The decision is made: I'm going back to Curacao. After a wonderful vacation in Curacao in September 2013, it is high time to go to the Caribbean sun again. In March 2015 I will go to Curacao for 2 weeks. After a few weeks surfing around among all the travel providers, I decided to put together a trip to Curacao myself. To start with, the possibilities in a row that I went down.
Options:
- Booking a package tour at Arke / TUI
- Booking a package tour at Corendon
- Booking a package tour at Kras
- Booking a los ticket at KLM
- Booking a separate ticket at Arke / TUI
Choice of accommodation
In the end, the choice fell on a accommodation near Mambo beach. I was looking for a place to stay near Mambo Beach or Jan Thiel.. I found the bungalows of the Bon Bini Seaside resort on the Arke website. The possibility to cook independently and the good reviews convinced me that this was the right accommodation. It is nice that there is a swimming pool on the complex and that there is the possibility to park your rental car next to the bungalow.
Unfortunately, booking through Arke turned out to be a bit trickier than expected. In our desired period there was limited supply and I decided to look for other providers of accommodation. Unfortunately, it was also no longer bookable through Kras. As a last option, I decided to send an email to the corporate website of the Bon Bini Seaside resort. This mail was quickly followed up and within a few hours I had a competitive offer to rent the last available bungalow. The basis was thus established. Now we had to look for transport!
Flying ticket Curacao via Arke or KLM?
As some may know, there is currently a fierce battle between Arke and KLM for the favor of the traveler to Curacao. Years ago you usually paid €800 to €1000 for a one way ticket, currently tickets can be found from roughly €450 (search carefully!). Because the media offer and the catering of KLM is of a high level, my preference went to a flight with KLM. A quick search... on the desired date there was a flight available for €579 per person. A nice price, but still a check with Arke. It turned out that Arke had a Ticketsale so a ticket to Curacao on this date was only €500. That seems like a deal! Quickly ask for Monday's leave and book it!
World deal weeks not a world deal?
Option on accommodation: check! Cheap flight found: check! Leave request approved: check! On Monday I wanted to get to work and book the ticket to Curacao. On this particular Monday, I received an e-mail from KLM that the world deal weeks were coming up. And what does that mean? A lot of discounts to all destinations of KLM. I asked myself whether it was smart to book the ticket of Arke or to wait until the start of the world deals on Wednesday. Finally, a nice option of Arke caught my eye: Free cancellation within 5 working days. This made the choice easy for me: book the ticket with Arke and when there is a super deal on Wednesday, just cancel and wait for the world deals to start. KLM booking.
So said, so done, on Wednesday check with KLM what world deal is on the menu. Flying ticket Curacao on the selected date, original price: €579, world deal price €609! What a joke! During the world deal weeks, the ticket to Curacao was €30 more expensive than the days before. I was embarrassed at the thought of canceling Arke and ventured another irritated tweet to the otherwise always so helpful webcare team of KLM. When I read the tweets with the hashtag #werelddealweken I was definitely not the only one who noticed this. Don't dwell on it, confirm the accommodation and continue with the last part of the preparation.
Rent a car at Hato airport
Accommodation and flight are in the pocket, now the means of transportation on Curacao. Curacao is an island that is ideally suited to explore by car. Public transport is inadequate, cabs are limited and the road surface is too bad to rent a scooter. It's all possible, of course... but the easiest way is to have a car. Since we don't have a transfer to Bon Bini Seaside resort I started looking for a rental car from Hato.
I am allergic to the desks and people of the big rental companies so looked for a smaller rental company that delivers cars to the airport. The first rental company, specializing in Jeeps, unfortunately had no more availability. The second party, rentacarcuracao.com, seemed reliable and still had availability. The all-in principle appealed to me and after a quick quote I booked the car here. After arriving on Curaçao I immediately have to call someone who will deliver the car at the exit of Hato. I'm curious how it will go, I'll share my experiences with you during or after my vacation!
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