A Day Trip to Klein Curaçao with Miss Ann Boat Tours.

As we planned our trip to Curaçao last year we discovered the delightful idea of an excursion to the nearby island of Klein Curaçao.  While we were concerned about taking six month old Baby Meena on a day long boat trip, we decided to go for it anyway.  And I’m so glad that we did – we all had a great time!

Klein Curaçao, or Little Curaçao, is nearly seven miles from the southern coast of Curaçao.  It’s a small island, just over half a square mile in size, and it’s never had a permanent population aside from a few goats in years past.  The strip of land is home to a lighthouse, a few beach houses for the boat companies that take tourists there, shipwrecks, and some fishing huts.  Over the years it’s been used as a quarantine area for African slaves that were being transported to Curaçao, leaving several graves, and it was also home to a phosphate mining operation which caused harm to the island and local seabird population.

Despite the somewhat sad history, I was excited to visit such a small, isolated piece of land in the ocean.  Plus, I love lighthouses and wanted to see a real shipwreck (and it had to be aboveground, since we couldn’t go diving with Baby Meena).  An expedition to Klein Curaçao, a small extension of the Curaçao I’d fallen in love with from afar, seemed like a rare experience that would be something to remember forever.  And it was.

Day four of our 10 day trip to Curaçao was dedicated to visiting Klein Curaçao.  We booked an all-inclusive trip with Miss Ann Boat Tours a few weeks in advance and received quick responses from them about our booking and traveling with a baby.  In this post I’m going to talk about our day trip and why we absolutely recommend it if you have the opportunity.

For clarity, this is not a sponsored post; we paid in full for our trip with Miss Ann Boat Tours and are not receiving anything for promoting them – I’m sharing it because we genuinely enjoyed our trip.

 

Visiting Klein Curaçao with Miss Ann Boat Tours.

 

 

Our day trip started at 6:10am when we were picked up by shuttle in Willemstad.  It was an extra $10 per person to take the shuttle over to the boat location.  We didn’t have a rental car yet and we didn’t want to risk getting lost trying to find our way over so we were happy to be picked up.  The shuttle driver made several stops after picking us up and we ended up seeing some nice sunrise views of the island.

We unloaded and checked in at their office, which is when we realized that everyone else seemed to have booked their trip in the city and prepaid.  We had booked online and hadn’t paid yet, and there was a five percent fee for paying with a credit card.  Miss Ann Boat Tours had actually told us this in advance, but then we had some cash flow issues on the island – our hotel expected us to pay in cash but didn’t make it clear beforehand and our bank kept blocking us from withdrawing more money on the island – so we no longer had enough cash left to pay in full.  The cost for our trip was $105 per adult, $20 for the pickup (our rental car options were $30/day so we were happy with this), and $11 for the credit card fee, so in total we paid $241 for our all-inclusive boat tour.

We took this tour in November 2018; at the time of writing I have checked the Miss Ann Boat Tours site and it looks like the price per person has increased slightly to $109.

As we checked in they gave us our tickets plus plastic cups to use throughout the day and take home.  They even gave us a little cup for Baby Meena.  I always remember our boat trip and smile when I see the cups in our cabinet.

We took a small boat across the water to board their yacht, called The Serendipity.  Everyone was asked to remove their shoes – something about the floor on the yacht – and going shoeless definitely makes you feel like you’re headed for an island adventure.  We were the last people to board and didn’t have much choice for seating.  We ended up sitting on a bench on the interior of the bottom level, which was fine since we didn’t want Baby Meena anywhere near the edge, and we could still see side views and the rear view if we turned around.  We brought Baby Meena’s travel car seat for his safety and our convenience – we didn’t want to hold him the entire way and we knew he was more likely to sleep in his car seat.  (For the record, I’m not advocating letting your baby sleep in a car seat – we only do it for short times and if we’re able to supervise him very closely and make sure his head stays in the proper position.)

 

 

He slept for most of the hour and a half long boat ride and we covered his seat with a breathable muslin blanket to protect him from the wind (but checked in on him plenty).

It was about 8am when we started off on our journey.  The staff began serving tea, coffee, and crackers before giving instructions in Dutch.  Nearly everyone on the boat was from The Netherlands.  They then came over to us and a few Germans and repeated the instructions for the boat ride and departure onto Klein Curaçao in English.  The beginning of the trip was fun as we got to see the southern end of Curaçao from the water.

