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Dive Review of Habitat Curacao in
Curaçao

Habitat Curacao, Dec, 2006,

by Steven Kovacs, Florida, U.S.A. ( 2 reports). Report 3119.

No photos available at this time

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Accommodations 4 stars Food 3 stars
Service and Attitude 4 stars Environmental Sensitivity N/A
Dive Operation 1 stars Shore Diving 3 stars
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ N/A
Beginners 4 stars
Advanced 1 stars
Comments The Habitat hotel is nice. Beautiful pool and grounds. Large rooms with air conditioning , stove, fridge, plates and utensils. It's tough to load up with food though unless you want to waste several hours in town since the resort is so far away, but it is worth a visit. Had no hot water in my room all week. No screens on the door and one of the windows that had open shutters so the bugs were able to come right in and have a feast.
The on site restaurant is very adequate. Not outstanding but quite acceptable. Service was also very good. Internet access available for a fee which was nice.

The reefs are quite healthy and impressive by Carribean standards. Don't expect to see anything big. Lots of small and medium small stuff. Even the eagle ray and 2 small turtles I saw were juveniles.


The dive shop on the premises is another story altogether. The only reason I chose Habitat Curacao was because of the unlimited, unrestricted diving allowed. They live up to their promise, thank goodness, otherwise it would have been a tough vacation to swallow. The divemasters are pretty much useless. Didn't see a single thing pointed out all week. I asked three different divemasters about possible dive sites where specific critters might be found and all I got was a blank stare. They have no clue to the names or locations of most marine life. Their goal seems to be to get in the water, swim around a bit and bring you back to the boat after one hour if you choose to follow them.
I nicknamed the divemasters nazis because they would freak out if you touched or went near dead rubble or sand. Not touching live coral everyone understands, and I'm very careful not to disturb anything, but sand and dead coral? Simply pathetic.
One of the divemasters even lied to me for no reason. The winds are constantly blowing from the southwest so that it's never really calm on the surface for any extended period of time. This means the viz the first 30 feet can be very poor on the house reef. Even deeper will be diminished. When I asked if it ever calms down this longtime divemaster said he had never seen it so windy before and that it's usually calm! Everyone else laughed at this. The winds are constantly blowing year round so, due to the location of Habitat, don't expect incredible viz on the house reef. It is diminished compared to the boat dive sites where it can commonly reach 100 feet.
The good news is I saved a lot of money by not tipping this pathetic bunch.
Unless you want to do unrestricted, unsupervised diving at any hour in front of the resort I would strongly recommend using someone else. There are way too many good operations around to waste your money on this second rate bunch.

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience 501-1000 dives
Where else diving Florida, British Columbia, Galapagos, Indonesia, Belize, Solomon Islands, Bahamas, Cozumel, Honduras
Closest Airport Getting There

Dive Conditions

Weather windy Seas choppy
Water Temp 80-81°F / 27-27°C Wetsuit Thickness 3
Water Visibility 40-100 Ft/ 12-30 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile yes
Enforced diving restrictions 1 hour on boat dives
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? N/A

What I Saw

Sharks None Mantas None
Dolphins None Whale Sharks None
Turtles 1 or 2 Whales None
Corals 3 stars Tropical Fish 3 stars
Small Critters 3 stars Large Fish 1 stars
Large Pelagics 1 stars

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subject Matter 2 stars Boat Facilities 5 stars
Overall rating for UWP's 3 stars Shore Facilities 5 stars
UW Photo Comments rinse buckets available for cameras.
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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

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