Travel without a plan experiment: my Curacao trip report

I can’t believe I never told you the details about my travel without a plan “experiment”! While I have shared most of my Curacao adventures, I have failed to explain, in detail, the outcome of my Curacao experiment. So! What better time than Travel Tuesday to share this with you!? Let’s hit it! 😀

travel without a plan, Curacao Nov 2011

what I love about travel: Locals like him

Travel without a plan: The Hypothesis

I’m going to be honest here: I thought it wasn’t going to be that great. Don’t get me wrong–I loved the adrenaline rushes I was feeling weeks before the trip as I knew I would go plan-less. I mean, I did it in Israel and let’s be honest: It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. No way I could have planned 3 weeks straight of hitchhiking and couchsurfing solo across historical sites and kibbutzes! However, I at least had a plan-as-you-go mentality: While I had no itinerary when I departed, that quickly morphed into a “I know what I’m doing 2 days from now” mentality. Yes: I had itineraries written down 2 days ahead of time during the last half of my trip. This, however, would not be the case in the Curacao experiment…at all.

And I was scared because of it!

Why, you may ask!? Because I thought I would miss out on a thing or two. And do I know how the “travel regret” hits me…hard! So I was challenging myself in a big way.

Travel without a plan: The Methodology

Just bought a RT ticket Miami-Curacao. That’s it. Granted, I sent some Couchsurfing requests. Yet, in the end, I said: “Screw this, let’s make this the real Travel Without A Plan experiment!” I was even going to hit Bonaire in the process, but wasn’t going to buy that plane ticket until after I got to the Curacao airport. Yah, NUTS!

travel without a plan, Curacao flight

Curacao sunset from above

Travel without a plan: The Experiment

I arrived to Curacao with only one colorful duffle bag and a purse. Once at the airport, I simply asked a clerk where to go to book a flight to bonaire for a few days. She said: “Don’t go there if traveling solo! You’re young and unless you are diving, Bonaire can be boring. Spend your whole vacation in Curacao instead. You’ll have fun, I promise!” And so this is how I stayed in Curacao for 5 days…

Then, it was the Operation Finding a Cab. Charged me $25 as no one else was going, but at least he spoke Spanish and we had a great conversation on the way. I commented that I had not booked a hotel and told him about my Curacao experiment. What did my cabby think? A0 Estas loca. B) Te voy a ayudar (I’ll help you out). And so after asking “for any cheap hostel or guesthouse by the center of town,” I arrived at Villa Colombia. $13/night for a bed, including full breakfast? Oh yah, it’s on!

travel without a plan, Villa Colombia, Curacao

My Curacao guesthouse: Villa Colombia, No 74 – 79!

Villa Colombia was just a 10-minute walk away from the center, called Punda. For 5 days, I lived in the middle of a true Curacaoan neighborhood. Which of course, made the walk out and back to the guesthouse wonderful. I took in the daily Caribbean life, had a Curacaoan mom (my host!) that spoke Spanish, and was taken care of like family. Mom even exchanged my dolllars for florines (Curacaoan currency) at the fair market rate. I doubt I could have planned this so well!

travel without a plan, my Curacaoan host

my Curacaoan mama and me!

My days consisted of walking around the center of town, taking photos, and getting food at local restaurants, which was easy as virtually everyone spoke Spanish in addition to Papiamento (Dutch Caribbean dialect) and Dutch; sometimes also English. I had some great conversations and understood that Curacaoans were pretty similar to us Puerto Ricans. After all, we are all from the Caribbean 🙂

me walking toward Curacao's center: Punda

action shot!

