrations, which means loud noises day and night during this period. We didn’t mind, but I’d keep this in mind if traveling with little ones who might be easily startled.
Day 4: Beach hopping
Since Curaçao is not (yet) overrun with All-Inclusives that hog all of the beach space, the island is full of beautiful beaches that are off the beaten path. We booked an all-day tour to see 3 of the island’s beaches with a stop at one of their best restaurants with a view.
We started off the day at Grote Knip, about a 45-minute bus ride from our resort, which is situated between rocky cliffs. We had about 40 minutes here with the group to swim and explore. Of all the beaches we visited, this was the sandiest and had the least amount of coral/rocks (We were kicking ourselves for forgetting our water shoes).
Our next stop was actually back to Turtle Beach (Playa Piskado), so we were back with the turtles. Luckily, this day had less waves so we ended up getting a better view of the turtles. Of all the beaches, this one was the most crowded since there’s only a small area where the turtles come up close to the shore.
We got lunch at the Blue View Sunset Terrace (our favorite meal of the whole trip) which is situated on the cliffs above the coast. They had a large menu of every way you could possibly order sea food. After our tour group was done with our meal, some people even got brave enough to jump off the 40-foot cliff into the waters below—me included! Check out the view of the beautiful blue waters from the restaurant.
The last beach of the day was Cas Abao Beach, ranked in the Top 21 Global Beaches by National Geographic. We loved the sandy shores and plethora of beach chairs for laying out, but we definitely struggled in the water without our water shoes. In order to swim, you have to walk out past jagged rocks and heaps of coral. Had we been smart enough to remember proper foot protection, I think this would’ve been our favorite stop of the trip!
We ended our tour with a quick stop at the Flamingo Sanctuary, a small protected area where you can view the birds in their natural habitat via a raised viewing platform.
Upon returning to the resort, we immediately showered and changed to be ready for the New Year’s Eve dinner celebration, a fancy buffet the staff had been setting up with entertainment. We spent the evening chatting with the other parties at our table and enjoying the food (which was an improvement over the usual options) before calling it a night. After 8 hours of beach hopping and cliff jumping, we were definitely not making it to midnight!
Day 5: Travel back home
Thankfully, our second travel day was nowhere near as eventful as our arrival. We had no issues with cancelled flights, motion sickness, or lost baggage.
We loved our time in Curaçao! While we wouldn’t book again with Dreams, we would absolutely go back to visit the island to explore more of what the beautiful island has to offer. Of course, next time we won’t forget our water shoes.
Planning a trip to Curaçao? Check out our Destination Guide (coming soon in February 2026) and our TikTok for more clips of our travels. Email hello@travel-fam.com to see how we can help you plan your very own trip to this underrated destination!