Every summer my family typically rents a beach house on Cape Cod, MA and spends a week all together (including the boyfriends). My grandfather lives on the Cape full time and it’s a great time to relax and spend time together. But this summer, my mom decided she needed to get a little further away so...based on some pretty strict guidelines (not in the US, outside of the hurricane belt, beaches for cocktail sipping, not too touristy)... we headed to Curacao.
We woke up early for a JetBlue flight straight to Curacao from NYC! Despite the mission to get breakfast in the terminal being one of the most stressful things EVER, it’s was a super easy flight. When we arrived on the island, we immediately picked up two rental cars. The cars on this island are typically VERY small so our party of six plus our luggage stuffed ourselves into two tiny Kia Picantos to make our way to Lions Dive Resort where we had booked a JetBlue package that included a two bedroom apartment for the week.
We immediately threw on bathing suits and went down to the pool for some apps and drinks to kick off the vacation. The boys started with frikandel (dutch sausage), I ate some veggie spring rolls and we toasted to a great trip. After the apps we ventured down to explore the beach which was a two min walk away - it was so great that the beach was right on the property (no shuttle busses needed). For dinner we caught sight of the meat skewers hanging from the tables at Chill Beach Bar & Grill right on the beach at the resort and decided to stay on property to give those a go. All the meat was delicious and we had another round of drinks (the men going hard with some long island iced teas). The night was rounded out with ice cream cones and a little more exploring around the area before we hit the hay. The resort was at the end of an area called Mambo Beach Boulevard with a bunch of restaurants and shopping and other hotels that we would come back to.
The first item on the agenda for Sunday was the grocery store. The apartment we were staying in was outfitted with a kitchenette and we had decided most breakfasts and some lunches would be good to do on our own. Once we had raided the grocery store, we made our way back to the hotel to eat some of that food and start our day. My boyfriend Jay and I headed straight to the beach to stake out a palapa for some shade while the rest of the family spread out.
After a relaxing day in the sun, we made plans to go into the main town for dinner. We stopped for some liquor because...VACATION...and then had a very leisurely dinner of Tapas at Mosa. If you are someone that doesn’t like being rushed through dinner then this is the place for you. In typical Hershman fashion (you don’t know this yet but you will) we ordered a ton of food (probably 3x what we actually needed) and dinner was a 3 hour ordeal. By the end of the meal, we were all in food comas and had to take a couple dishes worth of leftovers back with us.
I was SO excited to wake up this morning because this was the day that I had booked Jay and I a surf lesson. The rest of the family excluding my mom were going kite surfing but Jay and I wanted to try our hand at the OG watersport. I had surfed before and knew it was really hard but that I enjoyed it and Jay is a good sport and was along for the ride. We had an AMAZING instructor - I caught a couple waves (before promptly falling down) and Jay even belly surfed a big wave. Aside from being completely sea sick at the end (note to self, always hold nose in the future or you will get gallons of water up there) - we had a really fun time.
We drove over after to meet the kite surfers and went over to an ostrich farm for some lunch. Yup, an Ostrich farm. It was way more farm to eat than farm and preserve so we didn’t actually do any touring or anything but we had a tasty and filling lunch after a physically draining morning. From there, we stopped off at an aloe farm that was nearby and picked up some goodies for the inevitable sunburns that were to come.
The rest of the day was spent relaxing back at the hotel beach, doing a little snorkeling and reading. We had a super local fish dinner at the nearby Seaside Terrace. Nothing about the meal was glamorous but it was tasty and it was fresh. This is seemingly the type of place where locals go and I’d highly recommend.
Tuesday was supposed to be another morning of kite surfing for the rest of the family but after a really demanding first day, they decided that they didn’t want to continue to spend a hefty portion of their vacation getting tossed around the surf. Instead we went into town to do some exploring and shopping. We’d heard of these really cool floating markets that were supposed to be fun but when we starting walking around, we realized that because of the embargo on Venezuela and being that all the vendors were boats that came over from Venezuela to sell their goods, that market did not exist.
We did find a cool market and I finally found got to buy some fruit that I hadn’t had since my study abroad in Tobago. We walked around a bunch, had some lunch in town, and then drove over to do our Curacao Distillery Tour. We couldn’t go all the way to Curacao without learning about the liquor and tasting some! Our tour came with cocktails that were delicious and we had a really fun afternoon (and might have had a little too much to drink haha).