On my second day in Curacao, I befriended a Venezuelan guest called Sonia, and we would hit town together many times. Also, that same day, I met a couple of Latinos in the center of town, Yara and David, which were on their way to the beach. After Sonia told me to go alone because she wanted to do more shopping, I hit my first Curacaoan beach!

travel without a plan, Mambo beach Curacao

Mambo beach

Once at Mambo Beach, I really befriended the Latinos. I learned that Yara was actually a tourism exchange student, so she was living on the island. This meant that after the impromptu day at Mambo Beach, I got to see her awesome cottage in a completely different town and met more exchange students there!

travel without a plan, Curacaoan cottage 1

the exchange students’ Curacaoan cottage! So lovely

travel without a plan, Curacaoan cottage 2

The layout of the Curacaoan cottage was nice

travel without a plan, Curacaoan cottage 3

hammocks and…a KMART pool! XD haha I call those like that =P

That same night, I went out with all of them after eating some home-made Curacaoan fish and veggies. We danced the night away (live Latin band, YAY!) and sobered up by eating Curacaoan fast food afterward.

travel without a plan, Curacao clubbing

me with Dutch girl Sandra (center) and Latina-Dutch Yara (right) at the nightclub

My 3rd day was a day trip with Yara and David to Blue Bay with another Curacaoan friend of theirs. This was a beautiful resort and we had a blast, despite the cloudy weather!

travel without a plan, Blue Bay Resort, Curacao

part of the grounds of the Blue Bay Resort, Curacao. It was gorgeous!

travel without a plan, Blue Bay beach, Curacao

entrance of the main beach at Blue Bay resort

travel without a plan, Blue Bay, Curacao

Blue Bay beach view

What about my fourth day? On a tour, hopping some of the best beaches of Curacao and even a grotto all day! Oh, and did I mention it included an amazing lunch (I ate iguana in Curacao!) and free beer all day long?! Booked last-minute (the night before) and got a sweet 60% discount. Bargaining, of course. Ahh, gotta thank Egypt for the practice! 😀

travel without a plan, Porto Mari beach

Porto Mari beach

travel without a plan, eating iguana in Curacao

IGUANA I ATE!

travel without a plan, Boka Kalki

Boka Kalki

Finally, Mr Mitch (@Mackinnontweets) arrived from his house build in Argentina and we spent the last leg of my trip together. Sharing travel stories while watching the ocean, eating amazing food at the more upscale restaurants in town, and even gambling at the local casinos was the perfect ending to my trip.

travel without a plan, Curacao harbor

watching ships leave harbor with Mitch before dinner

walking to our restaurant (it was on a high floor)

travel without a plan, Curacao restaurant

gorgeous view with dinner!

a little gamblin’ after dinner (Photo: Mitchell Mackinnon)

Oh wait! I almost forgot to tell you: the hitchhiking was the pinnacle of this trip!

We took the local bus to Cas Abou beach on our last day in Curacao. You see, we were told we would only have to walk a couple of meters from the bus stop to the beach…wrong! It was more like a couple of kilometers… Soooooo after about 10 mins of walking and no coast in sight, I encouraged Mitch to hitchhike. He agreed, and we flagged the next vehicle: a mom and daughter from the Netherlands, who spoke perfect English and were quite chatty and amusing. Just fabulous!

Curacao hitchhiking

300 meters? Not so much!

Cas Abou beach, Curacao

Cas Abou beach (Photo: Mitchell MacKinnon)

Travel without a plan: The Conclusion

One of my best trips to date, for sure! I proved my hypothesis wrong: I didn’t really miss anything, except for the diving. Which, in all honesty, iw as planning to do on a different trip anyway. So for not having a set plan (not even a hotel!), I paid close to nothing for a room, good several free meals, saved on exchange fees, and met some amazing people on the way! The best part? Living like a Curacaoan and seeing how they go about their daily life. I only took public transportation (except for 2-3 occasions) and stayed in a residential neighborhood. Just treat after treat! Traveling like a local surely is better than just being a tourist

Punda, the center of Curacao, at night

Cas Abou beach again

Artwork in Punda, Curacao

Curacaoan rum — oh yes

Do you have a great Travel without a Plan tale? Share it below!

Best beaches of Curacao, a photo essay (part 2!)

Beach Thursday this week translates to The Best Beaches of Curacao! In the past couple of posts, you’ve learned (and seen) some of Curacao‘s exotic offerings: Eating iguana for lunch, fake beaches and nice resorts. Finally though, it is down to the best of the best. While I will be talking about gorgeous Punda center in a future post, we are beach hopping today!

