holiday season is here some of you might be planning a vacation to a warm caribbean island
and my personal favorite caribbean island is curacao
today in this video i want to share six things you must know before traveling to curacao but
before we get started if you are new here hi i'm juhi i'm a new yorker hailing from south korea i
share my experience of traveling and living in new york city on this channel now let's get started
first let's get the covid stuff out of the way as of today u.s is considered a high-risk
country fortunately curacao is still accepting u.s travelers under these conditions first you have to
have a negative test result before your flight you are required to have a negative test result
48 hours before your flight if you are taking a pcr test and 24 hours if you are taking
an antigen test so i took the antigen test a day before the flight my result came in
within 15 minutes i received a proof of the document on paper and digitally once you have
the negative result on your hand you can go online and fill out the online passenger locator card aka
plc and upload your test result on the day of flight you should show up with both documents
the plc and the negative covid test result the plc needs to be completed before your flight
you will be required to book the third day test on this form i did my test in
a marriott hotel and they had an on-site test in their parking lot hello we're here for the
third day testing i received the results within two hours on my email and you might ask if you
can be exempt from the kovi test if you are fully vaccinated in the us the answer is no
i think there is some exemption if you are fully vaccinated in the netherlands or certain eu
countries for the final covid test to re-enter the u.s we found a local clinic made a reservation and
got the test results from them within two hours the day before our flight as far as covid safety
protocols in curacao you are required to wear a mask indoors you need to wear a mask here if you
forgot your mask you can buy masks at a cashier now let's move on to the fun part the actual traveling
the first question is where should you stay in curacao resorts boutique hotels in downtown airbnb
i think there are two major things to consider when deciding where to stay in curacao first
question is do you want to have a free access to a beach and all the beach amenities such as
umbrellas and chairs and shower so curacao has many great beaches and you need to pay for most
beaches to enter and to use chairs restrooms and showers they are not expensive on average
you'll spend about 10 dollars per person as far as bringing your own beverage and food to the beach
some beaches in the downtown area have stricter rules than the beaches in the northern part of the
island that being said it is very convenient and hassle free to stay in a hotel or any
accommodation that provides free access to a beach and beach amenities we stay half of our trip in a
marriott hotel since the beach was exclusively for the guests it never got too crowded
and i really enjoyed the convenience of never leaving the hotel to get to the beach
not all hotels on the shore has accessible beaches some hotels do have a view of the
ocean but that doesn't mean you can jump into the water i'll talk more about this in my next video
when i dive into the best beaches of curacao pun intended and secondly do you plan to cook if you
are staying in the northern part of curacao which has the best beaches but not many stores around
you probably need to cook sometimes but if you are staying in the middle to the southern part
of the island especially in williamstead which is the bustling capital of curacao
you'll find many places to eat the food in this area is not expensive so having a kitchenette
might not be necessary again i'll talk more about the neighborhoods of curacao in my next video
number three flights curacao is becoming a very popular caribbean destination especially for new
yorkers good news is now there is a direct flight from new york to curacao by jetblue
i highly recommend getting this direct jetblue flight it's not more expensive than other flights
it takes four hours to get to this caribbean island number four getting around in curacao
should you rent a car in curacao the answer is most likely yes curacao has so many great
beaches and people go to curacao for beach hopping so you definitely want to drive around
to do beach hopping i don't think there's an uber in curacao and you can't just hail a
cab on the street in curacao and renting a car is fairly cheap just book your car in advance
and pick it up at the airport number five currency the currency used in curacao is antillean gilder
ang the full name is netherlands antillean gilder and it's also written as naf or just f so they use
one currency with slightly different names in most places in curacao you can pay with us dollars as
far as exchange rate goes one gilder is equivalent to 56 cents note that the price you see on the
menu includes the tax and service fees should you leave a tip it is not expected as it is in the us
but it would be nice to leave some tip like 10 percent especially if you like the service
exchanging dollars to guilders is definitely unnecessary but don't forget to bring some cash
because some places for example a gas station only takes cash last but not least number six language
curacao is a multi-racial and multi-cultural country their official language is called
papiamento which is portuguese and spanish-based creole language it's also an official language
for aruba another dutch caribbean island and of course dutch is their official language as well
and english and spanish are widely used so you won't have problems with communicating in english
during your travel so this is the essential information that you need to know before
going to curacao as i said in my next video i'll break down the best beaches and neighborhoods of
curacao if you enjoyed this video make sure to subscribe and hit that notification bell
so you don't miss out on a new video coming next week thanks for watching i'll see you next week