Klein Curaçao

One of the things we discovered during our week in Curaçao is that you generally don't need to ride a boat to find fantastic snorkeling in Curaçao. THe island is blessed with numerous great snorkeling sports that can be reached from the shore. However, one snorkeling spot that we read rave reviews about that does require a boat ride is Klein Curaçao.

Klein Curaçao is described as "a small uninhabited, tropical bounty island with a pristine white beach, crystal clear blue sea, a spectacular reef and colorful sea life" that is "around 1.7 square kilometers in size" and "is located approximately 15 miles from Curacao" and is "a must visit when you're staying on Curacao." That same page states, "You'll find on Klein Curacao one of the most beautiful beaches in the world."

THe word klein is Dutch and means "small" or "little," so the name Klein Curaçao can be thought of as "Little Curaçao."

We signed up for a catamaran trip to Klein Curaçao with Blue Finn Charters via Viator-offered "Full Day Catamaran Trip to Klein Curacao with Lunch."

There is no question Klein Curaçao is a gorgeous beach with its white sand and clear water with shades of blue and green.

At first, we thought it was more of a pretty beach than a good snorkeling spot, but then we realized we needed to snorkel away from the main beach area which has a sandy floor and on which people were wading and reducing water visibility.

On end of the island where there are large rocks on the beach and no people, the water visibility is far better and the ocean floor is far more interesting (from a snorkeling perspective) with rocks and coral instead of sand.

An orange arrow in the photograph below shows the highlight of that photograph.

This excursion included an on-board "barbecue buffet lunch" and it was far better than I had anticipated. The ticket had advertised this for lunch and it provided an accurate description:

Three salads (homemade pasta pesto salad, kidney bean salad, couscous salad), three kinds of meat from the grill (ribs, chicken, steak), bread and homemade peanut sauce. (subject to change if not in stock)

Even with the catamaran being close to capacity, there was plenty of food and they dumped some of that leftover food in the water and it only took seconds for many different fish representing many different species to come for that food.

We wanted to see what the other side of this small island looked like before heading back to Curaçao. It was not the beautiful white sand beach and calm water of the popular side, but was beautiful in its own way.

Unfortunately, this other side also seemed to be where trash ended up.

One of the things that surprised me about this small island is how many lizards are on it and run around on the beach. We saw many of them by the main sign on the beach the lines left in the sand by their tails showed how they like to go to where the sand starts to be wet and then back to the vegetation.

In the mid-afternoon, we started back for main Curaçao and had a little bit of stormy weather on the way back, but it was nice again by the time we reached Jan Thiel.

In addition to the nice lunch, the staff was very attentive in bringing drinks and snacks around to people and there was music playing that included American and British music. Because most of the tourists were Dutch, we could tell when a popular Dutch song was played because we typically did not recognize it and many of our fellow passengers would breakout in song with it. However, the song that seemed to get the most people involved and singing was the Village People's Y.M.C.A.

The meeting point for this excursion was Zanzibar Beach & Restaurant. This departure point is located in Jan Thiel Beach area and so we got a taste of this well-known tourist spot. I can see why it appeals to some, but we liked the quieter beaches better.

We were very pleased with BlueFinn's Full Day Catamaran Trip to Klein Curacao with Lunch. It was another fun and satisfying day in Curaçao!