Best beaches of Curacao: On the way…

Curacao beach hopping tour

beach hopping road trips are the best

Before I talk about the best of the best beaches of Curacao, I must at least mention others we found on the way. As you already know, I visited all these beaches during a Beach Hopping tour offered by Irie Tours. They were absolutely fantastic the whole way, the driver was great, and we even got free Venezuelan beer during the entire trip. Awesome double-whammy for a budget traveler like myself 😀 so! That being said, beaches we visited were Santa Cruz, Porti Mari, Kenepa Chiki, and another one I can’t quite remember the name of (Lola, please help me out!). I have included gorgeous photos below. Albeit the cloudy weather, views were great!

unknown Curacao beach

Beach I can’t remember the name of – help me out Mrs Lola!

best beaches of Curacao, unknown Curacao beach

me at the “unknown” Curacao beach – found out it’s named Westpunt!

best beaches of Curacao, Playa Santa Cruz

loved these signs to identify most beaches in Curacao

Kenepa Chiki

too bad the weather was cloudy–I’m sure these beaches are even more spectacular than my photos show!

Fortunately though, Mother Nature graced us with a bit of sunshine sprinkled throughout the day — enough to allow us to enjoy two beaches in their full gorgeous selves! 😀 Maybe, then, I am a bit bias when I describe the following as the beast beaches of Curacao IMHO. But how can you blame me after seeing these?!

Playa Kalki

best beaches of Curacao, Playa Kalki

Playa Kalki – one of the best beaches of Curacao? I think so!

Playa Kalki was the very first beach we visited during our beach hopping tour. We arrived while it was raining, but later on the clouds revealed a hot sun — and many iguanas! I took the time to snap some great photos and tell my boyfriend at home how much I missed him (story to follow soon! That’s some news I haven’t shared with you yet…).

best beaches of Curacao, Playa Kalki

look at that water!

Messages to habibi back in America…

wish you were here, Playa Kalki

I love jou!

Kalki beach, Curacao

=)

After Playa Kalki, we drove by the beaches I previously mentioned and spend a couple of minutes walking on the sand and snapping photos. We only really got to enjoy sun bathing and relaxation at about 3 beaches, as that’s what our time allowed. Still, we covered a lot in 6 hours!

Kenepa Grandi

Playa Kenepa Grandi

my favorite!

Kenepa Grandi arguably tops the list of the best beaches of Curacao by many accounts — and was definitely my favorite! The gorgeous views afforded from the cliff/terrace overlooking the Caribbean Sea in the horizon and beach below are simply breathtaking.

best beaches of Curacao, Kenepa Grandi

what a view!

best beaches of Curacao, Kenepa Grande

uff!

Playa Kenip Grande

our tour group was nothing but ladies!

That’s it for this week’s Beach Thursday! In the coming month I will unveil the last spot in my list of the Best Beaches of Curacao. The chosen one? Cas Abou beach!

Are these the best beaches of Curacao to you or not? Comment below?

Beaches of Curacao, a photo essay of my break adventures

While eating iguana was a feast indeed, hopping the beautiful beaches of Curacao was my favorite thing to do in the Dutch Caribbean. Thus, this week’s Beach Thursday feature are the magical waters of this south Caribbean island!

The Tourist Trap…

beaches of Curacao, Mambo beach sign

Unfortunately, the first beach I went to was a tourist trap called Mambo Beach. Not only is it a man-made beach, but I felt I was overcharged for everything. Moreover, I didn’t think the vibe was any special to deserve such pricing. but hey, some people are into these type of beaches, so if you are willing to fork out some money to pay for beach entrance & additional fee to sit on a chair at an artificial beach full of tourists and not real Curacaoans, be my guest 😉

beaches of Curacao, Mambo Beach

beaches of Curacao, Mambo beach

Wherever there’s water and sand though, I always find some fun. Typically in the form of posing for pictures (I wanted to be a model in a previous life, apparently)…

beaches of Curacao, Mambo modeling

beaches of Curacao, Mambo beach

beaches of Curacao, Mambo beach modeling

Bottom line: As a budget traveler, it would be counterproductive to pay for the relatively-long bus ride here to then have to pay for everything — on an artificial beach. Sorry, but I can’t stress that enough, I felt cheated… 😛

The “Passable” Resort

Blue Bay, Curacao

The second beach I visited in Curacao was Blue Bay. It is located inside a gorgeous, massive resort and the drive to the beach itself was great. Some of the houses were beautiful and seeing the mountains reminded me of home!

