1 destination · 10 things to do

Curaçao

Curaçao is the Caribbean island that never wanted to look like anywhere else. Willemstad, its capital, is a harbour town of pastel Dutch gables in ice-cream colours, split by the Sint Anna Bay and stitched back together by the Queen Emma pontoon bridge, and the historic districts of Punda and Otrobanda are inscribed by UNESCO. Beyond the city, the island is dry, spiky and beautiful: cliffs where the sea explodes through limestone blowholes, a national park with a mountain you climb at dawn, a cave full of bats, and small west-coast coves where turtles graze in clear water. This guide books Curaçao properly. It pairs the Klein Curaçao catamaran day with the Sea Aquarium, the Hato Caves and the Blue Curaçao distillery, adds the free and low-fee sights that make Willemstad worth walking, such as the oldest synagogue in the Americas still in use, and then matches you to the right hotel, from a harbour-front resort in Otrobanda to a boutique stay in the Pietermaai district, because on an island this long, where you sleep decides how much you drive.