The Caribbean’s best-kept secret is ready to be noticed

Hemingway’s on Curaçao’s bustling Mambo Beach comes alive after dark, when patrons kick off their shoes and DJs spin beats late into the night. Among them on this night are island officials and guests at a banquet table, and for them, the island is putting on a show.

Under the cover of night, a submarine glides into the beach’s man-made lagoon. Then, seemingly rising out of the Caribbean Sea, a performer in a white suit emerges against the dark sky and begins belting out Lionel Richie’s 1983 hit All Night Long.

It’s almost symbolic of what is happening on the island. Curaçao itself is seeking to emerge as the destination of choice among the Dutch Caribbean ABC islands off the coast of Venezuela. To date, Aruba’s high-end resorts and Bonaire’s world-class scuba sites have tended to attract the bulk of the yachts and cruisers venturing into the region. But Curaçao, the largest and most populous of the trio, has a plan for getting on the map.

“We were always the sleeping giant, but now we’re waking up,” says Michel Angelo Harms, manager of cruise and yachting at the Curaçao Tourist Board. From the manicured beach clubs in the south to the natural flamingo sanctuaries and rugged national parks in the north, the island may be the Caribbean’s best-kept secret.

Founded in 1634, Willemstad, Curaçao’s capital, sometimes feels lost to time. Sint Anna Bay divides Willemstad into two historic neighbourhoods. The better known of the two, Punda (“the Point”), along the channel’s eastern edge, showcases the world-famous Handelskade, a waterfront row of meticulously preserved 18th-century multicoloured Dutch colonial buildings.

Willemstad’s historic inner city and harbour were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. Located south of the Atlantic hurricane belt and within the jurisdiction of the Netherlands, Curaçao and its mega piers have since found purchase as a popular port of call for cruise ships.

More than 600,000 tourists alight each year, spending an average of five hours and $90 on shore, usually at the restaurants, distilleries and shops of Rif Fort, a 19th-century stronghold in Willemstad’s UNESCO World Heritage–listed historic centre, repurposed by Marriott International’s Renaissance Hotels. Most cruise visitors never venture beyond Rif ’s limestone and iron sally port.

But now the southern Caribbean island is rolling out the red carpet to attract a new type of vessel: superyachts. The cruise industry is a steady, multimillion-dollar boon for a slice of the hyperlocal economy, but luxury yacht owners, whose vessels are permitted to dock in Curaçao for six months at a time, could disperse much more revenue across the 440-square-kilometre country. The impromptu dinner performance attended by the island’s VIPs signals that Curaçao is ready for the world stage, no longer content to fly under the radar as the least visited of the ABCs.

The government is mounting an ambitious agenda to streamline immigration, add dockage for superyachts and develop the island’s luxury hospitality sector and culinary scene. Multinational companies are already taking notice. In 2020, U-Boat Worx chose Curaçao as a warm-weather test bed for its sub pilot training, sea trials, media production, tourism operations and live demonstrations.

“Due to Curaçao’s unique underwater topography, deep water can be reached just metres from shore, allowing for highly efficient submarine operations,” says Roy Heijdra, the company’s marketing manager. “Direct flights from Miami also provide easy access for our international clientele, while the island’s well-developed harbour facilities offer ample docking capacity for even the largest superyachts.”

The island’s sense of history appeals to superyacht owners seeking privacy, culture and adventure, says Clifford Neuman, founder and chief executive of the Curaçao Yacht Agency, a concierge and support service for superyachts.

Though discerning, the owners visiting Curaçao tend to be more relaxed than those headed for other Caribbean islands. Instead of opting for St Barths’ or Mustique’s social scene, “they like to spend time on their boats and know a bit about their surroundings,” he says.

Willemstad is a typical starting point. Otrobanda (“the other side”), established southwest of the bay across from Punda in 1707, is known for its whimsical street murals and boutiques. Here, even the restaurants are playful. Lionfish Caribbean aims to remove the invasive species from the local ecosystem by featuring them on its menu, from lionfish ceviche to lionfish and chips. Its mission? “If you can’t beat them, eat them.”

From the beach clubs in the south to the natural flamingo sanctuaries and rugged national parks in the north, the island may be the Caribbean’s best-kept secret

The city’s cultural gems include the Kurá Hulanda museum, which outlines the island’s role in the western hemisphere’s slave trade; the Curaçao Maritime Museum, exhibiting centuries of local nautical history; and Mikvé IsraelEmanuel, the oldest continuously operating synagogue in the Americas.

The Queen Emma Bridge, built in 1888 to connect Punda and Otrobanda, remains the city’s lifeblood, as well as the world’s only permanently operating floating wooden pontoon bridge. Beneath it, Sint Anna Bay serves as the main entrance to Schottegat, one of the Caribbean’s largest natural deep-water harbours. The channel can accommodate about a dozen superyachts between 64 and 100 metres. Recently spotted there were 91-metre Voyager and 88-metre Zen.

