Shue was our tour guide and did a fantastic job of showing Curacao to us. We saw everything from Willemstad to the blowhole to the cliff divers on the west side. Shue took us to a fabulous seaside restaurant for lunch. He is passionate about Curacao and he shared that passion with all of us. It was a special day. Thanks, Shue!
Well, they did it again.
We have toured twice more with Around Curacao tours since my last review, and I am back again to make sure that everyone knows that these guys are still our favorite tour group in the Caribbean.
Shue (2025) was amazing. We were able to customize our tour as usual, but he suggested some additions that just blew us away. The Kura Hulanda museum was both amazing and eye-opening, teaching about the Atlantic Slave Trade and African history in the Caribbean. An absolute must-see for those who want to know the real history of the islands. We visited Kas di Pal'i Maishi (Kunuku House Museum) and got to see an authentic recreation of how slaves lived - including the most amazing fences and walls made out of cactus. We ate lunch at Play Forti, did a cliff jump, visited a local artisan store called 'Locale' that housed many different local artisans, which gave us a chance to purchase real mementos from our trip, while supporting locals. The street art was amazing, with many new additions since our last visit.
Ray (2026). This was not our first time spending the day with Ray, and it was even better than the last. By now, we have a pretty good idea of the things we love to do, and we've done them all. However, we also added a visit to the Maritime Museum, which we all found to be an outstanding way to spend an hour. We visited some local artisans, including Copperstone, the store owned by the artist of the 'Skadey' cat, the island's official cat. We visited the artisan store Locale again, and had lunch at Playa Forti, our favorite restaurant on the island. No cliff jumping this year, as we are sporting a few injuries, but we did get to watch quite a few people leap. We toured the amazing street art, with a huge addition of street art detailing the island's baseball players. We also took a little detour and saw a magnificent view from the island's best lookout point.
We never felt rushed. We always felt safe, and we never had to worry about making it back to the ship on time. Pick up is a short walk from the ship, 5-7 minutes, and drop off is right outside the ship gate.
We had great conversations with Shue and Ray, and they kept us laughing the whole day. They never run out of local knowledge to share, and we learned so many new things on both trips. Curacao is one of our favorite islands, and we feel like we know it so well now, having spent so much time with locals.
Do not hesitate to book with these guys, they are truly amazing - and although we won't be back for a few years, there is no doubt that we will book them again.