Curacao is better from the water

There are 5 on our list and they make genuinely different days. The catamarans cross in two to three hours each way, which turns the trip into 9 to 10 hours door to door with an open bar and a BBQ lunch aboard. The powerboat does the crossing in under an hour and compresses the whole thing to about six, but the operator is upfront that the ride can get very bumpy, boarding is by ladder, and it is the priciest of the boats. Whichever you pick, the island has almost no natural shade. We put all of them side by side on the comparison page.

No. This is a shore-entry island, which is the whole reason divers rate it, and 7 of the 13 beaches we cover charge nothing to enter. Playa Lagun, Playa Piskado and Grote Knip are all free; Playa Kalki is a free beach with a $5 facility fee that covers the lift, lockers and showers; Porto Mari runs about $3 per person. Our shore-entry guide walks the entries themselves, and the beach fees table lists what every beach on our list charges.

The group intro is the most reviewed first dive on the island: about 4 hours from $125 per person, theory first, then a guided open-water dive at the tugboat wreck or Caracasbaai, no certification needed. One booking condition sets it apart from everything else on this page: all sales are final, there is no refund on cancellation, booking closes a day ahead, and food and drinks are not included. The private version runs about 3 hours from $125 per person with one booking per departure, your own PADI professional and a maximum of four people, with a shorter theory block.

The guided two-tank shore dive, from $39 per person over 2 to 4 hours, running from the Tugboat wreck to Directors Bay. Entries are from shore by car rather than by boat, evidence of certification is checked before you get in the water, and the site rotation changes by day, so tell the operator what you have already dived and ask about the full-day west-side run if you have the morning to spare.

The Happy Hour cruise: about 2.5 hours from $75 per person, open bar and finger foods, and no music or dance floor. The party catamaran runs about 3 hours from $145 per person with a DJ and an all-inclusive open bar, and it is genuinely louder and busier. They are the same sunset from two different evenings out.

Two ways, and both have real requirements. The helmet walk puts you on the sea floor for about an hour from $150 per person with no swimming or diving skills needed. The underwater scooter at Boka Sami runs about an hour and a quarter from $159 per person inside a glass dome fed with air from a dive tank, with a minimum age of 10, a minimum height of 4 ft, a maximum weight of 275 lbs, and a doctor’s consent letter needed for several medical conditions the operator lists.