CuraçaoKòrsou

The Caquetío people lived here when the Spanish arrived in 1499; like the Arubans, most were soon deported to Hispaniola. The Dutch West India Company captured the island in 1634 for its deep natural harbour and salt, and built Fort Amsterdam at the mouth of Sint Anna Bay.

For most of the next two centuries Curaçao was a trading hub, including one of the main slave-trade depots in the Caribbean: enslaved Africans were held here before being sold on to Spanish colonies. Plantations were small and dry, so the island's wealth came from trade and shipping rather than sugar.

In August 1795 an enslaved man called Tula led a revolt from the Knip plantation that spread across the west of the island before it was crushed; Tula was executed. He is now a national hero, and 17 August is remembered as Tula Day. Slavery was abolished in 1863.

In 1918 Shell opened a refinery on the harbour to process Venezuelan crude, and Willemstad became an industrial city drawing workers from across the region. After decades as the capital of the Netherlands Antilles, Curaçao became a constituent country of the Kingdom on 10 October 2010.

About 155,000 people live on Curaçao. The majority are Afro-Curaçaoan, with Dutch, Sephardic Jewish, Latin American, Lebanese, Chinese, Surinamese and other roots; the census counts dozens of nationalities.

Papiamentu grew here in the 1600s and 1700s among enslaved Africans, Portuguese-speaking Sephardic Jews, Spanish traders and Dutch officials. It is the language of home, radio, parliament and much of the press. Curaçao writes it phonetically (Papiamentu, with k and u), while Aruba uses a spelling closer to Spanish.

The Sephardic community arrived from Amsterdam and Brazil in the mid-1600s. Their Mikvé Israel-Emanuel synagogue, consecrated in 1732 with a sand-covered floor, is the oldest in continuous use in the Americas.

Local food, called krioyo, is built around stews (stoba) of goat, beef or chicken, cornmeal (funchi and tutu), fish and soups thick with okra or beans. Keshi yena — a cheese rind stuffed with spiced chicken — is shared with Aruba and Bonaire.

The old market hall Plasa Bieu is the classic place to eat it: long tables, several cooks each with their own counter, and huge plates at lunch. After dark, 'truck di pan' snack trucks sell bami, saté and fried chicken, showing the Indonesian and Surinamese threads in island food.

Blue Curaçao began with the laraha, a bitter orange descended from Valencia oranges that failed in the dry soil. Its dried peel is the base of the liqueur still distilled at Landhuis Chobolobo.

Curaçao is a long, dry island of limestone terraces, volcanic hills and cactus scrub, with about 550 mm of rain a year. Christoffelberg (372 m) in the west is the highest point, inside a national park that includes old plantation land and dry forest with deer, orchids and endemic plants.

The south coast is lined with a fringing reef that drops off close to shore, which is why the island is known for shore diving: you park by a beach, walk in and reach the reef wall within minutes. The north coast faces the trade wind and swell, carved into blowholes at Shete Boka.

Green and hawksbill turtles feed along the coast and nest on a few beaches. Flamingos gather in salt pans such as Sint Willibrordus. Reef health is monitored by CARMABI, the island's research station.

The Historic Area of Willemstad, Inner City and Harbour, was listed by UNESCO in 1997. It covers four districts: Punda, the walled first town; Otrobanda ('the other side') across the bay; Pietermaai, a merchant quarter now full of restaurants; and Scharloo, with 19th-century mansions built by Jewish merchants.

The pastel Handelskade façades on the Punda waterfront are the island's postcard. A popular story claims an early governor ordered buildings painted in colours because white walls gave him headaches; whatever the truth, colour became the rule.

The Queen Emma pontoon bridge, first opened in 1888, swings aside to let ships into the harbour; when it does, a free ferry carries pedestrians across. The higher Queen Juliana Bridge takes car traffic over the bay.

Tourism, the port, financial services and ship repair carry the economy since the refinery went idle in 2019 (check plans to restart it). Visitors come mostly from the Netherlands and North America, with cruise ships adding day crowds in Willemstad.

Entry paperwork moved online with the free Digital Immigration Card, and in March 2025 the Netherlands Antillean guilder was replaced by the Caribbean guilder (XCG), shared with Sint Maarten (check exchange rules for old notes).

Venezuela lies 65 km south. Its crises have shaped Curaçao through migration, closed borders, the loss of the floating fruit market's boats and suspended flights, including airspace disruption after the US operation in Venezuela in January 2026. Check your airline and current advice before travel.