Curacao Mt Christoffel Hike

[OT-Miami]

DH & I will be visiting the ABC Islands in October and are interested in hiking Mt Christoffel in Curacao. Has anyone does this during their port visit? Any details, recommendations, advise is greatly appreciated. TIA :D

[SED510]

Hi Rosie, my DH and I are looking to do this in November too! I found a tour company that includes it in the island tour package, but I think we're just going to rent a car and go. We prefer the flexibility for whatever the day throws at us :) I'd love to hear more about it if you do decide to climb and are willing to share.

[OT-Miami]

Hi Stacey! Did you find a tour that will actually include hiking Christoffel? I found Around Curacao Tours - they include visiting the national park but they require all hiking tours to begin by 7:30; our scheduled arrival in port is 8:00.

 

Renting a car sounds like a good option, but I wonder how long it would take to disembark, get to the car rental & on the road. It looks like it would be about at 30 - 40 minute drive, and the park website indicates that climbing the mountain must begin no later than 10:00...that might be cutting it too close for us.

 

I will be sure to share any additional info if I find it (yn)

[SED510]

Hi again! I think I scrapped everything once we decided on the rental car. I'll Do a search a little later this Week To see if I can find the tour company again. I didn't see times associated with the cruise, but I did see the national park timing. So it may be a similar situation. I agree that the rental car timeline is TIGHT! But, We figured if the hike doesn' work out, we can always find a nice quiet beach :)

[cpayne]

We just returned from a week in Curacao.  We hiked Christoffel one day.  Google maps says 39 min from cruise pier to Christoffel.  Is it preferable to hike the mountain early (7 - 8 a.m.)?  Yes.  Is it an absolute MUST?  No.  I think it may be 11:00 a.m. that they allow the last person up.  We went up around 7:15 and was surprised how relatively cool and almost shaded it was.  Coming back down the sun had risen directly over head and was definitely a great deal warmer.  There were still many many people going up when we were coming down. 

 

The real question is what time your ship arrives in port, how quickly you can get off, grab your rental car and to the park.  Here's a suggestion.....Give it a try and if you get there too late another 10 min or so up the road is Shete Boka National Park.  You could always go there instead if you find you didn't make it to Christoffel in time.  Or, there were quite a few other trails in Christoffel Park.  We didn't realize this prior to our arrival.  By the time we had climbed Christoffel and back, though, + the heat we were done hiking for the day.  We chose to then drive the blue route driving tour and then head to the beach.  If you arrive too late to hike up to Christoffel you could instead hike some of the other trails that are not as strenuous.  

 

Hope this gives you a bit more insight!