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Jewish Heritage tour Curacao?


challahmom
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In researching a Jewish tour of Curaçao, I discovered Gigi Scheper, but did not receive an answer to my email or a text.

 

Does anyone have experience with either the Jewish Heritage tour through TripAdvisor or one through Island Experience? Any other suggestions for a Jewish Heritage tour of Curaçao would be greatly appreciated. We sail the end of October.

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In researching a Jewish tour of Curaçao, I discovered Gigi Scheper, but did not receive an answer to my email or a text.

 

Does anyone have experience with either the Jewish Heritage tour through TripAdvisor or one through Island Experience? Any other suggestions for a Jewish Heritage tour of Curaçao would be greatly appreciated. We sail the end of October.

 

I searched extensively for a way to reach Gigi Scheper and did finally manage to connect with her. We have scheduled a small group tour with her and filled it with members of our roll call. She asked for a minimum size of 10 people and I indicated that I wanted to cap the group at 16. She can accommodate up to 20 in the group. We became a group of 15 within a week of my posting their tour on my roll call. Gigi has since added one more couple to our group.

 

The tour description, provided by Gigi, is as follows.

"Tour description:

Beth Haim Cemetery , oldest in walled Jewish Cemetery of the Western Hemisphere dating back to 1659.

Mongui Maduro Museum / Library .

Biggest private library and archives of the island .

Museum situated in an old Landhuis ,plantation house .

There were used in olden times as vacation retreats by the Jews living in town in the hot summer months .

Drive through the old Jewish Neighborhood of Schaarloo 1850 to 1970.

Mikvè Israel Emanuel and Jewish Cultural Historical Museum.

Transportation and all fees , including the fees that the Curaçao Ports Authority will charge for my transportation to get on to the docking sites and their passenger fees included $80 per person.

If I can form a group of 10 to 12 people, I can spread the fee for the transportation charged by the Curaçao Ports Authority over the group and lower the fee to $75."

 

We are thinking of visiting the Blue Curacao Factory ($10 pp for the 45min-1hr tour) after our tour with Gigi ends. She no longer includes the liqueur factory in her tour because of time constraints and lack of interest by participants. Gigi also mentioned another museum (African Slave Museum) in Curacao that is interesting but not part of the Jewish Heritage Tour.

 

She recently notified me that she had to change her email address. You can now reach her at: gianna3@gmail.com.

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Thank you so much for your response. I just received Gigi's new email address from the Synagogue, Mikva Israel. I'm awaiting a response for our sail date the end of October. If it works out, I'll let you know the outcome. Otherwise enjoy your Jewish Heritage tour of Curaçao with Gigi!

Joanne

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Sorry we're not on your sailing. Our Equinox sailing leaves October 27th. Hopefully our Curaçao Jewish Heritage Tour will be Thursday, Nov. 2, 2017.

 

Gigi responded to my email very quickly once I sent it to her correct email address:

giannascheper3@gmail.com

 

Good luck!

 

Thanks! We were on Equinox earlier this year and had a great time. Are heading back to Reflection in February for the ABC cruise. Looking forward to it as I haven't been to any of these islands before.

 

Would love to know what you thought of the tour with Gigi.

 

Have a great cruise.

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  • 1 month later...
I have not done this tour with Gigi, but did it via the cruise line (NCL) when they offered it. I liked it a lot. We have also "toured" the Mikve Israel and the museum on our own. Walkable from the Queen Emma Bridge.

 

Can you go into the synagogue on your own and look around? I don't feel like going to the museum but would love to visit the synagogue while there. We will be there on a Tuesday in Jan.

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Can you go into the synagogue on your own and look around? I don't feel like going to the museum but would love to visit the synagogue while there. We will be there on a Tuesday in Jan.

 

Yes, that is what we did once. There was someone there who talked to us about the history of the building. I think there was a $10 donation (I am not very certain on the amount).

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Can you go into the synagogue on your own and look around? I don't feel like going to the museum but would love to visit the synagogue while there. We will be there on a Tuesday in Jan.

 

You can. We've done it three times; two on tours and once on our own.

 

Keith

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 9 months later...

Another possibility is to book through Viator or direct with Curacao Taxi tours. I did this just over a week ago. We had 12 in the group, 10 from the ship and 2 staying at a hotel. The tour guide, Jude, a university professor, was excellent. I understand that they do not have a minimum number requirement.

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  • 1 month later...
Another possibility is to book through Viator or direct with Curacao Taxi tours. I did this just over a week ago. We had 12 in the group, 10 from the ship and 2 staying at a hotel. The tour guide, Jude, a university professor, was excellent. I understand that they do not have a minimum number requirement.

I was looking at the this tour via the Curacao Taxi web site. I've emailed them for info but haven't heard back yet. I'm glad to hear that there's no minimum number required; right now it's only my wife and myself (we'll be there on December 3rd, on Celebrity Reflection).

Do you know if they have a maximum number for the tour? (I'd rather not get stuck on a bus with 30 people, but 12 or 14 max is fine.) And did you have to pay in advance, or could you pay the day of the cruise? (If you paid in advance, would they take Paypal?) Finally, do you know if the price changes depending upon the number of people on the tour? Their website doesn't specifically state this, but the implication is that it's a fixed price per person.

Thanks.

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