u/Human-Departure-9717

So this was our first time in Curacao! I myself have traveled to various parts of Europe and the Carribean. Italy, Germany, France, Greece, Switzerland, as well as Aruba, Cuba, Panama, the US and Jamaica. My wife has been to all of the same, plus Mexico, Finland, Estonia, Israel, Palestine, Spain, and a few others.

We did approximately 5 days in a nice AirBNB north of Wilemstad.

The Good:

Food: We ended up eating out a lot, contrary to our initial plan of cooking most of our meals (explained below). Every place we went to ranged from good to phenomenal. A wonderful Mexican place downtown captured our palettes, and so did one of the Caffes in downtown Wilemstad. Fresh fish, arepas, and plenty of others. Never got sick, and the quality was extremely high.

Weather: As with the rest of the ABC islands, the weather was gorgeous. Definitely a bit more wind than Aruba, but nothing intolerable. The sun also didn't seem to be as harsh and unforgiving. Overall, we found the weather tk be near perfect.

The Bad:

People: Let me preface this by saying I completely understand Curacao is not as tourism inclined compared to the other placed we've been to. But my goodness, the rudeness and coldness is INSANE. I like to think we are kind. Please, thank you, offer a warm smile, tip nicely, try to strike up a conversation. We also learned some basic papiamentu and Spanish to communicate even a little bit. Nothing. We were mean mugged a LOT. People are just super cold and rude here. Like you're an inconvenience to them. Aruba is leaps and bounds better than Curacao. I understand Aruba speaks more English and is more tourism oriented but MAN. Just an insane coldness and rudeness. We did meet a few people who were quite nice, but we were stared down multiple times by young men in cars who would pass by and try to make you uncomfortable....in the tourist areas. They seemed to do it to other people as well.

The Island: It's definitely more....rugged... than Aruba and Panama. Its very inconsistent. The roads aren't great quality, and you'll have some luxury buildings or new buildings next to some old run down ones. The island in general just feels very haphazard. Some like this, some don't.

Safety: Man this one was a big one. We were aware of places to avoid, but even walking in the tourist area of Willemstad at 10:00pm, down a well lit street with shops, we were stalked by what was very obviously a potential mugger who only backed off when we made it to the end of the street. Again, well lit street, with other people nearby, in the tourist area of Wilemstad. Safe to say we did not feel safe whatsoever after that. Combine that with the mean stares and the DISGUSTING amount of catcalling, this sealed the deal for us on not coming back. We never experienced this in Aruba or Panama. I can't imagine feeling unsafe in Oranjestad, or in the tourist parts of Aruba at any time of day.

Grocery: As mentioned, we prefer cooking! Hence why we got an AirBNB. The food quality at the grocery stores was...subpar to say the least. We tried Centrum Supermarket as well as tbe Mangusa Hypermarket on recommendation fron our hosts as well as online. Bread that went stale EXTREMELY quickly, poor produce, and meat and poultry packages that leak. In general, the stores felt very unsanitary and we ended up abandoning our plans to cook at home. Again, obviously comparing to our past experiences in Aruba, it just missed the mark a lot.

The Neutral:

The beaches: We were only here for 5 full days, and we did spend day one at the pool and around our AirBNB. It was nice. The second day, we tried Grote Knip and just found it wasn't the greatest spot. Beautiful, for sure, but it seemed small and crowded and just very chaotic. Mambo beach was obviously jammed and extremely expensive for renting anything. We did find out about Cas Abao, which is ehere we stuck to for the rest of the trip as by that point we were exhausted of trying beaches and not having good experiences. Cas Abao really saved our trip, just a wonderful overall spot. Gorgeous, great snack bar, wonderful size, water was CRYSTAL clear. Had a rock belt so water shoes were required, but wonderful nonetheless.

Overall, we won't be back. We don't mind adventure or exploring, but the quality and safety issues just really hampered our trip and it was exhausting overall to deal with. We were grateful for the good spots and the opportunity to visit somewhere new, but we'll stick to Europe for exploring and Aruba for relaxing.