Saint Marie

There is a well-paved parking lot for the visitors to the Habitat. Read and heed! You can enter off their new dock, or from the beach. With the church on your right, bear left to proceed to Saint Marie and Daaibooi. Go straight (West) to find Porto Marie (the road is dirt for a stretch, but then becomes a well-paved road. Do not attempt to drive to Porto Marie from the North entry). At this fork, bear left. There should be small signs at the intersection to guide you. The GPS coordinates, of course, will guide you to each of these intersections. The road has small markers on it directing you to the Habitat, but take note here if they are missing. As you head into St. Willibrordus from the East, bear left on this fork. The reef is pristine. Enjoy!

Snorkeled here in July, 2012. This reef is in front of Karakter restaurant within Coral Estates. Due to construction you can only access the site when the restaurant is open. Not great for snorkeling. Difficult entry, a lot of chop, and not much to see.

Rented our air and weights from the Habitat dive shop. They were very friendly and helpful. Their location is not ideal. Tow long flights of steps (broken clay in many of the steps) to get down to the dive dock. The reef was very close in, but not as healthy as other sites we visited. Night dove here and not many creatures out compared to Bonaire. Some of our group had computer problems and the dive shop was very helpful with advise and renting us replacement computers. Our daughter had a new scuba pro wrist computer and it worked one dive then froze up for the rest of the trip! The resort was very quiet since it was the slow season. The front desk not helpful in trying to rent the internet room, as we never did get their computer to work and had to go all the way to Punda to send an email.

We were staying right here at Habitat so it was just a simple walk from the room to the shore. For visitors coming to dive there it was a short walk from the parking lot to the dive area.

We just got back from our vacation in Curacao. We went strictly to relax and snorkel. The house reef at Habitat Curacao was the best place we snorkeled all week. I will say we weren't disappointed anywhere we went, though. We also went to Playa Kalki, Playa Lagun, Sunset Waters (that's where we stayed), Cas Abao, Port Marie. Each location had something we liked. Saint Marie/Habitat Curacao had the best all around experience. We saw an eel, octopus, reef squid and all sorts of fish. The vis was good, but the coral was somewhat disappointing, not as colorful and alive as other islands we've been to… but the other reef life made it very enjoyable. We don't normally go back to a location/island a second time, but we would definitely consider coming back to Curacao, and we'd stay at the Habitat Curacao next time. We've snorkeled 14 islands so far; Curacao would be in the top 5, especially for snorkeling from the shore.

This is the house reef for Habitat Curacao, and is very good. As mentioned, the rope from the dock goes out to the edge of the reef and then down to about 85' where the rope stops. Don't forget the shallows where there are numerous octopi, a mantus shrimp, sharptail eels, etc. Huge green morays to the east of the line at about 40' depth. And there is a frog fish at 45' west of the line on a rocky outcropping with about 4 sponges on it. HARD to find unless someone is good enough to show you. The reef gives out about 130' depth, and then the bottom continues to go down fairly steeply. I got to 170' without much trouble, and it would have been easy to continue deeper. Dive shop was very excellent. We loved diving from here. Honest air fills. BE WARY OF THE CURRENT! The current can change from nonexistent to undivable within an hour. Ask people coming in, but since conditions can change so quickly I recommend diving it with the thought that it's o.k. to abort!

This site no longer is called Saint Marie, but rather Nos Cos (Our House). Entry off the dock is as easy as it gets, and rope from dock to 90-foot point on reef make navigation a cinch. Staff at Habitat Curacao very helpful, but they do require divers to use their tanks. Wildlife included conger eel, frog fish, hawksbill turtle and flat worm. Large sponges are home to many small invertebrates for anyone who takes the time to look for cleaner shrimp, arrow crabs and banded coral shrimp.

Nice & easy dive area. Habitat resort is a very diver friendly. Stayed one week and did 18 dives inc. 2 nights dives. Rope attached to dive pier going down to 90 feet on the reef makes it easy for beginners and night dives. All the usual suspects underwater and even spotted a couple of the hard to find frogfish.....with the help of a Habitat dive guide. If you like easy diving, you will like this place.

Habitat was a great shore dive! There was a rope at the end of the shore diving pier that went all the way down to the bottom of the reef. What a great idea. Diane (wife) did her first night dive and enjoyed a bunch. Can't get lost with the rope in place. Would recommend Saint Marie to all divers who visit the Island.

Slightly out of the way site - you need to rent a car. Beautiful beach is in a small cove. Local people come to bring their kids and go swimming and maybe snorkeling and tourists come to scuba dive. Site is a short swim out -maybe 100 yards - to nice wall type dive. Water was clear ( 100' visibility ) with very little current. Top of wall was about 40' from surface and ran down to deep blue. Healthy variety of coral, sponges and other plant life. Good variety of tropical fish and also few turtles, barracuda, and big fish cruising the wall. The wall was nice and the shallows on way out and back also had brain coral, parrot fish, flounder and smaller fish. It was also a nice place to relax after dive. Myself and dive buddy made it a point to dive this location twice in the week we were there and when I make it back to Curacao I will dive this site again. Curacao has a good number of similar sites ideal for shore diving with a cove type beach and easy access to fringing reef/wall. This is just one of the best examples of this type of site.

Second visit. Conditions different than last year, cooler water, viz not as good and currents not doing what the locals expected...a small group of whales passed 1/4 mile off shore from Habitat one day… saw turtles and seahorses...not a bad tradeoff for the conditions

Stayed at Habitat Curacao. Made 11 dives here, half of them night dives. Just like they say, home of diving freedom. Lots of macro critters, great place to learn photography. Also did Nitrox dives. A relaxing site.