Trip Planning
The TakeYourBackpack guidebooks are your all-in-one travel companion, featuring the best cities, national parks, hikes, beaches, and unique sites, along with essential tips on when to go, how to get around, exchanging money, and even local phrases to get you started — everything you need for a smooth, unforgettable backpacking adventure.
Stop researching. Start exploring.Discover all 33 highlights,ranked
and organized into practical routes.
Get instant access
Planning a backpacking route through Curaçao can be tricky — you need to balance must-see places, travel times, budget, and how long to stay in each destination. Our free personalized Curaçao itinerary planner creates a route based on your travel style, trip duration, and interests, so you can spend less time researching and more time exploring.
Personal tip: I normally search on good rating for atmosphere (for meeting people) and location (for easy exploring). Cleanliness as a bonus.
Travel Essentials
No vaccinations are required to enter Curaçao, except a yellow fever certificate if you arrive from a country with yellow fever risk. Make sure your routine vaccines (MMR, tetanus-diphtheria) are up to date, and consider hepatitis A and typhoid if you plan to eat a lot of street food. There is no vaccine for dengue, chikungunya or Zika, all of which mosquitoes can carry, so repellent is your main protection.
vaccination requirementsWhen I first started traveling, I often spent part of my first day in a new country hunting for a local SIM card. While this can still be slightly cheaper, it also takes time and planning.
These days, it's much simpler to install an eSIM before leaving home. Once you arrive in Curaçao, you can activate it immediately and have mobile data from the moment you land — which is especially useful for ordering transport or navigating away from busy airports.
There are many providers nowadays, and price differences are usually small. I personally go with
Holafly, as it offers excellent network coverage throughout the country and strong global coverage, so you can manage multiple countries from a single app.
HolaFly eSimCulture & Customs
In Curaçao, save swimwear for the beach: walking around Willemstad’s shops, supermarkets or restaurants in a bikini or shirtless is considered disrespectful, and topless sunbathing is accepted only at a few resort beaches. Life runs on “island time,” so stay patient when service is slow, and keep your voice friendly rather than demanding. Don’t touch or feed sea turtles or step on coral when snorkeling, and ask before photographing people, especially at markets or in rural villages. Dress modestly when visiting churches or the Mikvé Israel-Emanuel Synagogue, and expect Sundays to be quiet, family-focused days. Women and LGBTQ+ travelers face no special rules, though discreet behavior is wise outside Willemstad and resort areas.
Trying traditional food is always a great way to experience the culture. Here are some must-try dishes for Curaçao.
- Keshi yena: a round of Edam or Gouda cheese stuffed with spiced chicken, raisins, olives and capers, then baked. It started as a way for enslaved cooks to use the rinds left over by Dutch households, and it is now the island’s signature dish.
- Kabritu stoba: slow-stewed goat with tomato, onion, peppers and a hint of lime. It is classic Sunday and celebration food, often eaten at roadside eateries and local lunch spots.
- Funchi: cornmeal cooked into a firm polenta-like block, served sliced or fried next to stews and soups. It is the everyday starch on almost every local plate.
- Sopi di yuana: iguana soup, said to taste like chicken and believed locally to boost strength. It is a true taste of old Curaçao, served mainly at a few traditional kitchens in the countryside.
- Pastechi: deep-fried pastries filled with cheese, ground beef, chicken or tuna. They are the go-to breakfast and snack, sold from bakeries and food trucks all over the island.
- Guiambo: a thick okra soup with salted meat, fish and shrimp, rooted in West African cooking. Locals love its slippery texture, and it is usually eaten with funchi.
- Bolo pretu: a dense, dark fruitcake soaked in rum and loaded with dried fruit. It appears at weddings, birthdays and Christmas.
Yes, tap water in Curaçao is safe to drink. It is desalinated seawater produced by the utility Aqualectra and meets high quality standards. Locals drink it straight from the tap, and tourists can too, so skip bottled water and refill a reusable bottle instead.
The main language in Curaçao is
Papiamento. Backpacking is way more rewarding if you know a bit of the local language, so I'd suggest brushing up on the basics just in case your Papiamento skills have become a bit rusty.
Want to understand locals better?The complete Travel Guide for Curaçao includes 52 essential words and phrases — greetings, thank-yous, ordering food, transport, numbers, and common local expressions you'll actually hear.
Get your local basic phrases 👉
Get the Travel Guide - is widely spoken in Curaçao, and staff at hotels, dive shops, restaurants and shops in Willemstad and around Jan Thiel switch to it without effort. Younger locals and hostel staff are usually fluent, often alongside Dutch and Spanish. In rural Bandabou villages, older people may be more comfortable in Papiamentu, so a cheerful “bon dia” (good morning) and “danki” (thank you) go a long way. Spanish is the next most useful language, and a translation app with Dutch downloaded offline covers menus and signs.
Money & Payments
The local currency of Curaçao is XCG (Cg).
Curaçao uses the Caribbean guilder (XCG), pegged at about 1.79 to the US dollar, and ATMs are easy to find in Willemstad, at the airport, in malls and at big supermarkets, though they are scarce in Bandabou. Local banks such as MCB and Banco di Caribe usually charge around XCG 5 to 10 per withdrawal on top of your own bank’s fees, so take out larger amounts less often. Visa and Mastercard are accepted at most hotels, restaurants, dive shops, supermarkets and car rental agencies, but you’ll need cash for buses, minibuses, food trucks, small snack bars and some beach entry fees. US dollars are widely accepted at a fixed rate (change usually comes in guilders), while euros are far less useful, so bring dollars rather than euros if you carry any foreign cash. Exchange money at banks or at the airport rather than with individuals, and when a card machine offers to charge you in your home currency, choose guilders.
Tipping in Curaçao is appreciated, but many restaurants already add a 10 to 15% service charge, so check the bill before adding more. If no service charge is included, leave 10 to 15% for good service, and round up taxi fares or tip dive guides and hotel housekeeping a few dollars a day.
v2.webp){kind=logo}
Best Backpacking.jpg)
Over the years, I've learned the importance of packing minimally. It's so much easier to jump on the back of a truck or squeeze yourself into the last spot of a minibus without that supersized backpack. If you're headed to a warm destination, leave your winter jacket at home; for colder regions, opt for thin thermal underlayers. Instead of packing your entire wardrobe, bring just three sets of clothes, as laundry facilities are available everywhere.
.jpg)
Hi, I’m Johan (Netherlands 🇳🇱), the creator of TakeYourBackpack. Over the past 3 decades, I’ve backpacked through 90+ countries across six continents, gaining extensive experience with independent travel, long-term trips, and overland routes.