Curacao or Tobago?

April 4, 2018 1:21 PM

If you had a week off in may and could go to either island which would you choose and why? Taking my teenage son for a much needed vacation.

Both are affordable, have nice beaches. Curacao is more developed, but Tobago has hatching sea turtles. Need a tie breaker fast.

posted by OHenryPacey to Travel & Transportation (4 answers total)

I think some more information would be helpful here (Budget? Is this more of a "explore nature" or "laze on the beach" vacation? Any specific activities you're looking into? Do you care about food? Where are you flying from? Do you plan to drive? What kind of lodging are you interested in? etc.) but without any of that, some things that will be true regardless:

- Tobago drives on the left (like in the UK), while Curaçao drives on the right (like the US/Canada)
- Tobago is probably a little more involved to get to depending on where you're located, as the only nonstop flights from North America are via Caribbean Airlines from New York and you otherwise have to transfer via Port of Spain; Curaçao has nonstops to Charlotte, Miami, JFK and Toronto, as well as many other Caribbean islands
- Curaçao is drier than Tobago: 21 mm of rain in May in Willemstad compared to 64 mm in Scarborough
- Curaçao is quite a bit more developed than Tobago: once you get out of the Scarborough and Crown Point areas of Tobago, lots of beaches can be quite isolated. Curaçao is also just a bigger island.
posted by andrewesque at 1:49 PM on April 4, 2018

Well.... Tobagonian / Trinidadian food is outstanding.

Shark and Bake - Beach shack food: fried shark on fried bread, with various sauces. Oh man.

Doubles - Curried chickpeas on fried chickpea flour bread, with various sauces. Oh man.

Roti - Stewed curry meat or vegetables, folded into a large tortilla-like bread made of chickpea flour. Oh man.

Chenette - a small tart / sweet fruit that looks like tiny limes on sticks, and tastes like peach + mango + eternal summer, sold on the beach. Oh man.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 10:17 PM on April 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

Curaçao has some amazing places to snorkel. If you want a relaxing holiday whilst having something for your teenage son to do Jan Thiel beach is a nice resort with a snorkeling and diving center and lots of places to eat. Curaçao is a Dutch island, so there will be a lot of Dutch people working/holidaying there (which isn’t a plus or a minus just a fact I know :)
posted by Nilehorse at 4:53 AM on April 5, 2018

I've never been to Tobago, but Curacao is absolutely lovely. Willemstad is a really beautiful city with a lot of history, so if you have any interest in doing cultural stuff as well as beach stuff, I'd say that's a big point in its favour.
posted by 256 at 7:14 AM on April 5, 2018