Curaçao – population about 158,000 – is surrounded by sand, sun and sea, creating an aquatic utopia. Dive to the ocean floor in a submarine, paddleboard through mangroves at the Spanish Water Lagoon, scuba dive into the otherworldly Blue Room Cave on the west coast or try to spot a seahorse while snorkelling around Curaçao National Marine Park’s Tugboat Wreck near the upscale Jan Thiel beach neighbourhood.

Superyachts can anchor overnight at the island’s best-kept gem, Klein Curaçao, a pristine, white-sand beach about 16 kilometres southeast of the main island. This uninhabited islet, accessible only by boat, draws tourists to its placid, warm waters for snorkelling, diving and après swim cocktails and bonfires. Charter taxis depart around 3pm, which gives yachts an advantage, as the island will be theirs until morning. 

This ambitious new chapter in Curaçao’s chronicles calls for high-profile hotel debuts, such as the Tui Blue eco-resort scheduled to open early this autumn and The Pyrmont Curaçao, its first Marriott all-inclusive and Autograph Collection hotel. Baoase Luxury Resort is the island’s gold standard, a Balinese-style escape 10 minutes from Willemstad. Art Hotel opened last year as the island’s only adults-only boutique hotel and one of the island’s only fine dining concepts, The Lemon Tree.

The anticipated arrival of the superyacht brigade sets off a chain of additional steps the island must take to court a clientele who expects a consistent culture of hospitality for which Curaçao’s tourism industry may not yet be prepared. To address staffing shortages, Parasasa Hotel Curaçao has opened a training hotel in Willemstad’s Piscadera neighbourhood, providing students with hands-on experience in daily operations.

Meanwhile, the culinary scene – a fusion of South American, Japanese, Dutch, South Indian, and Caribbean fare – is thriving, with new restaurants opening at a frenzied pace. In Pietermaai, the “SoHo of Curaçao”, stop at Mr. Porter Street Café for an aperitif before your reservation at Kome, which serves Curaçaoan cuisine with a twist.

A pair of developments underway - at Zakitó Bay and Santa Martha Bay - will expand Curaçao’s capacity to host yachts longer than 45 metres to 35 berths

Due to its strategic position as a technical stop between Mediterranean repositioning routes and Panama Canal transits, Curaçao has one of the southern Caribbean’s most mature ecosystems for maintenance, refit and logistics, as well as food supplies and provisioning. The supply chain is robust enough to fly in Wagyu beef, caviar or truffles for superyacht clients upon request, according to Neuman.

But if the government plans to bolster its appeal to the superyacht set, it has to clear key hurdles. Without the help of a local proxy such as Neuman’s Curaçao Yacht Agency, navigating the bureaucratic red tape required to enter Curaçao could entail a daylong affair with multiple trips across the island.

The government sought to alleviate the problem in 2024 by opening a substation at Seru Boca that combines customs and immigration services into one building. “There were past inefficiencies in the clearance process, involving multiple steps from immigration to customs,” Harms says. “The new streamlined process has reduced the time required for clearance to half a day.”

Of course, once superyachts clear customs, they’ll need a place to dock. Local boatyards can accommodate up to 280 vessels at any given time and service hundreds annually, according to Harms, but only 14 berths can serve yachts longer than 30 metres. These berths are spread among three marinas on the southeast coast – Seru Boca, Santa Barbara Marina and Curaçao Yacht Club – and The View Marina near Willemstad’s city centre.

However, a pair of developments underway – at Zakitó Bay and Santa Martha Bay – will expand Curaçao’s capacity to host yachts longer than 45 metres to 35 berths. Serene and secluded, Santa Martha Bay on the island’s northwest coast has typically hosted smaller vessels for day trips. Meanwhile, Zakitó Bay, just west of Willemstad, is intended as a mixed-use marina with restaurants, condos and hotels.

“I think they’re going to be a major player in starting the next phase of yacht tourism in Curaçao,” says Jean-Jacques Sperwer, manager at Seru Boca Marina, in one of the island’s largest harbours. “Yachters have tended to stay up north around St. Maarten, but in recent years, we’ve been a stop for boats crossing toward the Panama Canal, and people are gradually discovering Curaçao and what we have to offer.”

Curaçao is no longer content to watch from the wings while Aruba, Bonaire and other Caribbean islands further up the chain take centre stage. The submarine has surfaced, the music is playing and the island is getting ready for the spotlight.

First published in the July 2026 issue of BOAT International. Get this magazine sent straight to your door, or subscribe and never miss an issue.