Note: Bryan Horne is the Managing Director, Founder and Creator of Dive Curaçao/Dive Travel Curaçao, retired PADI Master Instructor, Commercial Boat Captain (plus a whole bunch of other cool qualifications!!), as well as a Curaçao resident (and good ol’ Canadian!!) since Dec 2006.
This guy knows Diving in Curaçao, so this will be good stuff!!
Photo by Frank Do
The Complete Guide to Dive Curaçao
By Bryan Horne, Founder of Dive Curaçao
Curaçao, a Dutch Caribbean Island, is best known for its colorful colonial waterfront in Willemstad but too few know about the rainbow of vibrant coral and marine life under its waters. The fact is, Curaçao is a world class diving destination and home to some of the best dive sites and thriving coral reefs in the Caribbean.
From the southeastern tip known as “Oostpunt” to the northwestern tip known as “Westpunt”, the underwater world is completely different and unique.
Top 5 Eastern Diving Sites in Curaçao:
This area is truly an unspoiled and largely still unexplored sanctuary inside of Curaçao’s only National Marine Park. This preserve has amazing sheer walls covered with extensive healthy coral and sponge colonies while the shallow plateaus are overrun by magnificent examples of Elkhorn, Staghorn and Pillar coral communities.
This exceptional dive site is located at the very eastern tip of Curaçao’s National Marine Park. This MUST DIVE is only accessible by boat and largely one of the most pristine and unblemished fringing reef systems on Curaçao, if not the entire Caribbean.
If you could imagine a picturesque deserted Caribbean Island surrounded by warm aquamarine waters, then welcome to Klein Curaçao. Located approximately 6.5 miles off the eastern tip of Curaçao, this is a very special trip for divers and for snorkelers alike. The locals say that the underwater habitats of Klein Curaçao is where everything is bigger and there is more of it with almost the guarantee of turtle sightings, ocean triggerfish and large groupers. This is a true Caribbean dive location which is pristine and unspoiled.
These immaculate dive locations with large dense corals overhangs lead to sharp drop offs, and this coupled with great visibility provide you with a 360-degree experience that will leave you wanting more upon surfacing! Sharks and stingrays are often seen here too.
Located in just 5 meters (15ft) of water, this famous tugboat was wrecked just a few yards offshore in a protected bay of Caracasbaai. This site is perfect for divers as well as snorkelers. Easy to access and easy to find a plethora of critters such as seahorses, octopus, lobsters, napping scorpion fish and the odd nudibranch if you can find it!! The tugboat is overgrown with tube sponges and coral and is home to a variety of colorful reef fish too. The resident Majestic blue Parrot Fish and Yellow Tail Snappers guard this site.
Now with over 40 years of growth, the MV Superior Producer is an amazing artificial reef site home to numerous colonies and different species of corals, sponges, gorgonians and sea whips. Because of this, it is a natural attraction for schools of predatory fish such as Tarpons, Barracudas, Snappers and Jacks. This wreck dive is an advanced shore or boat dive.
Top 5 Western Diving Sites of Curaçao
This is a bucolic haven for boat and shore diving, offering near perfect conditions year-round because of the natural shielding from the easterly trade winds offered by the mountain range running through the middle of the Christoffel National Park.
Alice in Wonderland at Playa Kalki in Westpunt is rated as the number one shore dive in Curacao that literally creates a feeling that you are getting smaller and smaller as the hard coral formations rise to over 60 feet/18m in height. Keep an eye out for the resident Turtles, Eagle Rays, and large schools of Boga’s!
Deriving its name from the Dutch word “Watermöllen” (Water Mill), Watamula offers the diver an intense and sometimes overwhelming coral spectacle at this number one boat diving site. In addition to the mind-blowing coral formations, the intensity of the macro life combined with Ocean Trigger fish, Schools of Chubbs and Porcupine Fish will leave you surfacing wanting to don another tank for more!!
One of the most famous dive sites in Curaçao. Over time, hard coral formations have grown in such a way that they resemble mushrooms, hence the name. Don’t miss it! You will love it!
Located next to Mushroom Forest, the Blue Room is easily explored by snorkeling through a narrow opening that reveal a large air-filled chamber lit up by the sun reflecting off the white sandy plateau in front of the opening which creates a brilliant glow of ambient light in vivid blue! This is the perfect place for off gassing between dives or just enjoying one of the many snorkel trips offered!
Appropriately named, this spectacular site is rarely visited by boat. It is a drift dive and offered only on calm days, which are rare at this point of land. If you are an intermediate or advanced diver craving sites offering more than the average wall dive, you should consider trying to include this site in your itinerary.
Are you ready to Dive Curaçao?
Visit Dive Curaçao because there is a depth to our Dutch Caribbean Island that you really should immerse yourself in!
For more great info on these and other Curaçao Dive sites, check out this amazing interactive map: Curaçao Interactive Dive Site Map
Learn more, visit Dive Curaçao today! https://www.divecuracao.info
Curaçao 4 Canadians 
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