 

 

We had to remain seated for the entire ride and the trip across the ocean was more intense than I anticipated.  I didn’t mind the rocking motion, and it definitely helped Baby Meena sleep, but some passengers had to ask for paper bags; you may want to bring medicine if you are prone to motion sickness.  The yacht occasionally rocked to the point where some of the staff had trouble staying upright while doing their work.

As we neared Klein Curaçao we received a second set of instructions about how the staff has to unload all their supplies from the boat before taking any passengers to the island.  Once they were done we were on the first ride out since we were on the back of the boat.  I was a bit startled to realize we had to get on an inflatable dingy to get from the yacht to the island.  I suppose I thought there would be a dock or something.  The staff was incredibly kind, as were our fellow passengers, in helping us get safely from the yacht onto the dingy.  The staff even took the car seat for me.  Mr. Meena was carrying Baby Meena as we all sat on the outer edges of the dingy and I was suddenly terrified that he could fall over backwards into the water, but the other passengers were holding on to both of us and making sure we weren’t going anywhere during the short ride.  There was also an elderly woman who needed a lot of help, but she was determined and made it on and off the dingy without too much issue.

I have to admit, if I had known about the dingy beforehand I might not have agreed to go.  But it was a very short part of the trip and everyone was careful.  (In fact, we recently tried to book another boat trip with Baby Meena, who is now one year old, and were turned down because they didn’t have life jackets in his size and weren’t allowed to have passengers that were under 20 pounds.)  Of course, I imagine that most of the people that will read this post will not be trying to travel to Klein Curaçao with a six month old, but know that it’s been done successfully.

Around three hours into our day trip, at 9:30am, we stepped off the dingy into knee high water and walked onto the beach – we had arrived at last to such beauty!

 

 

We had the pick of chairs since we were first on the island and were able to choose ones underneath a canopy with lots of shade.  We watched everyone unload from the boat and then the staff cooked up breakfast.  There were lots of options, I was surprised to see such a full spread for breakfast.  I had two delicious chicken salad sandwiches on croissants, one of my all-time favorite meals, and some orange juice.

The meal area has several tables underneath a covered open air structure.  Around the corner there is a bathroom with normal toilets but no flushing option so you must carry a bucket of water in with you and use it to manually flush the toilet.  You will need to be careful when you walk around these areas as there are crabs everywhere!  They scuttle around and get excited if there’s food.

 

 

Once we were done with breakfast it was time to explore the island.  It was very hot and sunny, so we took shifts exploring so that Baby Meena could stay in the shade.  I was so excited to go see the lighthouse and shipwreck that I was practically buzzing.

There’s a path behind the chairs that leads to the lighthouse.  You’ll want to stay on the path because the land is pretty rough and uneven.

 

 

This is the second lighthouse on the island, it was built further inland after the first lighthouse was destroyed by a hurricane in 1877.  Though Curaçao is outside of the hurricane belt, storms do make their way through this region sometimes.  This lighthouse stands 66 feet tall and now has a solar powered LED light.  In previous years, courageous lighthouse keepers manned the lighthouse.  They lived on the island without running water, electricity, or much company at all.  Though it has deteriorated, the lighthouse is still necessary as strong winds and ocean currents make it difficult for ships to go around Klein Curaçao – they need all the help they can get.

I became a huge lighthouse fan when we visited the Outer Banks of North Carolina and was really looking forward to seeing this one.

 

 

I loved the pinkish red colors on the perfectly rustic buildings to either side.  It is probably an Instagrammer’s dream – everyone was hogging the stairs to take photos.  I finally got a chance to scramble up them during a break in the photoshoot traffic to get to the interior stairs – yes, you can climb up the lighthouse!  I had to take a deep breath because the opening was so narrow that it felt a bit claustrophobic.  It was really too small for average people to pass on the stairs, you had to do that at the landings.  But I persevered and made it to the top!

 

 

I also visited the crumbling buildings on either side and then did a circle around the lighthouse before continuing on the path to go see the shipwreck.  The land became rockier as I continued to cross the island.  It takes less than ten minutes to walk from one coast to another.  Of course, this is across the short part of the island, but I would estimate that you could do an entire perimeter walk in an hour or so.

The shipwreck was impressive.  Around half of an oil tanker, the Maria Bianca Guidesman, remains after nearly six decades of withstanding harsh ocean conditions.  The ship still sits so upright that it almost seems like an artistic structure placed along the coast rather than a ship that saw disaster.

 

 

The waves were furious on this side of the island – so different from the calm water only half a mile away.  The crashed against the ship and burst upwards, spraying water everywhere.

