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Aruba and Curaçao (8 - 17 July 2026)

Aruba and Curaçao are two of the three neighboring "ABC islands" (the third being Bonaire) in the southern Caribbean, just north of Venezuela off the South American coast. All three are part of the Netherlands and are typically expensive to fly to from the US, which is the main reason we haven't been here before. However, Kristina happened to spot some decent flights and so we jumped on them! Two weeks before we started the trip, Venezuela was hit by two massive earthquakes that made a mess of the place and triggered tsunami warnings for the islands. However, despite their proximity to the quakes' epicenters, few people on the islands reported feeling anything and the tsunami warnings came to nothing. Multiple aftershocks followed but hey, we've been in earthquakes before (and I grew up with them), so as long as we didn't get stranded by some major catastrophe then a little shaking wouldn't bother us.

Larger versions of some of these photos (and more) are on Facebook here.

First stop: Aruba, which is "one happy island" according to their slogan. It's 100,000 inhabitants seemed happy enough.		The view from our hotel room overlooking Palm Beach below. This part of the island is one of its main tourist districts with several hotels and adjacent shopping.
Unlike other Caribbean countries we've traveled, the ABC islands have a semi-arid, almost desert-like climate with limited rainfall and no shortage of huge cactuses (or cacti) everywhere. The average temperature, although hot, is moderated by the strong and unrelenting trade winds that buffet the islands. Aruba in particular gets blown around pretty hard due its predominantly flat geography. As a guy who hates the wind, I certainly couldn't live here!

Scattered amongst the cactus-laden landscape are cute and colorful little neighborhoods.		As per usual we rented a car here and ventured out for a look-see. Aruba is a small island about 20 miles long and 6 miles across at its widest point, so it doesn't take long to get anywhere (still too long for the kids though! :) Couple of random points of interest: Alto Vista Chapel and California Lighthouse. Lovely.

Random sights aside, we were really here for the beaches! On the left is Tres Trapi Beach with small rugged cliffs for jumping into the water, and right is Arashi Beach, a long white-sand beach described online as being "quiet" (it wasn't; people everywhere!).
Elsewhere is Eagle Beach, another tourist district with more of a resort vibe, and another awesome white-sand beach which was my pick of the lot. All the beaches though had beautiful clear turquoise water which were great for snorkeling, large waves which were great for getting pummeled, and, courtesy of that relentless fucking wind, lots of kite surfers and sail boats.

Nice sunsets too! And that was more or less it for Aruba.

Next stop was Curaçao, which is about a 20-minute flight from Aruba on one of these noisy little fellas.		The view from our hotel room overlooking the resort and its private beach. Not bad!
Curaçao is the largest of the ABC islands. It has a population of about 150,000 and much more of a European feel to it compared to Aruba (both are constituent countries of the Netherlands). Whereas Aruba was full of (annoying) American visitors, Curaçao was decidedly less so with more European and South American tourists. Curaçao is famous for its colorful buildings throughout, particularly in the capital city of Willemstad here.

Colors, colors, colors!

Willemstad is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, plonked around the Sint Anna Bay inlet which leads into a large natural harbor. The foot bridge below-right spans the inlet and can pivot up to 90 degrees to allow water traffic to enter and exit the harbor, which is quite a cool sight. If you happen to be walking across the bridge when it needs to open, tough; you're stuck on that bridge until it closes again (anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes later). We spent a few hours just meandering around the city - very cool place!

Overlooking the Otrobanda quarter of Willemstad, with the inlet and the rest of the city off to the left. I had to illegally park on a bridge to get this shot, with busy city traffic zooming past behind me (but thankfully no police :)

Just like Aruba, there's no shortage of cacti around here. This guy's fence is all cactus haha!		Curaçao's best beaches are handily clustered together a short distance from each other along its northwestern coast. Thanks to its hillier terrain, the wind doesn't bash Curaçao to the same extent it bashes Aruba, at least on the western side of the island.
We started our beach hopping at Playa Kalki, which is a great snorkeling and dive spot for exploring the area's coral reef. These beat-up chairs were on a floating raft a short swim off the beach hehe, random!
Next up we checked out Grote Knip and, well, the photos speak for themselves. White sand, crystal clear water, beautiful!

Most of the beaches are free to enter and park your shitty rental car, have restaurants or food stands, equipment rental, loungers and palapas to chill, and none felt overly crowded.

Our final beach stop of our first day of beach hopping was Playa Grandi which is a well-known spot for snorkeling with sea turtles (no tour necessary). Although you can see turtles at the other beaches, they particularly like this one for whatever reason, and they don't seem to mind being stalked by us tourists. I bought an underwater camera case for this trip which allowed me to capture a few of them. I followed (stalked) the guy on the right for so long I lost track of how far I'd gone; it took me ten minutes to swim back to shore while awkwardly fumfering with a DSLR camera case hehe.

Day 2 of beach hopping started here at Playa Lagun, a quiet little spot nestled in a small bay. More great snorkeling with coral reef and fish and lost belongings.
Later we finished the day at Playa Cas Abo, a long white-sand beach with, I think, the bluest and clearest water of any of the beaches thanks to its shallow depth. Hard to top this!		And that was Curaçao in a nutshell. Definitely our pick of the two islands. I'd be interested to visit Bonaire at some point to complete the ABC islands threesome.
From Curaçao, the girls flew to Cancun in Mexico for two more weeks of fun in the sun, leaving poor old Daddy to fly home to go back to work :( I had a few hours to kill after dropping them at the airport before my own flight, so I snuck in a couple more sights before returning the car. As well as its colorful architecture and kick-ass beaches, Curaçao is also known for its indigenous bitter orange-based liqueur, Curaçao (aptly named), flavored with the dried peel of the laraha, a citrus fruit grown on the island. As a cocktail man myself, I visited the Curaçao Liqueur Distillery to grab a bottle. From there I ventured to a well-known flamingo habitat where they meander around off the roadside. And finally I chilled at another nearby beach to stare at the turquoise water for an hour before starting the journey home.

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