Dinner tonight was easy on Mambo Beach Blvd, we stopped at the mexican place called El Grill. I don’t think it was the best meal I’ve ever tasted but it did the job and we had a quiet night.
Wednesday was our hike day! We decided way ahead of time that we wanted to hike Mt. Christoffel while we were in Curacao. The views of the ocean were supposed to be amazing and hiking is something that everyone in my family enjoys (mostly when it’s over and we feel accomplished). We got up very early to get to the mountain by 8:30am and it took us about 3 hours round trip. It gets really hot the later in the day you go so they don’t even allow anyone to depart after 10am or 11am. The mountain has a 1200 foot elevation and is for the most part easy until the end where there is a little bit of climbing involving your hands and some big rocks. I highly recommend bringing a snack up with you so you can take a seat and enjoy the view for a few minutes before the long trek down.
After the hike we stopped to get batidos (smoothies) at a roadside stand we found HERE. When we walked up, a man came out from his house and started blending us up delicious fruit drinks. We created combos with pineapple, mango, strawberry...he had everything! He even had a tasty coffee drink for the one non-fruit-eating person in our group. It was so refreshing!
From there we made our way to Playa Porto Marie Beach. This was a public beach outfitted with facilities, beach chairs and umbrellas, and a beachside restaurant - they even had snorkels for rent if you needed. The best part for me though, were the wild pigs! Yes, I said pigs. They were HUGE, and adorable, and sunbathing right next to the beach chairs. We spent the afternoon there snorkeling (the area is surrounded by coral and we saw some amazing fish), having lunch, and relaxing.
We drove over after to meet the kite surfers and went over to an ostrich farm for some lunch. Yup, an Ostrich farm. It was way more farm to eat than farm and preserve so we didn’t actually do any touring or anything but we had a tasty and filling lunch after a physically draining morning. From there, we stopped off at an aloe farm that was nearby and picked up some goodies for the inevitable sunburns that were to come.
Today was completely exhausting so when we got back to the hotel, we didn’t want to leave again. We opted to order in some pizza from Pizza Mare nearby and have an early night in.
Thursday was a tough day if we are being totally honest. I’m definitely someone that requires some alone time and being in a two bedroom apartment with my entire family was draining to say the least. We went into town again to check out the oldest functioning Synagogue in the western hemisphere which was really intriguing. The floor was sand!!
After the trip into town, we relaxed on the beach for the afternoon before our date night evening (finally a meal away from the whole family :). Jay made us reservations at NAME OF PLACE and it was delicious. We had a bunch of apps like chicken and waffles (I know, I know), brussel sprouts, and a flat bread. After, we met the rest of the family in town for a stroopwafel that was freshly made...SO.DAMN.GOOD. Literally made to order, hot out of the wafel press. YUM.
Friday was my Dad’s birthday...and my Dad is the kinda guy that loves to celebrate his birthday. We had already made reservations for the evening so we decided to explore a new beach for some snorkeling during the day. I hit up the hotel gym in the morning and then we all went to Tug Boat Beach where there was an abandoned tug boat and a ginormous oil tanker. The beach was super cool, lots of beach chairs with a funky setting (an old tv set up and a pinball machine made out of snorkel gear) but the oil tanker made for a weird industrial vibe. We went right into the water to check it out and it seriously felt like we were swimming in a fish tank.
We headed back to the hotel for a little more beach time there before we got ready for a sunset booze cruise. The cruise coincidentally left from a dock right near where we were earlier in the day. It was a giant catamaran with a bunch of other people (including a bunch of kids who I just hoped were well behaved). Once things got going and we set off, the cruise became fun and seemed less crowded. I had a bunch to drink :) And we had a blast! After we went to Deja Vu for a french dinner. Everything was so tasty - we had duck, lobster thermadore, and steak.
Final day! I was so so sad to leave the beach and go back to real life but damn, I was ready to be home and see the kitty. I went to the gym, caught a few more rays on the beach before we packed everything up, checked out, and went for a final lunch in town before we headed to the airport. Until next time!
