Curaçao · Backpacking
ON A BUDGET
A Dutch colonial port with dive sites off the road and beaches that mostly charge a small entry.
Sleep in Pietermaai
The restored district east of Punda holds the hostels and cheap guesthouses, walkable to the pontoon bridge and the bars. Otrobanda is cheaper and grittier.
What a day costs
The guilder is pegged near 1.79 to the US dollar, which is taken everywhere. Dorm $25–45, food $25–45, transport $5–10. Reckon $60–110.
Getting around cheap
Big yellow Konvoi buses and private minivans leave from the Punda and Otrobanda terminals for a few guilders, but a hire car is the only sane way to Westpunt.
Free by day
The Queen Emma pontoon bridge swinging open for ships, the Handelskade waterfront, and Playa Piskadó, where turtles feed off the fishermen's cleaning station.
Pietermaai bars
The strip along Nieuwestraat and Pietermaai fills on weekend evenings, and the Sea Aquarium beach clubs take over on Sunday afternoons.