Happy New Year!
After our first winter in the Midwest, we learned that it’s good for everyone’s mental health (especially mine) to take a warm-weather break. Months ago Jon, our travel-planner-in-chief, found some great tickets to Curaçao. Admittedly, I had to look it up on a map — it’s a small island country off the coast of Venezuela that’s part of the Netherlands (so…no boat excursions!). We convinced Jon’s brother and his family to join us and it turned into a fabulous beach vacation full of cousins and perfect Caribbean water.
It’s a pretty interesting place with European, African and Caribbean traditions intertwined. Dutch is the official language but most people also speak the local language, Papiamentu, as well as English or Spanish.
Curaçao’s colorful capital, Willemstad, is a UNESCO World Heritage site known for it’s colorful Dutch-style buildings facing the water and a long, iconic footbridge. It’s also home to the oldest synagogue in the Americas with a sand-bottom floor (!). We went to Shabbat services and it was beautiful.
My Curaçao Travel Guide
A few of our favorite stops during our week on the island— we were 2 families traveling with 6 kids under 12!
Where to stay: We got a great Airbnb with a pool in Jan Theil and found it to be an easy location.
Where to Eat:
With 10 people and so many kids in our group we didn’t attempt (and couldn’t get reservations for) the nicer restaurants. But we did like these more casual spots:
Chill Bar & Grill at Mambo Beach. Casual picnic tables with your feet in the sand, perfect at sunset. I got a veggie burger.
Zest at Jan Theil Beach: We ate dinner at their cafe on the sand (they also have a nicer indoor area). I loved the grilled eggplant dish. Perfect sunset spot.
Brisa Do Mar: a beach-front restaurant, great for lunch or dinner. Slightly more interesting food than other casual eateries. Great fried plantains and ocean-front cocktails. Very slow service when we were there (I tried to remember we were on “island time”.) Bonus: you can swim while you wait!
Pasawa Box Eatery: a sort of outdoor food hall (food truck-style) that was fun and festive for a warm evening with a big group and no reservations.
Iguana Cafe: The food was nothing to write home about but the location was picturesque (overlooking the foot bridge on the water)— an easy meal with kids on a day walking around Willemstad.
Cultural Spots: Several places were closed the days we visited but next time we’d like to go to the Jewish Museum and the Museum Kura Hulanda.
Snorkeling: Tugboat Beach was our snorkeling spot. You can swim out to see a sunken boat and it was easy with the kids. There’s a fun beach shack with snorkel rentals, food, etc. It’s a rocky, narrow beach, but chair rentals are available.
Beaches: One day we drove out to the tip of the island and stopped at 3 beaches along the way:
Playa Grandi: Stop #1. We swam with turtles! (Locals fed them near the dock to keep them nearby for tourists, but still very cool to see.) We rented chairs here and just used goggles to see the turtles since they were so close to shore, snorkel gear not necessary.
Grote Knip: Stop # 2. A beautiful little cove where we also rented chairs and got mango smoothies. Fairly sandy beach.
Cas Abao: Stop #3. Note that this beach closes at 6pm, and you have to pay for parking. But they had a beach shack with drinks and food and a beautiful sandy beach easy for kids to swim. Chair rentals are available, too.
Other Beaches:
Mambo Beach and Jan Theil Beach — these 2 similar spots seem catered to tourists with manicured swimming areas and a lot of restaurant choices. Less of a “local” feel, but certainly beautiful and easy with kids.
We also loved the beach in front of the Brisa Do Mar restaurant which felt less touristy. No chair rentals but a few covered tables available.
Sea turtles swam near the dock at Playa Grandi (thank you to my sister-in-law Arielle for this pic!!) 
Grote Knip 
Cas Abao 
I loved walking around the colorful alleys of Willemstad 
The island felt less tropical and more arid with very tall cacti, especially as we drove west. Beautiful! 
Christmas evening in Willemstad was festive with lots of lights and fireworks. 
Brisa Do Mar restaurant on the beach 
Zest Cafe at Jan Theil Beach 
Chill Bar & Grill at Mambo Beach Wishing everyone a very happy start to 2026! My special monthly recipe will come next week when the kids are back in school and I can properly start my new year :) — I look forward to sharing some of my favorite veg-forward recipes to kick off January!
xx
Erin
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