Curacao: Private Island Tour with Snorkeling, Flamingos & Blue Liqueur

4.88

(131 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

We rolled out of the hotel before I’d even finished my coffee—our guide, Jairo, was already waiting in this sun-faded van that smelled faintly like sunscreen and sea salt. He grinned and asked what we wanted to see most. I blurted “flamingos!” before anyone else could answer. So off we went, windows down, warm wind whipping in. I remember passing pastel houses where kids waved at us, and Jairo honked back like he knew every single one of them.

The first stop was this shallow lagoon near Willibrordus—I didn’t expect the flamingos to be so pink up close. There were maybe a dozen wading around, heads dipping into the water. The air tasted briny and sharp. Jairo told us they turn pink from eating shrimp; I pretended I hadn’t just learned that from a documentary last week. After that, we hit Playa Piskado for snorkeling—mask on, face in the water, suddenly there’s a turtle gliding by like it’s no big deal. My heart did this weird little skip.

I think my favorite part was when we pulled up at an old plantation house for Blue Curacao tasting. The place was all faded tiles and creaky shutters; inside it was cool and smelled like orange peels (the bitter kind). Jairo poured us tiny glasses—he laughed when I tried to say “proost” with a Dutch accent (I definitely butchered it). We ended up talking about music instead of history for a while, which felt right somehow.

We could’ve gone to see the blowholes or stopped at Piggy Beach (yes, there are actual pigs), but honestly by mid-afternoon we just wanted to float in the turquoise water at Cas Abao beach and let the sun do its thing. On the drive back I watched palm trees flicker past and thought about how easy it is to forget what day it is here—you know?