11 things to do in Curacao on a Budget

This June, Kofi and I had the opporutnity to travel to Curacao for a much needed vacation and we had a great time! When planning our trip, we challenged ourselves to create an itinerary that would allow us to have fun and experience the culture without spending a bunch of money. How did we do it? Lots of googling. Renting a car for $25 a day for 6 days and visiting points of interests we found on google and various articles allowed us to be our own tour guides. The roads of Curacao are fairly easy to navigate and google maps was helpful although the map information was not always up to date (thank God Kofi is good with directions). All the meals we ate costed us between $12-$20 per plate (most times closer to $12 when we ate at local restaurants in Willemstad). Visiting and walking across the Queen Emma Bridge was something we did everyday as our hotel, the Curacao Suites, was a five minute walk from it. Excursions such as Hato cave and the Ostrich farm were under $20 per person and beaches were either a few dollars or free. See our list of 11 things to do in Curacao on a budget below:

1. Stay in Willemstad and visit the Queen Emma Bridge
2. Tour the Ostrich Farm and feed ostriches
3. Taste the local food. Willemstad has lots of local food spots filled with delicious meals
(Kofi eating a goat burger with sweet potato fries)
4. Eat lunch at the old market
5. Then stop at the batido cart and taste the best smoothie you've ever had in your life! My favorites were soursop and mango
6. Visit Hato cave. You may just find some bats staring at you while you learn about the history of the island
7. Tour the distillery and try the famous Curacao liquor
8. Go flamingo watching
9. Visit the beaches. We visited Mambo beach, playa kinepa grandi and playa cas abao
10. Visit the floating market
11. View the street art
(this man said he painted the wall)
I fell in love with Curacao as soon as I saw the beautiful colors of the buildings in Willemstad. Curacao is a vibrant island and I think the way they paint their buildings speaks to that. My next favorite thing about Curacao was the food. Growing up in a Caribbean household, the food definitely catered to my taste buds. I thoroughly enjoyed every meal, snack, and beverage. My favorite dishes were the beef stew and peanut stew (made with chicken and sweet potatoes). I could easily tell that every meal was made with love. The beaches gave me so much joy and peace. Curacao beaches can be rocky but contain some of the clearest water I have ever seen. The island is also known to have great scuba diving and snorkeling.Thank you to the kind and beautiful people of Curacao for our vacation enjoyable. This may have been our first visit to the island but it definitely won't be our last!