 

 

These waves were similar to those at the Boka Pistol in Curaçao’s Shete Boka National Park.  The surging water hit several tourists and even my camera when I thought I was a safe distance away.  On the ground, there were tiny valleys in the rocks where water flowed back and forth with the tide, and little pools that filled and emptied over and over again.  The entire scene was mesmerizing.

 

 

I could hardly tear myself away from it.  If you look closely around the site you can find some of the cannons and other debris from the ship along the coast.  The path continued and there were other, smaller shipwrecks along the coast, but I reluctantly skipped them as I was sharing the time on the island with Mr. Meena.  It had taken me close to an hour to explore; when I returned I got settled on the chairs with Baby Meena.

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Calahan’s favorite part of yesterday was watching his blanket blow wildly in the wind and trying to catch it. 😂

A post shared by Ava Meena (@mymeenalife) on Nov 26, 2018 at 12:07pm PST

 

Mr. Meena took less time to tour the island; he was more interested in swimming.  He was back in half an hour and ready to jump into the water for a swim.

 

 

Lunch was served at 1pm and it was a hearty, filling meal – exactly what you need to fuel a day of exploring on Klein Curaçao.  I had a plate full of barbeque, corn, salad, potatoes, and bread rolls.  I remember thinking it was really good food, especially considering that they had to transport everything and then prepare it on like island.  They didn’t skimp, that’s for sure.

After lunch it was my turn to go for a swim in the beautiful blue water.  This was our first time swimming in the Caribbean.

At 2:30pm there was an option to go on a snorkel safari tour.  The tour was included, but Mr. Meena paid $3 for a snorkel rental.  We couldn’t both go, of course, so I stayed behind with Baby Meena and tried to contain my jealousy.

 

 

Mr. Meena came back around an hour later absolutely beaming about the sea turtles and other wildlife that he saw on the tour.  He did mention that it was a little crowded and some of the other people swam up to the turtles and ended up chasing them away.  I expect that’s an issue with most tours, no matter how many times the staff instructs people not to do so.

I was able to go for another brief dip as the staff began loading equipment onto the yacht.  Around 4pm it was time for them to start taking the passengers and we took another, slightly less scary, ride on the dingy back to the yacht and got settled in our seat on the protected interior of the boat.

Once we were on the water we realized that our chosen spot was right next to the counter where the staff would be serving rum punch.  The staff members were very happy to be heading back after a successful day and announced that it was happy hour on the Serendipity.  We got our plastic cups out right away so that they could be filled with absolutely delicious rum punch.  Since we were right next to the cooler, we ended up getting more refills than the rest of boat – the staff kept grinning and refilling our cups when they emptied.  The punch was so good!  Getting to thoroughly enjoy the punch is another reason to take advantage of the shuttle ride home.

The staff gave a little speech about how happy they were to serve us that day and that they hoped we had enjoyed ourselves and would return.  They seemed very proud of their work and their vessel.  We were really impressed with how kind and helpful they were at every point of the trip.

We unloaded from the boat on time at 6pm and got on our shuttle.  We enjoyed some nice conversation with a few Dutch people as the bus made its stops.  Finally it was our turn and the bus driver insisted on taking us right to our hotel, even though he didn’t know where it was.  That morning he had picked us up at a designated spot, but he didn’t want us to have to walk with Baby Meena and insisted on going out of his way.  Mr. Meena gave him directions to the Willemstad Resort and I was very impressed that he was able to maneuver the bus so easily among the small, narrow streets.  He dropped us off just a few feet from the entrance to our hotel.

It was a little after seven when we got back, so we put Baby Meena to bed, made dinner, and relaxed as we reflecting on our fantastic day trip to Klein Curaçao with Miss Ann Boat Trips.

 

 

There are other companies that will take you to the island; each has their own section of the beach with chairs, bathrooms, and other facilities.  Several different boats make the journey, one company uses a catamaran, but I expect that the luxurious yacht owned by Miss Ann probably made the best time to the island.  When Mr. Meena when on his snorkel tour he got a better look at the other boats and beach accommodations and felt like they weren’t as nice.  It looked like some passengers had to swim ashore from their boats.  Of course we didn’t have the chance or desire to go interview them – we were superbly happy with our own arrangements.

There were other services offered by Miss Ann during the trip for an additional cost, such as massages, diving trips, and beer and wine on the island.  They also offer other types of trips and boat rentals.  You can see info about their Klein Curaçao trip here. Have you ever been on an island adventure like this?  Are you planning one?  Please share in the comments!

---

A Day Trip to Klein #Curaçao with Miss Ann Boat Tours. Click To Tweet

 

This post is linked up with Faraway Files.