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Tropical Retreats

Curaçao adds dynamic new hotels, resorts and facilities.

By Jane Ammeson

Curaçao’s tourism community has been busy constructing new resorts, completing renovations to old favorites and creating additional facilities. Each place has its own distinctive offerings for vacation fun.

The Renaissance Curaçao Resort & Casino — connected to the historic Riffort, a 19th-century landmark — is one of several. A dynamic new addition to Willemstad, the Renaissance is the first new full-service resort on Curaçao in 15 years. Featuring a casino, spa, fitness center, infinity pool and its Eternity Beach, the lavish 327-room property provides upscale shopping, 15 restaurants and six theaters.

The new 350-room Hyatt Regency Curaçao Resort, Spa and Marina, with endless water views and white-sand beaches, is the only resort on Curaçao offering 18 holes of championship golf on a course designed by legendary golf architect Pete Dye. It is part of Santa Barbara Plantation, a luxurious 1,500-acre master-planned community lounging on the Spanish Waters, 25 minutes from Willemstad. Special features include four restaurants, the 120-slip Seru Bocca Marina and a 4,500-square-foot spa.

The Academy Hotel Curaçao, set in the heart of Willemstad, combines the training of local hospitality students with the ultimate in guest services for those who stay there. From the see-through kitchen, exciting new menu items add a vibrant twist to traditional island fare. The 42 rooms are decorated in a warm, tropical style and come equipped with high-definition flat-screen televisions.

Avila Hotel, which celebrated its 60th anniversary recently, has opened its new Santai Spa and Wellness Club. Here guests can enjoy expansive views of the Caribbean Sea and stupendous sunsets from an elevated waterfall whirlpool. They can be pampered with holistic energy-balancing massages, deep-cleansing facials, and wraps and mud packs that use local and imported ingredients such as aloe vera, cactus extracts and exotic fruits. The wellness club offers personalized beach-side yoga classes and a kinetic multi-muscle training session on the TechnoGym kinesis wall.

Hotel Kurá Hulanda Spa & Casino, an 80-room boutique resort, occupies lovingly restored 18th- and 19th-century Dutch colonial buildings, connected by a series of stone courtyards with brilliant bougainvilleas, graceful palms, multiple pools and award-winning restaurants. The hotel includes a new spa and fitness center, as well as an art gallery and shops. For those who seek a remote hideaway, Lodge Kurá Hulanda sits atop a bluff overlooking the sea from the west end of the island.

With a unique location on 23 acres that include two private beaches, Hilton Curaçao upgraded its restaurant offerings with the newly reopened Beach Bar & Grill. Other projects include new carpeting in the spacious guest rooms, half of which view the sea. For parents who need a little time to themselves, there is the Hilton Caribbean Kidz Club.

A new addition to the beautiful Curaçao Marriott Beach Resort & Emerald Casino is Executive Chef Amit Sood, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in New York and an expert in Caribbean and Latin American cuisines. His signature dish is lobster-filled cannelloni with a sweet-and-sour sauce. Each of the 247 Marriott rooms has its own balcony or terrace. A free-form swimming pool overlooks the sea. The Marriott also offers a 5,000-square-foot casino, plus spa services, boutique shopping, PADI dive center, watersports, romantic sunset boat trips and a high-energy fitness center.

The environmentally friendly, Dutch-Caribbean-style Lions Dive & Beach Resort connects to Sea Aquarium Beach, which stretches for miles and features lively Mambo Beach, a site of music, restaurants and shops. Recently Lions Dive added 24 apartments, four suites and one penthouse, as well as a Mediterranean restaurant, 50-meter swimming pool and kids’ pool. Its Body Beach Wellness Club is one of the better private fitness facilities on the island.

The National Curaçao Underwater Park begins at Breezes Curaçao, a major all-inclusive resort east of Willemstad, and stretches 12 miles to East Point, the island’s southeasterly tip. The resort has snorkeling equipment and offers dive lessons and tours to offshore reefs, making exploring these waters as easy as stepping off the beach. Dolphin Suites Curaçao offers a unique service: 24-hour care ranging from nursing to babysitting. The Morena Resort, built in compliance with strict rules of The Green Key, an ecological certification, is near Jan Thiel Beach. Its Mazzai Spa offers myriad wellness treatments, including hot stone and herbal massage.