Willemstad

The pontoon bridge is the city's mechanism and its best free attraction. Built in 1888 and floating on a line of pontoons, it carries pedestrians between Punda and Otrobanda and swings aside — with people sometimes still riding on it — whenever a ship needs the channel, which happens several times a day and can last a while for a large vessel. Free ferries shuttle across during openings, so a closure costs you time rather than a detour. Watching a cargo ship pass a few metres from the waterfront cafés is the moment most visitors remember, and the high Queen Juliana road bridge overhead gives the other view of the same channel.

Punda, on the east bank, is the oldest part of the city: laid out in the 17th century beside Fort Amsterdam, it was the only part of the city defended by walls and ramparts. Its waterfront row along the Handelskade is the classic view — tall merchant houses with Dutch stepped and curved gables, painted in pastels, a colour tradition local lore explains as a response to the glare of whitewash under a tropical sun. Behind it, pedestrian shopping streets lead to the Mikvé Israel-Emanuel synagogue, completed in 1732 and the oldest synagogue in continuous use in the Americas, whose sanctuary floor is covered in sand. Along the water, the floating market is where boats from the South American mainland tie up to sell produce and fish; its scale varies with the season and with trade across the water, so treat it as a stroll rather than a fixed spectacle.

The three other historic districts date from the 18th century. Otrobanda, across the bay, is denser and less regular, with murals, small galleries and stepped alleys running uphill from the water, and its larger plots, like Scharloo's, carry the island's own Curaçao Baroque style of architecture; the Rif Fort at its harbour end is a 19th-century fortification converted into restaurants and shops. Kura Hulanda, a restored quarter of narrow lanes, holds the museum of the same name — a serious institution documenting the island's African heritage, worth planning a half-day around and a quiet, considered visit. Across the Waaigat inlet north of Punda, Scharloo carries the ornate merchant villas that locals nickname the wedding-cake houses, several restored as offices or brightened by murals. Pietermaai, the strip of townhouses along the sea, is where the city eats and drinks after dark.

Fort Amsterdam anchors the Punda waterfront and still houses government offices and a small church inside its ochre walls. The Maritime Museum makes sense of the harbour you have been walking around, with a ferry tour of the inner bay attached. Landhuis Chobolobo, a country house a short ride from the centre, is where Curaçao liqueur is still made from the dried peel of the laraha, the bitter local orange; the distillery tour explains why the famous blue is added rather than natural. The Hato Caves, near the airport, make an easy half-day out of town, and the island's dry side beyond them rewards a full day.

Willemstad is a base as much as a destination. The developed beach clubs at Mambo Beach and Jan Thiel sit ten to twenty minutes east, with loungers, restaurants and calm water, and the Tugboat, a small wreck in about 5 metres of water in Caracas Bay, is close enough to snorkel on a spare morning. The island's reef begins so close to the shore that most dives start from the beach, which makes shore diving in Curaçao easy to organise from a city hotel. Bring reef-safe sunscreen and shoes for the rockier entries.

Much of the island's festival calendar plays out in and around the city. Carnival fills the weeks before Lent: the Tumba Festival picks the season's road-march song, and the Gran Marcha parade takes the costumes through the streets. On Easter Monday the Seú folklore parade brings the harvest dance to the city, with its steps mimicking planting and reaping, and in late August the Curaçao North Sea Jazz Festival draws international acts to Piscadera Bay and fills the city's hotels — check the dates before booking, whether you want to join in or avoid the crowds.

Curaçao's international airport sits about fifteen minutes north of the centre, with direct services from the Netherlands, North America and around the region. The old city is walkable end to end, and the bridge and free ferries handle the crossing between the banks. The island's buses — the large Konvoi and the smaller vans marked “Bus” — leave mainly from terminals beside the post offices at the Waaigat in Punda and in Otrobanda, which makes them useful within town and far less so for the coast. Taxis are unmetered and charge mostly standard fares, so agree the fare first. For the beaches, the western coves and the national parks, a rental car is close to essential.