We returned this week from a stay and absolutely loved the hotel. We are divers, so chose curacao for this reason. We are fairly picky travelers - I consider myself an amateur "chef" and am pretty critical of meals. We have been to bonaire, cayman islands, cozumel, key west, belize.

The hotel was gorgeous, the web site does not do it justice. There is a large beach, and I agree with previous reviews that the "west end" was nicer. The hotel has 2 "U" shaped wings and the one on the right of the property near the dive shop was much quieter and the beach more secluded. The service here was excellent - we have been to Bonaire and the service was non-exsistent. We stayed in room 321 which was beautiful, I thought the oceanview was fine from all rooms, though probably better on a higher floor. We requested a fridge which they brought within a 1/2 hour. Housekeeping was fine and the rooms were very nice, comfy beds.

The diving was okay at the house reef- somewhat choppy some days. We only did shore diving and absolutely loved Cas Abao and Porto Marie. Playa Kalki and Playa Lagun were supposedly the best dive sites on the island, but the visibility was not great and we thought Cas Abao was much better. The diving was comparable to bonaire, though bonaire probably had more sites.

For food we liked Avalon and Craving Sushi the best. More locals would eat there and no 12% service charge! The martinis at avalon are worth the trip - and cheap! We thought Fort Nasau was okay- definitely higher prices - you pay for the view. We tried Astrolab twice, was closed and did not care to have a dress code on vacation! We ate at Janipur - an indonesian/thai restuarant in the same compound which was very good. Did not care for Blues, though had read good reviews about it. At the Marriott we ate at the Italian buffet at portofinos on monday which was very good. Avoid the caribean night at the marriott on friday - the food was very bad. The service at all restaurants was very reasonable, I expected it to be horrible, again compared to bonaire.

The things we didn't like at the marriott was that they charge you for wireless internet - isn't that why it is wireless?? The 12% service charge was ridiculous. I can see for the food and room, but I bought a new mask and T-shirts at the dive shop and had a 12% service charge added too. It is true what a previous post said that Curacao nickle and dimes you to death - charge for admission to the beach, chairs, showers, and all "tourist" restaurants add the 12%.

I think Curacao overall will need to decide in the future if they are comitted to being a tourist destination or an oil refinery! I don't think many tourists care for all the dirty smoke stacks, but it is their livlihood. I think the smell a lot of people mentioned, is not actually from the refinieries, but from their cars which have no emissions. There is not much to do above land, but we knew that and had planned to spend most of our time diving. The curacao distllery is not worth the trip - it was basically one room with nothing to see. The shopping in Punda was minimal, but there were 2 gift shops at the airport which I thought were much nicer! Another great thing about the Marriott was that they would give you printed directions everywhere, driving there is challenging because there are no signs, but "turning left at the flamingo pond" was kind of fun.

The Marriott is a beautiful resort, with a great pool and beach.
The staff are plentiful, firendly, knowledgable and they all speak English.
The on-premises resturaunts have excellent food and service, but surprisingly high prices, such as $ 17 for a shrimp cocktail, $ 10 for a burger and fires. You can walk a couple of blocks and get the same thing for half the price. One "must visit" resturaunt is Le Bistro, located in the old Dutch fort ($10 each way for a cab)
Everbody takes US Dollars, so no need to exchange currencies.
News junkies will be disappointed to find there are no english language newspapers available anywhere, but all of the major US networks are available via satellite broadcasts from New York
If you plan on swimming/snorkeling off the beach, bring a pair of beach shoes/sand walkers- there are lots of rocks and broken coral
in the shallow water.
Smokers note that there are no us tobacco brands available, so either bring enough for your stay, or plan on smoking cubans.

This was our third trip to the Marriott and we do love the property but with only one pool it was crawling with babies. So you move to the beach to find move kids screaming. We went on vacation in April to avoid college spring break but never dreamed we would face this problem. It wouldn't be so bad if the parents didn't feel their kids can do whatever they please with no regard to others, in other words, can't control them. One family had two boys that continually whipped a ball around hitting everyone in the process. Never stopped! We had beach front and loved the room. Very limited with food choices on the property and extremely slow. From past visits we loved the Portofino restaurant but we really did not like it at all this visit. Expensive with very few meals offered and only one special offered a night that the waiter had no idea what was in it. Doubt we will be going back this property..

This was our second stay at the Curacao Marriot and we can't wait to go back. We have stayed in many resorts on many different islands and this is the only one that we have revisited. When you find paradise you can stop looking! The resort is beautiful, the staff is wonderful and the beach is incredible. My favorite thing is that you can smorkel right off the beach. You don't need to go on a snorkeling trip, just walk out onto the beach, put on your snorkel and fins and step into the most beautiful blue water that is loaded with beautiful and exciting coral and tropical fish. We love the Curacao Marriot. I know you will too!!!