Curaçao is an island in the South Carribean, formerly part of the Netherlands Antilles and still part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Tanya and I flew to Curaçao from the neighboring Aruba. While we expected Curaçao to be different from Aruba, we were pleasantly surprised the moment we set our feet on the streets of Willemstad: genuinely Dutch architecture in the genuinely Carribean setting, Dutch and Papiamentu dominate English and Spanish in both street signs and speech, yet people are still friendly and the food still awesome.

We stayed at the Avila hotel, within about a 15-minute walk from the downtown Willemstad. The setting was quiet different from what we encountered in Aruba, yet every bit as good, if not better. There was no huge Aruba-style beach, but there were a couple reasonably-sized coves (apparently) owned by the hotel, providing for wonderful natural pools. The hotel itself was larger, more lively, and featured the interior that Tanya said was not too different from a modern Manhattan studio (it is possible that this interior design was specific to the building we stayed in). I highly recommend this hotel for both its location and its features.

Overall, Curaçao being a short 30-minute flight from Aruba, we were glad we visited both islands in this one trip. If you have a full week or more, and never been to either of the islands, I recommend splitting your time between them.