What to Bring to Klein Curaçao
Klein Curaçao has no shop, no mains water and no shade of its own. What to pack for nine hours on an uninhabited island, and what your boat already provides.
Most packing lists are optional. This one is not, for one specific reason: Klein Curaçao is uninhabited. There is no shop, no kiosk, no mains water, no public toilet and no shade beyond the palapas the boat operators put up themselves. Whatever you left in the hotel room, you do without for six hours.The good news is that the list is short, and a fair amount of it is already in your ticket — the trick is knowing which parts, because that varies by boat.
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The short answer
Reef-safe sunscreen, a hat, sunglasses, a towel, swimwear, and motion-sickness tablets taken before you board. Add cash or a card if your boat sells drinks separately, and a light layer for the ride home. Everything else is optional — but nothing at all is buyable once you are there, because the island has no shop, no mains water and no public toilet.
The five things you genuinely cannot do without
Reef-safe sunscreen, more than you think. You are on open water for two to four hours and on white sand for six, at a latitude of twelve degrees north. Sand and sea both reflect. The single most common way to ruin this day is to underestimate it in the first hour, and there is nowhere to buy more. Reef-safe matters because you will be swimming directly over living coral a few metres off the beach.
A hat and sunglasses. The island is flat and treeless. The walk to the lighthouse and the shipwreck takes about forty minutes there and back with no cover at any point on it, which is the walk most people want to do.
A towel. Some operators provide one and most do not. Check your booking; assume not.
Motion-sickness tablets, taken before you board. The outward crossing is into the prevailing wind and swell and it is the leg people write about. Tablets taken when you start to feel unwell are already too late — most need to be in your system beforehand. Which boat and which seat also help.
Cash or a card for drinks. This one depends entirely on which boat you booked, and it catches people out. Irie Tours includes the open bar in the fare. Miss Ann sells a premium open bar for $35 on weekdays. Mermaid sells drinks aboard at roughly $5 for a beer or wine and $10 for a cocktail. The Gold Seahorse’s bar is card only — no cash accepted.
What your boat already provides
Every one of the four Klein Curaçao operators includes breakfast, a barbecue lunch and snorkel gear. Beyond that the provisions differ enough to change what you carry:
| Mermaid | Miss Ann | Irie Tours | Gold Seahorse | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shade ashore | Palapas at its own beach house | At the beach house | Beach chairs | From the boat |
| Beach chairs | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| Restroom ashore | ✓ | ✓ | — | — |
| Restroom aboard | — | — | — | ✓ |
| Freshwater shower | — | ✓ | — | — |
| Snorkel mask | ✓ | ✓ with a guided safari | ✓ | ✓ |
| Transfer from your hotel | — | — | Free in Jan Thiel, $15 elsewhere | — |
The line that changes a packing list most is shade. On the two boats with a beach house you have somewhere to sit out the middle of the day. On the other two you have a beach chair and whatever you brought, so a light long-sleeved layer or a sarong earns its space.
Worth bringing, not essential
Your own snorkel and mask if you own one. Every boat lends gear and the lent gear works; a mask that already fits your face is simply better, and the reef here is worth a good seal.
A dry bag or a zip bag. You are tendered ashore from an anchored boat, so everything you carry to the beach makes a short trip in a small boat. Phones and cameras appreciate this.
Water shoes. The sand on the lee beach is clean and soft, but the walk across the island towards the lighthouse is over coral rubble and scrub rather than sand.
A light layer for the return. Wet swimwear plus two hours of apparent wind is colder than the air temperature suggests, even here.
A waterproof camera. The reef edge starts a few metres off the beach and turtles are routine. What you can expect to see.
What to leave behind
Single-use plastics. Klein Curaçao has no waste collection of any kind. Everything that lands has to leave on a boat, and the windward shore already collects a startling amount of plastic that arrived on its own.
Anything you would hate to lose in salt water. Between the tender, the swim and the sand, small valuables have a bad day here.
Drones, unless you have checked. Rules around protected sites change; ask your operator rather than finding out at the beach.
Expectations of a shop. There is not one. Not a bar, not a kiosk, not a vending machine. What your boat brought is what exists.
One thing to sort the night before
Whichever boat you are on, boarding is somewhere between 06:30 and 07:30 from a marina that is not in Willemstad. Irie Tours is the only operator of the four including transfers. For the rest, book the taxi the evening before — at that hour you are not hailing one, and a missed boarding is a missed sailing, because they go once a day. Where each boat actually leaves from.
Still deciding which boat? Compare all four, or check availability for your date.
Pick Your Boat, Then Check the Date
Crossing time, group size, shade, toilets and what lunch actually looks like differ more between these boats than the price does. Compare them, then check availability for your date.
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