Romantic Island Breaks

One of the attraction of visiting an island for a romantic break is the relative small size (ie this is not about big islands) so there is not too much to do. Add to this, opting to visit somewhere like the Caribbean, Maldives, Pacific Islands or Zanzibar, and you have the delights of warmth, beaches and warm seas.

One option is Curacao in the Dutch Antilles (not far off the coast of South America). This is actually the largest of three islands collectively called the ABC Islands (Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao). There is delightfully little to do on the small main island.

Although the island is linked to the Netherlands, English is widely spoken. The Dutch influence can be seen in the capital Willemstad where the houses, over looking the river that split the town in two, look remarkably like classic Dutch architecture from Amsterdam.

The island has a sheltered southern coast, with a number of beaches, resorts of different types and diving opportunities just off shore. The north coast is wild, rocky and arid like most of the island. There are also limited walking opportunities in the west in the Christoffel National Park.

However, few people would visit an island like Curacao for the walking. Most activities are orientated to the sea and include swimming, snorkeling and diving. The latter is particularly good as the sea drops away very steeply some 200m off shore along most of the south side. It also possible to arrange day trips (best on a sailing ship) to a small offshore island called Kleine Curacao '" essentially a large sandy reef with the surreal sight of an abandoned boat in the middle (driven there in a bad storm one night).

One advantage of Curacao over the northern Caribbean is it is outside the main hurricane track. Thus if you want to go in the hurricane season it is probably a better option than some other islands such as Puerto Rico. It does have some bad weather at this time of year (June-November) but in the main the weather remains warm and dry.

Accommodation varies across the island. As you would expect, there is the usual collection of internationally known names located along the coast and sometimes with private beaches. A different alternative is to stay in Willemstad itself (taxis and buses run to the nearby beaches on a regular basis) where there are a number of boutique hotels and locally run bed and breakfast accommodation.