Curaçao and its capital city Willemstad form a complete vacation checklist: brilliant-blue waters, 35 white-sand beaches, a heritage comprising more than 55 different cultures (including Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese), beautiful European Colonial architecture with more than 700 listed buildings and a healthy perspective on the LGBTQ, including their own.

The benefits don’t stop there. This island of 160,000 is also outside the hurricane belt and blessed with trade winds that make it not seem quite so hot. Visitors find excellent and eclectic museums, some of the best scuba diving in the world and an actual café society due in part to the thousands of Dutch tourists who flock here year-round, including a large number of students.

• Mix up your accommodations and their locations. Spend a few days in the Pietermaai district at one of the boutique hotels, a day or two at Floris Suite Hotel (particularly for Friday night’s lobby party at 6 p.m.), maybe rent an Airbnb in the Jan Thiel area. There are all-inclusives, but you don’t really want that.

• Don’t be afraid to go out at night. Pietermaai is where the action is. Hit Mundo Bizarro for cocktails, Ginger for Asian Caribbean or Kome for a steak, then Miles Jazz Café for live music. Don’t shy away from the local food stalls and markets.

TRY THE TASTE: IGUANA STEW

• Spend at least one full day or two in Westpunt. Hike up to the top of Mount Christoffel (at dawn, before the heat begins), drop by Shete Boka National Park to see how the crashing waves have sculpted the coastal limestone, and try the iguana stew at Jaanchie’s for lunch (mind the bones).

• Beach-hopping is an actual thing. Each little bay has its own personality. Playa PortoMari has resident red pigs Woody and Willy (not kidding) to romp with, while Playa Piscado is busy with half a dozen wild turtles who clamber for treats from the local fishermen and delight the families swimming along just a few feet away. Lagun Beach is tiny and more peaceful, popular with divers and locals. Really, the whole island is a diver’s paradise with more than 60 sites.

• Rent a car right at the airport. Take note that gas is expensive.

CURACAO.COM
CURACAOPRIDE.COM

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Vibe: Designed by French firm AW2 with the international jet-set circuit in mind, the minimalist 43-suite, nine-villa Silversands is a sea of tranquility, its blond wood, neutral tones and pale marble buoyed by exquisite furniture from Spanish architect Patricia Urquiola.

Rooms: The Silversands rooms are done in neutral-toned glam—oatmeal is the new oatmeal—and lots of vertical wooden slats shooting up walls and camouflaging the cupboards and closets. The seating areas are so inviting you may actually spend time sitting in them. I fell asleep on a giant chaise longue on the balcony (with earplugs to mute all the birds), which is something I never do.

THINGS TO DO: IN GRENADA
TASTE TO TRY: GRENADA GASTRONOMY

F&B: There’s a wine cellar with 1,000 bottles in it. Is this big? I don’t know, but it sounds like I want to drink all of it. Breakfast at Asiatique is stellar—do not skip this. In the evening, it pumps out Modern Thai underneath huge, curlicued wooden ceiling installations. At the beachside Grenadian Grill, we sipped rosé and lunched on salmon tartare and French fries—it was two hours of heaven. Having rum nightcaps under the canopies of the beachfront lounge, we miraculously blended in with the jet-set crowd grooving to the DJ, but really, anyone can fit in here and have a good time and not feel intimidated by the rather posh peeps.

Extras: The Silversands Spa offers locally inspired treatments, sauna, hammam and private pool, plus a tricked-out fitness centre. With a rum and cigar lounge (which seems kinda ’90s to me), the resort is destined for the society pages.

Off-Site: With few high rises and less development, Grenada still manages to possess the kind of charm that appears slightly manufactured elsewhere. Do the hikes up rainforest mountains and find time to book an afternoon on a wooden boat sailing. Make sure you eat the chocolate; it will be the freshest you will ever taste. Prime scuba diving at the Underwater Sculpture Park is well worth it, even if you’re snorkelling.

Word Googled While Writing This: Curlicue

Rate: $$$$

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Case in point: Truefitt & Hill Sandalwood Travel Kit comes with a tiny 10 ml shaving cream and a matching aftershave balm, plus a disposable razor. And while you’d think they would be empty after three goes, miraculously, they’re not. Plus, they do double-duty, layering on the sandalwood, cedar, lavender and citrus notes, so you don’t have to pack a fragrance (although I do anyway). T & H is always spot on with clean, manly, Britishy scents reminiscent of the good old days, also offering cream and cologne sample packs online that are also extremely packable. Truefitt & Hill Sandalwood Travel Kit, $19, truefittandhill.ca.

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Groom also makes a nice Shaving Soap, inspired by the Italian tradition of soft shaving soaps, and made from shea and cocoa butter ($30, 140 g); Beard Oil, which nourishes the beard and hydrates the skin ($28,30 ml); and Moustache Wax, for those of you so inclined ($15, 15 ml). All available online at lesindustriesgroom.com and at select Frank & Oak and RW&CO stores across Canada.

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