beaches of Curacao, Blue Bay

This trip, of course, was possible thanks to a Curacaoan young man that some Dutch-Latinos I met in Punda knew. He picked us up and took us to Blue Bay. His words are still clear in my head: “If my business keeps doing well, I am buying a house here. It is one of the most beautiful resorts in Curacao. Plus, I like to live the good life!” Funny, charming young man 🙂

Curacao beaches, Blue Bay

me with our young Curacaoan entrepreneur!

beaches of Curacao, Blue Bay view

chillaxing on a cloudy day is still done better at the beach!

Unfortunately, the weather was cloudy for most of my stay in Curacao. In turn, my photos don’t do justice to the beautiful waters! Still though, we had a great time at Blue Bay and was one of my favorite places to hang out, especially with the locals (and many visiting Latinos). Hearing Spanish frequently made me feel at home once more 🙂

smiling in Curacao

being at a beach always makes me smile

Long enough of a photo essay for today! Stay tuned though, as I will continue this Beaches of Curacao mini series next Beach Thursday. Some of the best beaches are yet to be featured, so come back next week for more eye candy! 😉

Curacao beach

Can you name this beach!? Come back for the full scope and more photos next Thursday!

Have you ever been to any of the beaches of Curacao?

Travel without plan: Curacao and Bonaire, here I come!

Heya peeps! It is T minus 2 days for Curacao and Bonaire, aka the Dutch Caribbean, and all that’s on my mind is travel without plan! Huh!? Well, I sent some Couchsurfing requests and only one has been answered which was to say that unfortunately he won’t be able to host me because he is moving this very weekend (of course, such is my luck). The CSer did tell me that we would def. flip the island over though…and I just 😀 !! Sooooo uhhhhh another travel without plan trip – wooohooo!?!??!?!

I got no accommodation set. Like, at all. And I don’t know why I’m so friggin’ excited about this. I’ll just arrive, meet up with the CSer in Bonaire and be like “so where do you think I could stay for a reasonable price?” and BAM. For Curacao I will then have 3 additional days for someone to “pop up” on Couchsurfing but if nothing happens, then travel without plan again!

Travel without plan: Dutch Caribbean

Curacao: The Dutch Caribbean!

I do have some ideas on what I’ll do in Curacao, though. Lola Di Marco was kind enough to tweet me some pics & locations I def. have to checkout while I’m there. For Bonaire though I don’t have a clue…and while I’m being tempted to look some stuff up, I think I just want to fully wing it again (ahhh, reminds me of my impromptu Israel hitchhiking/Couchsurfing trip in 2009!) and just wait until I get there and have the Dutch Couchsurfer simply show me what’s uuuup 😀 ahhhh the joys of travel without plan…always so exciting!

So! To get you (and me!) excited for my upcoming trip, I decided to share some of the photos and locales Lola tweeted me and advised I should not miss when I visit Curacao. Oh by the way, over there I’m meeting up with Mr Rupert (long story on his nickname lol) so it’ll be a tweet up of sorts 😀 he’s coming from a Habitat for Humanity house build in Argentina and I hope he is ok with the whole travel without plan deal! 😉 😛

travel without plan, Cas Abao

"Cas Abao, #Curacao named one of the top 10 beaches of 2011!" -@LolaDiMarco

travel without plan, Curacao

"Hike to the blue room to snorkel #Curacao" - @LolaDiMarco

travel without plan, Dutch Caribbean

"Crossing the pontoon bridge in #curacao" -@LolaDiMarco

travel without plan - Santa Cruz, Curacao

"Beautiful boka Santa Cruz #curacao" -@LolaDiMarco

travel without plan, cliff jumping

"Cliff jumping at Playa Forti #curacao" -@LolaDiMarco


And Bonaire? Will wait and be totally surprised 😉 😀 So that’s it for my travel without plan post! I’m off to Miami by train tomorrow, right after a nice Thanksgiving brunch with the roomie, and then it is Latin flavor night with my cousins and off to the Dutch Caribbean Friday morning. Can.NOT.wait! Oi btw,

Feliz Día de Acción de Gracias! 😉