Curacao 2026 (page 8 of 9)

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Day 8 - Feb 14, 2026

Valentine's Day & our last full day on the island. We headed out for breakfast. The first place we stopped at was a pick-up place only (no seating) so we opted to try Mijn Broodje just down the road. What a find that was! It a little sandwich shop that was VERY Dutch. All the menus on the walls were in Dutch, so Mike handled the ordering. Greta had a roast-beef and hard-boiled egg sandwich with OJ. Mike had a chicken curry sandwich with coffee. The freshly-made bread was amazing, and made wonderful sandwiches. If we would have found this place earlier, it would have been hard not to go every day!

After that, we wanted to try drive the southern part of the island. Our first stop was the beach town of Jan Thiel. We walked around at the beach area for a bit and got some pictures of pelicans on the rocks. Our next plan was to drive to the area of the Sandals Resort, and the cities of Santa Barbara and Newport. This did not turn out very well. The Sandals resort area had a guard shack that wouldn't let you through if you weren't staying there unless you paid a $25 fee. The fee was reimbursable if you ate at one of the restaurants but we'd just had breakfast and weren't really interesting, so we thought we'd bypass that. But as far as we could tell, both Santa Barbara and Newport were only accessible by private roads. We'd read that a lot of the island was privately owned but didn't realize that extended to the cities.

From there we attempted to drive around a bit, but it just seemed to be a maze of residential streets. Eventually we put Hato Cave into Google Maps which was near the airport. We'd assumed we'd be taken on a main road to the location for some reason, Google took us on narrow residential streets and even to a closed road. It was a lot of driving on tiny roads but eventually got to the cave. It's across the road from the far end of the runway, as well as a plane graveyard.

We bought tickets for the next tour and were fortunate that it was starting in 10 minutes. Right in front of the bathrooms we FINALLY got to see a big iguana. We've been surprised we haven't seen more of them, but this guy was beautiful. The tour started and we went up a number of steps to get in. Because it's all above ground, it's not as cool as underground caves we've toured before, and they had fans running throughout the tour to help with the ventilation. The cave itself is actually several miles long but the public tour is of course just a small part of that. Right after entering, we saw a colony of bats hanging from the ceiling, and sometimes we'd see one flit past. We walked through various "rooms" within the cave, including the "fantasy room" were the guide pointed out various rock formations that could be imagined to be something else, including a witch, a donkey and the Virgin Mary. It was very interesting and a very different view of the island than what we'd seen so far. Also including in the ticket price was a self-guided "Indian Walk". It was a nature trail with numbered markers next to various plants and rock formations, and you could download a guide that explain each item. After we got back to the car, we drove across the road, and were able to watch some planes taxiing after landing and took some pictures there as well.

We then headed back to the hotel, and decided to go to the infinity pool for a bit. We cooled off in the salt water pool, and could look over the edge at MANY crabs scuttling up the wall. From there, we had a drink at the pool bar and enjoyed the view out over the water for a bit longer. We rinsed off the salt water then headed back to our room.

Originally at check-in, we were each given a couple small bottles of water. We'd been refilling these all along. The water in Curacao is quite good tasting and is from a large desalination plant on the island. The last couple of days, housekeeping has been leaving larger bottles for us as well. There is also a small fridge in the room so it's nice to have cold water on hand at all times.

We then headed out for dinner at Batik Asli. We got there a bit early (6:15 for a 6:30 reservation) and it appeared empty. The host assured us it would be busy soon but we were surprised that no one else was there, especially since the restaurant is only open 5:30 - 8:30 pm. The host was very friendly, older Dutchman and he even made a joke about seating Greta but not Mike. There was a small appetizer - a fried roll in a small pot with sauce, and that was great start.

Then the rijsttafel came & it was amazing. There actually is a menu you could order specific dishes off of or just order rijsttafel for the number of people in your party. This translates to "rice table" and you basically are presented with your very own buffet. Many dishes were served all at once, some of them on heated tables. There was just so much to eat - it was incredible! The server served rice on each of our plates from a basket, and then we dug in. Two different skewers of meats. A couple of chicken dishes, a beef dish and a pork dish. Plus Gado Gado, sajur (vegetables) and more. There was a dried coconut and a dish of peanuts to sprinkle on top of your food. There were also three sauces: sambal, peanut sauce and a mango sauce. We couldn't finish it all but we tried our best. It was an amazing meal all around. With 4 beers, the entire meal came to $75 USD, which is incredible. The only disappointment was we had the waitress take a picture of us with all our food, but she must have not hit the right button on the camera; when we got back to the hotel, we realized the picture was not there. But all in all, that was the perfect way to spend for our last evening in Curacao.

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